DDS FileType Plus (03-05-2023)

[JoeyLock]

20 hours ago, null54 said:

 

That would appear to be the case.

I tried a few different hex editor tricks and I was not able to get the file to load.

Ah I see, well that's a shame I thought it might have just been another opening issue as a lot of Fallout 4 modders tend to compress their textures with that Intel Plugin but I guess this modder messed up the texture to where it only appears in game somehow. Thanks for the help anyway.

[Goemoe]

Hi Null54, I am new to texturing and work on mods for a game (Age of wonders3). You can't export the .dds files there, you can only screencapture the textures, save them as dds and import them back to use them. As long as there is no alpha layer involved, everything works fine. When I try to add a layer and save it, paint.net merges the layers. Is there a way to save this with an alpha layer? I don't understand all the options while saving the file. The AoW3 manual tells me to use DXT3, RGBA, 8bit alpha. Since you aswered all the questions in this thread(yes, read them all) as if dds were your native language, I thought I ask right here 😇 Thanks for the plugin anyway!

[null54]

4 hours ago, Goemoe said:

Is there a way to save this with an alpha layer?

 

You need to use the layer transparency (alpha channel), @BoltBait's Paste Alpha plugin can be helpful with this.

[Goemoe]

Thank you, it is not working as intended, but it produces usable results. 👍 One day I might even understand, what I a, doing 😅

[null54]

Release version 1.10.8.

Changes:

• Updated to the April 6, 2021 release of DirectXTex.

[null54]

Release version 1.10.9.

Changes:

• Fixed a regression from version 1.10.7 when loading DDS images that exceed the Direct3D limits.

[Jacer]

BC7 --- RGB vs RBGA

 

Is there a setting to differentiate whether a BC7 format is saved as RGB vs RGBA?

[null54]

1 hour ago, Jacer said:

Is there a setting to differentiate whether a BC7 format is saved as RGB vs RGBA?

 

There is not.

Paint.NET will always save the image as RGBA when working with BC7.

[pepperman35]

Before I download and install I'd like to confirm that the dds plugin can handle DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT which is needed for height map data for a older Bethesda game.  

 

Thank you.

Edited January 29, 2022 by pepperman35

[null54]

5 hours ago, pepperman35 said:

Below I download and install I'd like to confirm that the dds plugin can handle DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT which is needed for height map data for a older Bethesda game.  

 

The plugin should be able to load DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT images, but it cannot save them.

Paint.NET only supports 8-bits-per-channel when editing, so the support for 16-bits-per-channel and 32-bits-per-channel formats is minimal.

 

What is the name of the game you are trying to modify?

32-bit floating point seems like a strange choice for storing height map data.

[pepperman35]

On 1/29/2022 at 5:32 PM, null54 said:

 

The plugin should be able to load DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT images, but it cannot save them.

Paint.NET only supports 8-bits-per-channel when editing, so the support for 16-bits-per-channel and 32-bits-per-channel formats is minimal.

 

What is the name of the game you are trying to modify?

32-bit floating point seems like a strange choice for storing height map data.

Thanks for the response null54, much appreciated.  Fallout 4 is the game.  Not much information out there on the height maps, a Youtube vid by Neehr provides some details.  

 

[null54]

55 minutes ago, pepperman35 said:

Fallout 4 is the game.

 

Interesting, I also found at least one other game that uses DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT height maps.

 

I added support for saving DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT for the next version of the plugin.

 

1 hour ago, pepperman35 said:

Not much information out there on the height maps, a Youtube vid by Neehr provides some details.

 

I am surprised that tutorial is using Photoshop in 8-bits-per-channel mode (256 possible colors), most of the other tutorials I found are using it in 16-bits-per-channel mode (65536 possible colors).

But I guess that choice would depend on the required amount of detail for a specific map.

[pepperman35]

17 hours ago, null54 said:

 

Interesting, I also found at least one other game that uses DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT height maps.

 

I added support for saving DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT for the next version of the plugin.

 

 

I am surprised that tutorial is using Photoshop in 8-bits-per-channel mode (256 possible colors), most of the other tutorials I found are using it in 16-bits-per-channel mode (65536 possible colors).

But I guess that choice would depend on the required amount of detail for a specific map.

Thanks, much appreciated.  Not positive but Skyrim might use the  DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT.

