Particle texture are square

I am sure this has been asked before, but I did search and couldn't find it so here goes..

When I try to use any texture other than default for particles, they do res properly but are square no matter how much transparency the texture might have. I don't like square smoke.

Any ideas please?

In Photoshop, add an alpha channel to your particle texture. Make sure the outer edges of your alpha channel are solid black. If you want a circle, fill the alpha with solid black, then draw a solid white circle. Save the texture as a 32-bit targa and you should have round particles... if you want a triangle particle, draw a white triangle on the alpha channel. You can also feather the edges of your alpha with a ramp, but be sure the outer edges hit zero-black, else you'll see the edges on the particles.

Well thats good to know for my own particles (I was clueless on that)... but I am having this problem with textures that are already in SL, like, some of the "Waterfall Particle" textures... even the one that looks like a tiny poof of white.

If you have copy/mod/transfer persmissions on the default textures you would like to have non-square, you can export the texture, apply the desired alpha, then re-import the texture for use as a non-square particle.

To export, double-click the texture from your inventory, then look under the FILE menu for SAVE TEXURE AS...

Actually, I thought I was using a non-square texture that was already in SL... with the same result. Still squarish.

The base texture is square (or rectangular to be more precise).

You should, however, if you alpha out edges of your textures be able to make them oval, fluffy etc. and although I don't have any pics to hand I've successfully done that within the last few days (Monday I think I uploaded a new texture that did it right).

Bear in mind that means setting the textures up in GIMP, PS, PSP etc. with an alpha channel. You might find the Designs and Textures forum useful if that's not something you're familiar with.

The other thing I've noticed, even with base collision sprites, is that they're moderately often calling the default texture now, at least the first time they're called in any sim. Now that's got hard edges it stands out rather obviously, and is strongly rectilinear. If you're trying to trigger another style of effect it's worth checking that you're getting your texture actually firing.