Ship Silhouettes: Transparency Questions
 

I've tried following the directions given in the Modmaker's Guide, so now I've got a .psd file with a bunch of layers -- although I gather only one or two of them actually matter.

One of those layers is a grey (180) silhouette of the ship, with a white inner outline, on a white background; one of them is a grey (64) silhouette, with white inner and outer lines, on a black background; and that second layer has been used to create an alpha channel.

Now comes the part I don't understand:

Okay, "combine" what? Obivously I am NOT supposed to just flatten the whole image, since the silhouettes used in the game are semi-transparent and have no backgrounds -- but they also don't have any alpha channels embedded in them, so it seems there are some extra steps going on besides merely "combining" everything.

I've tried Save As > .png… but when I do that, Photoshop (CS2, for reference) won't allow the alpha channel box to be checked -- and all I get is a flattened, opaque version of whatever layers were visible before I saved. It is not in any way making use of that alpha channel I created.

What step am I missing here?

And while I'm asking questions, why does the instruction say "32-bit image"? All of the .png files in the game are 8-bit images -- or at least, that's what Photoshop says they are.

Re: Ship Silhouettes: Transparency Questions
 

NOTE: The source of the problem has been determined. Apparently, Photoshop CS2 (which I am using) handles .png files differently than previous versions of Photoshop (for which the Modmaker's Guide instructions were written).

For those who might have occasion to use Photoshop CS2, or anyone who just happens to be interested, a working method for producing ship silhouettes in CS2 can be found at the ISF: Mod Surgery forum, in the thread "Ship Silhouettes: Transparency?"