Converting to a 16-bit .png file in Raw Therapee

[Sookielee]

Converting to a 16-bit .png file in Raw Therapee

You will need the program, Raw Therapee, available free

By Regina

So far I've not been able to find a free image editor that supports 16-bit .png files, which are needed to create height maps for EA's Create-a-World tool. What I did find, after a considerable amount of searching, was a free program with which any .png file can be converted to 16-bit format.

I discovered when I started to use it that the interface is confusing at best, so I've written this small tutorial to show exactly how to go through the conversion process.

The bottom left corner of the screen shows your drive letters. Yours may look a bit different than mine do, but you should at least have a C:\. To get to where the file you want to convert is, click once on the little arrow beside the drive that's holding your file, and then click your way through the directories until you locate the file.

   

   

Once you get to the directory where your image is stored, the box in the bottom center will show a preview of any .png files in that directory, like this (as you can see the number 16 is part of the file names of these images, which tells me I already converted them, because I rename the converted images with their bit-format number, but we need something for this tutorial, right?):

   

If you right-click on the image preview you get various options, the top is Open. You can also double-click on the image preview to open it. Now you should be seeing it in the top center box like this (you can ignore the Exif data not available message):

   

In the bottom RIGHT-HAND corner is a long button with the words “Save Image” in red letters. To the right of that is a smaller button with “As…”. Click the As… button.

   

A small box will appear, most likely in the top left corner of your screen. Now look where it says “File Format”, like the image below shows, which is set to JPEG (8 bit) by default, and select PNG (16 bit), and most likely leave Save immediately selected, then click the OK button. You will have the option for using the same file name or renaming your file. My preference is to always save the original as a back-up and rename with the bit format included in the name.

   

   

Now that that's done, your .png image is ready to use as a height map! Just remember that if you find it needs more editing outside of Create-a-World you will need to convert it again before you can use it.

[Gurra]

Just a little tip:

This program by a will make any image into a 16-bit png in a few seconds just by dropping the image on the program:
http://www.den.simlogical.com/denforum/i...pic=1380.0

Extremely easy!

[Sookielee]

Thanks for the tip and link Gurra.

[Ghost]

All these smileys and we don't have a Facepalm one...

I just downloaded it and discovered that I had forgotten that I already had it.