Question about resizing images...

[Redblade]

I have an older computer with only 128mb of vram. I can play TEHO fine with medium textures, but I'd like to go a step further and reduce some landscape and architectural textures to the point where I can play with high texture settings.

I'm already able to convert to TGA (using ConvertorTX), reduce size, and convert back to TGA.TX, but when going back into the game, the textures do not line up anymore. I figure I'm doing something wrong when converting back to TX, where there are different conversion options and those top -> down, left -> right options.

Anyway, if anyone can help me sort this out, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Grey Roger]

When converting .tga back to .tga.tx, I don't touch the "Copy lines" section at all. The only thing you need to do is, when converting from .tga.tx to .tga, make note of the settings used for the original file, and in particular, which compression setting was used in the original - A8R8G8B8, DXT1, R5G5B5 etc. You'll find this in the centre panel of the display in ConvertorTX, where there are three lines: path and filename of the file you're looking at, size and compression setting, current size of image. Then, when you convert the image back to .tga.tx, be sure to use the same compression setting.

If textures are not lining up then my guess is that you did not resize the image correctly. The aspect ratio must remain the same - that is, the proportion of length to width. If the original file is 2048x1024, for example, then length is 2 x width. If you reduce the length to 1024, you must also reduce width to 512 so that length is still 2 x width.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

when going back into the game, the textures do not line up anymore. I figure I'm doing something wrong when converting back to TX

That does indeed sound weird; I would expect what you describe to work the way you want.

I know in Paint, at least, you can resize the "picture area" or the "picture selection".
If you resize only the "picture selection", the picture does become smaller, but you keep a white space around it and the original resolution remains the same.
Could something similar be happening to you?

 

[Redblade]

I'm using XnConvert as my resizing tool. It allows me to resize multiple files together, which I have set to 50% height and 50% width. So a 2048 x 1024 becomes a 1024 x 512, a 512 x 512 becomes a 256 x 256, etc. I understand the thought behind accidentally reducing the image while keeping the original canvas size, but I can assure you the images are indeed the same proportions.

I will experiment with a couple textures using Grey Roger's suggestion of making sure to use exactly the same compression settings as the original, per each texture. To be honest, I thought all textures would have the same settings, so when I batch converted I used the settings I saw in one of the images for all of the converted.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'm using XnConvert as my resizing tool. It allows me to resize multiple files together, which I have set to 50% height and 50% width. So a 2048 x 1024 becomes a 1024 x 512, a 512 x 512 becomes a 256 x 256, etc. I understand the thought behind accidentally reducing the image while keeping the original canvas size, but I can assure you the images are indeed the same proportions.

Good to know for sure that it must be something else then.

I will experiment with a couple textures using Grey Roger's suggestion of making sure to use exactly the same compression settings as the original, per each texture. To be honest, I thought all textures would have the same settings, so when I batch converted I used the settings I saw in one of the images for all of the converted.

Any texture could be different from the others, which makes it potentially a bit complicated.
But I wouldn't have expected compression settings to somehow change the UV mapping.

This is a bit of a weird one and I can't think of a sensible reason that would explain your experiences.

 

[Redblade]

Well, I kept experimenting, but nothing going. After reducing the textures, I converted them back to TX files using the same compression method the originals had. DXT1 to DXT1, DXT 5 to DXT5, etc. I tried to keep the same number of mips, but sometimes they wouldn't be what I wanted. Especially the higher numbers. Example, Tried to set DXT1 texture to 10 mips, but it would only convert to 9. Not sure what a mip is, but it's the only thing different besides the size itself. Anyway, the textures are doing the same thing they were doing before. Instead of matching up, they are randomly splattered on their targets. Towns are very abstract. So, yeah, no idea why the textures won't work.