Why is Photoshop still so famous for game development?

Hello,
is there a reason why Photoshop is still the number one for game development instead of alternatives like Affinity Photo?

Is there a special relationship between Unity and Photoshop, which will make my work better/faster/easier?

I mean the most competitors can save as PSD too.

Maybe some people here could tell my why they prefer Photoshop which needs a subscription over a competitor.

Thank you :slight_smile:

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Anyone uses what is convenient for them.

However, Other than Adobe Photoshop has long time established solid foot in the market, with high familiarity from many its users, Photoshop is often part of Adobe package, which comes with set of other useful tools.

And since many people are hobbyists in terms of Unity, meaning some of us may have access to Adobe tools by “default”, based on the carriers path.

Often in academia, Adobe is often preferable tools, means even further familiarity for young people.

Ah ok, I understand.

But are there technical aspects which makes Photoshop more useful instead of a competitor like Affinity Photo?

Photoshop offers wider range of well established tools and Filters than Affinity.
That may be PS winning factor on that aspect.

But to be honest, there is tons of websites, describing comparisons and discussions.
You would be better and quicker, to find relevant detailed info, doing search online.

Please read my first post. I don’t want to start a comparison. I just want to get different opinions why people choose Photoshop (specially for game development) instand of any competitors.

I know your reason now and hopefully some other people will tell me their reason too :slight_smile:

There really isnt any other reason other than momentum. A lot of people use Photoshop, so a lot of beginners adopt it, and since its pretty easy to use, they stick with it. And because such a large amount of people know and/or use photoshop, a lot of engines and DCCs support it

I personally use photoshop because thats where i started and developed a large collection of my favorite brushes, but you personally can use just about any painting tool and get the same results.

Thank you :slight_smile:

I use Affinity Designer and Photo for my job since the day they came out. They’re modern programs and on par or more capable than the Adobe products. I used Adobe PS since the 90s (Flash 5/ Freehand/ Illustrator for vectors), until Affinity came out.
More people need to try them out (Designer = Illustrator / Photo = PS / Publisher = inDesign, Pagemaker)… and for a single payment of $50 (for each) they seem too cheap to be any good, but thats the whole trick, they’re fuckin amazing (and yes i’m just a fan, nothing to do with the company).

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I’m using them too, but I makes me insecure that so many developers prefer Photoshop. So I thought there are maybe technical stuff behind this decisions.

I am of your opinion… Affinity products are so much more intuitiv and easier to use. Like them much!

So you never run into any problems with import into Unity or something like that? I think you’ll use PSD-Files for Unity, right?

You can export psd to unity, but i dont. I stick to targa or png.

Is there a reason why you use png/targa instead? I mean it takes more time to export every file manually.

Because Photoshop has always been around, thus became a de facto standard.
“Affinity Designer” was released in 2014, while Photoshop exists since 1990.

I personally think the save times are negligible

The reason I don’t use PSDs is because they are often several times bigger than an image and will balloon your project size. That makes version control a bit rough when you edit those massive files.

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So no technical reasons?

Ah, ok :slight_smile:

I don’t think so… I never tried “Affinity Designer” before, though… but from the looks of it and from what other people are saying, it can (almost) do everything Photoshop can do anyway(?). So, why switch? In the end, people tend to think “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Of course, if you’re completely new to graphic design and what not, Affinity Designer might be a pretty good alternative - especially since it doesn’t cost that much.

Good to know - thank you :slight_smile:

BTW: Affinity Photo, not Affinity Designer :-p

Yes. I recently switched over from Photoshop (used it since forever) to Affinity Photo when I updated to Mojave, because my old version of PS stopped working. There is one big gap in AF, at least for me. AF does not have easy access to the alpha channel. It can be done, but I’ve yet to figure it out. In PS it’s easy to add an empty alpha channel, and you can edit it just like any grayscale layer. I do a lot of UI graphics with transparency, and textures, so that makes AF less useful to me for Unity-related work.

I’ve also tried Pixelmator, and it has no access to the alpha channel at all. Any suggestions for a Mac-based alternative?

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For UI , Huds and graphic design in general i use Affinity Designer… its vector based, but overlaps well into Photo, meaning you can work with pixels as well as layer effects similar to Ps.

What are you using the alpha channel for?

If its simply to make a transparent background do this (Affinity Photo screenie below)

Anyway, try Designer for UI design :slight_smile:

Thank you. Could you explain me which steps do you use in Affinity Photo for alpha channel?

As nukeD said an empty background should work (in Affinity Photo too).