Best TGA Graphics editor for Jag use?

[+Gemintronic]

So, I've been terribly lethargic in my exploration of Jaguar development. My first steps are usually to take existing examples and swap out resources to get a feel for things. After that I go for modifying existing code. THEN I get to coding Drunken Pooper.

 

I got myself stuck when editing/saving TGA bitmaps for use in Jaguar projects. I just can't seem to find a Windows based editor that properly saves the .TGA files. CyranoJ has been awesome help but I'm not having any luck. What do people use?

[sh3-rg]

Can you post one of your example TGAs here and I'll run it through the tools I use to check the output?

[VladR]

What exactly do you hope to achieve by using TGA ? I presume it's not transparency, since that would be a very bad idea with TGA.

 

I don't normally use TGA, But if I do, I prefer Paint Shop Pro

[GroovyBee]

I normally use a bespoke conversion tool (written by me) that handles windows *.bmp files. It colour converts them (if necessary) and cuts things up into animation frames. What are you trying to do with *.tga files?

[+Gemintronic]

The project I'm re-compiling uses .TGA files for background images and sprites. I tried Irfanview and was careful to retain the same bit depth and size. I think I tried an early version of Paint Shop Pro to no avail.

 

Not at home so I can't post the .TGA files yet.

[+CyranoJ]

Paint Shop Pro 6 outputs 16bit TGA files correctly.

 

As for transparency, yup... setting something to 0,0,0 and flood filling is soooooooo hard.

 

[God damnit, I must stop replying before TEA]

Edited March 7, 2014 by CyranoJ

[sh3-rg]

Paint Shop Pro 16 outputs 16bit TGA files correctly.

 

As for transparency, yup... setting something to 0,0,0 and flood filling is soooooooo hard.

 

But if you're not a future sailor, PSP6 does the job. It can be had for pennies on eBay (I grabbed 6 and 8 for under a tenner total).

[LinkoVitch]

If you don't mind grabbing the appropriate extra libraries required my gfxconv will currently handle any popular format and convert it to a RAW RGB/CRY Jaguar bitmap.

 

I am currently reworking it to remove the huge additional requirements of ImageMagick and external libs.. So a future version should be a bit less epic in size. It should work on any modern windows platform and can be called from scripting tools so handy for makefiles (which is my prefered method of building jag stuff)

[+Gemintronic]

Thanks for the advice. Here are the .TGA files. The original one and "bad" new one is included in the zip.

 

I'll try an older version of Paint Shop Pro again. I'll also Google Linkovitch's utility and see if I can find it and the required libs. UPDATE: I think it's this? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212744-new-jaguar-graphics-convertor-windows/

 

tgaoldandbad.zip

[LinkoVitch]

All my released stuff can be found on our website

 

www.u-235.co.uk

 

It's still very early release so expect bugs

 

Graphics Convertor Link

Edited March 8, 2014 by LinkoVitch

[sh3-rg]

Thanks for the advice. Here are the .TGA files. The original one and "bad" new one is included in the zip.

 

I'll try an older version of Paint Shop Pro again. I'll also Google Linkovitch's utility and see if I can find it and the required libs. UPDATE: I think it's this? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212744-new-jaguar-graphics-convertor-windows/

 

tgaoldandbad.zip

 

Judging by file size, I'd guess your bad file is 24bit maybe?

 

I saved your good file (weirdly seemed familiar, odd that!) from both PSP 6 and 8 as 16bit uncompressed TGA.

 

As I already knew it would be, the PSP8 file was slightly larger than the PSP6 file and the file format is somehow incompatible. The files look identical to start with but one of offset from the other by one byte. The files differ more after that, haven't done a file compare to see how, just a quick check in hexedit.

 

I keep PSP6 around for the sole purpose of saving 16bit TGA files. If linko's solution or some other tool you have allows for saving the files "correctly" or you can modify CJ's code to accept them, all good.

[+Gemintronic]

Yep. Irfanview wasn't saving it as a 16-bit TGA. I went back to Paint Shop Pro 5 and made darn sure it was saved as a 16-bit file.

 

I chalk this up to an ID-10-T error. The advice here forced me to retrace my steps and do things correctly. I still plan on learning how to use Linkovitchs tool as it seems the best long term solution.

 

Thanks again!

[+BitJag]

All my released stuff can be found on our website

 

www.u-235.co.uk

 

It's still very early release so expect bugs

 

Graphics Convertor Link

 

This tool looks nice. 90% of the time I am converting to 16-bit, and it would be nice not having to worry about -cry option and what not.

 

 

I was running into the same issue in finding a decent way of editing graphics for the Jaguar, and because I am using linux, I wanted to find a way to do it in linux. The process I use has a few more steps, but it guarantees a file that will work, and it should work fine in Windows as well.

 

I use Gimp (opensource image editor) in combination with a plugin called 16-bit Dither Script, then I pump it through the image converter provided at the Remover's website. (there is a already built version for windows half way down the page). You can download Gimp Here and the 16-bit Dither Plugin Here.

 

As for the process, I just build my graphics in whatever way I wish, in gimp or some other program, bring it into gimp, flatten the image, then use the 16-bit Dither Script (located under Image>Mode>Dither to RGB565), save this out to a .png/.gif/.jpg/.tga, and then use the Remover's image converter program, with the options -rgb and --binary, to get a binary file of the image that can be compiled with my programs.

 

It's a bit involved, but I know exactly what I am going to get. The Dither script does do a slight dither to the graphics, but it isn't over the top, and should work for most cases.