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Updated:07-25-21 02:57 PM
Created:02-17-13 05:31 PM
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BLPNG Converter  Popular! (More than 5000 hits)

Version: 2.5.3
by: Digital_Utopia [More]

Introduction

While doing various WoW related projects, I was always in need of a utility that would convert BLP images to a more common format. Unfortunately, all the converters I came across would fail on at least one BLP format. Since I recently created a 3ds Max BLP import plugin, I decided to use the knowledge I gained of the format, to make my own converter. This is that converter.

I've used this personally for a few months - converting maps, UI graphics, textures, etc, and have yet to find a BLP file that it not only cannot convert, but cannot convert correctly.

About

BLPNG Converter (Pronounced "Bleeping Converter") Has gotten a bit of a makeover for it's second version. In order to keep things as simple and uncomplicated for the user as possible,it's left it's meager Console life behind, and has been given an actual UI.

In addition, it can now convert from standard Windows image formats (BMP,GIF,JPG and PNG) to the BLP format as well!

Use is still nearly as simple as before - although now you will have to actually open the app first. Once it's open, drop any number of files or folders on the appropriate square, and it will dutifully convert all the appropriate files within, to the desired format.

The addition of the UI has also brought some additional options with it. You can now choose files or a folder from the appropriate menu choices, and set the desired BLP format details. In addition, you can also select to have BLP Converter save your settings between sessions - although, this does require it to leave a settings file, in a folder, in your AppData/Application Data folder.

Despite, and even considering this, it remains just as portable as the original version. Run it from wherever you'd like, and if you should choose to want to get rid of it, just dump it in your recycle bin and forget it.

Oh a few other things.

1) The UI will display a progress bar, count, percent complete, and the current file - while it's processing - but the fancy Taskbar progress bar also makes its return. So if you're doing a huge conversion job, and want to work on other things - feel free to minimize it or let it sit in the background. Well, as long as you have Windows 7+

2) Instead of the fancy Yellow progress bar on the Taskbar, if it's unable to convert some files, the "Conversion Complete" message that shows up at the end, will now have a yellow "caution" icon next to it, with a link to allow you to see what didn't get converted, and why.

3) More of a warning: The "Conversion Complete" message will show up at the end of any action, and the green checkmark only means that it didn't encounter any errors. There's currently no special status if it didn't find anything to convert - such as if you happen to drop a folder of png files, on the "To Png" square.

Requirements

Yep, I'm about to say that 'N' word...

.NET 4.0 is required.
aaaand...Visual C++ Redistributable

Which also means that this is, indeed, a Windows application...and this time written in Managed C++, instead of C#.

Despite the odd requirements, it has been tested, and does still work in Windows XP.

As far as you Mac people go - here you go.


Supported Formats

This is for reference, and completeness only. You're not expected to, or required to know this.

BLPNG Converter converts all known (to the author) varieties of the BLP format to PNG. This includes...

  • BLPs with and without minmaps
  • Indexed (256 color) BLPs with 0, 1, 4, and 8 bit alpha
  • DXT Compressed BLPs with 0, 1, 4, and 8 bit alpha, as well as handling both types of 8 bit alpha (DXT3 and DXT5)
  • Uncompressed BLPs with 0 or 8 bit alpha

Issues, Problems, Bugs, Questions, Etc...

I want to hear them all.

This should be perfectly functional - as the Conversion code has been lifted directly from the current Photoshop plugin, and polished to a sexy shine. But...stuff happens - so if you do run into an issue, please let me know and I'll correct it as soon as possible.

oh...and, uh- sorry for taking so ungodly long on this, jeffy162.


v2.5.3
  • Attempting to convert TGA files with flipped row order would silently fail. This has been corrected so it will now fail very loudly. No...wait. I'm being told this will now work correctly, but also silently.
v2.5.2
  • Further oddball Alpha Bit/Alpha Mod formats are supported - which don't appear to do anything except for screw with parsers.
  • TGA files with transparency would lose color information in areas that were fully transparent, resulting in those areas appearing black when converting to BLP - this has been fixed.
v2.5
  • BLPNG Converter is now a 64-bit application, because 2021.
  • BLP files with DXT compression, with an Alpha Bit format of 72, will now be successfully converted per the DXT5 compression it actually has.
v2.4
  • BLPNG Converter now supports the TGA format!
  • An "Output" menu has been added, to facilitate switching between PNG(default) and TGA output, for converting BLP Images.
v2.3
  • BLP files with non-lower case extension (i.e. .BLP as opposed to .blp) would silently fail when being converted to PNG. This has been fixed, and the author flogged, for such a stupid bug.
v2.2
  • Attempting to convert BLP files without mipmaps would result in a "Malformed BLP Data" error. These files should convert now.
  • Attempting to convert a single unsupported format to BLP, would ambiguously result in a green checkmark. Error list will now track any and all unsupported formats given to it. This will result in a yellow warning icon if converting a folder of images to BLP, and the folder contains other formats - but it will still convert supported formats normally.
v2.1
  • Wrong build source caused conversion to fail - this has been addressed
  • Higher DPI settings would cause all sorts of UI display issues, this has been fixed.
v2.0.1
  • Rebuild to address a Windows 8.1 compatibility issue, which would result in the application not starting
  • Fixed an issue where the DXT Compression option was not appearing as checked when selected
Archived Files (2)
File Name
Version
Size
Author
Date
2.5.2
586kB
Digital_Utopia
07-25-21 09:57 AM
2.5
571kB
Digital_Utopia
06-07-21 07:43 PM


