BLP Lab v0.5.0

This tool originates from here

BLP Laboratory (short name is BLP Lab) is the application for viewing and converting image files.

Current version is 0.5.0 build 500

Features:
- Supports following file formats: BMP, JPG, TGA, PNG, BLP (supports BLP2 textures), DDS (supports non-complex textures);
- May convert multiple files at once;
- Can add/remove alpha channel when saving;
- Gives detailed information about opened image file;
- Provides additional file format options when saving;
- Can optimize BLP files to decrease their size (doesn't affect quality);
- May display alpha channel and transparency on image.



Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What's all those BLP settings for?
A: Check blplab_readme_eng.txt.



Version History:
  • Added BLP2 support for saving in paletted and DXTC format
  • Added DDS support for saving in DXTC format
  • Added TGA support for saving paletted images and with RLE
  • Added options for BLP2 format
  • Added options for DDS format
  • Added options for TGA fromat
  • Added options for PNG format
  • Added options for JPG format
  • Added displaying information for DDS format
  • Added displaying information for TGA format
  • Added displaying information for PNG format
  • Added displaying information for JPG format
  • Added hotkeys for zooming (Ctrl and +/- on numpad) and browsing files (Ctrl+arrows)
  • Extended PNG image support with paletted 8-bit format
  • Improved JPG image loading speed
  • Fixed bug with showing alpha bit depth on paletted BLP2 images
  • Fixed bug with Lanczos resizing algorithm
  • Fixed bug with moving maximized window

WARNING: publishing this program in other places without author's permission is prohibited. Contact with author to get permission.

Copyright © 2009-2010 Shadow Daemon (aka Spec).

Keywords:
blp, tga, png, bmp, jpg, dds, dxt, blp1, blp2, converter, optimizer, viewer, palette, compressed, laboratory, lab, swdn, spec
Contents

BLP Lab v0.5.0 (Binary)

Reviews
15:31, 1st Oct 2009 PurplePoot: Approved on wc3c; need I say more? hawk900: Actually approved? Was pending.

Moderator

M

Moderator

15:31, 1st Oct 2009
PurplePoot: Approved on wc3c; need I say more?
hawk900: Actually approved? Was pending.
 
Level 1
Joined
Aug 3, 2009
Messages
2
Brilliant! I ran it on my Mac using CrossOver. Perfect porting. NO flaws. A bit laggy, but that may be because my MacBook Pro is a few years old and I'm running a LOT of processor-heavy apps at once. Thanks!
 
Level 3
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
30
Unfortunately I cant get the bulk feature to work right. it does only a fraction of the files I request. They are all in powers of 2 512x512 or 1024x1024


EDIT: I think something goes wrong when you have 1024x1024 pics or too many of them. This shouldnt be a problem for most people though. I resized to 512 and it worked fine.
 
Last edited:
Level 14
Joined
Nov 23, 2008
Messages
187
So you think, when there are a lot of big pictures (1024x1024), some of them are not converted to blp, right? That's really strange. I tested mass (or batch, whatever) converter on 200 images, among them ~25 have resolution 1024x1024, and there was no problem, all files were converted. I'll make some tests again.

Thanks all for the feedback.
 
Level 12
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Messages
1,121
This seems to be the nicest thing for me, and my friend (It's great for him, because he knows NOTHING about pictue formats and batck conversions.)
Keep making this better, with more direct image editing features.
 
Level 11
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Messages
706
that's what i thought, i've been using button manager and blp lab for quite a while for small things like making screen-shot icons R > B colour channel change for icons, reducing quality of blp's to make em smaller in size, mass converting textures & icons, etc...
 
Level 2
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
14
looks hord to use hope it isent hord!

wow thats was easy
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Level 14
Joined
Nov 23, 2008
Messages
187
New version with major updates!

Now support saving in BLP2 format. Extended DDS, PNG, TGA formats. Provides information and format options for almost all supported image files (except bmp). Also fixed bug with mipmapping (when height > width).

Full changelog is located in first post.
 
Level 1
Joined
Jan 17, 2006
Messages
1
This is a hugely efficient tool. Far better than ones I've used in the past (a combination of Model Editor and Image Extractor). Also find I can get better quality images that are smaller in size. Thank you for this.
 
Level 23
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
1,614
I use blpLap and ButtonManager all the time and 2 sort of annoying things came to my mind:
  • The Zoom function is terribly slow and can crash the program when zoomed in too far. Also the navigation while zoomed in or decreased the window-size is crappy. You should add some sorft of way to move the picutre/the viewport with middlemouse, space or anything.
  • There should be a better function to see whether or not the textures actually make use of an alpha channel. If it's unused, all empty or whatnot there should probably be an information about that, similar to color count.
 
Level 14
Joined
Nov 23, 2008
Messages
187
The Zoom function is terribly slow and can crash the program when zoomed in too far. Also the navigation while zoomed in or decreased the window-size is crappy. You should add some sorft of way to move the picutre/the viewport with middlemouse, space or anything.
I'll do something about it. For now, you can disable "Use Lanczos for zooming" in the program settings.

There should be a better function to see whether or not the textures actually make use of an alpha channel. If it's unused, all empty or whatnot there should probably be an information about that, similar to color count.
Could you explain how it's supposed to be?
 

Dr Super Good

Spell Reviewer
Level 64
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
27,243
Appears to bug with "palette" mipmaps in that it generates 4*4 level 3 times instead of generating 4*4, 2*2 and 1*1 levels as expected. If this is an intended optimization (low mipmaps seldom used so can be discarded) then it should be a toggle-able option and it should also correctly specify the mipmap size (16, 4, 1) even if the address overlaps and still try to get the nearest colour.

Also seems to lack pure palette alpha support. BLP1 supports alpha without separate alpha channel, at least in the file description.

Given the age and work investment of the tool, open sourcing it would be nice. As it is BLP specification resources are lacking and if you found out something through reverse engineering or experimentation with BLP files it would be useful to the community as a whole if they could see the implementation.
 
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