Free online BMP to TXD converter

GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas use TXD texture dictionaries for vehicle, character, map, and interface graphics, so a BMP must be imported into a TXD before the game can use it. The conversion is usually needed when replacing an existing texture or adding a custom texture to a game modification.

What the BMP format is

BMP is a raster image format commonly produced by Windows Paint, Photoshop, GIMP, and image editors used to prepare game textures. It stores pixels with little or no compression and can use 1-, 4-, 8-, 16-, 24-, or 32-bit color, depending on the file.

BMP is easy to edit but is not a GTA texture container. It holds one image, while a TXD can hold multiple named textures plus RenderWare texture settings such as filtering, addressing, mipmaps, and alpha behavior.

What the TXD format is

TXD, or Texture Dictionary, is a RenderWare texture archive used by Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and some other RenderWare-based games. A TXD stores textures under internal names that game models reference; the filename alone does not determine which texture a model uses.

Its advantage over BMP is game compatibility: the dictionary can store the platform-specific raster format, texture name, alpha channel, mipmaps, and sampling settings required by the game. TXD files are not ordinary images and cannot normally be opened or edited correctly in a general image editor.

How to actually convert BMP to TXD

Magic.TXD is the most suitable current desktop tool for this conversion because it can create and edit RenderWare texture dictionaries and import common image formats.

1. Install and open Magic.TXD.
2. Create a dictionary with File → New, or open the existing game texture dictionary with File → Open. Back up the original vehicle.txd, player.txd, or other target file before editing it.
3. Import the BMP through the texture-dictionary import command, commonly available from the dictionary or texture context menu as Import or Import texture.
4. Set the imported texture's internal name to the name expected by the model or by the texture you are replacing. For an existing texture, replacing its pixels while keeping its original name is usually safer than adding a differently named texture.
5. Choose the target game or raster platform when Magic.TXD asks for it. For San Andreas, use the San Andreas-compatible settings rather than a generic RenderWare target.
6. Check the texture dimensions, alpha settings, compression, and mipmap option. Then save the dictionary with File → Save as, for example as custom.txd.
7. Place the resulting TXD where the mod or game expects it. A TXD may need to be inserted into an IMG archive with a compatible archive editor; creating the TXD does not automatically install it into an archive.

For a browser-based conversion, the converter on 101convert.com can be used without installing software. It is still necessary to verify the internal texture name and game compatibility afterward, because a generic file conversion may not preserve the settings required by a particular GTA release.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

Use dimensions supported by the target game, preferably powers of two such as 128×128, 256×256, 512×512, or 1024×1024. Non-power-of-two images may be resized, rejected, or display incorrectly depending on the game and plugin.

A 24-bit BMP has no transparency. Use a 32-bit BMP with an alpha channel when the texture needs transparent glass, foliage, decals, or interface elements, and confirm that the imported TXD texture is configured to use alpha blending. Saving an image with an unused or fully opaque alpha channel does not create visible transparency.

TXD compression reduces file size and video-memory use but can introduce artifacts, especially in text, sharp interface graphics, and images with strong color boundaries. Keep an uncompressed or lossless source copy and test the compressed texture in the game.

The TXD version, raster format, mipmaps, texture name, and dictionary placement must match the game and mod loader. A file that opens in Magic.TXD can still fail in-game if it uses the wrong San Andreas, Vice City, or GTA III format, has an incorrect internal name, or is placed in the wrong IMG archive or mod directory.