Masks

Freeform discussion about anything related to modding Transcendence.
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Aeonic
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If Transcendence supports 256 color alpha masks, why do ships typically use black and white masks when they could have anti-aliased masks that don't create jagged black outlines around the ship?
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Arisaya
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Aeonic wrote:If Transcendence supports 256 color alpha masks, why do ships typically use black and white masks when they could have anti-aliased masks that don't create jagged black outlines around the ship?
I... wouldn't know. I was planning on doing that when I re-masked all my ships, but... I guess no-one ever knew?
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schilcote
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Jagged black black outlines are probably not very noticable in a space game. Most of the background is black too.
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it is over a star, I tend to actively look for them on any ship mod. if the mask fits around the ship well there is no jagged black outline, just a cutoff from ship to space, or perhaps a one-pixel blackish line.

the monochrome bmp is much smaller file-size than a 256 color one, with only a slight disadvantage.
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digdug
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because 2bit masks are much smaller

because 256 colors masks introduce transparencies. try a full grey mask, and you will see the background stars through your ship
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Arisaya
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btw- projectiles DO NOT support 256 color masks.
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Aeonic
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digdug wrote:because 256 colors masks introduce transparencies. try a full grey mask, and you will see the background stars through your ship
I can't argue with the size part, but if the Mask uses the same anti-aliasing that the ship does, then the only part of the ship that you'll be able to see stars through are the parts that are anti-aliased, in which case they're the very edge of the ship and you SHOULD be able to see stars and such through them - otherwise you get the black outline!

As for size, unless it has a noticeable effect on loading times, I doubt it has much impact on anything in this day and age.
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Arisaya
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Aeonic wrote:
digdug wrote:because 256 colors masks introduce transparencies. try a full grey mask, and you will see the background stars through your ship
I can't argue with the size part, but if the Mask uses the same anti-aliasing that the ship does, then the only part of the ship that you'll be able to see stars through are the parts that are anti-aliased, in which case they're the very edge of the ship and you SHOULD be able to see stars and such through them - otherwise you get the black outline!

As for size, unless it has a noticeable effect on loading times, I doubt it has much impact on anything in this day and age.
:P getting it to upload to xelerus [max 5 megabytes]
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