Game Texture Templates for the Gimp

Make sure you have the Gimp installed, and have at least used it once, while logged in under your username. If you don't know what the Gimp is, it is a free (open source) alternative to Photoshop, with most features/functaionality that PS has, and then some. I use the Gimp for a lot for making digital art, including texture art for my video game.

Don't you just hate punching in digits every time you create different sized images? The following is a quick and easy way to setup the Gimp for game texture sizes for new images by the click of a button.

In Windows, open in a text editor (one that can view UNIX carriage returns properly, eg not notepad):
C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\.gimp-2.x\templaterc

On Linux, open in a text editor:
/home/your_username/.gimp-2.x/templaterc


Add the following lines below the comments at the top of the file, and just above the first template listing:

(GimpTemplate "Game Texture (Small) 256x256"
    (width 256)
    (height 256)
    (unit pixels)
    (xresolution 72.000000)
    (yresolution 72.000000)
    (resolution-unit inches)
    (image-type rgb)
    (fill-type background-fill))
(GimpTemplate "Game Texture (Medium) 512x512"
    (width 512)
    (height 512)
    (unit pixels)
    (xresolution 72.000000)
    (yresolution 72.000000)
    (resolution-unit inches)
    (image-type rgb)
    (fill-type background-fill))
(GimpTemplate "Game Texture (Large) 1024x1024"
    (width 1024)
    (height 1024)
    (unit pixels)
    (xresolution 72.000000)
    (yresolution 72.000000)
    (resolution-unit inches)
    (image-type rgb)
    (fill-type background-fill))

Now, when you make new images in the Gimp, you'll have your choice of commonly used textures sizes (no more punching in the values every time). Take a look:





Although this may be trivial for some, I find this very convenient, and I thought I'd share it with you. I hope it was helpful.