Odd Alpha question

I have an odd question. I purchased a texture for a build I was creating; it is a solid brick texture with a window that appears closed so should not be an alpha texture in my opinion. However, when I apply it to the build, it acts as an alpha texture..or appears to be...fading in and out when two outside walls join together and at various camera angles.

I applied a trick one of my friends told me of invisible or a non-alpha texture where the ends meet, which helps a tad, but it is still looking pretty alpha to me. I figured out if you create a wall with an alpha texture and want it to act more like a solid appearing wall, place a barrier prim inside...cuts down on the fading in and out...however...it will add prims to your build and doesn't really work when you are using for open windows to the outside.

My question is this...can this texture be uploaded to a photo editor and resaved at 24 bit tga...no other alteration of the texture (I know alphas require 32 bit tga)? Would this eliminate the alpha texture issue? Or, would other alterations need to be made to make it is non alpha? I know in one of the other messages someone suggested adding an alpha layer to a texture for non-theft purposes so it got me to thinking about the problem I have been having with this building texture....I really like this texture. Would such a layer in the texture cause it to be alpha? I want to be able to send an intelligent IM to the vendor/creator to explain the problem and to understand why this texture was made the way it was...I wanna see if they can/will fix the texture and sell me a new non-alpha texture.


Thanks all!

If you have full permissions on the texture, yes. You can bring up the texture display window and choose ">> File >>Save Texture To Disk" (Did I get the wording right?) Then do the edit to the color depth, re-save the TGA and upload the texture again for L$10. Otherwise, you may just want to look for an equally attractive brick texture that doesn't have this issue. (^_^)

Thank you! Yes, I purchased a full perm texture for use on my builds for a reputable texture vendor. Just didn't know if I tried altering the texture to non-alpha would constitute an issue ethically or copyright/licensing. This is not something that I would ever resell as a standalone product..only in a textured build.

Not sure how to edit to color depth...I assume it has to do with layering...separating the layers and deleting the alpha layer? Then resave it and upload like I do with some simple textures I make for personal use.

Sorry....LOL....I am learning stuff as I go...so not too familiar with elements yet. I appreciate the info and will try it.

You won't have access to the layers that were used to create the image. Your download will be a flat texture with no actual transparency except for the alpha channel. Each graphics editor will decipher this a bit differently. In any case, you just need to delete the alpha channel, remove any mask layer that may have been automatically generated when opening the file, and save it as a 24bit TGA. (^_^)

As for any IP issues. In my point of view, unless the creator has a specific license documented (either a note with the texture or something displayed in the store) you can assume there are no real limitations on what you can do with the image. (^_^)y

You know?... Another way to go about it is to IM the creator about the alpha issue because it may have been a mistake that this creator may want to fix and was unaware of the problem. (^_^)y