What does the scenename_alpha.dds do?

[AggrorJorn]

I'm wondering what the alpha map does when you save your scene when working with terrains. Besides the sbx and raw file you get an entirely black alpha.dds file. Where is this being used for?

[Niosop]

It stores the terrain painting info. The base texture isn't stored as it covers the whole terrain. The red channel stores where the second terrain texture should be painted and it's opacity. blue=third, green=forth, alpha=fifth. Or something like that, I haven't verified the order but that's basically how it works.

[AggrorJorn]

Thanks for your answer!