TARGA file please?

[OrangeIsALie]

On 7/2/2019 at 6:33 AM, hrondleman said:

Edit: Also related, DDS support is also requested for the games industry, as it is widely used due to it being able to be decompressed on GPUs, and allows for mipmaps to be directly included (and edited, in special circumstances).

YES!!

I joined this forum specifically to ask about DDS support! I'm working with a small team and we rely on.. less than optimal software... to edit the dds files that we must work with for a specific game engine. If AP supported it, then that could really help us out!!

[Patrick Connor]

@OrangeIsALie

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums

2 hours ago, OrangeIsALie said:

YES!!

I joined this forum specifically to ask about DDS support! I'm working with a small team and we rely on.. less than optimal software... to edit the dds files that we must work with for a specific game engine. If AP supported it, then that could really help us out!!

Although related this thread is really about .TGA format, which is now implemented, (albeit with issues where 100% transparent). I suggest you may want to follow or comment in a more specific thread 

[MattyWS]

I came here to say thank you for adding TGA export! The only thing missing now is the ability export with the alpha channel but either way I'm glad there is progress on this front! A lot of people are happy it's being implemented.

[lepr]

On 7/5/2019 at 7:37 AM, Andy Somerfield said:

kirk23 - you make a good point about PNG optimising away colours when alpha is zero.

PNG does not optimise away colours when alpha is zero!

Lossless PNG faithfully stores the R, G, B and A values that are provided to the encoder.

It is Affinity software that is "optimising away colours" when alpha is zero when performing some operations.

[kirk23]

Since we  have tga now  would be nice to have Alpha in them too , as well as a way to pack channels  at export . Something like  Layer comps in Photoshop  and a script to pack them into RGBA channels  at export.   

tga is stilll pretty useless for me without alpha

[Kuso77]

@kirk23 Have you tried the latest version of 1.9?  I'm able to channel pack super easy.  I'm used to GIMP's worflow (not familiar with how it's done in PS), but I find Affinity Photo's implementation very easy to use - better than GIMP's. 

After having edited each channel (RGB and A) in greyscale, I exported it as a TGA file.

imported it into Unity and each channel displays the data exactly as it was in Photo. 

Is this not what you were after?   I don't believe it has the options you wanted at the export stage, but editing each (RGBA) channel in greyscale and exporting it as an RGBA targa works great, imho. 

[myclay]

4 hours ago, Kuso77 said:

@kirk23 Have you tried the latest version of 1.9?  I'm able to channel pack super easy.  stage, but editing each (RGBA) channel in greyscale and exporting it as an RGBA targa works great, imho. 

with such claims, please make a video or a couple gifs about it, please enlighten me visually how easy it is.

[kirk23]

7 hours ago, Kuso77 said:

@kirk23 Have you tried the latest version of 1.9?

Wow. thanks Kuso77.    I haven't realized that tgas  are savable with alpha already 

 

3 hours ago, myclay said:

with such claims, please make a video or a couple gifs about it, please enlighten me visually how easy it is.

I think  he meant something like that

t

ps. That setup works only if "transparent background" had been checked in

 Too bad Aphoto  doesn't have transform links between layers .   With so cool links panel I am puzzled why they missed the most important one

 

 

test1.afphoto

[myclay]

EDIT; Its an interesting approach for RGB packing.

The same problems in previewing and editing the alpha channel and comfortably working with RGBA files is still persisting.

[kirk23]

2 hours ago, myclay said:

EDIT; Its an interesting approach for RGB packing.

The same problems in previewing and editing the alpha channel and comfortably working with RGBA files is still persisting.

Previewing is easy in APhoto. Easier than in Psh imo.    You click on channel picture  in channels panel and see only selected channel,  same with   composite Alpha.    And it stay so even after you put another layer to your stack.    I always find it annoying when Photoshop  switches  back to RGB view .       

Also  you can make as big stack of layers to edit alpha only if you want.   .     

 If you find editing Alpha in erase group  or any  too complicated layer stack  weird   you could  just make a group or a single layer  with regular blending, call it "alpha" for memo   then do "mask to bellow" with same  clipping blacks in blend options    and export tga.        If you want to preview or edit alpha hit "release mask"  and it turns back to normal layer again. 

If you want just edit alpha levels you could  put levels adjustment layer  over a top of your stack  and select alpha instead of master  from levels  dialog. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kuso77]

@myclay  Sorry, I wasn't trying to dismiss claims of shortcomings in the software.  I'm admittedly not as familiar with different channel packing workflows as (I think) you are.  I'm coming from editing channels in GIMP.  There it's awkward, here, in the latest Aphoto, editing/viewing channels is more intuitive - for me at least - that's why I said it was easy. 

Regardless, we probably shouldn't be talking about the channel packing workflow here, as this thread is specifically about TGA.  I failed and mentioned it.  I shouldn't have.

@kirk23 My pleasure.  Really appreciate you supplying that RGBA breakdown ss in an attempt to make sense of my uninformative comment.

[myclay]

Hello to both of you @Kuso77 @kirk23
all good here, the mentioned workflow is compared to before a step up,please do share your workflows in the future.
Thanks to both of you and also for the visual explanation in combination with the helpfile.
Its always amazing to see visual explanations for program for visual tasks.