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Can anyone help me understand how to make a decal in GIMP? I understand the process/file structure for "importing" a decal into FPSC but I don't know how to make the decal transparent.

In Higgins' tutorial I don't understand "...make a new mask and save an alpha channel." I was able to make a 4X4 image with a black background and save it as a .tga and import that into FPSC. But in the game, the black background remains. I tried saving it as a dds but I still have a black background.

In GIMP, you have two options. Add Alpha Channel or Add Layer Mask. I read the GIMP manual and I'm still confused. If I creat a white circle on a black background and then Add Alpha Channel and save as decal.tga, is that enough. Does FPSC see that I have an Alpha Channel and I have black and then ignore the black? Or do I need to configure the Mask/Alpha Channel some way?

Also, I noticed in all the FPSC decals, they are transparent when I open them in XnView. So, I'm guessing that if I was able to use the alpha channels/masking properly that the decal I save would also look transparent when I open it in XnView (before loading it into FPSC).

Well you can save to DDS with transparency enabled, so you dont have to have the black alpha channel, you can literally delete the background so that the checker background is all that remains. When you save the DDS make sure that you save with Interpolaced transparency. This way FPSC will read the transparency data!

I am having an extremely difficult time as well with decals. I get them in game, but no transparency. I have looked at every other thread related and can't seem to find an answer. If someone was to help me out and look at my DDS, which I think is the problem, I would gladly give out these bloody footprint decals for everyone. I used the Nvidia photoshop plugin. I even went through the manual and a fresh install of it because I thought it might have been the settings. I have tried saving it by creating an alpha channel myself, which makes the whole decal disappear in FPSC. I have also just saved it out thinking the dds would do all the work, which is what I have heard. As far as I know everything structural wise in FPSC is good. I went through and found out how the other decals were laid out and copied and updated the .fpe and everything.

I have attached the .dds and a pic in game. Any help is greatly appreciated. As soon as I get this fixed I will create the right footprint for all to use.

Also here is in game screenshot

fixed my problem, it had to do with the contrast of my alpha channel.