Need help with casting window
 

I am trying to make use of the arcan orb to create a casting orb instead of the old bar.. I need some help tho with how to make the orb "fill".. I have tried some things but so far the best I have done was a box that would fill but also was behind the orb. Including 2 screen shots of the unfilling orb :)
I know there has to be a way to do this ;)
Thanks

A vertical progress bar would do the trick wouldnt it?

Well.. if you mean just like changing the original progress bar to a vertical and resizing it to fit the orb.. I tried that and it ended up "behind" the orb. I had it just large enough that you could see the corners of the square behind it.. The original EQ had a TK arcane casting orb ..perhaps I should see if I can get a clue from that :confused: :)

Yeh I remember that UI

I am crap at grafix related stuff but..

Maybe you need a transparent "hole" in the middle of the orb and the vertical progress bar grafic needs to be the same as the grafic that is in the middle now...

Does that make any sense?

Yes it does. And thats the surprising part!
Basically what Laffs is saying is that you need to go into Photoshop, and create a casting "bar" that is round. The standard bar fill styles are rectangular which is why they wont work. If you make a 'round' "bar" with the alpha so that only the circle is transparent, then *poof* you have a nice spherical casting progress ... er, shape.

Hope that clears the bar part up.

As for the "hole" he is correct there also. Take that orbs.dds, and modify the alpha so that it is partially transparent. Since you will be placing the progressbar behind it, the main sphere portion needs to be partly transparent. In the alpha, black = no transp, and white = 100% transp. Thus: various forms of grey = different transparency percents.

Thanks all... Really helping out.. now the next question is, where can I get a dds editor to do this? ;) I did a couple searches and found a viewer which now I can see the orbs.dds file and all the graphic parts in it.. but cant edit it to make it transparent or translucent.

Paint shop pro or Adobe photoshop you can download a plug in from nvida to read .dds files that works with either program...

As for a free editor that can do it, sorry I have no idea where to get one of those.

yeah your pretty much outta luck if ya want something free. Well, maybe not. Paint Shop Pro has i think a 30day trial version.

Well... have adobe photoshop 2.0... yeah..yeah.. its old but still like it actually... but the plugin doesnt seem to work with it.. Might look into the 30 day tho thanks :)

Photoshop CS also has a time-limited demo available here. I never used Photoshop 2.0, but I used 3.5 (and pretty much every version since.) If you like 2.0 you're going to love CS…after a bit of a relearning curve. ;)

Ok... next issue that I need a lil help with.. I have CS now.. and I am able to open and edit the orb.dds file and get the effects as you suggested.. (btw.. there was already a "red" orb in the file that I am able to use) However... saving the file and then using the uibuilder to display the new version, my orb now has a white background instead of the normal black.. I have tynkered with trying to reload it and save under different options but cant seem to find the right way to do it.. Can you all steer me in the right direction on this one? :)
Thanks again guys.. just consider me a newb to alot of this stuff ;)

Doesn't really matter as the white "background" should be transparent because of the alpha layer. The easiest way is to "magic wand" the thing and then either "delete" to black, or take a brush and paint over it.

Hope that was clear enough.

Ok... got it working :nana: and have put it up in the downloads under misc. I am pretty happy with how it came out and hopefully gives people something they will enjoy too :)
Thanks to everyone who helped me get thru the rough parts ;)