GLOSSARY
The Targa (TGA) format was developed by Truevision for their video boards. The format supports 32-bit truecolor; that is, 24-bit color plus an alpha channel and is almost always used as a truecolor format.
Targa files are widely used by 3D Studio Release 4 to render still images and to render sequences of still images to video tape.
Some Targa files created by other applications have different extensions. 3DS MAX can render the .vda, .icb, and .vst variants as well as .tga.
When you render to a Targa file from within 3DS MAX, you have the following file Setup options:
Bits Per Pixel: Select the color depth: 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit.
Compress: Applies lossless compression to the file.
Alpha Split: Creates a separate file for the alpha channel. The filename created for the alpha-channel file starts with a_ and then appends the full file name. For example, if you check this box and render the file greek004.tga, 3DS MAX creates the file a_greek004.tga for the alpha channel. (Sometimes the name will be longer than 8 characters.)
Author Name/Job Name/Comments: These fields are available for you to add any information you wish about the file.