[Suggestion] Export textures as TGA

[BlueBatSamurai]

Detailed description of your suggestion

Could you please add an option to save a texture as a TGA file instead of PNG? (For example as a second option in the "file typ" dropdown in the save dialog?)

When I made a Bedrock Edition resource pack with TGA textures, I had to save them as PNG and then convert them to TGA with Paint.NET.

Why can you open a TGA file in Blockbench but then only save it as PNG?

[pmatyja]

@JannisX11

If that help, I can offer the code I have laying around written in C# to write uncompressed TGA image in 32-bit format.

Sidenote: If possible, it would be also nice to be able to choose which texture format to use during the "Create Texture" action. If you prefer separate issue for that I can create one :)

writer.Write((byte)0);              // IdLength
writer.Write((byte)0);              // ColorMap Type
writer.Write((byte)2);              // DataType Code (2 = uncompressed)

writer.Write((short)0);             // ColorMap Origin
writer.Write((short)0);             // ColorMap Length
writer.Write((byte)0);              // ColorMap Depth

writer.Write((short)0);             // Origin X
writer.Write((short)0);             // Origin Y
writer.Write((short)data.Width);    // Width
writer.Write((short)data.Height);   // Height

writer.Write((byte)32);             // Bits Per Pixel
writer.Write((byte)(1 << 5));       // Image Descriptor

var index = 0;

for (var y = 0; y < data.Height; ++y)
{
    for (var x = 0; x < data.Width; ++x)
    {
        writer.Write(data.Bytes[index + 2]); // B
        writer.Write(data.Bytes[index + 1]); // G
        writer.Write(data.Bytes[index + 0]); // R
        writer.Write(data.Bytes[index + 3]); // A

        index += 4;
    }
}

writer.Write((uint)0);          // Extension Area
writer.Write((uint)0);          // Developer Directory

// Signature
writer.Write("TRUEVISION-XFILE.\0"); // string must be null-terminated hence \0 at the end

[BlueBatSamurai]

@pmatyja

Sidenote: If possible, it would be also nice to be able to choose which texture format to use during the "Create Texture" action.

Yes, that would probably be useful. Maybe there should be a setting of each texture, whether it's PNG or TGA, which is also shown in the texture properties. And then there should also be an image action to convert a texture to the other type.

[BlueBatSamurai]

Or would it be easier if all textures were PNG in the model data and only converted to TGA when saved?

Hmm, no, that probably wouldn't work when you have a TGA texture linked to a file...

[BlueBatSamurai]

Sorry, but I don't really know about the differences of PNG and TGA file codings…

Actually, when I started creating Bedrock resource packs, I thought that you could simply "convert" a texture by changing the extension in the file name... (But I soon learned that it's not that easy.)

[Ozzuneoj]

Would love to see this implemented. My kid wants to get into making texture packs and she's pretty sharp with this stuff but having to mess with file conversion is a pain when the rest of the program makes creating and exporting skins and textures so easy.