Transparent texture gets blurry after uploading

[Rolig Loon]

9 minutes ago, Annie Melson said:

No matter what I do in photoshop to make it keep it's transparency, it still comes in solid and will not have transparent areas.   (Using layers masks and saving as 34 too.)

I'm sure that you know this, but just in case ... The quickest way to create an alpha channel image in Photoshop is to select the area of your image that you want to remain opaque and then use Select >>> Save Selection.  That will load the selected area as a white area in a new alpha channel.  In the uploaded 32-bit image, that area will be opaque and everything else will be transparent.  Remember that for SL, you may only have one alpha channel.

 

[arton Rotaru]

6 minutes ago, Annie Melson said:

Here is a gyazo putting a 128 pixel size of this texture on my mesh. Something very strange is going on.

https://gyazo.com/3e95ffac8cc5490aac43b1c34605138b

This would make a person think it's the mesh itself, but I can use a texture without transparency and the texture is crystal clear. Ugh!

Well, if you rescaled the entire texture from a 1024 to 128, there won't be much left.

[Annie Melson]

5 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

I'm sure that you know this, but just in case ... The quickest way to create an alpha channel image in Photoshop is to select the area of your image that you want to remain opaque and then use Select >>> Save Selection.  That will load the selected area as a white area in a new alpha channel.  In the uploaded 32-bit image, that area will be opaque and everything else will be transparent.  Remember that for SL, you may only have one alpha channel.

 

I did exactly this and uploaded the 1024x1024 TGA. No transparency and I don't even get the option to alpha blend or mask.

https://gyazo.com/209b8024c5a7a5ebb56ce25433a2ab72

[Annie Melson]

Here is the texture uploaded as PNG and 1024x1024. I can alpha mask and alpha blend it. Notice how blurry the stitching in the waistband is compared to the TGA shown in the above post.

https://gyazo.com/f7fa5acca41c84f2623276fc6907bb53

Edited July 11, 2017 by Annie Melson

[arton Rotaru]

1 minute ago, Annie Melson said:

Here is the texture uploaded as PNG and 1024x1024. I can alpha mask and alpha blend it. Notice how blurry the stitching is compared to the TGA shown in the above post.

https://gyazo.com/f7fa5acca41c84f2623276fc6907bb53

Looks pretty much the same as the blur in my test, which can be seen in the upper left square of the image I posted.

[Annie Melson]

1 minute ago, arton Rotaru said:

Looks pretty much the same as the blur in my test, which can be seen in the upper left square of the image I posted.

Okay, then how do I get the TGA textures to work, because there isn't the level of blur with those.

[arton Rotaru]

Just now, Annie Melson said:

Okay, then how do I get the TGA textures to work, because there isn't the level of blur with those.

It really doesn't matter if it's tga or png. They both will be compressed and converted in the JPEG2000 format. The only thing you can do is to change the meshes UVs so that they will take up more space on the texture. and make the stitching, and the grid pattern much bigger.

The only way I see this would work with crisp results as is, would be with a 4096x4096px texture.

[Annie Melson]

2 minutes ago, arton Rotaru said:

It really doesn't matter if it's tga or png. They both will be compressed and converted in the JPEG2000 format. The only thing you can do is to change the meshes UVs so that they will take up more space on the texture. and make the stitching, and the grid pattern much bigger.

The only way I see this would work with crisp results as is, would be with a 4096x4096px texture.

Then how come my solid textures have crisp results? This is only happening with transparent textures. Also, why is this happening now, when in the past I've never had a problem and everything I am doing is exactly the same?

Edited July 11, 2017 by Annie Melson

[arton Rotaru]

Just now, Annie Melson said:

Then how come my solid textures have crisp results? This is only happening with transparent textures

Well, the 1024 with no alpha doesn't look all that crisp to me actually.

https://gyazo.com/209b8024c5a7a5ebb56ce25433a2ab72

[Annie Melson]

6 minutes ago, arton Rotaru said:

Well, the 1024 with no alpha doesn't look all that crisp to me actually.

https://gyazo.com/209b8024c5a7a5ebb56ce25433a2ab72

Sigh. I'm sorry I am not explaining this better. Let me try to explain again.... No, that gyazo isn't crisp. That was supposed to be transparent. It was saved as transparent TGA, but transparent TGAs aren't working for me, so it looks like it is solid. In actuality it isn't solid and is supposed to be transparent. So you are right, that is not crisp. But it is crisper than the PNG file. But that isn't my solid texture. My solid texture (the texture that has zero transparency, and was saved without transparency, in it) has crisper details. 

