DDS Conversion troubles ( YEP more tales of woe and misery )

[Trotski]

Ok, so, I am currently working on an Avia B-71 , all the skin files are in DDS format, the markings were painted on, and I have removed them and re done all the panel lines and rivets, and it all works fine and dandy. Now, I am trying to get the decals to appear ( as if by majjik ) on the tail surfaces and the wings, however....yup  you guessed it ......not a hope in merry hell, however, the fuselage decals , work like a Sheep lovers wet dream !! so, how does that compute ? all 3 skin files are DDS, and the decals are TGA's so, my question is, how the bloody 'ell do I get the darn things to show up on my lovingly and patiently re done wings, failing that, how do I go about converting the skins to JPG's so that they actually work, and not just give me the Black skin of death .......or may it be because the aircrafts lods are only hardwired to accept DDS format skins ? I really dislike DDS, its pointless, and JPG format is so much better grrrrr ( RANT RANT, Rave, Swear, Curse ) and why then in this case, if conversion to JPG is not possible, do decals show up on fuselage, but not on the flying surfaces....ARRRRRGHHH DDS !!! hate hate hate.

 

 

 

OK....I'm calm now, taken my meds    

[+Wrench]

i wouldn't convert the skins from dds. I tried that once, and it didn't work.

 

if the decals arent showing it might be several things:

 

1) incorrect positioning - easily fixed with Mue's Lod Viewer

2) defective tgas

3) wrong node name (see #1)

[Trotski]

Well I know for sure its not the TGA's  as they are all fine in everything else I am using, so I would be inclined to go with option 1/3 it's just I prefer my decals to be decals, I hate painted on markings and use them as little as possible, and this AVIA, had bloody huge Czech markings on lol . I shall trie the LOD doodad, never used one before, so be prepared for more moans and whines from this corner of the naughty step 

And furthermore.....DDS blows !! don't effing well use it...its shit !! and I have at least another 3 bloody aircraft to do that are in DDS ARRRRGH !! need more  JD !!

[Trotski]

Well blow me down and bugger me blind with a wet Haddock !! I never knew it was so easy to use that bit o' kit !! thanks buddy, yet again you have unerringly pointed me in the correct and most likely, most obvious direction, the node name was wrong, I was going by the names on the existing decal.ini, so assumed that they were correct.......again it proves, one must  NEVER assume....as there is always an ASS in assume !! This is why I lurrrrrve this site, you chappies are all so helpful , and non precious about stuff....unlike other Wankspangles who shall remain un named . Thanks again mate, I was ripping my hair out, and that's hard with a crew cut hahahaha.

[+russouk2004]

Ive never had problems converting dds to jpegs.....unless udd on models are not affected by the TW jpeg or bmp ,working? does an add on a\c,if its assigned dds ,in max only use dds and wont use jpegs?....ive never needed to check

[Trotski]

Nah its ok, I just don't like 'em, prefer JPG's problem is sorted now anyhow.

[+Wrench]

i can't remember if it was the F9F-2 Panther or A-26 Invader, don't remember if it went all black or ???. 

The 3W engine, afaik, does the "automatic conversion" if jpg is used for bmp, even if the LOD calls for bmp. I don't think DDS is in it's 'list'. (??). But WILL read them if the lod is speced for dds.

 

at least, that's my understanding!

[Trotski]

Yeah I have given up trying to convert them, but anyhow, they still work just fine as DDS files, it just a matter of getting used to working with them, I have found that Paint.net handles DDS files just fine for editing, no plugins that don't work are needed, installed the plugin for Gimp though and that seems to work ok, but I only use Gimp for decal making at the moment, the bbad thing about paint.net is that it is a bit simplistic compared to PSP. But anyhoo, your advice about the LOD viewer worked like a dream, I hadn't used it before, and I wasn't aware of how simple it makes life !! So thanks for that particular heads up mate !!

[+Menrva]

If I may add, just keep in mind that a .dds is a sort of compressed (and thus with lower quality) .tga, much like a .jpg in relation to a .bmp (DDS : TGA = JPG : BMP), so I am not sure if the game engine automatically reads .jpg files when the LOD references .dds textures (but I think it should read .tga files in place of .dds ones).

 

IMHO, unless you have the original textures (in .tga or .bmp), it is pointless to convert .dds files to another format, since the .dds has already lowered the quality of the texture.

Edited February 28, 2016 by blaze95

[Trotski]

Thankfully DDS isn't utilised that much , it only seems to be present on older SF1 files some of which have been ported over to SF2 , I just find them awkward to work with.