Paatool 1.1 released

[feersum.endjinn 6]

PAATool 1.1 is now available, quick list of changes:

- Fixed buffer overrun in compression code which sometimes caused crashes or produced invalid texture files

- Added option to mark texture file so that OFP does not try to interpolate alpha channel for DXT textures

- Sharpening filters are only applied to mipmap textures

- Compression for non-DXT textures is still too slow, optimized version has too many bugs.. maybe in 1.2

Download it here

[feersum.endjinn 6]

About new option: what's the difference between whether alpha channel is filtered or not? I'll just post two pictures for comparison:

Textures converted with default options

Textures converted with "No alpha filtering on"

Note that you just can't reconvert your old textures to make them behave properly after you've binarized them - binarize reads texture headers and marks faces so that they're rendered differently. You need to binarize your model again with fixed textures to make them work properly ingame.

[Master_Chief 0]

AWSOME!!! works great

[MiG2003 0]

Real great, downloading...

[Fab. 0]

awesome work !

That's really great stuff you did there

[HUNT666 0]

AMAZING !!!!!!

More stuff like that !!!

THX ..

[cbfasi 4]

Thanks for the quick response about advising using dxt1 compression when using "No alpha filtering on".

Further question.

Advice on other settings to avoid loss of detail that seems to happen when using the "No alpha filtering on".

I ask as I ran the "No alpha filtering on" on a wire fence texture, and in game the fence has a couple of small blocks and that it, the wire seems to have shrunk to nothing.

Should I increase the distance at which the alpha works from the concerned textures?

[feersum.endjinn 6]

Without seeing original texture it's hard to tell, but make sure your alpha channel contains only total black or white values (for example in Photoshop run threshold filter for alpha channel) before converting them with PAATool...

Otherwise you will lose some detail in conversion.

[cbfasi 4]

I shall look at that..

Small request...

I have about 600 unique texture to convert to paa, any chance of a bulk converter??

The alternative would be I suspect almost a days work manually one by one.

I cant get away from the number of files, its for a very special project.

[feersum.endjinn 6]

I shall look at that..

Small request...

I have about 600 unique texture to convert to paa, any chance of a bulk converter??

The alternative would be I suspect almost a days work manually one by one.

I cant get away from the number of files, its for a very special project.

I just haven't got extra time right now, I near future I may update older command line vesrion with some of the features...

However source code is included, it really doesn't take much programmer skills for someone to modify it to do batch conversions. And nowadays Microsoft is even giving their optimizing compiler away freely...

[cbfasi 4]

Oh b......... looks like I will have to learn how to program again

If I get lucky I will post here

[Guest]

Keep us updated on that. I'd program it myself, except I'm still learning how to program my video

[bardamu 0]

Hi all

I have a prob with this tool:

I save an image in PS as x.TGA in 32bpp.But if i preview it with textview i only see a grey square instead of my texture.

The same way when i convert the tga 32bpp with paatool 1.1 i have a .PAA or PAC but it's also all grey.

I really don't know what the problem is.

thx bardamu

[feersum.endjinn 6]

Quote[/b] ]I save an image in PS as x.TGA in 32bpp.But if i preview it with textview i only see a grey square instead of my texture.

The same way when i convert the tga 32bpp with paatool 1.1 i have a .PAA or PAC but it's also all grey.

Probably something wrong with your textures alpha channel.

[bardamu 0]

Probably something wrong with your textures alpha channel.

It was an alpha channel prob.I found a solution.

Thx

And btw thx for this wonderfull utility

[bardamu 0]

What's the use for the "dithering" option plz?

And does anyone know a tut or article about the mimap filtering options?

Thx

bardamu

[feersum.endjinn 6]

Dithering explained

As for mipmap filtering, they're just different filtering algorithms for calculating scaled-down versions for mipmaps. Default value (box sampling) is best one for general usage, though in some special cases with alpha channels it might be better to use "point" sampling. You can experiment with resizing images for example in Photoshop to see difference between different algorithms.

PAATool might be little confusing at first, but it is designed to give complete control to texturer in every stage of converting texture.

[bardamu 0]

PAATool might be little confusing at first, but it is designed to give complete control to texturer in every stage of converting texture.

That's what i thought when i first launched it.

Thx again for precise reply feersum.endjinn you clearly deserve a nice...

[offtime 0]

iv made many tests and i can tell that only difference betwen "no alpha filtering" on paa textures and pac with alpha

is file size. pac are smaller...

only good thing with this tool are mipmap filters and effects.

[Guest major gandhi]

hi,

i just started to experiment with the paa-tool since textview only delivered me unsufficient texture-conversions. I have several textures sized 1024*256/1024*512 with 32. I tried to convert one of these with paa-tool and this is what came out:

none of them was really satisfying, so what exactly do I have to choose in the menu of paa-tool to get an optimal qualitiy?

[feersum.endjinn 6]

Does your texture have a alpha channel? If not, then choose DXT1 5:6:5 for best quality and ingame performance. If you need 1-bit alpha, then you must use DXT 5551 anyway.

Having dithering turned on also helps.

[nephilim 0]

good tool feersum

i jsut ahve a coupel of questions

first of all

wot does the destination format options do?

coudl u kind of explain it woudl be nice

another things that i get a cannot laod mipmap error in oxygen when i use soem textures that ahve been converted

with this tool

specialy pac textures, with no alpha filterign on

rest default

sizes are only 512*512 or smaller

any ideas?

[shinRaiden 0]

FYI, When I save a TGA in GIMP without any alpha data, the existing alpha channel gets dropped, so I have to re-open the TGA and create a new alpha channel, then it imports okay.

My question is, why does my texture (512x) cycle through all of it's mipmap levels in the first ~5m away from the object ingame?

[nephilim 0]

the skippign is normal i think

wot me wonders most is that when u use a small texture

it looks different everytiem i laod the mission :S

once its really good in sharp how it looks in oxy

the next tiem it loosk how if it would be super small an simply

streched out and looking pixelated...

[pexmo 1]

When i convert using the Paatool i end up with 1kb large empty images... why is this. I use .tga non rle compressed and i tried with and without alpha channel. i use dtx compression 5:6:5.