I am trying to use .tga files made in Paint.Net as height maps in a level editor I'm working with (for a 10-year old RTS game I like), but they aren't working.
I follow the guidelines of making the image 129x129 pixels and sticking to greyscale, but every time I try to import them to the level editor I get an error message. Files exported from the editor work fine, and have about 10 times the filesize of the same images made in Paint.Net, but when I open them and save them in Paint.Net (even without actually changing anything), the filesize gets chopped and the image fails to work when I try to import it. So I have two files, both .tga files and to my eyes indistinguishable, except the one saved in Paint.Net has a tenth the filesize and gives me an error message when I try to import it into the level editor as a height map.
What is happening here? What information is Paint.Net omitting, and how can I make images made in Paint.Net work properly as height maps?