Trouble with images

[BureauBert]

This is beginning to drive me crazy: It used to be as easy as it should be with my old Photoshop 6 to edit the simple images after having them converted from *.tga to anything else and to reconvert them back to *.tga after my modifications. But helas! Trusty old Photoshop 6 no longer runs on the world-dominating OS. With current Photoshop Elements, Gimp and any other image editing software i'm now runnig into troubles without end: First of all they all tend to add an alpha-channel even if the original image had none, they change bit-depth of the encoding, add unvisible layers which I can only detect by giving the command to delete them and so on and so forth. This causes endless clicking back and forth to edit a small, simple image which I could edit in 2 minutes only a couple of years ago.

And in one case I am completely clueless what may still be in the image (or being lacking from it) that causes this result: I created this Start Screen for MoT-Mod:



exported it as *.tga, RGB, 8-bit, w/o alpha-channel -- and the in-game result is the following:



If I add the darn alpha-channel the game just crashes.

I would be extremely thankful if someone out there could give me a clue or hint on what is happening there.

(An extremely helpful alternative would be an instruction on how to get Photoshop 6 running again on the "cutting edge"-W-OS ...)

For forensic puposes I also attach the *.tga-file that gives the black surface and does not crash the game:

[BureauBert]

PS (probably not the last one as the drama progresses): I've now tested the advances- and buildings- images I created/modified (some of them are really not bad ) -- with basically the same result.

* After having exported them from GIMP to *.tga: only black
* Then an attempt to export them from GIMP to *.tif and batch-convert them with IrfanView to *.tga: totally distorted image, which additionally seems to be horizontally doubled:


And here's what it should look like:



Probably I will have to give up on this without help ... It's a sad world in which such easy things have become such a pain in the ass. That takes away the joy from what we could call the "creative" part.

[Kull]

I had to find an old version of photoshop as literally no other graphics program on the planet seems to be capable of saving image files in a CtP2 format. From my notes:

Comments on Graphics Editing

1) Must have at least Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (possibly higher) in order to edit the Ctp2 tga files AND be able to save them in the proper format. I tried using older versions of Adobe, but they don't work in Windows 10 or 11.

2) The format is Targa Type 2, 16-bit RGB. Although Windows File Viewer says they are 8-bit files, that is not true. Saving the files as 8-bit automatically turns them into "Type 1", and the game will not display those. Most graphics programs will only save Targa Type 2 as 24-bit or 32-bit, and NEITHER will display in CTP2. The only program I've been able to find which actually saves them in the correct format is Photoshop 7.0

3) The files are located in the default/graphics/pictures folder. While many of them are visible as individual files, the majority are packed into the pic555.zfs file and can only be seen and extracted using the "ReadZFSFile". Important to note that the game will use unpacked files located in this "pictures" folder. When unpacking a file, you have to change the extension from .rim to .tga, which gives it the correct Type 2 format.

4) GIMP won't save tga in the correct format, but it can be easier to edit with GIMP and then use Adobe to save in the correct format. Be sure when saving to uncheck the "RLE Compression" box and to choose the "top down" format.

Send me a PM and we can discuss a way to solve your problem. I certainly owe you for the vast amounts of Cradle5 assistance provided by your website!

[BureauBert]

I don't find the words to thank you adequately, o Kull! You most certainly owe me nothing for the rest of -- let's say my life

Yesterday evening in a further usesless attempt I managed to re-install Photoshop 6 (which does run in admin-mode) but immediately I had to notice that I could open but couldn't save TGA files. I think about a decade ago I just saved the files from Photoshop to any format (TIFF?) and converted them using IrfanView, which no longer works.

This was the crucial hint in your post: That you could save TGAs from Photoshop 7. Today I used my worktime in office for good and downloaded Photoshop 7. Just some minutes ago I opened one of my bad TGAs, set Image -> Mode to RGB-Color and 8-bits[!!]/Channel. If I set 16-bits/Channel at this point I dont' get TGA as a saving option. With 8-bits set at this point I get the option and in a next (and last) step I am prompted to select "Targa Options". This menu decides over life and death : "Resolution 16 bits/pixel" and deactivation of RLE-compression stand for life, anything else for death.

What a relief!

I will probably spend the rest of an extended evening to repeat this process for all other images. And when I will have recovered from the relief I will probably feel strongly urged to add a "TGA-Guide" to the CTP2 Bureau -- and add a download-link for Photoshop 7 as an extremely important modding ressource (to the Web Archive, where I got my copy from -- it seems like they don't fear legal stress).

This is the image with which the happy end of this drama started: Stone Working



Cheers Bert

[Kull]

Excellent news! Glad you were able to solve the problem!