Alpha channel question

[DoomsbergA]

Hey, for my game I was hoping to create a basic outline for the textures of my playable characters and using the alpha channel to allow people to create their own desired colour.

So my textures would be mostly transparent with a few darker patches for mucles etc, and then when people create their character in my game they could choose a colour from a swatch and then that colour would be displayed through the alpha channel.

Is this possible?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Max.Power]

I think what would be better to do would be to create the texture that you want to create, then make one in greyscale/without any colour detail or emblems for them to modify. Call it a blank texture.

So, for instance, if you were doing an aircraft skin, you would leave the entire thing white except for the panels and bolts, and maybe the tires and other unpainted parts. The user could then use part of that texture to make an alpha channel or do whatever he/she wanted.

For a person, you would leave everything white but the muscle striations, clothing folds, and other features. This way you don't need to dictate what tools the modder uses, and they don't have to go fishing around for the content you've issued them.

[DoomsbergA]

Yeah that's kidna what I said isn't it? We make a blank texture that just has a few darker or coloured patches, and the rest is filled in by what colour the uses wants.

They dont actually touch the textures themselves. We want them in-game at the character selection screen to choose a colour from a swatch, then that colour will be displayed through the alpha channel.

Have i misunderstood what you were saying?

[Max.Power]

Yes, I have misunderstood what you were saying.

I initially (at 3 am, after a couple of beers) thought you were trying to think of a scheme to facilitate user-generated, custom skins. I stand by my solution to that problem

Your alpha layer idea sounds fine to me, but you might want to experiment with different blending mode. Ogre's material scripts are very powerful.

[DoomsbergA]

Thanks for the replies. I think this idea my team wants to use will be very useful. Not only will it save artist time in creating all the different skin textures, it will reduce the memory being used on the video card etc.