Targa support
by Erik Madison · in Torque Game Engine · 02/02/2005 (10:20 am) · 12 replies
I'm curious why tga support isn't included in head, TGE or TSE. Every new project I begin, I need to re-add it. png is possibly better, I understand, but support for it is losing steam. PS has never had good support, and PSP 7 was the last version that easily supported it. 8 and 9 force another couple of steps on you. tga just seems to be more of an accepted format, even most texture packages are sold in that format.
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#2
02/02/2005 (10:43 am)
I agree that TGA support should be added. It would make my life a bit more simple.
#3
you can add the Targa support to your project. Okay it's not in the Head but here is a good resource for the support of Targa Textures
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=3598
02/02/2005 (10:54 am)
Hi Erik, Hi XTENCILATE,you can add the Targa support to your project. Okay it's not in the Head but here is a good resource for the support of Targa Textures
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=3598
#4
@Anthony Whats internet friendly got to do with it? I realize TGE is meant to download missing textures, but for the vast majority of TGE based games, proper textures will be included. For the additional time it takes me to convert my textures to working png, I can manually walk a new disk to every users house, and install them :P
I'm not suggesting dropping any other format though, I'm simply wondering why the most common of all gaming texture formats isn't included.
02/02/2005 (11:07 am)
I use that resource every time :) Works great in TSE as well.@Anthony Whats internet friendly got to do with it? I realize TGE is meant to download missing textures, but for the vast majority of TGE based games, proper textures will be included. For the additional time it takes me to convert my textures to working png, I can manually walk a new disk to every users house, and install them :P
I'm not suggesting dropping any other format though, I'm simply wondering why the most common of all gaming texture formats isn't included.
#5
02/02/2005 (11:13 am)
PSP 8 and 9 support PNG fine. I work in PSP and use png a lot. The only problem area is the slice tool 
#6
Bigger download sizes will minimized the amount of people who will attempt to download your product.
02/02/2005 (11:14 am)
My point is, if you sell you game online, if you use Targa's tha download will be considerable bigger than if you use PNG or JPG. Bigger download sizes will minimized the amount of people who will attempt to download your product.
#7
@Fruitbat In PSP7, I can simply save any file with an alpha map as a png and it works fine. In 8-9, it will discard the alpha saying its not supported. I can then use the png optimzer, choose transparency method, and sometimes have it work. Reading a few sites on the png format, it turns out there are differing levels of support, and most graphic programs only choose to fully support a few. None I've found support all aspects. Its kind of like supporting only the DXT-2 compression of .dds files, and refusing to acknowledge the others.
02/02/2005 (11:27 am)
@Anthony Ok, with GG being an online publisher, that makes perfect sense. Support what they wish to sell.@Fruitbat In PSP7, I can simply save any file with an alpha map as a png and it works fine. In 8-9, it will discard the alpha saying its not supported. I can then use the png optimzer, choose transparency method, and sometimes have it work. Reading a few sites on the png format, it turns out there are differing levels of support, and most graphic programs only choose to fully support a few. None I've found support all aspects. Its kind of like supporting only the DXT-2 compression of .dds files, and refusing to acknowledge the others.
#8
If you're not using packed archives for your assets, then, well, .png does take a bit less space. If you are, then .png can be more expensive, as you not only have to look for it in the archive and decompress it once to get it out of there (with no disk/download space saving : once you have a .png, you don't get anything from zipping it up), and then decompress it to RAM to use it as a texture..
02/02/2005 (1:21 pm)
Actually, if you zip up your assets, the .tga will take exactly the same space as the .png, since a .png only uses zlib to compresse the image, it not being a lossy format : it's basically a raw bitmap compressed with zlib. TGA is as raw a bitmap as can be, so compress it with something, and you get similar sizes...If you're not using packed archives for your assets, then, well, .png does take a bit less space. If you are, then .png can be more expensive, as you not only have to look for it in the archive and decompress it once to get it out of there (with no disk/download space saving : once you have a .png, you don't get anything from zipping it up), and then decompress it to RAM to use it as a texture..
#9
02/02/2005 (1:41 pm)
Wow, great info there. I hadn't read that before. Since I eventually intend to use the zipped asset feature, I think I'll stick with mostly tga files.
#10
Btw, is there any sort of tutorial for making zipped assets in torque so you can pack your files into one zipped file torque can load?
02/03/2005 (12:20 pm)
Ya, i always felt TGA support should be added as well. Woiuldn't take GG long and the options are always nice to have in the community.Btw, is there any sort of tutorial for making zipped assets in torque so you can pack your files into one zipped file torque can load?
#12
So in cases like this where the resource is easy to integrate and only needed by a portion of the community, it's better to let the people who need it, get it, and let well enough alone for everyone else. :)
02/10/2005 (3:20 am)
Every feature we add is a feature we have to maintain. Maintenance work is exacting and difficult. In general, we want to avoid having to spend all our time doing just bug fixes - we want to make progress on new stuff, too.So in cases like this where the resource is easy to integrate and only needed by a portion of the community, it's better to let the people who need it, get it, and let well enough alone for everyone else. :)
Associate Anthony Rosenbaum