[CapnScurvy]

Originally Posted by TorpX

Btw, what do you use to view and manipulate the *.tga and *.dds files?

I use a couple of tools.

DXTBmp is one that used to be listed here at SubSim. A google search will give you several download sites.....Here's one. It's free and will open both .tga and .dds image files. I'll use it to export/import the Alpha Channel image, and do some minor changes to either the main image or the Alpha with it. Usually I'll export the Alpha to something like my PhotoShop Elements software and make changes there more often than in the DXTBmp tool. Once I'm done in PhotoShop, I'll use the import feature of DXTBmp to combine the two images together again.

Adobe PhotoShop Elements needs to have the Nvidia Plugin added to it to open and save .dds or .tga images. Find it here. Guess it's what you get used to, but I like PhotoShop.....Gimp can work well too, although I rarely use it.

One thing to remember about a .dds image, it is a Lossy compression type file format. Where a .tga is considered a Lossless compression file type. Here's a brief description of the two from Wikipedia:

There are two types of image file compression algorithms: lossless and lossy.

Lossless compression algorithms reduce file size while preserving a perfect copy of the original uncompressed image. Lossless compression generally, but not always, results in larger files than lossy compression. Lossless compression should be used to avoid accumulating stages of re-compression when editing images.

Lossy compression algorithms preserve a representation of the original uncompressed image that may appear to be a perfect copy, but it is not a perfect copy. Often lossy compression is able to achieve smaller file sizes than lossless compression. Most lossy compression algorithms allow for variable compression that trades image quality for file size.

What this means is the more times you save a .dds image....the greater the chance of losing the clarity/color the original image had. So, work with an image with the .tga file format until you get it the way you like....then save it to a .dds file format to have the file size smaller than what a .tga image would be. The smaller an image size, the less memory it takes to display it in-game. This old game needs all the help it can get by keeping it's memory usage to a minimum.

Speaking of that. If an image doesn't need Mip-Maps, than don't have them added to the image. For instance, no mip-maps are needed for the Recognition Manual images. The RM isn't going to be read from a varying distance, so no mip-maps need to be added. A plane that's coming into view at a distance, then growing larger as it nears, needs mip-maps to display the plane as well as it can at the different display sizes. The images in the RM, or dials/gauges, don't need them.

Mip-Maps increase image file size. So, only have them included on images that need them.