Which Photoshop? [Using for ".dds" editing]

[Swaffy]

Which kind of Photoshop is best for ".dds" editing?
Last time I looked, there's a bunch of different kinds of Photoshop.

I know that a ".dds" plugin exists for Photoshop, but which one is it best used for?

I see: CS4, CS5, CS5 Extended, Lightroom 3.4, etc.

[Senshi]

Doesn't matter which Photoshop. Even PS Elements is sufficient for most regular graphic editing in BF42. The "professional" version is the "CS" series, the newest being CS 5.5 I think.

The ability to load .dds file doesn't depend on the version of photoshop at all, though. It's a 3rd party plugin by nVidia that does that trick:
Tools for 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5.

Alternatively, you can just download the DDS tools, which offer several commandline-based programs that allow easy batch-conversions of dds->tga and backwards. This way you can easily manipulate the tga with your preferred graphic program and reexport them afterwards:
http://developer.nvidia.com/legacy-texture-tools

[Swaffy]

Thanks, you're the best German I know. I can alyways rely on you.
Installing "CS5.1 Extended Edition" at the moment.

[Sgt.Killboy]

Thanks, you're the best German I know. I can alyways rely on you.
Installing "CS5.1 Extended Edition" at the moment.

I hope you know more than just 2 germans. 2 knwon germans would mean I am the worst you know!

[Swaffy]

Oh yeah, you're German too.
So the both of you then.

Are there any more Germans that I'm forgetting about? Heheh.

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New issue:

What settings do I use when saving ".dds" files? And the checkbox for "Alpha Channels" when saving is uncheckable.
There's too many options, and I don't know what they do.
: )

It's a skin for a silencer, so I also need MIP Maps. [I've had the setting on "Generate Mipmaps."]

[Senshi]

Which setting to choose depends on what you want. If you have an alpha layer on your texture, you obviously need to select a DDS type with alpha. If not, you can choose a simpler format and thus save some bytes. Use DXT1 for very simple textures (not a huge color range and especially no bright colors) where it doesn't matter when there are some slight compression artifact. For everything else, use DXT3 or even DXT5 if it has to be beautiful (e.g. a large texture that you'd apply on a plane body).

Alpha Channel can only be saved on a format that also supports alpha (read the format descriptions, those usually say if alpha is possible or not. And what kind of alpha. One of them only supports a simple on/off alpha IIRC, while others allow for alpha gradients.

Just experiment a bit.

You already figured out the mipmap things, always pick auto-generate, that's usually the best option. Except when you save pure 2D HUD elements like the minimap. Those obviously don't have depth information, so they never use mipmaps. Here you can safely choose No mipmaps.

[Swaffy]

I need the settings to save a skin for a 3d model. It uses MIP maps.
I've tried different things, but I have not had any luck.
I'm trying to get my skin working for my M16's silencer.

These are my current settings:










What do I change? The settings seen above are not working.
[My silencer has no see-through pieces, it's just a solid color.]

[Senshi]

Honestly, don't ever touch the buttons for the specific advanced settings, like "Mipmap Settings...", "Sharpening..." etc. . The default config for all of them works best. Always. I never changed a single thing there and everything works splendid.

For a simple 2D texture to be used on a standardmesh like a silencer you should use DXT3 or DXT5, with "Generate MIP maps" active.

And how are they "not working"? Do you have the texture saved and stored properly in your texture.rfa (correct filename used, as defined by the standardmesh.rs?)

[Swaffy]

Yeah, the texture simply doesn't show in-game. I typed in a different texture path in the StandardMesh file for my silencer, and that mesh loaded up. So I know it has something to do with the saving options. My silencer's mesh was originally a ".gif" image, and I tried saving it as a ".dds" file.

I didn't mess with much settings, I was only showing you what they're currently at. But I'm going to try again with DXT1 No Alpha.

[Handicap]

Maybe you could upload the file somewhere for others to take a look at it?