[nsscorpion]

Ok we can try the simple way 1st and see if that works. What u need to do is open a new image the size of your compass image. While you do that
on image characteristic choose transparent as your background. ok you should have a clear image with black and white squares on it. Now cut and paste your compass image into the new 1. Make sure u cut out any parts that u want to be see thru. For example if somewhere that u want to be see thru is white cut the white part out. Now go to the top menu and select masks new from image and then select source opacity. After that choose view mask when u do that all the see thru parts should go red. Select masks again and choose save to alpha channel and leave it with the default name. Then save your image as usual but make sure that it is in TGA format. and your set.

Its a bit awkward to explain but u should gert the idea and thats how to do it in psp 7. you may need to edit the shader as well to make it work.

hope it helps

regards scorp