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Desktop plugin

Arma PAA plugin for GIMP

Read and write Bohemia Interactive PAA textures directly in GIMP 3, including the DXT and LZO-compressed formats real game textures actually use.

Updated · version 1.0.13

Download 1.0.13 Donate

Install it

You need GIMP 3.2 or later, on Windows.

  1. Close GIMP.
  2. Download the installer from this page.
  3. Run the installer. It finds your GIMP installation and puts the plugin where GIMP looks.
  4. Start GIMP.

There is nothing to configure. To open a PAA file, use File → Open. To save one, use File → Export As and select .paa.

Check it worked

  1. Open any .paa file.
  2. If it opens as an image, the installation is complete.
  3. If GIMP does not know the format, close GIMP and start it again.

Remove it

  1. Open Windows Settings → Apps, or run the uninstaller in the installation folder.
  2. Remove the plugin.

Removal does not change GIMP.

What it actually does

Opens and exports PAA textures, the format Arma and DayZ use, as native GIMP file types.

  • Opening handles DXT1 and DXT5, including LZO-compressed mipmaps. Real game textures use these, and GIMP's built-in PAA support cannot read them.
  • Exporting picks DXT1 or DXT5 from whether the image has an alpha channel. It generates the full mipmap chain and the AVGC, MAXC and FLAG taggs for you.

Why it exists

The alternative was round-tripping through tools that stopped being maintained a decade ago. All parsing and encoding happens in a memory-safe Rust codec, not hand-written pointer arithmetic. That matters when the input is an untrusted file from a Workshop download.

Requirements

GIMP 3.2 or later, on Windows. When you export, the image width and height must both be powers of two. That is a PAA rule, not a plugin limitation. MIT licence.

Releases

1.0.13
2026-10-12

1.0.13. Exporting no longer changes a texture you didn't edit. The plugin now keeps a PAA's own settings when you load it, save it as XCF and export it again: its pixel type, its alpha flag and its channel layout. Before, normal, specular and shadow maps lost their channel layout on re-export, and cut-out DXT1 textures came back as DXT5. The export dialog has new options for pixel format, alpha, channel layout, and keeping the original file's settings. The plugin now opens every PAA type: DXT1 to DXT5, 4444, 1555, grey + alpha, 8888 and the old palette (P8) type. Every type was checked against Bohemia Interactive's own ImageToPAA. That check fixed swapped red and blue in 4444 files and slightly wrong transparency in DXT3 files. 8888 now opens but can't be exported, because BI's own tools can't read it.

1.0.12
2026-09-20
  • Finds GIMP wherever it is installed - per-user installs, custom folders and non-English Windows included. Paths come from Windows, not from assumptions.
  • Asks you where GIMP is if it still cannot find it, instead of refusing to install.
  • Tells you when a new version is released - once a day when GIMP starts, or on demand.