resizing textures?

[Fox '09 14]

Hi folks, I have a very nice texture I want to apply.. but if i size it down... it looks crap.. so, how would I go about resizing the .paa textures? I want to have it 4096x4096 in game.. is this possible? Just resizing makes the texture black in game.

orig. is 2048x2048

[-martin- 10]

Well resizing bitmap images (textures) to a larger size then the original image will of course take away some of the quality especially if you resize it so much like you want to do.

But to get to the point, the first thing you have to do is backup the original file, basically means make a copy of it and put it on your desktop or somewhere in case something goes wrong or you don't like the result.

After backing up it's time to save a copy of the .paa as .tga or .png, I recommend .tga but both will do for now. So open the texture in TexView 2, click file > save as and the save window will open, after the file name type .png or .tga.

After saving the file, load the .tga or .png that you saved in to a photo editing program such as the GIMP, Paint.Net or Photoshop. (If you don't have any program yet I recommend you download Paint.Net because its very lightweight, free and useful, download from here: http://www.getpaint.net/download.html )

Here is how to resize for Photoshop:

1) After loading the image click Image > Image size and specify your size, then click OK. You can also un-check "constrain proportions" if you want to specify a different size for length and width.

2) Save the image by going to file > save , (when saving as .tga the Targa options window might open, if it does fill it out like in the picture bellow: 24bits/pixel + Compress (RLE) unchecked! then click OK)

if saving as .PNG

A window will open, under interlace select none and click OK.

For Paint.Net

1) Load the image in Paint.Net

2) Click Image > Resize

3) Under "pixel size" fill out "width" and "height" with your desired sizes and click OK.

4) Save as .tga or .png by clicking file > save as and selecting the file type form the drop down menu under "save as type"

5) A Targa Options window will appear, choose 24bits/pixel and uncheck the Compress (RLE) box, click OK.

If saving as .png

A window will open, leave bit depth at Auto-Detect and click OK

CONVERTING BACK TO .PAA

1) Load the .png or .tga in TexView2, click file > save as, type a file name followed by .paa and hit OK.

that's all!

Edited June 13, 2010 by -Martin-

[Fox '09 14]

thanks, a very detailed post. It worked! It must of been the 24-bit color thing, it was all black last time i tried,, which was with 32-bit color.

[Fox '09 14]

sorry for double post.. Is there a way to override the 4096x4096 limit for .paas? I want to test a 8192x8192 texture in game.... but i can't.