Can you figure out what's different about this picture?
Look close.....The difference is you are seeing thumbnails
for TGA files inside Windows Explorer!!! That also means you can see them
inside pretty much any file open / file save dialog. Hooray!
Windows 2000 and XP
provide thumbnails for .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .AVI, .MPG and a few other formats.
What's cool though is Windows 2000 and XP also provide an API for adding support
for more formats. So, I found an example, whipped out some old TGA code
and threw this together.
Not too many *normal* people use the TGA format but in the
video and computer game industry it's pretty popular. Probably because
it's supported by most graphics software and because it's very simple to use.
You can read or write a basic TGA file in just a few lines of code.
Just in case you are not aware, the same function is
available inside the normal Windows standard file open/save window so for
example if you are in Maya selecting a texture file you can select by clicking
on a thumbnail instead of having to remember the name of the file.
To do this, in the file open/save window you click the last
icon on the right and pick "thumbnails" (1)
Also, just incase you didn't notice you can resize the
standard file open/save window (2) so that you can see more files at once.
Download:
You can download the installer by clicking the link below.
thumbplug_tga1.10.exe
(268k)
[ for TGA (Targa) files ]
There is also a version for Softimage PIC files.
thumbplug_pic1.11.exe
(309k)
[ for PIC (Softimage) files ]
And for Maya IFF files.
thumbplug_iff1.09.exe
(314k)
[ for IFF (Maya) files ]
THERE IS NO WARRANTY HERE. USE THIS AT YOUR OWN
RISK! THERE IS ALSO NO SUPPORT!
Notes:
The TGA(Targa) format supports many formats but most of them
are pretty rare. For example, TGA files can have their images stored in
any direction, right to left, bottom to top, top to bottom, left to right.
They can also support 15 and 16 bit pixels. But, in my personal
experience, I've never seen a TGA file stored any way other than bottom to top +
left to right. I've also never personally used a 16 bit TGA file nor have
I used or seen any of the other options. Therefore, there is no support
for those other formats in this plug in. If you need support, see below
The PIC format also supports many formats. This plugin
currently only supports 24bit and 32bit files.
Version History:
| TGA |
| v1.09 |
2003-02-02 |
|
| v1.10 |
2004-08-15 |
- attempted to fix issues with vertically flipped files
|
| PIC |
| v1.11 |
2003-02-02 |
|
| IFF |
| v1.09 |
2003-02-02 |
|
Source Code:
The source is provided under a FreeBSD style license.
If you do find a bug or add a feature I'd be happy to hear about it for if you
find it really useful it would be nice to hear.
You can download the source code here
thumbplug_tga_src1.10.zip
(28k)
[ for TGA (Targa) files ]
thumbplug_pic_src1.11.zip
(25k)
[ for PIC (Softimage) files ]
If you download the source be sure to read the readme.
It's important that you make a new CLSID or there will be conflicts.
