Convert many paa / pac to TGA at once?

[Snake Man]

Mass *.pa? to *.TGA converter?

Is there way to convert several .paa / .pac files into .TGA's automatically?

I was looking Pal2PacE but it apparently can only do it other way around, or is there some TGA command line parameter for it which was not included in the readme?

Basically I'm in a need for this sort of mass converter util as I'm merging some textures, when there is like 50 textures which you need to convert with TexView2 it takes some time and its painful for fingers

2020-10-06 edit: answer is PMC Editing Wiki: arma3 batch file examples

[Synide]

open a MSDos window and navigate to the folder containing your 5,892 .tga files (example only ! )...

at the dos prompt type...

>path=<PathToPal2Pace>
>pal2pace *.tga

It will convert all .tga's to .paa's in the same folder.

also...

>pal2pace *.png

will convert all .png files to .paa...

if you don't want to do the 'path' command then just copy pal2pace.exe to the folder where your .tga's or .png's are sitting...

cheers.


However, if you want to go from .paa to .tga format then you have to explicitly say this for each file.paa.

the easy way is to open an msdos window and navigate to the folder with the .paa's you want to convert.
At the dos prompt type...

>dir *.paa>convert.cmd

NOTE: that is .paa>convert.cmd, there is a '>' sign there... it means do the dir command and 'pipe' the output to the file convert.cmd.

Open convert.cmd in a text editor and go from something that looks like this...

Code: Select all

 Volume in drive O is ArmA
 Volume Serial Number is 10D3-F0C0

 Directory of O:\WORK\snakeman\synMoveUV_problem\MergeTextures

11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,871 001.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 ak47_newr1d.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 ak47_newr2d.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.             2,897 ak47_spoust.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 bedna_big.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.               826 blck_sum.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            11,080 bois.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 bouda_bedna.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 krabice.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 krabice_2.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            11,065 molo_drev_side.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 prkynka_l.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            11,065 rpg-7_s1.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            11,065 rpg-7_s2.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 seno01.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            22,000 v3s_kisna_t.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.           174,934 zalchat_stena.paa
11/06/2008  04:00 p.m.            43,855 zalchat_strbot.paa
              18 File(s)        683,498 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  15,598,710,784 bytes free

To something that looks like this...

Code: Select all

path=o:\tools\texview2
pal2pace 001.paa 001.tga
pal2pace ak47_newr1d.paa ak47_newr1d.tga
pal2pace ak47_newr2d.paa ak47_newr2d.tga
pal2pace ak47_spoust.paa ak47_spoust.tga
pal2pace bedna_big.paa bedna_big.tga
pal2pace blck_sum.paa blck_sum.tga
pal2pace bois.paa bois.tga
pal2pace bouda_bedna.paa bouda_bedna.tga
pal2pace krabice.paa krabice.tga
pal2pace krabice_2.paa krabice_2.tga
pal2pace molo_drev_side.paa molo_drev_side.tga
pal2pace prkynka_l.paa prkynka_l.tga
pal2pace rpg-7_s1.paa rpg-7_s1.tga
pal2pace rpg-7_s2.paa rpg-7_s2.tga
pal2pace seno01.paa seno01.tga
pal2pace v3s_kisna_t.paa v3s_kisna_t.tga
pal2pace zalchat_stena.paa zalchat_stena.tga
pal2pace zalchat_strbot.paa zalchat_strbot.tga

Save it... and then go back to your dos prompt and type...

>convert.cmd

the batch file will convert the specified .paa's to .tga's...

cheers... Sy.

[Gnat]

Would there be much call for batch converting like this (ie others in the community)?

Was just wondering because it would be easy to create a GUI tool that allowed you to select the files and initiate the conversion process in one click.

[Snake Man]

NOTE: that is .paa>convert.cmd, there is a '>' sign there... it means do the dir command and 'pipe' the output to the file convert.cmd.

And if you do "dir /b *.pa? > convert.cmd", then it outputs just the filenames, leaving out all the directory information.

Would there be much call for batch converting like this (ie others in the community)?

Was just wondering because it would be easy to create a GUI tool that allowed you to select the files and initiate the conversion process in one click.

Well anyone doing OFP ports (arent everyone?) and using Synides texture merge tool/method needs to convert all the textures to TGA. So I think there is audience for such tool.

If you create such tool, please make it simple so that you dont have to choose individual files, you could just point int to a dir and press "convert all" button etc. I mean if you need to convert more than few... then most likely its so many that its bitch to choose them all at once. For example the visitor3's add object maximum of 8 objects at one time problem, GRR! Heh.

[Synide]

Would there be much call for batch converting like this (ie others in the community)?

Was just wondering because it would be easy to create a GUI tool that allowed you to select the files and initiate the conversion process in one click.

you can as you say... personally... i just typed up a batch command file that loops through 1->n input files (it's only several lines long) and inserted a right-click context menu in the registry.

When I do the 'import sat/mask' layer into V3 and it spits out the .png files... instead of launching Buldozer and letting it chug through the files converting them to .paa... i always goto the folder and select all the .png's and right-click on them and select 'BIS png to paa' from my context menu... which runs the batch file and in turn runs the pal2pace.exe.

You could do up an Application... but with a few minutes free time you can just as easily write a batch file and export the required registry keys into a .reg and distribute those for the community to use...

you can do the same at the folder level also that will *.png, *.tga, *.rvamt, *.paa convert files in a folder to various alternate outputs... although i haven't as yet inserted those registry entries into my computer.

[T_Rex]

Good app to create a text file of a folder: http://www.freewarezoom.com/archives/fi ... -generator

Then add the lines to the batch file in the convert.cmd part. Might help make it a bit easier (though not as easy as a real tool).

:thumbs:

[Snake Man]

i always goto the folder and select all the .png's and right-click on them and select 'BIS png to paa' from my context menu... which runs the batch file and in turn runs the pal2pace.exe.

Could you show us this .reg file how its done, this would be very useful feature for me?

[Linker Split]

I created a batch file called png2paa with the following inside:
Code Sample

Code: Select all

START Pal2Pace %1

I then added it to the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer :
Tools/Folder Options/File Types

Select PNG/TGA and click the Advanced button, create a new action and give it a name (I called mine png2paa) then point it towards the batch file (I saved my batch file in the Windows folder).

Then copy Pal2PacE.exe and ijl15.dll into your Windows folder (C:\WINDOWS) from the TexView2 folder.

Now when you select one/some or all the PNG files and right-click on them you should see png2paa in the menu, click it and all the files should convert.

[Gnat]

Hmmmm ... yeh, but like, probaby many people, a little GUI that allows u to make simple obvious selections of what files u are converting to what and where, in some ways instant and infinitely changable.
Batch files are not so "community friendly" I feel.

Maybe I'll just shut up and actual "do"

[Synide]

gnat, wasn't trying to 'shoot' ya plan down matey... you're right that there are alot of people that don't understand so making a wrapper application is of course a great idea... as you say... just do it... they'll use it.

it's just what BIS have done with BinPBO... it's just a facade for running the real work horses...