Gimp 2.8

[arno]

A new version of GIMP has been released. One of the most useful changes seems the one-window interface that is now possible.

Here are the release notes with more information:

http://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.8.html

[Frits]

Thanks Arno,will give it a look and see what is new.

Frits
http://triengtrieng.webs.com

[Gerbrand De Laender]

Great news! I find GIMP one of the best programs I ever used

[DXtrans]

The single window feature is a nice touch

[robystar]

I uninstalled v2.8 because the save function now saves the texture to a Gimp format. When e.g. using DXTBMP you may want to send your texture to the editor (GIMP), make some changes or add an alpha channel and reload. With the new version that has now become virtually impossible because you would now first have to export your texture to get it in the right format and you can no longer directly update your image.

[arno]

That's a bit annoying indeed. But I always save my textures to file first (usually as PSD files) and then process them with ImageTool. I never open them directly from another tool.

Would it not work to instead of save, export them to the same filename again? Or does DXTBMP not understand that?

[robystar]

Hi Arno,

Problem is that I cannot export from GIMP2.8 to the DDS format either.

[lionheart]

Originally Posted by robystar

Hi Arno,

Problem is that I cannot export from GIMP2.8 to the DDS format either.

Rats.... I was ready to try this out, but that is a primary work direction for me with Photoshop 6.0, being able to open/save directly with PS.

I wonder if the Gimp team could be let known about this and perhaps an update could be done that would allow it?


Looks like an awesome program. I just looked at that webpage Arno. Man, it has come a long ways....



Bill

[arno]

It seems there is a DDS plugin, I have not tried it yet though.

[EdGeneer]

I am less familiar with GIMP, but the new version looks nice, and the DDS plugin loads, but I cannot get it to save DDS, and it loads DDS images non flipped, so I don't know if it is not a cool plugin, or the latter is more true; I don't know what I am doing (ie, operator error)...

[Timmo]

Can anyone confirm that this new version has fixed the bug that prevents opening 32bit tiff files? (i.e. DTM tiffs)

[arno]

Originally Posted by EdGeneer

I am less familiar with GIMP, but the new version looks nice, and the DDS plugin loads, but I cannot get it to save DDS, and it loads DDS images non flipped, so I don't know if it is not a cool plugin, or the latter is more true; I don't know what I am doing (ie, operator error)...

That flipping is not weird. If you save DDS files from Photoshop you also need to flip them yourself. Only ImageTool does it automatically.

Although it involves an extra tool, I always prefer to use ImageTool to make my DDS files.

[hairyspin]

This might explain a thing or two:-

SAVE AND EXPORT
A rather big conceptual change is that saving and exporting images now are clearly separated activities. Saving an image can only be done in the XCF format which is GIMP's native file format, able to save all kinds of information necessary for works in progress.
To export into other formats File->Export... needs to be used. This distinction makes it clearer if all available information is stored in a file, or not.

(from the OP's link)

[EdGeneer]

Originally Posted by arno

That flipping is not weird. If you save DDS files from Photoshop you also need to flip them yourself. Only ImageTool does it automatically.

Although it involves an extra tool, I always prefer to use ImageTool to make my DDS files.

The Nvidia *.dds plugin flips it in and out of photoshop nicely, AND has alot of options to choose from when exporting. (including mipmaps, etc)

I have PS7 and it work with that as well as later versions up to current.

took me a second or three to get the setting correct, cuz there are so darn many of them, but that was because I didnt know what half of them were, not being used to that much flexibility...

I HAVE read some forum posts regarding 'who' converts 32bit to DXT5 better, some say DXTBmp over imagetool has a better look to the downgrade, but I personally havent done the test myself, so apparently, some prefer one program over the other for the conversion... but PS does work nicely with the Nvidia plugin....