Elder Scrolls Forum: Tutorial & Links: Creating Alpha Transparencies / DDS textures

First of all, here is a quick tutorial on:-

Creating an alpha layer in Paint Shop Pro.

Use the 'Magic Wand' selection tool to select only the area that you want to add transparency to.

TIP: You can alter the settings of the wand tool so that it will select across a broader range of colours.
Select the menu option:-

Masks \ New \ Hide Selection

This will cause the selected area to become transparent. Now deselect the selection.
Now select the menu option

Masks \ Save To Alpha Channel...

This will open the 'Save To Alpha' dialogue box.
Select 'New Channel' and click "OK" to open the 'New Channel' dialogue box.
Enter the name "alpha" in the text box and click "OK". Now it will possible to store your transparent background when you save in .TGA or .DDS formats.
For icons, and any other images where you want to have a black background to represent the transparent area, now select the menu option

Layers \ New Rastor Layer

and when the dialogue opens, just click "OK" accepting the default settings.
Use the 'flood fill' tool to colour the whole image black. The fill will only actually affect the new layer you have just added, so don't worry when your icon disappears.
Select the menu option

Layers \ Arrange \ Send To Bottom

now your icon should reappear, with a new black background.
For all images, now select the menu option

Layers \ Merge \ Merge All (Flatten)

This will squish all of the layers, including the alpha, into one making your image flat with a black background (if you included steps 6-8) that will be rendered transparently in MW.
For icons only, resize your image to 32x32 pixels, using bilinear compression method.
Save your image either as a TGA (Truevision Targa) or a DDS (Direct Draw Surface) file.

Notes:

For TGA format, the 'options' (click the button marked 'options') should be set as 24 bit and 'uncompressed'.

To save directly to DDS format, you need the NVIDIA dds plugin. You also need to select the DXT3 format, when asked, to preserve the alpha layer.

Alternatively, you could try SilverHawk's tutorial for adding an alpha channel using the free tool DXTBMP.

For other applications that will convert TGA textures to DDS format (including easy batch conversion), see the thread Converting images to .DDS format - Apps and methods.

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