Uhmm... I think you are confusing your terms and image format information.

Bitmaps usually aren't compressed. They are an older file format, however. TGA images can be either or, hence why my images are almost the exact same filesize when either in TGA or BMP (sans tga alpha). Also, quality loss via some forms of compression (lossy) is usually visible in image editors, while sometimes not being that apparent. Try opening and saving a Jpg repeatedly at a low compression factor, and you might slowly see a "checkerboard" pattern start to emerge.

Trust me, I know alot about my image formats. I've been working with them in windows since the good ol' 486 and MS Paint.

But besides that, this has nothing to do with the file format. I tried running 3dgs at 16 and 8 bit modes, and nothing changed with the tga's. I had to alter my actual desktop color to 16.. and then the tga and the bmp looked the same.

For some reason the tga's are at 24-bit, and the bmp's at 16-bit in gamestudio.... at least for me. This has nothing to do with the image itself.