Hi, firstly I have checked via Google, plus poked about on the forum without much luck in finding an answer to this one. So hopefully I don't upset anyone by asking here. Anyway, here goes...
Is there anyway at this point in time to load a DDS file with alpha set to something other than 100%, alter the alpha channel, and save it back out again?
My situation is this. I'm currently working on a module for a game called Mount and Blade Warband and have created quite a few textures using Paint.net and never had any issues previously with any textures I've created and saved as DDS. However recently I found a texture file that I need to replace with my own version which has it's alpha channel set to something other than 100%. It's used to blend with another texture to give an aged appearance to hair.
Now this texture when loaded into Paint.net appears as a mostly transparent texture, which I cannot make any darker using the layer transparency slider which is set to maximum. ie. The texture is loaded and displayed with transparency on, but the layer transparency slider in Paint.net is set at maximum opacity as if there is no transparency -- so the only thing I can do is make it even more transparent rather than make it darker. So when I tried to make my replacement for this particular file I created my texture, set transparency for the layer to about 20%, then saved as a DDS file -- however when I load it into the BRF game editor it displays as a completely black texture, while the original file displays fine.
Hopefully I'm making sense. If not I'll attempt to clarify.
EDIT: Also does it actually create mipmaps when you ask it to when saving? I just noticed that my textures don't seem to have them.
I should point out that while I'm very experienced with programming, 2D etc. I'm pretty new to 3D programming (not that I'm doing so on this project of course -- thought it might be easier working out how to create 3D objects while using someone elses engine to start with) and 3D object creation -- so things like DDS texture formats still create a lot of head scratching.