VTF Plugin

Many users prefer Paint.NET image editing program because of the clean user-friendly interface; support for plug-ins enables the user to expand its functionality either in terms of the effects that can be used on the pictures or the file types that can be loaded.

Purpose and installation

VTF Plugin allows the Paint.NET user to work with VTF file types in the image editor. It does not offer full editing of this type of files as its purpose is basic and supports single-frame and multi-frame VTF data.
Installing the component in Paint.NET is an easy task that requires the user to place the DLL files into the File Types folder of the image editor. The plug-in is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.

Functionality

VTF file type is a proprietary texture format from Valve that can store a flat texture, an environment map or a volumetric texture, and each of them can have more than one frame.
The plug-in allows users to save the file with different compression settings as well as in various formats. It can also be used to generate a normal map with specific parameters in terms of the kernel filter, scale and alpha result.
Every change made to the file is automatically reflected in the preview area. There is also the possibility to enable mipmap generation taking into account specific filters (mipmap and sharpen).

Conclusion

VTF Plugin is intended for creating simple VTF files and it does not integrate advanced functionality. Including it in the image editor is simple and provides a useful set of options for those that work with texture files and like the flexibility of Paint.NET.