Just notes to myself to help me along the way, feel free to nosy haha

 BC2/DXT3 -OR- the BC3/DXT5 format and tick Generate Mipmaps , then press okay

is what I need to save as in Gimp

and to change alphas I need to do the following..

http://vendiadev.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/hello-world/

that's one way, but only to remove backgrounds the other is to go to layer and add mask

Here's how to edit the alpha in GIMP separately from the RGB:


Right-click the layer in Layers tab of Layers, Channels, Paths, Undo, etc. blah blah window.

Choose Add Layer Mask

Choose Transfer layer's alpha channel. The mask will appear to the right of the base image in the Layers window.

To edit the alpha - in the Layers window select the layer mask, right-click, and set these options: 'Show Layer Mask' and 'Edit Layer Mask' checked; 'Disable Layer Mask' unchecked.

To edit the RGB - select the base image in Layers window, right-click, set these options: 'Show Layer Mask' and 'Edit Layer Mask' unchecked; 'Disable Layer Mask' checked.

When finished, right-click in Layers window and choose 'Apply Layer Mask'.

Save with DXT5 compression.

though I can't seem to do the last bit for some reason, it just stays all black. hmmm will have to try again, maybe it's because my image isn't showing right...oh well try again :)