I'm going to explain this in as much detail as I can so hopefully someone can help me figure the problem out.
Alright, I used PS 7 up until like yesterday. I never had a problem with alpha channels. What I would do was just select the edge guide as my alpha layer no matter the shape of the clothing and fill that area in white, with the rest of the space black. This would even work with partial transparencies, even though I had read that you needed to make that area gray on the alpha. I never did that and it worked beautifully. I have clothing I made with this steps that have partial transparencies that all came out right.
Now, I switched to PSCS2. When I do my alphas in that, no matter what I do, anywhere where there was not solid color on the actual clothing turns white when I upload it. I tried using a fade on the alpha to get a gray halo (in the alpha) for the glow, and it turns it from solid white around the clothing to a faded white around the clothing. This would be ok if all my partial transparencies were supposed to be white, but they are supposed to be orange. I went as far as checking to make sure I didn't make the glow white. It's definately orange.
Here's another thing that's confusing me. When I took the PSD file I made in PS CS2 (the exact same file including the same alpha) and open it in PS 7 and save that as a TGA, it works fine. Not one speck of white at all, no faded whites, and no solid white. I've checked that the TGAs are both 32 bit, non compressed. It works right in PS 7, but no PS CS2. On the PS previews, there's no white, but when I upload it to SL preview window, there are blocks of white *ONLY* where there were no solid colors...meaning anywhere where I had the orange glow is either a white block or a faded white edge depending on how I made my alpha (ie gray edge or solid white alpha). Basically, there is only no white if I make the white part of my alpha on line with my solid color. If I make it with the edge guide or using the glow path, I get either white blocks or white fades.
I hope I don't sound redundant or didn't give enough info...I'm really confused!
This is driving me crazy. Can someone please help me figure this out? Maybe there's a setting that needs to be changed in CS2 that didn't have to be for 7?