How do we upload xcf pictures in secondlife

[Ansariel Hiller]

Convert XCF to TGA or JPG

[Ansariel Hiller]

Convert XCF to TGA or JPG

[Trinity Yazimoto]

xcf is the gimp format but you cant upload it in SL neither the psd format from photoshop

you need to save your file under the png format, or tga format

when you save in gimp, you have a lil field under the field where you add the name of your file, just clik on the arrow and select png. 

then upload

[Peggy Paperdoll]

 XCF is GIMP's native image file format just like PSD is Photoshop's native image file format.  When you save your image in GIMP, unless you specify some other format, it is saved as an XCF file.  That preserves all the layers, guides and templates you might have used to create the image/texture.  Using that saved copy you can go back to your creation later and have all the layers and tools available to you just as you had when you saved it.......that copy is not meant to be the "final" copy for distribution.  You wouldn't want to use XCF as the image format for some wedding picture you took for a friend and send it to her/him so that they can view it every anniversary as some slide show on their big screen TV........you must us a format that that the viewer of the image has the capability of viewing (unless the viewer has GIMP they won't be able to open it.....well maybe Photoshop can open an XCF file but I don't know for sure).

For SL you must use one of 4 formats to upload.  BMP (for Windows only), PNG (cross platform), TGA (cross platform) or JPG (widely used for web content and universal).  BMP, PNG, and TGA are lossless formats (they are not compressed and consequently large files).  JPG is a lossy format (compressed which reduces resolution or clarity and are smaller files).  Every texture/image you upload to SL is converted to JPEG2000 format which is a compressed or lossy format......that is no matter what format you upload.  For the best possible resolution and clarity you would want to limit the compression so uploading an uncompressed image/texture would be the way to do that........only the single compression that the SL software does (the one you cannot control in any way).  Uploading a JPG is uploading an already compressed file only to be compressed again.........you will see a significant reduction in the quality of the graphics.

Of the lossless formats BMP is the only one that does not support transparency (for the geeky, that's the alpha channel).  For a simple image that contains no transparency BMP is really a good format.  For any image/texture with transparency you must use either PNG or TGA for uploading to SL.  Both TGA and PNG can also be uploaded without transparency but you must make sure the alpha channel (or transparency) is removed before the final save for upload.  I recommend TGA for all textures or images to uploaded to SL (but if there is no need for an alpha channel then make sure you remove it before hand).  PNG format can be sort of tricky about removing the alpha channel which is why I recommend TGA.