This is the first release on the way to 3.0.0. It already contains some great new features:

Create your own export format

With TexturePacker 3.0.0′s template system you are now able to create your own data format. The templates are in a folder inside the application’s package. A plain text exporter is available to show what information is available and how to use it.
The templates are based on Grantlee – using a similar format as Django or Twig.

Read everything

This new update is capable of reading a lot of new file formats including

• PhotoShop .psd (!)
• Targa image format .tga
• Tagged image file format .tiff
• KTX including ETC compression
• PKM

This is the first part of the image update. With one of the next beta releases writing many of the new formats will also be supported. Including ETC1 compression and KTX image format for Android systems.

Big memory support and less crashes

In the past TexturePacker had issues when running out of memory. In most cases it did not crash in my own code by as a side effect of the low memory. Instead of using up all it’s application memory TexturePacker now contains an intelligent caching algorithm allowing him to store memory blocks on the hard drive. This feature even works on 32bit systems.

This update allows importing complete directories of images at once – or flash movies. This is one important brick on the way to fully automated asset handling in TexturePacker – including packing of multiple sprite sheets at once and distributing images across multiple sheets.

Smaller things

There are several smaller updates, too:

• New: Better MacOS behavior (app closing, menu)
• New: Fullscreen mode on MacOS Lion
• New: Editable texture size (not only fixed to power of two sizes)
• New: Added -ipadhd as extension for AutoSD
• Fix: PVR flipping fixed
• Fix: Output rectangle bug with rotates sprites on LibGDX
• Fix: Fixed wromg tooltips
• Fix: Allow free size now saved
• Fix: Wrong display of trimmed size fixed
• Fix: Autosize now saved in defaults

Roadmap

With the building blocks in 3.0.0b2 the next steps are now

• Multi sheet packing
• Extended export format (ETC1, KTX, …)
• Animation support (preview, ordering,…)

StarChase

Check out the complete tutorial including source code from here:

http://blog.flexwiz.net/spritesheet-animation-in-as3

Click image to see the demo

Available in the AppStore

Santa Claus is running late,
he knows that Christmas cannot wait!

But there is one problem: Easter Bunny has dropped eggs which stop Santa Claus from going ahead. So there is only one rule for Santa Claus in this game: Don’t hit the eggs! Jump over the eggs or roll through them in this very fast paced game. Run, Santa, run as far as you can!

Cute and fast paced game, enjoy “enemies” like flying Ninja-eggs!

You and your children will love it!

Status: Under development.
WebPage: http://www.turtletrigger.com

The flash importer which I introduced with 2.4.0 was originally planned for the big TexturePacker 3.0.0 update – but I wanted to get it out to you as soon as possible – so you all could make use of it.

Meanwhile I have a list of 190 (!) feature wishes for TexturePacker. I decided to put as many as I can into my new 3.0.0 update but locking myself into a room and producing the update would keep you from getting new features – and I don’t think that this would be a good idea.

So I decided to do the following:

• TexturePacker 2.4.x will get bug fixes – but no new features
• TexturePacker 3.0.0 will start as a beta version

All owners of a TexturePacker 2.x.x license can use the beta – just like they use a regular version. But the final release version will come with a small upgrade fee.

All customers who have purchased a TexturePackerPro license after November 1st will get the 3.0.0 update for free!

New features

Here are some highlights:

• Animation support – create, preview, play, compose, tweak
• Tilemap mode – for all users of tile map editors
• Multi texture packing – pack as many sprites in one sheet, then create a new one with the remaining sprites
• Customizable optimization pipeline
• Template based exporter system
• Add custom variables and flags to sprites
• Better scaling modes

What do you get in detail?

Flash importer

Simply drag your flash files (.swf) onto TexturePacker and it extracts the images and builds a sprite sheet from them! Requires installed Flash Player Plugin.
This feature works on Windows & MacOS – Linux is currently not working well.

.pvr and .pvr.ccz QuickLook plugin on MacOS

No need to open TexturePacker to view your .pvr and .pvr.ccz files anymore. TexturePacker now contains a QuickView plugin so you can view the files right from finder!

All the pvr files now turn into nice preview icons on your Mac:

Save defaults

Many people requested a way to save the default settings so that they don’t have to set exporter and other stuff on restarting. – Here it is! (Pro only)

Ubuntu support

Since many users build for Android I also added support for Linux – currently Ubuntu 10.x. It might still have some quirks (e.g. Flash does not yet work) but is a good start. I decided to build on Ubuntu since it seem to be the most used platform.

New Exporters

I also added a ton of new exporters such as

• Moai
• AppGameKit
• Slick2D
• Unity3D / UIToolKit

User interface improvements

I also added a lot of interface improvements to make work with TexturePacker easier.

• New layout of the left side panel allowing easier change of exporter
• Auto update sprite sheet when re-entering TexturePacker
• Sprite highlighting
• Reveal in Finder / Explorer
• Preferences to change checkerboard color and hightlight color
• New icons
• Hotkeys
• Backspace / delete to remove sprites
• Dialog to select the Flash Player plugin to use
• Drag your sprites here – to give new users a faster start
• Allowing free choice of texture data file name
• Fit button for zoom
• Folders inside a smart folder are now blue
• Auto populate file names from other names e.g. save blah.tps also sets blah.png and blah.plist

Image features

Here are some new image export features. Main function is support for flipped PVRs and RGB888 as output format.

• Option to use flipped PVR files
• Support for RGB888
• Unflip flipped pvrs in viewer
• Allow free size for PVR textures (might not work on all targets)

Other stuff

• Rotation support for AndEngine
• Default padding is now 2 – This effects the command line client!
• Corona exporter uses better module concept (http://blog.anscamobile.com/ 2011/09/a-better-approach-to-external-modules/)

Moai

The beta latest beta version of TexturePacker includes support for a new game development platform, Moai.

The nice thing about this platform is that is uses lua for the game logic running on an open source engine. It currently supports iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux and Chrome (NaCl). Users can adapt the system to their own platforms.

Thanks to Patrick Meehan and his team for supporting me with adding the new exporter! The platform seems to grow quite fast and is work a look!

Getting started

First download the Moai from getmoai.com.
The package contains a precompiled moai for your selected platform and the source code. Also included are a ton of examples to get you started.

The zip file at the end of this blog post contains the source code and assets for a simple example reading a sprite sheet and adding sprites to the screen.

It is a complete game tutorial with currently 7 parts: Game Template Part 7 – TexturePacker & PhysicsEditor

Have fun with it

Some people encounter crashes with this – especially when loading -hd textures on iPad.

I meanwhile reverted this behavior with TexturePacker 2.3.4 which is available with the beta update stream. Please go to preferences and enable beta updates, then do an update check.