Texturing: DDS format in BF2 explained

[Rhino]

Originally Posted by PeppeJ

And if you're not using Photoshop you can use nvDXT from Nvidia DDS Utilities to compress to .DDS
It's a commandline tool so launch it once through commandline to see options.

It should also be noted that the "nvcompress.exe" has far better quality DDS compression, especially for saving the normal maps over the Photoshop Plugins and it is what the team is using now for saving all new/reworked final textures, with only using Photoshop to save WIP textures at the most.

Originally Posted by [R-DEV]Rhino

Did a little testing here to see how much difference there is and while NVCompress.exe is certainly better, the amount of differences there is really depends on the type of file your saving and the colours in it etc.

First the Chinook CH1, 2048x2048, DXT1, no alpha and full mips, not that much of a difference but still, NVCompress is noticeable better, especially in some small areas like the small red/green anti-collision lights, that the colours of bleed a lot more into the surrounding texture. (.jpgs saved in full quality for preview with not much loss in themselves)
Original: http://i.imgur.com/KYLbS5D.jpg
PS DDS: http://i.imgur.com/AvHci4Q.jpg
NVCompress: http://i.imgur.com/YnsYvnq.jpg
Difference: (turned into grey scale and massively bumped up the contrast so no difference is black and biggest difference is white): http://i.imgur.com/WBpD7v9.jpg

Next the Chinook series Normal map, 1024x1024, DXT5 with full alpha and full mips, pretty big difference here:
Original: http://i.imgur.com/tsJoppY.jpg
PS DDS: http://i.imgur.com/fBkrEZf.jpg
NVCompress: http://i.imgur.com/s14PoKu.jpg
Difference: (no changes to the difference file): http://i.imgur.com/xGSBJBX.jpg

[MajorIceman]

Hi there

Can you possible let me know what the correct settings are in the Nvidia plugin for creating the bumpmap/normal map as im haivng problems comes out completely different to what the BF2 ones are like

Also to confirm for textures on buildings and other static objects is it best to use DXT1 and use DXT5 if its has alpha's like glass and done as a Bundlemesh instead

Cheers for the help in advance

[Rhino]

TBH I haven't used the nVidida PS Plugins to make a normal map in years. I suggest google to find a decent setup but it was never very good from what I can tell and you are probably better off with a 3rd party tool. Personally, I use CrazyBump to convert most of my Heightmaps although there is probably much better tools around now and CB likes to do a lot of its own thing even when given a HM and takes some tweaking to get what you want, but has more control than most ones I've tried.

[[R-DEV]​ALADE3N]

Originally Posted by MajorIceman

Hi there

Can you possible let me know what the correct settings are in the Nvidia plugin for creating the bumpmap/normal map as im haivng problems comes out completely different to what the BF2 ones are like

Also to confirm for textures on buildings and other static objects is it best to use DXT1 and use DXT5 if its has alpha's like glass and done as a Bundlemesh instead

Cheers for the help in advance

There is a tutorial by The Obscure , just search it on google

[MajorIceman]

I wasnt able to find the guide from Obscure but i will give Crazybump a try as that looks pretty good if anyone does have a link to the guide from Obscure that would be handy

[[R-DEV]​ALADE3N]

Originally Posted by MajorIceman

I wasnt able to find the guide from Obscure but i will give Crazybump a try as that looks pretty good if anyone does have a link to the guide from Obscure that would be handy

I believe this is it : Click Me

[MajorIceman]

Cheers for the Link explains alot for the Soldiers but give me some ideas for the Statics and things just wanted to make sure i am laying it all out correctly thats all and using the correct DXT1 and DXT5 for different parts of the models

Take a Weapon for example the main body of the weapon i assume can be done as DXT1 as it doesnt need a Alpha but if you want say alpha on the Scope then you would use DXT5

Same as for eample a building the main part of the building could be DXT1 one and then the Windows would be DXT5

As i would make the building as a Normal StaticMesh and then do the windows as a Bundle mesh and Child object them to the main building so i could dome say some windows clean and some others dirty but all so you can see through them.