How do I edit the crosshairs?

[Marker0077]

I tried editing the crosshaira.tga file via Adobe Photoshop 7 & none of the changes I made worked (modifying the RGB channels). I read on a different thread that you have to edit the Alpha channel, only problem is when I open the TGA, there is no Alpha channel. So I tried creating my own Alpha channel & editing that. That didn't work either. Can someone help me out here please?

[Chandler]

I have Photoshop 6 and the Alpha channel shows up fine. Just go to Window>Show Channels and there should be an "Alpha 1" channel below the RGB channels. For .tgas, the Alpha channel controls opacity, black is 100% opaque (transparent), white is 0% opaque, and various shades of gray are values in between 0 and 100. If you're looking to create a multi-colored crosshair, first do so normally in the RGB channel (be sure to create a new layer first so you're not painting the background). Then color the whole background solid black, go back to your layer and lock transparency, select all, and color solid white (or whatever corresponding value of gray you want the opacity to be). Flatten image, select all, and copy. Then go to History and undo everything up to and including the black. Go to the Alpha channel and paste it. I've only personally done it for the menu .tgas, but that should work. If you want to do an opaque single-colored crosshair (like the JO defaults), just create a new layer (RGB), fill the background black, make the crosshair on the layer, change mode to Grayscale, flatten, select all, copy, go to Alpha, and paste it. Then just clear everything from the RGB layer (so it's white). Like I said, I haven't actually tried it for the crosshairs yet specifically, but it should work. I hope this helps.