Custom decals? Created 12 years ago2011-11-29 02:33:25 UTC by 23-down

Hey people

for my mod I'm currently trying to build some custom decals...

I want to create letters in 64x64 size as the standard hl letters are to small with 16x16 pixels for my map.

therefore I studied this tutorial how it's supposed to be getting done:

http://twhl.info/articulator.php?art=47

But my decals won't work for some reason.

I copied the color palette out of one of the original pictures from the decals.wad and replaced it in my picture so it's identical and then I just changed the last color (255) in the palette as orange didn't suit in my map.

I have a white background with color specs 255,255,255 and my letter in black 1,1,1 and then I inserted it into my mod.wad (not the decals.wad) I named my textures {large_A,B,C etc

But there's still nothing ingame any idea why. Theoretically everything is correct does somebody here has experience in creating custom decals and would like to conduct a quick check on one of my decal textures?

Perhaps I did something wrong after all. many eyes may see more than just 2.
Below I've uploaded you one of my decals. It's in bmp. format as imageshark doesn't like tga.EDIT: Damn wanted to post that in hl general not in hl mapping forum, sorry.

Greetings 23-down

I'll try making one when I get home sir and get back to u.

Moved.

Goldsource decals are pretty horrendous, and you'll get a much better result from duplicating the texture you want to put them on and adding them manually to it in an image editing program. That way they can be multicoloured and higher res.

1. Choose the texture you want to add the decal to.2. Open the .wad in Wally and find the texture. Then export it.3. Open that image in an application like Photoshop and manually apply the decal. Blending modes can make it look like it's actually painted on.
Add it back into the .wad with a new name so it doesn't overwrite the original and woop, you've got a detailed decal.

I tried 23, and i'm having no luck either. when i edit the pallete in wally as specified by the tutorial, my decal turns completely transparent fsr..

one thing i noticed i the hl decals are tga. maybe try exporting as tga and then adding it to the wad? idk i'm stumped, sorry!

Archie's advice sounds sound to me, but it still doesn't solve our problem. please update the thread if you get it figured out!

I think the white needs to be blue 255, and only than will the decal work.

No... Decals work differently than transparent textures. The brighter a pixel is the more transparent it will be.

I think you must put your decals in decals.wad for it to work. Decals are not bad, but Archie's solution is very good too.

Yeah, you need to either put them in decals.wad, on a copy of the texture, or in a transparent texture you then put on a func_illusionary (The most hacky method) If you're using higher resolution textures, I'd put it on a copy, but if it's the standard HL ones, you'd probably be better releasing a custom decals.wad.

Thanks for your numerous answers people...

It is odd I also did everything like described in the tutorial but I had no luck. Funny thing is my own created tga. decals are in the texture list in Hammer but just not ingame "Decal xxx can't be found". I'd try it in my mod wad. "Firestorm.wad" and in a newly created decals3.wad (copy of decals2.wad just removed all duplicates out of it.)

I also did try to create it out of a simple copy this time. I took an original decal letter removed the former letter by painting over it with white (255,255,255) and added my own letter onto it. All specifications were the same after saving like in the original.

The file was in 256 colors , TGA & the color palette was still the original one. Yet I can't even get that exact copy into the editor as it simply won't show up. Nor in my mod.wad, decals3.wad or decals2.wad

It would be indeed fantastic if someone could investigate that further how to get decals really ingame these days. It seems the original tutorials are all outdated at least it doesn't work like described.

For now I will make it like Archie suggested it actually isn't the first time I'm painting a decal straight to the texture itself. But I think that's a very limiting option and also increases the work for the mapper of course.

Thanks again people

23-down