Arma 3 Texture file size question

[Aphec 10]

When i used to create PAA files after converting them from TGA files, i used to get textures with a size around 200kbs or a bit more,

Now every texture i make has a filesize of 16mb and after converting it, every file is exactly 2.66mb,

what am i doing wrong???

especially since i didnt change anything

[PuFu 4599]

1. it belongs to the editing section.

2. what is the resolution in pixels for the 200KB one and the 2.6MB one?

3. I assume you are using texview to create the paa files from the TGA ones. What are the settings you are using it with.

4. What sort of TGA do you have? 8bit/channel? Does it have an alpha channel?

[Aphec 10]

Resolution is always 2048

I am using Texview indeed settings: RGBA , ARGB8888

I can only save it as a TGA 32bits/pixel format, else texview gives an error. In photoshop the file is an RGB/8 format then it saves it as a 16meg file

And on

---------- Post added at 13:56 ---------- Previous post was at 13:50 ----------

its just so weird, whatever format i save it in, its always 2.66 mb

[Royale 10]

Probably the resolution, that makes the file that big.

[Polymath820 11]

It is actually because arma 3 uses 3 types of compression DXT1 DXT3 and DXT5 the most compressed I think is DXT1 oh nvm you are using DXT1 yeah all .paa files are non-lossy compression format meaning nothing is removed in the way of bits and bytes. You can use JPG or JPEG but they are considered lossy compression algorithms a lot of the "data is removed" in the compression process. Meaning you get pixilation, when you try to overlay the image on a model.

---------- Post added at 01:28 ---------- Previous post was at 01:19 ----------

That is the main reason. TGA format is an intermediary between TexView 2 and Photoshop. In TexView 2 you can actually save the .paa files you opened using .png file format and tga. I personally prefer PNG but the arma 3 engine only supports TGA,PAA.JPG and ah I remember now .PAC

Edited March 2, 2014 by Polymath820

[scorch_052 127]

Yeah, as Polymath said, try using .PNGs and skipping .TGAs. In my experience theres no negative effect of doing things this way.