PNG vs TGA making clothes

Hello - I am having big troubles with PNG files over clothes. I have made several clothes saving in png format cause I could leave around the border a dark shadow halo that made them look realistic. But I am having issue with some people over 30 people wearing those clothes 2/3 are having issue - it seems a kind of texture or avi conflict happens.
For example I have made a shirt sleevless (it means the shirt does NOT have any pixel over arms in psd file) - it looks sleevless over almost all people but over some of them (as I said 2/3) it instead shows sleeves - seems more or less like if the body texture was replicating over the arms. I was forced to save it in tga and in this way I have fixed the problem, but I am unhappy cause png looked much better on my eyes.
Any clue how I can keep making clothes i png avoiding this issue? Thanks : )

I always use 32 bit TGA's myself, some prefer the other. I am a poor student type, i only have Photoshop CS1 at the moment, and some versions are better for each. That is the idea that I am getting from these forums anyway. That some CS 1-4 versions of Photoshop handle alpha mapping slightly different, so it isn't a matter of what is better, it is more what is better for this instance.

I have never got ghosting or distortion on a 32 bit TGA file in Secondlife. Just make sure you have your channels set up properly so that SL can read the alpha map. Hope that helps.

Doesn't the server convert your TGA or PNG into a JPEG2000 file upon upload anyway? I'd think the source file type is irrelevant. But if changing it solved your problem... *shrug*
Those customers may just have had the palletized textures problem: /111/7a/293297/1.html It happens with nVidia video cards, and 2/3 people sounds about right for people using that brand vs. ATI.

It may have just been that it was a new upload that fixed it for them and not the change in file type. I've had a few people with the SL skirt glitch where none of the other work arounds would help. I reuploaded the exact same texture with exactly the same file type and that fixed it. Seems like a texture can get corrupted sometimes for a particular avi? You might try uploading another copy of your png and see if that would have fixed it for them also.

This is almost certainly the answer. I have had the problem the OP describes for the past month or so, only slowly recognizing that it's the palletized texture issue. It has nothing to do with how textures are created or worn. It's a client-side problem, traceable to the video card. To deal with it ....

1. Go to Advanced >> Rendering >> Features and click Palletized Textures OFF, or simply type Ctrl-Alt-F7...... then...

2. Rebake your avatar textures by going to Advanced >> Character >> Rebake Textures, or typing Ctrl-Alt-R.

Unfortunately, the solution is not persistent. You have to do it every time you log on, and occasionally more than once in a session. But it works.

That definitely sounds like the palletized texture bug. It's fixed in the latest release candidate, as far as I know. But since LL allows people to use just about any old viewer they want these days, not everyone will upgrade when the RC goes main. So a good percentage of people will likely see that bug for a long, long time.


Strictly speaking, the source format shouldn't be able to make any difference. As has been mentioned, SL converts everything to JPEG2000 at the time of upload. Your source image never actually leaves your own hard drive.

That said, it's remotely possible that certain PNG-sourced textures could be more susceptible to the bug than certain TGA-based ones. I'm theorizing here, so don't put too much stock in this, but if (and I stress IF) your PNG-sourced textures are indeed having more problems than your TGA-sourced ones, here's what MIGHT be the cause. SL's PNG->JPEG2000 converter has a built-in solidifier. It bleeds pixels from the opaque areas into the transparent areas in order to avoid haloing when it creates the alpha channel. It's plausible that that solidification could be giving the palletized texture bug something to sink its teeth into.

If you haven't been solidifying your TGA's in any way, then all the transparent areas will read as pure white. Since it's likely that white will be pre-existing in every possible palette, perhaps that's enough for the bug to leave it alone. Maybe the bug is only triggered by palette-specific colors, and not by anything so common as plain white.

I'm totally making that up, though, so please don't take it as any sort of verified technical explanation. It's just a wild theory to fit the alleged facts here.

And of course, if you're not solidifying your TGA's, they're going to be haloed, which is even worse. SL bugs come and go. Their effects are never permanent. Halos, however, are real.


