White jaggies from Paintshop Pro 7 around vector-drawn character sprites?

[Play_Pretend]

I'd like to think I've searched through as many posts on transparency, anti-aliasing and anything else I could, but couldn't find an answer to my problem.  I tried looking through the AGS and Paintshop manuals to no avail either.  Maybe I just couldn't find the right sections.

My problem is with my characters. . .I'm drawing some really nice looking folks in Paintshop Pro 7, done entirely in vector graphics so I can resize them easily as needed for different sized character views in the game.  I've had "anti-alias" checked on the whole time.  Now, if I copy and paste my vector character onto a background, he comes out perfectly, exactly as he's supposed to.  However, if I try to make the area around him transparent for use as a sprite, his edges go all jagged, like a white jaggy outline.

I tried selecting all of the vectors at once that make the character up, and deactivating anti-alias, and it ruined the graphic. destroyed the smoothness of the vector lines.   So do I need to draw from the start without anti-alias?  Will I have to re-draw the ones I've already done to avoid this problem?

I hope there's a better fix, I love the smoothness that anti-alias apparently provides.  (By the way, I'm also totally ready to accept that I might have no idea what I'm talking about here, so please educate me if I've just asked a dumb newbie question.  )

[ildu]

Yes, I'm confused about this, too. I asked the same some time ago and I never got a proper answer.

What you're supposed to do is create an alpha channel for your image. I know a lot about computer graphics, but I never got it working myself. I tried many different channel images, but they make absolutely no difference. I have no idea why not.

I'm also confused, as I'm yet to see any game utilize this asset. Can anyone point us to a game that has in the past used anti-aliasing? Hi-res hi-color games are very scarce on their own in the AGS community, let alone ones using AA.

[scotch]

If you draw your vectors (or any other type of image) on a transparent background and save the images as 32 bit pngs and make your game in 32 bit colour then you will be able to use the antialiasing.  Otherwise yes, you need to work without it.

[Play_Pretend]

Ah, cool.  I actually just realized that I've only final-draft drawn two characters so far, and I was planning on re-doing one of them anyways.  And my backgrounds can easily be converted into 32-bit stuff.  I'd been saving everything as .PCX files, but I'll switch over to .PNG.

Doh. . .okay, maybe I just don't get it, but I just checked in my Paintshop Pro 7 program and apparently the highest it can go is 24 bit.  Maybe I should download a separate program, save my stuff as PNG's in PSP7, re-open it in a program that *can* increase it to 32 bit?

[ildu]

Get Photoshop or another equally compatible program and export it straight. PSP has an export function to PSD, so that everything stays the same when switching from PSP to PS.

[RocketBoy]

Photoshop will save PNGs as PNG-8 or PNG-24. So it is no different than PSP7.

PNG-24 (24 bits) is what you are looking for. I haven't tried to import a PNG-24 in AGS myself, but as a web designer, I have done it that plenty of times to bring transparent and semi-transparent images over to Flash, so it should work.

Let us know how it goes!

[scotch]

Well actually PS is saving 32 bit pngs, that is, a 24 bits for the colours and 8 bits of alpha for the transparency.  If you use "Save to web" in PS then it'll give you the option of saving as PNG, 24 bit, and then you can check the transparency box.  If you just go to "Save As" and select png then it should save as a 32 bit png by default, as long as you have some transparent parts of your image.

[Play_Pretend]

Just wanted to let anyone else know, I solved it!  Didn't need Photoshop after all. . .in Paintshop Pro 7 there's an option on the File Menu for Export, then PNG Optimizer.  In there you can select the Transparency and Alpha Channel options you desire, and it works *beautifully*.  I'm so psyched, my 32 bit character sprites are coming out perfect in the game, no jaggies, nice and smooth.  Thanks, all!