Emblems

How emblems work: Greyscale texture with alpha, as described, but not quite as previously described. White gets tinted color1, black gets tinted color2. The alpha channel is what determines transparency - black on the alpha channel is invisible, white is full opacity. So for instance if you take the Bomb emblem, you'll see a white blurry dot on a black field, and if you look at the alpha channel you'll see a white silhouette of the bomb shape. Rule of thumb for textures: Alpha channel defines whether something is solid, translucent, or totally invisible.

How big(resolution) are the emblem files? 128x128

Also: Some textures with alpha channels don't go on transparent objects or go on an object with transparency dictated by the alpha channel of a different texture in the set, and in those cases the alpha channel dictates the intensity of the texture it's part of example: on a face texture, the alpha channel will look very dark except for where the eyes are and (if they're showing) teeth. This says to the game "hey, see these spots I blocked out in white? Make sure that no matter what colors are applied to this costume part, they don't affect these parts of the object, 100% of what shows should be only what's in this file with no alteration to color" whereas black is "overlay color choices at full power" other places this happens: buckled leather costume on the buckles, gunslinger jacket where the gold trim is etc and for bumpmaps alpha channel defines how shiny an area looks - good example is the ExoProto costume parts; if you look at the bump maps for those you'll see the alpha channel is much brighter on the armored plate shapes than on the straps holding it together, making the plates look like glossy plastic composite and the straps look more matte like fabric (metallic shine like on the club mini-dress is goverened by its own things)

Adding A New Emblem Into The Game

1. Create a texture file for your emblem. Make sure it's converted into a texture file with a unique name (ie. emblem_BigSmileyFace)

• • The file must be 128x128 DDS with BT3/DXT5 with mipmaps
  • Filepath for the texture should be: \texture_library\PLAYERS\AVATAR\Super_Shared\Emblem\
  • the alpha channel of base texture tells the engine what parts of the texture are tintable. tinting only looks okay if the base color of the diffuse is white, or near white. dual color mask is which parts receive color A and B (white, black). the alpha channel of dual color mask is the transparency (dual color needs alpha bit in .texture header)

ChrisKitsch's Dirty Notes: Adding an emblems:

128x128 DDS with BT3/DXT5, layer size must also be 128x128 Created for and and moved to \texture_library\PLAYERS\AVATAR\Super_Shared\Emblem\ emblem_PortalCorps emblem_OuroDev

Modified Message Store - data\texts\English\Costume\Costume.ms // DisplayName : "POP4101668823" "Project Ouroboros" // DisplayName : "POP4101668824" "Portal Corps"

Modify C:\Game\CityOfHeroes\data\menu\Costume\Localized\male\all\upper\inc_chestdetail_tight.ctm

Info GeoName "P1278564671" //Emblems all use this DisplayName "POP4101668823" //This needs to be unique and set in data\texts\English\Costume\Costume.ms Geo "Tight" Tex1 "base" Tex2 "OuroDev" //The emblem name without emblem_ End Info GeoName "P1278564671" DisplayName "POP4101668824" Geo "Tight" Tex1 "base" Tex2 "PortalCorps" End

Need: Replicate to other Body/Options as there are other files that need this added to for body and chest types