Edited July 11, 2017 by Annie Melson

[arton Rotaru]

Yeah well, I don't know. At least it's a solid texture without an alpha channel, because the alpha modes is greyed out. That's a solid texture to me.
However, all I'm trying to tell you, is that you are fighting windmills. The compression will not go away. It's there in my upload, it will be there in yours. To get better results the mesh/UVs and texture will have to be created accordingly.

[Annie Melson]

38 minutes ago, arton Rotaru said:

Yeah well, I don't know. At least it's a solid texture without an alpha channel, because the alpha modes is greyed out. That's a solid texture to me.
However, all I'm trying to tell you, is that you are fighting windmills. The compression will not go away. It's there in my upload, it will be there in yours. To get better results the mesh/UVs and texture will have to be created accordingly.

What you are saying is exactly what I am trying to show as the problem. You are pointing out the problem I'm trying so hard to explain. There is a problem in how my textures are being saved and/or uploaded because my mesh and mesh UV creation has not changed and I've never had this problem with textures before with the sizing or texture file. Changing the mesh/UVs isn't the issue here because if it was then my true solid textures where there is no transparency WHEN IT IS SAVED looks crisp and good. It looks exactly like all of my other textures that I have always made in the past. You say that what I have showed you in a solid texture because the alpha mode is greyed out, but that is where the problem lies. Those textures were saved to HAVE transparency, and it is those textures that are having a compression problem. I definitely have a problem with TGA files not uploading with transparency, yet the transparency IS saved into the TGA file. Changing the mesh or the  mesh UVs isn't going to change this problem, because if that were the case then my TRUE solid textures where alpha wasn't saved into the texture file would look just as compressed as the one with alpha saved into the file, but they do not. 

The windmills I am fighting here is trying to explain the problem I am having. I have been searching the internet and have seen that a few others have had this problem too and they haven't been able to find an answer for it. They give up trying to find an answer. I didn't want to give up (I've been fighting this for a week now) because I have been able to successfully upload textures just like this one without a hitch for several years. I've uploaded textures just like this only 3 weeks ago without a problem, doing exactly what I am doing now. Something is happening. Something has changed. There has to be an explanation for it. Unfortunately it appears that no one knows what that something is yet.

I do thank you and everyone else for trying to help me figure this out, though. You have given it your best, and I truly appreciate the time and effort you have taken in trying to figure this out with me. This forum is full of great people and all of you have shown your willingness to do whatever you could to help someone! Thank you so much for that. I will let this one go for now until later and focus on something else. Maybe that something will be fixed mysteriously LOL! Hugs!  ♥

 

[arton Rotaru]

 

1 hour ago, Annie Melson said:

Maybe that something will be fixed mysteriously LOL! Hugs!  ♥

All I can say is that I haven't noticed any differences in uploaded textures. That's why I even re-uploaded a texture which I had in-world for a couple of years already. I also uploaded new textures with alpha today, and I couldn't see anything unusual.

So whatever your issue is, it seems to be on your end. I would re-install Photoshop, and the SL viewer probably. Just to be sure it's not that either.

Anyhow good luck with it.

Last but not least, here is an image of a model I just uploaded as a test. It has an alpha texture with some stitiching. It's only a 512x512px texture though.

If I want to have stitches very prominent, I do it like this. As an overlayed poly strip with tiling stitches.

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by arton Rotaru

[Annie Melson]

14 hours ago, arton Rotaru said:

 

All I can say is that I haven't noticed any differences in uploaded textures. That's why I even re-uploaded a texture which I had in-world for a couple of years already. I also uploaded new textures with alpha today, and I couldn't see anything unusual.

So whatever your issue is, it seems to be on your end. I would re-install Photoshop, and the SL viewer probably. Just to be sure it's not that either.

Anyhow good luck with it.

Last but not least, here is an image of a model I just uploaded as a test. It has an alpha texture with some stitiching. It's only a 512x512px texture though.

If I want to have stitches very prominent, I do it like this. As an overlayed poly strip with tiling stitches.

 

I believe you are right - that it is something on my end. I just wish I knew what it was causing it. I've done clean uninstalls and reinstalling, I've installed 2 other viewers, I'd tried different ways to upload. Nothing changes it. The only thing I can pinpoint is that it is only something occurring with transparencies. The one thing I haven't tried was uninstalling and reinstalling Photoshop. I will give that a try. Thank you so much for all your help! You've been wonderful.