XnView: view TGA/DDS images & more!

[Bikerdude]

Just found this app and I gotta say its amazing, I got so i could view my tga/dds files, but then noticed it could far more than that -

 

-XnView - (1.97.8/1.70) exists for Windows, MacOS X, Linux x86, Linux ppc, FreeBSD x86, OpenBSD x86, NetBSD x86, Solaris sparc, Solaris x86, Irix mips, HP-UX, AIX !

 

 

The coolest thing so far is that it works just like windows explorer, but even better its has tabbed windows and they are closable with the middle mouse button...!!

 

Edited October 20, 2010 by Bikerdude

[Serpentine]

Yeah I've been using xnview for years, it makes life way easier and the sane classic explorer navigation is very handy

 

But something to note, do not use it to convert TO DDS, the quality is a lot lower than that of ATI Compressinator and it often adds bad header flags etc. It also has some trouble reading really small dimension DDS and strange formatted ones, you will get unexpected crashes in those cases

 

It also has a really small issue that could make a TGA file show up incorrectly (it'll most likely look blue in parts with alpha). I'll be cleaning files with this (it's just a header flag that most apps don't like, doom3 however understands it correctly). So dont be surprised if you see strange blue alpha TGA's, they're fine.

 

Other than that, I would recommend it to anyone, some of the plugins are also incredibly useful.

[LEGION]

You can also watch dds-files with IrfanView. It´s a little faster than this, but also less complex...

[Bikerdude]

I only wanted a viewer and something to convert to and from tga for mapping. Im not a texture dude at all.

[STiFU]

Then IrfanView should be your first choice. It can also do batch conversion and is really quite fast. I've been using IrfanView for ages, but I am willing to give XnView a shot. I am thinking though, I already got one complex editor (Photoshop), so a viewer should be very quick and comfortable. No need for complex features...

[Bikerdude]

Then IrfanView should be your first choice. It can also do batch conversion and is really quite fast.

Well its slower than XnView to open and dosent have the explorer view. And the latest XnView has batch processing just like Infranview.

[Serpentine]

Yeah, InfranView is not really an alternative for poweruse, its features quite tame and its inability to show a good overview things hinders me personally. XnView has a lot to offer but it keeps it all hidden away when you're not looking to use the more advanced stuff. The thing is once you know about options, you're able to poweruse things a lot more and the tool itself becomes useful. It's in no way a real editor. The explorer/table views are awesome when you're working with collections and need to look for errors or organize things quickly. Pictus is my default viewer, doesnt do DDS but it's a pretty good replacement for Fax and Picture Viewer, this thing in 7 is horrible.

 

Photoshop for working on textures

Paint.NET for annotating screenshots/saving files for the web (optipng plugin <3)

Pictus for viewing quickly

XnView for checking collections/organizing/doing strange batch stuff