 

Bethesda gave the community the Creation Kit to mod the game(s), but documentation is sparse to say the least.  Gimp didn't support the DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT, so I was hopeful that paint.net would be a viable alternative.  Glad I investigated but even more glad that support will be added for the next version of the plugin.  Thanks again.

[null54]

Release version 1.1.11

Changes:

• Updated DirextXTex to the November 8, 2021 release.
• Added support for saving the DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT format.
  • This format is used for height maps by various games and Bethesda's Creation Kit for Fallout 4.

5 hours ago, pepperman35 said:

Not positive but Skyrim might use the  DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT.

 

Since it is used by the Fallout 4 Creation Kit, I would not be surprised if the Skyrim SE/AE version also uses it.

I have only used the Skyrim SE Creation Kit when upgrading the form version of LE mods.

[pepperman35]

23 hours ago, null54 said:

Release version 1.1.11

Changes:

• Updated DirextXTex to the November 8, 2021 release.
• Added support for saving the DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT format.
  • This format is used for height maps by various games and Bethesda's Creation Kit for Fallout 4.

 

Since it is used by the Fallout 4 Creation Kit, I would not be surprised if the Skyrim SE/AE version also uses it.

I have only used the Skyrim SE Creation Kit when upgrading the form version of LE mods.

Thanks, I will let folks over at the nexus forum know.  Much appreciated

[MarkTewes]

Hi,

I use Paint.net a bit and find it easy to use.  It just updated last week and I think I discovered a bug.

 

I created a File (jpg or BMP) 1024x1024, 72dpi.

Normally, I bring the file into Paint.net and convert (save as) it to a DDS, 1024x 1024, 72dpi

But when it saves it, It is 96dpi.  That resolution is NOT what I need, or is it usable.

Is there something I am missing.

I have done this a thousand times before, now with the new version, I cannot.

THX

[midora]

Did you check that Menu->Image->Resize... shows 72dpi? As long as the source file contains a valid dpi value you should see it there.

[null54]

2 hours ago, MarkTewes said:

But when it saves it, It is 96dpi.  That resolution is NOT what I need, or is it usable.

Is there something I am missing.

 

The DDS format does not store DPI information.

[null54]

Release version 1.1.12

Changes:

• Updated DirextXTex to the March 24, 2022 release.

[RivalSound]

I'm getting crashes/errors when trying to select the BC7 compression options.  None of the other compression options give any sort of issues, but when I select the BC7 options the preview says "computing" and then the system crashes.  Please help!

 

https://ibb.co/pLKggnj

[toe_head2001]

Looks like you're using a virtualized GPU via Parallels.

 

Perhaps the graphics driver provided by Parallels crashed.

[null54]

9 hours ago, RivalSound said:

I'm getting crashes/errors when trying to select the BC7 compression options.

 

As @toe_head2001 stated, it appears to be an issue with the GPU driver.

As a workaround you can turn off hardware accelerated rendering in the Paint.NET settings, this will force the BC7 compression to use the CPU.

[RivalSound]

14 hours ago, null54 said:

 

As @toe_head2001 stated, it appears to be an issue with the GPU driver.

As a workaround you can turn off hardware accelerated rendering in the Paint.NET settings, this will force the BC7 compression to use the CPU.

 

This worked perfectly, thank you so much!

 

[RivalSound]

I'm having one other issue with exporting:

 

I'm not getting any image properties or it would seem the same proper .dds file type upon export (see screenshot 1)

 

And when the texture is applied in nifskope I'm getting the "blacked-out error" (screenshot 2)

 

The proper display of the texture is screenshot 3

 

(edit to clarify: the bmp into convert.io I had reduced in size before converting, also fixing the screenshots)

 

https://ibb.co/HF1rzT9
https://ibb.co/jVL7CnV
https://ibb.co/k9PznyD

Edited June 25, 2022 by RivalSound
clarity about bmp conversion, screenshots

[null54]

4 hours ago, RivalSound said:

I'm not getting any image properties or it would seem the same proper .dds file type upon export (see screenshot 1)

 

The presence of the image properties would indicate that the image uses one of the following formats: BC1 (DXT1), BC2 (DXT3) or BC3 (DXT5).

The image properties are provided by the OS, and it only supports reading those 3 formats.

 

To determine the exact format you can download texdiag and run the following command:

texdiag info original.dds

 

The output will include a line with the compression format.