Step By Step Guide To Creating Custom Textures. - by Ravenhook
The Watcher on 6/12/2015 at 21:52
Actually, the TGA spec allows for full 32 bit RGBA (8 bits per channel), same as in PNG. Old dark downscaled TGAs to 4 bit alpha - actually, IIRC, it reduced all the channels to 4 bits per component - but I've no idea if NewDark does that, I'd be shocked if it did but I haven't actually tested it because PNGs are A Thing.
nicked on 6/12/2015 at 22:20
Good to know - I do know that converting most tgas to dds raised the framerate for people playing Death's Turbid Veil by a lot.
ZylonBane on 6/12/2015 at 23:12
Quote Posted by The Watcher
TGA is pretty much pointless once you have PNG
There is still one specific case in favor of TGA-- if you're using Paint Shop Pro 7 and save a 32-bit PNG, all image data in fully-transparent areas is discarded and converted to black (presumably to improve compression). This shows up in-game as a faint greyish outline around the border of all transparent regions.
Nameless Voice on 6/12/2015 at 23:37
Note that you should only save as DDS at the very end of your work, and always keep a copy in another format to work from.
DDS is not a lossless format.
Also, if you just need a quick tool to do simple image manipulation (resize, flip, saving in different formats), I recommend (
http://www.irfanview.com/) IrfanView.
It's not good for actual serious editing, though.
Yandros on 7/12/2015 at 00:26
Quote Posted by The Watcher
Actually, the TGA spec allows for full 32 bit RGBA (8 bits per channel), same as in PNG. Old dark downscaled TGAs to 4 bit alpha - actually, IIRC, it reduced
all the channels to 4 bits per component - but I've no idea if NewDark does that, I'd be shocked if it did but I haven't actually tested it because PNGs are A Thing.
I believe ZB pointed out back then that OldDark downsampled 24bit RGB TGAs to 5-6-5 bits, and I suppose RGBA TGAs got downsampled to 4-4-4-4. If I recall correctly, OldDark would actually crash if you used a 32bit TGA. I imagine NewDark handles them, but as you said PNGs are A Thing.
Ravenhook on 8/12/2015 at 19:40
Thank you one and all, I now have a fistful of lovely working new textures to play with...now all I have to do is make two more maps to go with this three parter and I'm good to go.:D:D
ZylonBane on 9/12/2015 at 02:59
Quote Posted by Yandros
I believe ZB pointed out back then that OldDark downsampled 24bit RGB TGAs to 5-6-5 bits, and I suppose RGBA TGAs got downsampled to 4-4-4-4.
Since old Dark renders to 16-bit, images with 24-bit
palettes (GIF, PCX) get banged down to RGB565. TGAs get the RGBA4444 treatment. I don't think Dark supports TGAs without an alpha channel.
Yandros on 9/12/2015 at 03:51
Ah yes, thanks for clarifying.
