error message for textures

[Lindal Kidd]

That message looks as if it's referring to the bit depth of the texture image.

A normal bitmapped image is what we call a "24 bit" image.  It is using 8 bits per pixel in each of three color channels, the red, green, and blue channels.  8 + 8 + 8 = 24.  These 24 bits of information describe the color of that pixel, one tiny piece of the image.

Some images have a fourth channel, called the "alpha" channel, also with 8 bits of information per pixel.  The alpha channel specifies the transparency of the image.  Images with an alpha channel have 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 32 bits of information per pixel.

However, SL does support images that contain alpha channel information.  

There is another way in which images could contain more color information per pixel, though...some newer software and hardware supports "HDR" or "High Dynamic Range" images.  HDR images contain 30 bits of COLOR CHANNEL information (10 + 10 + 10), and such images can reproduce far more than the usual 4.7 million different colors of a 24 bit image.  SL does NOT support HDR images.  And they have a bit depth of 30, not 32, anyway.  I am not sure how such an image could get into SL in the first place.

OH WAIT!  Exactly where in the Edit window is your friend trying to drop the texture?  If the prim type selected is "Sculpty", there is an extra texture window that appears in the OBJECT tab, not the Textures tab.  This is where you put the "sculpt map" image.  It looks like a color texture, but the 24 bits of information are not used to color the object.  Instead, they represent the amount that each tiny part of the object's surface is displaced from its starting position (a sphere) in the X, Y, and Z directions to form the sculpted shape.

This texture window is expecting an image that is no more than 24 bits (RGB, no alpha channel).  If the sculpt map was saved in a file format that supports an alpha channel, you could be getting this error message.

[Lindal Kidd]

That message looks as if it's referring to the bit depth of the texture image.

A normal bitmapped image is what we call a "24 bit" image.  It is using 8 bits per pixel in each of three color channels, the red, green, and blue channels.  8 + 8 + 8 = 24.  These 24 bits of information describe the color of that pixel, one tiny piece of the image.

Some images have a fourth channel, called the "alpha" channel, also with 8 bits of information per pixel.  The alpha channel specifies the transparency of the image.  Images with an alpha channel have 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 32 bits of information per pixel.

However, SL does support images that contain alpha channel information.  

There is another way in which images could contain more color information per pixel, though...some newer software and hardware supports "HDR" or "High Dynamic Range" images.  HDR images contain 30 bits of COLOR CHANNEL information (10 + 10 + 10), and such images can reproduce far more than the usual 4.7 million different colors of a 24 bit image.  SL does NOT support HDR images.  And they have a bit depth of 30, not 32, anyway.  I am not sure how such an image could get into SL in the first place.

OH WAIT!  Exactly where in the Edit window is your friend trying to drop the texture?  If the prim type selected is "Sculpty", there is an extra texture window that appears in the OBJECT tab, not the Textures tab.  This is where you put the "sculpt map" image.  It looks like a color texture, but the 24 bits of information are not used to color the object.  Instead, they represent the amount that each tiny part of the object's surface is displaced from its starting position (a sphere) in the X, Y, and Z directions to form the sculpted shape.

This texture window is expecting an image that is no more than 24 bits (RGB, no alpha channel).  If the sculpt map was saved in a file format that supports an alpha channel, you could be getting this error message.

[Madelaine McMasters]

I puzzled over this for some time before deciding I had nothing to offer. Good thinkin' Lindal!