D3D8, Sprites, and Color Keying

Ratman · 2001-06-28T15:05:02

This have been asked here a million time, and I still cant get a clear answer. Ive written a small 2D engine with D3D using D3DXSprites and Color Keying (when the texture is created, specificy the transparent color). I read some places this is ok, other have said it will not work on a lot of video cards. Ive tested my engine on about 10-15 computers and about 3-4 do NOT support color keying (so I have black boxes around my sprites). Ive been told I need to start using an alpha channel. And to do that I'll need to create another bitmap (black and white) to use transparency. But I dont want to do that. Thats too much tedious work. Having to get through a few hundred images and make another image just for the transparent outline. Not only that but it would take up a lot of memory, that just doesnt seem necessary. All I want to do is ignore magenta in my images (255,0,255). It was easy in DirectDraw... we does it have to be so complicated here On top of that, Im not even 100% sure I can use the alpha channel with D3DXSprites. Do I have to go through vertex buffers, world matrix's, and all that stuff? I just want a simple 2D engine *sob*sob* Im looking for a practical solution. I thought it wouldnt be hard to write a function that read a normal bitmap, and created another images (dds perhaps?) with the appropriate alpha channel according to the orig. bitmap's magenta pixels. This would cause load times to increase, but would at least cut down on tedious work (plus I could just save off the .dds and delete the bmp and only do it one time) Ive also heard .tga's and .png's support alpha channels. Thats great, but Im still thinking it would be a lot of work to have to go back through each image (we are making 2D renderings of 3D models for our characters) and create an alpha channel. Unless 3D studio max can do it automatically (I dunno, I cant even draw a box with that thing) What do you people do? Im sure someone has found a usefull, practical solution. Im really looking for maximum compatibility. I dont want to exclude people w/ older video cards, I dont even want them to have to update their drivers. It seems almost like it would be better to go back to DirecDraw w/ DX7.... Ratman --------------- Ratfest.org Edited by - ratman on June 26, 2001 12:53:24 PM

Graphics and GPU Programming Programming

Started by Ratman June 26, 2001 11:41 AM

10 comments, last by Ratman 22 years, 9 months ago

grasshopa55

128

June 28, 2001 02:58 PM

Now I have always used straight black and have had no issues. Have you tried it with a different color?

-----------------------------
kevin@mayday-anime.com
http://dainteractive.mayday-anime.com

-----------------------------kevin@mayday-anime.comhttp://www.mayday-anime.com

Ratman

181

Author

June 28, 2001 03:05 PM

I just tried all black and got the same thing. BTW - why would you use black? Wouldnt you need to use black in some images, and not want that to be transparent?

If you can send me your project/game I can test it on this computer and see if it works.

Ratman

D3D8, Sprites, and Color Keying

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

D3D8, Sprites, and Color Keying

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines