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TGA thumbnails in Win 7?

polycounter lvl 12
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alexk polycounter lvl 12
Is there a free program or hack that will make Win 7 show TGA thumbnails when exploring folders?

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  • Ben Apuna
    MysticThumbs

    Enjoy

    EDIT:

    Oops! :poly136: not free anymore :(

    Oh well...
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    or you just ditch the wrong concept of thumbnail navigation via the OS and learn how to use XnView. I use it ever since AcdSee went sucky, it supports all kinds of image types. Check this thread on how to get the best out of it:
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64773
    you can get the program here:
    http://www.xnview.com/en/index.html
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    @perna: in short: its the same reason why I choose WinRar over the default build in windows zip thing.

    The long answer:
    maybe that initial step is a extra one but after that it makes a lot sense to me. Like xnView starts whenever I click for the first time on a image and it opens it with a snap 100% not resized in a minimalistic view with a black background.
    After that I can just scroll with the mouse wheel to quickly slide through the images in that folder. To me its about the navigation things those tools have build in, like the mousewheel navigation (mouse wheel to flick to next / previous image), middle mouse button = fullscreen, enter to switch to thumbnail mode.
    There is some smart stuff like when you hit ctrl + c it copies the image as in a file so that you can paste it as a file to a folder but also as a bitmap clipboard so you can paste it in Photoshop, or if you select a area and copy it it copies just that section as bitmap data to the clipboard - its just essential stuff to me. You can even customize a shortcut to fireup photoshop or open the image in PS (like in the background) while flipping through your images.

    But also that it filters only images, not videos, audio or other files I don't care for this kind of task. In windows I get thumbnails for everything and its sometimes hard to filter out videos or other things that come as picture thumbnails. I always end up using the details view in windows because the other views eat to much space and are always useless to me.

    In addition to that is a nice environment to select thumbnails in a visual way and then for example convert them on the fly to a different image format, or batch apply filters, batch rename them,... just stuff around working with multiple images. Windows was not build so specifically it always approaches it in a broader and much more consumer oriented way. So to me as a artist or someone who works everyday with bitmaps booth for navigation and technical tasks a tool like xnView is just a standard equipment to run my computer with.

    Oh and one more thing: can read over 400 image formats (dds, game specific engine formats, psd,...). I don't need to be afraid to look for some plugin so I can see the thumbnails or convert it even though Adobe bridge or PS can't do it.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Sure yeah once you launch it, XnView is a great viewer - but still, being able to visualize the images before even clicking on them is pretty awesome (I use both image thumbnails AND XNView myself hehe)
  • Blaizer
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    Blaizer interpolator
    Dunno if you guys tried the newer Acd see pro 2.5/3.0, but having tried all, it's what i use because for me it's the best of the best. It generates thumbnails faster than Windows or windows photo gallery, and it's great for too many things, like exploring, viewing thousands of images with smooth scrolling (if you have a good mouse like logitech mx revolution you'll understand), or for making order if you are a "catalog and tag" addict.

    For Raw edit is also very good.

    I have it integrated in windows (associated with all the graphic formats) because for previews is faster than Vista's deafult preview, it previews in an instant. If i want to browse a folder fast, right click on the folder, and browse with Acd see pro. All is instant and i don't have a SSD Disk :)

    Anyways, each user has his tastes, so all this i commented is personal. I have some friends using picasa :S

    I personally hate irfanview :)
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
    Perna - I still don't understand how you got the tgas to show up in explorer. I'm using Win7. How do I do this?
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
    Oh, I see. It costs money though, I was hoping there's a free option.

    I was told that by installing the DirectX SDK from Microsoft, you get a .tga WIC codec too. Can't try it until tomorrow, but worth giving a shot I guess. If so, then it's a free alternative and will still display TGAs in explorer.
  • walter
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    walter polycounter lvl 14
    Mystic Thumbs + Win7 in thumbnails mode are my new favorite images browser.
    With Mystic Thumbs it's possible to see the alpha in the thumbnails,all the format are readable (DDS, EXR, etc..) and the price is reasonable.
  • hyrumark
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    hyrumark polycounter lvl 12
    Mystic Thumbs + Irfanview is a sweet setup. Luckily I had saved a version of Mystic Thumbs when it was still free - although I might check out the paid version sometime.

    Perna: Your setup looks even better though, especially the context menu options for converting formats, how did you get those? Did those options become available with FastPictureViewer?
  • hyrumark
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    hyrumark polycounter lvl 12
    That would be fantastic and much appreciated perna. I used to use an Irfanview shell extension plugin to do something similar, but it doesn't work with 64 bit explorer.

    Can't wait:)
  • Blaizer
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    Blaizer interpolator
    Older versions of the wic codec pack can be found here (freeware and donationware):
    http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?144448-DC-Mod-Tools-1.2/page3

    It only includes .tga support + camera raw formats, but at least is something :P

    http://tgaviewer.com/
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
    Blaizer wrote: »
    Older versions of the wic codec pack can be found here (freeware and donationware):
    http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?144448-DC-Mod-Tools-1.2/page3

    It only includes .tga support + camera raw formats, but at least is something :P

    Nice! Thanks for this. Helped me out a bunch.
  • JostVice
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    JostVice polycounter lvl 12
    Blaizer wrote: »
    Older versions of the wic codec pack can be found here (freeware and donationware):
    http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?144448-DC-Mod-Tools-1.2/page3

    It only includes .tga support + camera raw formats, but at least is something :P

    http://tgaviewer.com/

    That's great, thanks a lot :) In the topic of thumbnails, I think the complete codec pack includes DDS, but do you know of any free DDS codec? I think Nvidia doesnt's work in 64 bit
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    I ran into a bunch of windows 7 64bit issues when it came to thumbnails and other things and created a thread about it a while back. I updated the thread as I found solutions. I got rid of irfan view because its thumbnail view was retarded and its icons for image files in list view all looked similar, I'm liking xnview much better its closer to acdsee but supports dds. All my thumbnail stuff is up and running fine like perna, I don't use the exact same workflow as him but I can see all file types. The thing that kills me at work though is windows explorer can see thumbnails fine but the fucking photoshop cs4 file open dialogue explorer inconsistently displays thumbnails, sometimes they show up other times I have the missing file type icon. Happens to everyone in the office, a real annoyance.

    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68366
  • McBradd
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    McBradd polycounter lvl 12
    The older freeware version of Mystic Thumbs is still available.

    http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page40.html#Mystic%20Thumbs
  • Eric Chadwick
    JostVice wrote: »
    That's great, thanks a lot :) In the topic of thumbnails, I think the complete codec pack includes DDS, but do you know of any free DDS codec? I think Nvidia doesnt's work in 64 bit

    Nvidia doesn't provide a DDS thumbnail tool AFAIK, but if you want to save DDS files out of Photoshop 64bit, this might help you...
    http://docs.kaneva.com/mediawiki/index.php/Photoshop_DDS_Exporter
  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    I use MysticThumbs (paid version).
    It gives me everything i need and isnt that expensive...plus the support it great and bugs get fixed fast :)
  • alexk
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    alexk polycounter lvl 12
    McBradd wrote: »
    The older freeware version of Mystic Thumbs is still available.

    http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page40.html#Mystic%20Thumbs

    You rule, thank you
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    What I'd love along with this is some way to tag files and folders with a colour. like OSX finder. really handy.
  • hyrumark
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    hyrumark polycounter lvl 12
    I just bought the paid version of Mystic Thumbs, and I must say it's excellent. It has lots of cool options like enabling different transparency settings per image type. And right click options for refreshing individual thumbnails, or clearing the entire cache. I had used the free version for a long time, but the paid version is worth it.

    Another useful and free tool is Types: http://izt.name/apps/types/ . Among other things, it let you define the icons for different file types, so you can finally kill the Irfanview icon overlay for good, for nice clean thumbnails on ALL image types, as well as some other useful stuff. It's just a frontend for doing registry edits, if you're not comfortable digging around in the registry.

    explorerdds.jpg
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Does the paid version of mystic thumbs fix the photoshop file browser not showing thumbnails even when windows explorer does?

    hyrumark I switched to xnview specifically because I hated that irfanview icon on all my images, then I ended up liking xnview better in all aspects of image viewing/organization.
  • hyrumark
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    hyrumark polycounter lvl 12
    malcolm wrote: »
    Does the paid version of mystic thumbs fix the photoshop file browser not showing thumbnails even when windows explorer does?

    hyrumark I switched to xnview specifically because I hated that irfanview icon on all my images, then I ended up liking xnview better in all aspects of image viewing/organization.

    Like this? It's working for me in Win7 64bit for all image types if this is what you mean, see pic. Also, does Xnview have a feature to toggle the transparency of an image? Like if I have a image with an alpha channel, can I press a hotkey to toggle viewing the alpha channel? I'd drop Irfanview in a heartbeat for a feature like that.

    photoshopbrowser.jpg
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Yes I believe the hotkey in xnview for alpha on/off is ctrl h, but it doesn't appear to work on .psd files?
  • PredatorGSR
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    PredatorGSR polycounter lvl 14
  • hyrumark
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    hyrumark polycounter lvl 12
    I tried XnView, and I'm now officially making the switch from Irfanview. It seems to be just as fast. And I see there are TWO ways to view transparency. Pressing "m" will show just the alpha channel itself, and crtl-h will show the RGB channels with alpha applied. That's really cool. I just have to learn the hotkeys now after using Irfanview for so long!
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    @Perna, how do you get your thumbs to cash to your ssd? Sounds really nice! :D

    Sry for desecrating an an dead sleeping thread :P
  • SpeCter
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    SpeCter polycounter lvl 14
    That is if you didn´t change these folders.I changed many of them like the temp files to reduce write access on my ssd.

    But the thumbnails still write onto it :)
  • System
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    System admin
    A bit off topic but I recently bought a new hdd, not ssd. Is this the way to go and is flash based memory as reliable, putting aside the mechanical aspects of a normal hdd?
  • System
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    System admin
    Thanks, I just wondered what your opinion was as an actual user of an ssd drive. Reading a couple of articles now, it seems they are ideal for operating systems but for mass data storage... a 2tb ssd drive for 6 grand. Seriously, that's nuts.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Ok great! Just installed everything in my new system on a Crucial c300 64Bg. It fucking fast man :D

    Thx for all the thumb tips!
  • DDuckworth
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    DDuckworth polycounter lvl 6
    Hey Perna would you mind sharing the regedit for what the edit task does? I tried changing mine the other day and it didn't work out, now when I click edit it just comes up with a dialogue box asking what program to open with.

    Thanks!
  • exhatrent
    Well... this was a while ago... now I have win7 and I can't seem to see thumbnails of .flv files in this version of windows. I did tried Vegas magic script, but had no luck whatsoever. I am probably not the only one with this problem so I am opening up this thread again, requesting help to see thumbs of my flv files. windows should automic generate these thumbs.I hope somebody has a solution.Happy NewYears all.Kind regardsImpy
  • DDuckworth
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    DDuckworth polycounter lvl 6
    Thank you that worked, I had tried that but made the dumb mistake of only placing the path to the folder and left out the Photoshop.exe part of it all haha!
  • Campaignjunkie
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    Campaignjunkie polycounter lvl 18
    Hey, I don't mean to bring this thread back from the dead, but I googled "Windows 7 tga thumbs" and this was the third-ish result -- and it took me a while to actually find a decent link that worked for Win7 x64, which was here with some other Win7 workflow things: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68366

    So as a service to future Googlers...

    It's called SageThumbs, and it's a free open-source thing that seems to work great for me: http://code.google.com/p/sagethumbs/
  • scrawld
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    scrawld polycounter lvl 12
    For the same reason as above I'd also like to throw this one out there, as I don't see it crop up that often:

    Pictus Image viewer lets you preview a whole host of files in a simplistic image viewer, as well as adding support for thumbnails. Tested in windows 64bit and works a treat.

    http://poppeman.se/pictus/
  • SideEffect
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    SideEffect polycounter lvl 19
    perna wrote: »
    Those are my own registry edits. Now that we were on the topic I also added "Copy to clipboard" and lossless jpeg rotation (very handy for photographs). I'm planning to do a tutorial with config and reg file downloads for irfanview, thumbnails, and other windows explorer edits to get a professional-grade image handling setup. January is going to be busy, though.

    Sorry to bump this thread but did you ever do this tutorial Perna?
    Seems like really useful stuff!
  • Mant1k0re
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    Mant1k0re polycounter lvl 8
    Lord Perna could make a fortune if he sold his tutorials :( but then he wouldn't make money making kick-ass art, since his secret techniques wouldn't be secret anymore.
  • PolyBend
    SideEffect

    If you want the context menu options, SageThumbs is free and does this, along with creating thumbnails of all of most formats. Own a license of MysticThumbs and most of the time I still just use SageThumbs...

    sagethumbs-context-menu.png
  • SideEffect
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    SideEffect polycounter lvl 19
    sweet thank you!
  • Joao Sapiro
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    Joao Sapiro sublime tool
    installed sage thumbs on this and my previous computer, it never worked to give thumbnails unfortunately :( win7 professional...
  • kurt_hectic
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    kurt_hectic polycounter lvl 10
    Open options and set size...something something...to 500mb+. It works for me, for tga, psd, dds...
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    I use Mystic thumbs and it works great for all file types directly in windows explorer 7 and 8.1, .psd works fine as well.

    Highly recommend, pays for itself in one day.
    http://mysticcoder.net/mysticthumbs.html
  • PolyBend
    Open options and set size...something something...to 500mb+. It works for me, for tga, psd, dds...

    Yeah I should have mentioned this. I am guessing SageThumbs was designed for people who have smaller file sizes... where as most of us on polycount have some HUGE images. So yes, make sure you go into the preferences and set the max image file size to something like 500mb. I set mine to 2gigs... since I actually have photoshop documents that large.
  • jackreed
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