Re: [Plib-users] Editing rgb & rgba's

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

"Gouthas, Themie" wrote:
 
> What image editor do people use for editing .rgba files?

GIMP...it's a truly *great* OpenSource tool - somewhat like
PhotoShop (so I'm told) - but free and rapidly pulling ahead of
PhotoShop in terms of features.  GIMP has been ported to Windoze
too - although it's definitely better under Linux.

BTW: I should point out that there has been a change in the use
of the '.rgba' extension.

ORIGINALLY:  The 'SGI' or 'Haeberli' Image file format used
at least 6 different extensions:

    .bw    -- Black and white - One bit per pixel monochrome.
    .int   -- Intensity - Eight bits per pixel monochrome.
    .inta  -- Intensity/alpha - Eight bits per pixel monochrome
              plus eight bits of Alpha (Transparency).
    .img   -- Colour-mapped '256 colour mode' - 8 bits per pixel.
    .rgb   -- Red/Green/Blue - Eight bits per component 'truecolour'.
    .rgba  -- Red/Green/Blue/Alpha - Truecolour + Alpha 8/8/8/8.

However, these were all the same file *format* - and for any well
written application, the extension is irrelevent.

Over the last few years, people (and tools) seem to have given up
all those extensions and settled on *just* '.rgb' for all of those
various modes.  GIMP, XV, AC3D - and all the other tools that I use
now seem to use '.rgb' only...so I've switched to giving them that
extension also.

Adding to the confusion for my Tux_AQFH game was that the older
versions of AC3D couldn't read RGB-Alpha images correctly.  That
made life absolute hell - so, to get around that I made TWO files
for each map that needed Alpha - one (called '.rgb') had no Alpha
planes and was listed in the model for AC3D's benefit - the other
(called '.rgba') had Alpha and was the one my game code would read.
Handily, this fit the old convention.

Anyway, I should go back and rename all those files because more
recent releases of AC3D can cope with alpha-maps - and it's a pain
to duplicate all the files like that!

-- 
Steve Baker   HomeEmail: <sjb...@ai...>
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