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Unread 07-20-22, 08:15 PM  
devilArt
A Wyrmkin Dreamwalker
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It works fine on win10, but on win11, it frequently causes file explorer to crash.
For example, when I cut/copy/paste blp files between different folders, file explorer crashes and restarts directly without warning.
Not sure if it's a microsoft problem or a problem with the software itself.
My win11 version is 22H2 22622.436
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Unread 05-11-22, 11:46 AM  
alchem1ster
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First of all, thank you very much, author!
Second, I support the CLI idea. In this case, it would be easy to implement multi-threaded conversion of a huge number of files. I would appreciate if the CLI version appears as soon as possible
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Unread 07-25-21, 10:10 AM  
Digital_Utopia
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Originally Posted by AnrDaemon
Originally Posted by watchout
Any chance for a CLI on this?
I second that emotion. "Because 2021."
Ooh. Harsh! lol
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Unread 07-25-21, 10:07 AM  
Digital_Utopia
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Originally Posted by watchout
Any chance for a CLI on this? (Or sources so we can build our own)
Good idea, I'll look into that!
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Unread 06-15-21, 09:06 AM  
AnrDaemon
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Originally Posted by watchout
Any chance for a CLI on this?
I second that emotion. "Because 2021."
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Unread 06-10-21, 12:35 AM  
watchout
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Any chance for a CLI on this? (Or sources so we can build our own)
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Unread 11-01-16, 07:33 AM  
AnrDaemon
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How to use it from command line? Can't find any documentation.
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Unread 11-25-14, 12:03 PM  
Dolby
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Currently there is a false positive with Avast/Avira on this application. I have confirmed its a false positive and have contacted Avast/Avira to help clear this up.
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Unread 11-20-14, 10:55 PM  
Digital_Utopia
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Version 2.4 is up

  • BLPNG Converter now supports the TGA format!
  • An "Output" menu has been added, to facilitate switching between PNG(default) and TGA output, for converting BLP Images.

Despite this, it will still retain the name of BLPNG Converter, because BLPNGA is just silly.
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Last edited by Digital_Utopia : 11-20-14 at 11:00 PM.
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Unread 10-20-14, 12:28 AM  
suicidalkatt
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Re: Version 2.3 is up

Originally Posted by Digital_Utopia
Found a stupid bug that resulted in a silent failure if the BLP file's extension wasn't lower case. No error would appear in the log, and no PNG file would be created. This has been fixed.
Strange :P
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Unread 10-19-14, 01:57 PM  
Digital_Utopia
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Version 2.3 is up

Found a stupid bug that resulted in a silent failure if the BLP file's extension wasn't lower case. No error would appear in the log, and no PNG file would be created. This has been fixed.
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Unread 10-09-14, 03:34 PM  
Digital_Utopia
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Originally Posted by Phanx
Found another bug -- when dragging and dropping a TGA file, which evidently isn't supported, it incorrectly reports "Conversion Complete".
"Conversion Complete" only means that it's done going through all the files. Did you also get the green check mark? Because if it didn't convert something, you should see a yellow warning symbol, which will also allow you to see any problems.

Correction: While I was working on fixing a different bug, I tried out a TGA file myself. So I got my own answer. I will make that a little less ambiguous, by likely adding a warning for any unsupported formats.

But no, it doesn't support TGA, because Windows doesn't natively support it, and I wanted to keep things nice and simple without any external libraries (.dlls).

Update: Version 2.2 is awaiting approval. This fixes "my" bug, where BLP files with mipmaps would not convert, and fixes the ambiguous green checkmark when all files are skipped. The pre-filter has been removed, so all files given to it will be subject to error checking.

This means that any file that isn't supported, will be added to the Error log, and a yellow warning icon will show after conversion. As a side effect, anybody converting a folder full of images, which also include other formats, will also get that icon. However, the only thing that will show in the error log, are the unsupported files.
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Unread 10-03-14, 03:21 AM  
Phanx
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Found another bug -- when dragging and dropping a TGA file, which evidently isn't supported, it incorrectly reports "Conversion Complete".
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Unread 04-17-14, 10:26 AM  
Digital_Utopia
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Originally Posted by Phanx
Originally Posted by Digital_Utopia
The second problem, the weird tiling, is just a display issue, resulting from you having a higher than normal screen DPI (i.e. magnification).
Oh, yep, that I do. If only there was a store where I could return my eyes and demand replacements that actually work properly!

Though, it's been a while since I was actually able to use this, but aren't those big buttons supposed to be clickable to select files?
haha - yeah, I should've kept that in mind when I made this in the first place. After all, there's a reason why Windows includes such settings.

If you'd prefer - you can use the menu to do the normal file/folder picking, but the large areas aren't buttons - they're drop targets.

Simply drag & drop files/folders on the format you'd like - and it will convert the files in-place to that format. In my own opinion anyway, since I often already have the window open when working with various images, it's quicker/easier just to drag from that window, than deal with the traditional folder/file picker.
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Unread 04-17-14, 12:23 AM  
Phanx
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Originally Posted by Digital_Utopia
The second problem, the weird tiling, is just a display issue, resulting from you having a higher than normal screen DPI (i.e. magnification).
Oh, yep, that I do. If only there was a store where I could return my eyes and demand replacements that actually work properly!

Though, it's been a while since I was actually able to use this, but aren't those big buttons supposed to be clickable to select files?
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