Quote: "how do I alter the alpha channel? I realy want to use the searchlight but it's just too dark"
Well, this is going to be a little involved if you don't have much experience with an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop. You will need to open the .dds file in Photoshop, and to do this you will also need NVidia's dds plugin for photoshop, which can be found on NVidia's website.
Once in photoshop you can access the alpha channel, which is just a black and white image embedded into the texture. On one side of the alpha channel you will see a gradient that fades from gray to black. You will want to lighten this area up to make the searchlight beam appear brighter (more opaque).
Quote: "Off Topic~ Hey bond1 i was looking at your madels, There awsome how long have you been makeing models?
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Thanks, been at it for a couple years now.