How are you defining "looked much better"? With the exception of haloing, which is easily preventable, there shouldn't be any visible difference at all between a PNG-sourced texture and a TGA-sourced one.


I'm not sure where you got that, Atom. The only version of Photoshop ever to screw with how alpha channels work for TGA was 7.0. All versions prior to that, and since (including all that have had CS in the title), have used the exact same TGA save utility. Adobe royally messed up with 7.0, and they freely admit that. No other version has deviated from the norm.


Actually, the viewer does it, not the sever, not that that really matters for this discussion. The important thing is that yes, all images are converted to JPEG2000 at the time of upload to SL.


That's probably a more likely theory than the one I invented above.




In any case, the palletized texture bug is due to an incompatibility between SL and recent nVidia drivers. Until further notice, every SL user who has an nVidia card should be using the 175.19 drivers. Anything newer will trigger the bug (as well as other SL problems). Unfortunately, though, for certain newer cards, the 175 series isn't an option. People who have cards that came out after 176 and up may be out of luck until LL fixes the compatibility problems.

Ok one of the guys having problems has a GeForce8600 GT so it seems the issue would be not limited to Invidia... ?
About my preference using PNG is that in this way I am able to put a shadow under border that mix with the skin when the clothes is weared giving a look more realistic... maybe there is a way to do this with tga too?

sorry I meant : "worn" not "weared" lol bad english

the guy who is running with a GeForce doesnt resolve nor with rebaking neither disabling palletized

and yes the same file if I save it in tga doesnt give problems... dunno why

As you said tga is not transparent it has just a limited areas that I put in channles - where instead png has transparents areas and not limited areas but with pixels.

it reminds me the issue about walls with transparent areas like windows that shows also the parts behind the walls ... mm hope I have explained what i mean

GeForce8600 GT is an NVidia card. That's the problem. Try the palletized texture solution.

GeForce is simply the name of the product line. nVidia is the make.

Trying to say a GeForce is not an nVidia card would be like saying a Chevy is not a GM car. Just as GM has several product lines, such as Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac, etc., nVidia also has several product lines, such as GeForce, Quadro, and nForce.

In most cases, when people say "nVidia graphics cards" they mean GeForce cards, since those are the most popular nVidia products.


Yes, you can certainly create a shadow in a TGA. If you want the shadow to be translucent, you just need to make the corresponding part of the alpha channel gray. The lighter the gray, the more opaque the shadow will be. The darker, the more transparent.

How are you creating the shadow in the first place? Is it simply a drop shadow, a layer blending effect? If so, then here's one really easy way to preserve it in your alpha channel:

1. Create a new transparent layer underneath the layer that is casting the drop shadow.

2. Merge the shadow-casting layer with the transparent layer. The merge will rasterize all layer blending effects, including your drop shadow.

3. Ctrl-click the layer's thumbnail to select everything on the layer.

4. On the Channels palette (or Chanels panel, if you're using CS4), click the Make New Channel From Selection button at the bottom. It's the one that looks like a white circle on a gray rectangle. A new channel will be created, and on it, you'll see the opaque areas of the image in white, the transparent areas in black, and any translucent areas (such as your shadow) in gray.

5. (Optional) De-halo the image, either by using the Solidify filter, or by putting a dark background layer underneath it.

6. Save as 32-bit TGA, and upload to SL.


It might seem like a lot of steps, all written out like this, but really, it's a 5-second process. If it takes you six seconds, you're doing it slowly.

thank you Chosen : )))) trying right now

Interesting reading this. I have wonder about this myself.
I use the first Photoshop CS too and older system.
I found personally I couldn't get the TGA alphas right after numerous months of trying I gave up and I only use png for transparent textures and I have never experience any type of halo effect effect except when I am using the bevel tools but I have seen this happen with other well known designers products.
One I mistakenly bought great outfit but outfit it was ruined for me because of halo never went back to place.
For clothes I only use TGA when I don't need a transparent areas and I never run into halo's with my work except if I have beveled things after the fact.
I don't know how the create it even accidentally, I never run into it personally.