Make Ace not working right

[conductorchris]

MakeAce seems to have stopped fully working on my windows 10 system for no reason I can discern (which means it is probably an update). The result is that neither AceIt nor TGATool2 can save an .ace file with an alpha layer.

I tried re-installing the programs, but the behavior is the same.

Anybody know what is going on and how to solve it?

thanks
Christopher

[eolesen]

You might need to adjust the compatibility settings -- I recently had similar issues with TGATool2A and ACE files, and updated both applications to "Run as Administrator" to get things to behave correctly again.

[conductorchris]

Thanks
I looked again and permissions seem fine. Using "run as administrator" has the same problem.
It is odd that it would just be the alpha channel. One would think a problem would block the program from functioning in its entirety. Unless it is a Direct X update issue that only affects alpha channels.
Christopher

[anderson martins]

Some files do not really accept ALPHA INSERT / MODIFICATION. I've been trying something similar for several weeks

[slipperman]

Hi Christopher,
I doubt if it's anything to do with a Win 10 update - are you certain that your source file actually has an alpha channel?

My Windows 10 is updated to the latest version (20H2) and I've just successfully exported a texture file with alpha channel from TGATool2A. To ensure that the problem is not with your TGATool2A, or your original file, may I suggest that you try with a file known to have an alpha channel - I used class5003.ace from the default Class50 and exported it as class5003a. The 'new' file still contains its alpha channel and shows correctly in the Sim (after renaming!!).


Cheers,
Ged

[conductorchris]

Hmmm. I tried a few different .ace files with alphas. None worked. However all have a common denominator: they originated in .tga files from my old version of photoshop. When opened in TgaTool2, the alpha layer showed in the right hand panel, but did not save when exported.
Christopher

[slipperman]

Hi Christopher,
That's very odd!! I've done a few more tests with .tga and .ace files and all works as expected.
I don't wish to disrespect you because you have, after all, been around MSTS for quite a while, but am I right to assume you are exporting the file as ACE(Alpha)?

Cheers,
Ged

[conductorchris]

Yes, that would be the obvious question, wouldn't it be.

Some more testing:
- Saving with TgaTool2 does not work at all, either in alpha or no alpha
- Right clicking and choosing "open with Ace It" creates an .ace file with no alpha file

[drelyea]

It sounds like one or two of the MW .dlls has become corrupt.

Go here "http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/" and reinstall his .dlls. Use the part inside the quotes. This happened a couple of times when M$ was closing out support for XP, that transparency didn't export. Only an observation: reinstalling the program didn't fix the issue then either. Pasting fresh copies of his .dlls into the required folder did.

Doug Relyea

[conductorchris]

Thanks Doug.
I did reinstall the .dll's (into the system 32 folder) but it had no effect. MakeAce isn't saving the alpha layer and TGATool2 simply isn't saving at all.
Christopher