[das123]

Another couple of issues with using black as the alpha colour:

1. Black is a common colour so artist will need to be mindful that instead of selecting black, then need to change the colour slightly. This is an issue in graphic programs where artists are used to working from palettes.

2. Artists are also used drawing with soft brushes rather than pixel pencils so there is usually an anti-alias rim around the outside of images. When these images are used in-game there is a black rim of pixels around the edge where the anti-alias has kicked in. There are ways around this but by having magenta as the bg colour the problem areas should be a little clearer. Best bet would be to use a neutral warm grey (similar to the battle-field backgrounds) for image construction, then change the base colour afterwards. That way the aliasing is with a complimentary colour, I guess.

Of course, if we could use 32 bit TGA files instead of 24 bit, there wouldn't be a problem (32 bit supports full transparency).