Note before downloading!!#

TGAConv is now replaced with NitroPaint as it features a conversion tool for the same purpose and produces better results with NitroPaint as a whole, as of now be advised that if you use this tool and it produces lower quality we are not at fault and as such you have been warned.

How To Use TGAConv#

TGAConv is a program for generating Nitro TGA files out of regular TGA files. To start a texture, click on New. In the next window, browse to the location of the regular TGA. Once it is open in the editor, the colors are converted down to 16-bit colors. Check the checkbox for dithering if you want it to be dithered on importing.

To start, load an image (PNG or TGA) into the program by dropping it onto the window, or using the file browser. Once loaded, the program will show a preview of it in the center.

Textures with transparency
If your texture has transparency on it, then the best format to choose will either be A3I5 or A5I3. Choose A5I3 if the alpha channel is more important than the color information, and choose A3I5 if the color information is more important than the alpha channel. These formats both require a palette. To create a palette, go to Edit->Edit Palette. Click on Resize Palette, and select the appropriate number of colors for the format (8 colors for A5I3, 32 colors for A3I5). Once the palette is sized, then click Generate Palette. You can then apply the palette to the texture by clicking Apply. If you want the colors to be dithered, however, you want to check the Dither checkbox before doing this. Once the palette is applied, you can close the palette window. Now, go to File->Export. The correct format should already be chosen in the format dropdown menu based on the number of colors in your palette. If you want your alpha channel to be dithered, check the Dither Alpha checkbox. Then click Export, where the program will then save the resulting texture.

Textures with low color
If your texture has few colors, then 4-color or 16-color may be an appropriate format. Go to Edit->Edit Palette, and click Resize Palette. Select the size of the palette you want, and then click Generate Palette. Check the Dither checkbox if you want to dither the texture. If your texture has transparent pixels, make sure to check the Exclude First checkbox. Click apply to apply the palette. Once done, then go to File->Export. If the texture has transparent pixels, check the "Color 0 is transparent" checkbox. Click Export, and the program will export the texture.

Textures with high color
If your texture has very many colors, 256-color or 4x4 may be the way to go. For a 256-color texture, go to Edit->Edit Palette. The default palette size is 256 colors. Click Generate Palette to create a palette. If the texture has transparent pixels, check the "Exclude First" checkbox. Click Apply. Then, go to File->Export. If the texture has transparent pixels, check the "Color 0 is transparent" checkbox. Click export and save the texture.
If you choose 4x4 compression, there is no need to create a palette. Just go to File->Export. The program will have already calculated a recommended number of color entries to output. However, this can be changed depending on how compressed you want the texture, or how high-quality you want the texture. Click Export, and the program will save the texture.

Smaller Textures with crucial detail
In a smaller texture or where there are extremely important small details, then direct mode is the way to go. It should be avoided on larger textures, as it does not compress the texture data. Go to File->Export, and select direct from the format dropdown. Click export, and the program will save the texture.


Other Features If a palette is not to your liking, you can change individual colors by clicking them. However, the colors convert down from 8-bit to 5-bit colors, so the exact color you pick may not end up precisely as selected.
If you want to save the palette from the palette editor, click Save Palette. The palette it saves this way can be loaded from the palette editor with the Load Palette button.
If you need to know how many colors are being used by an image, go to Edit->Count Colors. This can tell you how many unique colors show up throughout the texture, and how many colors are actually being used by a paletted texture.
The program also has various transformations that it can apply to a texture. It can flip horizontally and vertically, as well as resize (as long as the new dimensions are powers of 2 greater than 4). You can also rotate the texture by a number of degrees.
If your input texture has translucent pixels around some edges that you want to clean off, go to Edit->Remove Transparency. Here, you can specify the threshold of transparency to cut out of the texture.


Errors

Error	Possible causes
0x80000003	A breakpoint may have mistakenly been left in the program.
0xC0000005	You may have loaded an unsupported file type. You may have tried resizing a texture to an obscene degree. It may be some other bug in the program.
0xC0000008	You may have loaded a file that does not exist.
0xC000001D	Your computer is not supported by the program, as it makes use of features not available on your processor.
0xC000008E 0xC0000094	Some divide by zero error occurred.