Export TGA for game engines and art tools

TGA, short for Targa, predates most modern image formats and was built to be plain. The data is stored either uncompressed or with light run-length compression, and the structure is simple enough that almost any tool can read it without a heavy decoder. That simplicity is exactly why it survives in game art: an engine importer, a level editor, or an older asset toolchain can rely on TGA opening the same way everywhere.

The other reason is alpha. A TGA can carry an alpha channel alongside its RGB color, so a single file can hold a color texture together with a mask — opacity, a cutout edge, or extra data packed into the fourth channel. For a game-art reader that is the practical draw: one predictable file, wide tool support, and room for transparency. Novus Convert treats TGA as one of its listed image outputs, so a supported source can target it where the route exists.

What follows produces a validated TGA and stops there. It does not import the texture into any engine or configure any engine-side setting, because those steps belong to the tool receiving the file, not to the converter that makes it.

TGA sits among the image outputs Novus Convert can produce — JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, APNG, BMP, TIFF, TGA, and ICO — but the number of input-to-output pairs runs to hundreds, and not every imaginable pair is active. The conversion directory at convert.novusstreamsolutions.com/conversions is the authoritative, always-current list of every route that actually works. Confirm your pair there before you assume it exists.

The common starting point is PNG to TGA, since PNG is where cutouts and masks usually live. Other raster sources such as WebP, TIFF, and BMP may also route to TGA, and an SVG source rasterizes to a supported raster output. Look up the row for the input format you actually have and check that TGA is offered.

One honest caveat for game work: a format having a page in the directory does not make it a converter. The pages for video, office documents, ebooks, CAD, and fonts are reference-only guides in this release. That means Novus Convert handles the two-dimensional texture and art side of a pipeline, not three-dimensional model files — an upload and output control appears only where a real, validated result can be produced.

Open the homepage or convert.novusstreamsolutions.com/convert and add the source image by dragging it in or picking it with the file chooser. Novus Convert identifies each file by its signature rather than its filename, so a texture that was re-saved with the wrong extension, or a file that is not actually the format it claims to be, is caught at this point instead of producing a broken TGA later.

That check matters more than it sounds in game art, because texture folders accumulate mislabeled, exported, and re-exported files over a project. Because the outputs that appear are driven by what the file truly is, TGA only shows up as an option for a row that is genuinely a supported raster source. If TGA is missing from a row you expected, the file is often not the format its name suggests.

With the source in the queue, open the output selector on that row and choose TGA. The selector only lists TGA when the route is active for that file signature, which is the same validation logic doing its job before you commit to anything.

Transparency is the decision to make here. TGA can carry an alpha channel, but it can only keep transparency that the source actually stored. Start from a PNG or a WebP when you need the cutout or mask to survive, because those formats hold alpha. A flat source such as JPG has no alpha to carry, so it produces an opaque TGA no matter what. This is different from the flattening behavior on other outputs: exporting a transparent image to JPG or BMP composites it onto a white background, whereas an alpha-capable source exported to TGA keeps its channel intact.

If your texture is a color image paired with a mask, keep the source PNG with its transparency untouched and let the TGA carry that alpha through to the engine.

Image routes accept a source up to 100 MB and 80 megapixels per decoded image. A 4K texture is roughly eight megapixels, well within range, but very large master art or an oversized canvas can exceed the pixel ceiling, and the limit applies to the decoded source rather than the TGA it produces. Keep in mind that TGA is typically uncompressed, so the output file can be considerably larger on disk than a compressed PNG of the same image — plan storage accordingly.

Downloads are also metered. Allowances are tracked separately for each input format and reset by local calendar day. A PNG source falls under the allowance for other active formats, which is 25 downloads per day, and the remaining count sits beside the download control so you can see it as you work. The app is free, but free is not the same as unlimited.

Everything runs in browser memory, so throughput depends on the device, available memory, and the size of the file. A format being recognized does not guarantee every internal variant decodes, and an over-limit or unreadable source fails without touching the original.

The download button appears only after the result passes the validation gate: the output must match the expected TGA signature, container, and decodability before it is offered. A file can therefore fail after processing rather than downloading as something that merely carries the right extension. For a texture headed into an engine, that guarantee is worth more than a fast download, because a malformed TGA would only surface as a problem later inside the tool.

Results live behind temporary object URLs in the current browser session. Removing the job or closing the page revokes them, so save the TGA into your texture folder before you close the tab — nothing is stored on a server for you to retrieve later.

Importing is where your engine or art tool takes over, and the specifics are theirs to define. Drop the TGA into the texture path the tool expects and let it apply its own import settings — color space such as sRGB or linear, how the alpha channel is used, and any compression applied on import. Novus Convert produces the interchange file; this guide does not invent engine-specific steps because they vary by tool and version.