DDS textures messing up

[mixand]

At first I thought it was the shape of my alpha map but now I think it might have to do with how I'm saving it.



How can I get this to work correctly? It always ends up weird and sometimes has little sqaures and fragments showing up in the finished model. It's very frustrating and I've been trying for a while, can anybody give me some advice on how to do this correctly? Thanks a lot

[viper4513]

try DXT5 when you save as DDS

[castor4878]

I typed a detailed explanation but the stupid board system decide to throw it w/o any recovering option coz "my token was expired" - thanks to you, completely ignorant geniuses webmasters to not being able to manage the "POST" (aka hard work of poster) when you have to manage a silly error.

so, short version:

- DXT5 (with MIP maps) is better than DXT1 for gear textures (even if the last wedding stuff came in DXT1 format)

- color encoding may be the reason of your pb. as seen below the model does contain B&W, these shall be cutted-off with low and/or high values (color or alpha limits).
the MLT format does contain a cut-off value, not the ITM format; so these limits are certainly coded "somewhere" in the texture file (at some magic coords).
so when you do such changes make them on a HLS (hue, lightness, saturation) view of the text [edit] picture[/edit]. and change the hue only.

[viper4513]

Do you always have to show me up with your superior knowledge Castor ? xD

I do enjoy seeing your posts tho, i always learn something new everytime i read a post from you... you're too good at this stuff!
And boo to the board for not wanting your knowledge to be seen

[castor4878]

Originally Posted by viper4513

Do you always have to show me up with your superior knowledge Castor ?

definitively not.
my first post explained that your advice (format encoding) was the best & first to think of - since DXT1 may introduce a lot of un-controled, unexpected effects.

[viper4513]

Now if only i understood wh DXT5 works and DXT1 doesnt.. xD
I only found that one out by trail and error myself.. But i still enjoy your little bits of education in your posts.. most people probably ignore it, or dont care.. but i like it.. it helps me actually understand the thing that builds up what i'm actually working with.

[mixand]

Thanks a bunch for shedding some light on the subject
I tried resetting back to the default save settings and changed it to DXT5 but it made it so where the transparency should have been (alpha) it was just black or white or whatever colour background i was using.

"- DXT5 (with MIP maps) is better than DXT1 for gear textures (even if the last wedding stuff came in DXT1 format)"

- I see DXT5 in interpolated alpha and DTX5_NM. I assume i don't use NM because it makes it a weird colour.

- color encoding may be the reason of your pb. as seen below the model does contain B&W, -B&W as in black and white?- these shall be cutted-off with low and/or high values (color or alpha limits).
the MLT format does contain a cut-off value, not the ITM format; so these limits are certainly coded "somewhere" in the texture file (at some magic coords).
so when you do such changes make them on a HLS (hue, lightness, saturation) view of the text [edit] picture[/edit]. and change the hue only.

so I can only change the hue when editing pictures? I'm sorry for misunderstanding.
I know this is a big thing to ask but do you think you could save the DDS profile you use for saving and give it to me? in the bottom right it says "save profile"
It would mean a lot to me If it's too much then it's okay, i just really want this to work, did you have to mess around with the settings?

sorry if I'm being a bother :s

[castor4878]

<<I assume i don't use NM because it makes it a weird colour>>

I didn't recheck the DXT standard and so far I don't know / remember what nvidia means with "NM", so yea "DXT5 (with classical interpolated alpha)" choice is what you want.

<<B&W as in black and white?>>

yes.

<<so I can only change the hue when editing pictures?>>

no, but there for such pict (*) and such modification, it's the easier, safer way.

(*) most of gears of drawn w/o alpha filtering (alpha is only used to to shine the buttons on pants), the hair is special because they can not be easily delimited by a small number of triangles (the whole 3D view is a set of triangles) so alpha is used to partially drawn some triangles (those who draw the tip of the hair).
it is so very important to not corrupt the alpha channel for these files, and Hue modification doesn't change it.

<<could you save the DDS profile you use for saving and give it to me?>>

I'm using the exact same option, but format (DXT5 or 3) - and no compression settings at all, since this setting is meaningless for DXT5,3,1; they all compress at fixed ratio, may be the group of radio is for a nvidia/another format.

the only difference is very very likely the alpha channel that wasn't destroyed in the following try:

[viper4513]

As Castor stated, DXT5 interpolated is what to use.
Everything else i leave as default and "generate mip maps" but i dont think that is actually needed.. Castor will probably tell you more about those

The way i saved "hair" was with that format, but in the editing, only H/S/L (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) was changed, no other things. So this may be where the "file" if thats a way to describe it, is getting confused.