I have finally got hold of a tool to convert DDS files on OSX; the new GraphicConverter can read and write DXT 1, 3 and 5.
However, the output quality sucks: see example below - JPG first, then DDS DXT1.
... So, is this normal, or is it just GraphicConverter that handles the conversion badly?
Help on this very appreciated!
-rthorvald
On DDS conversion
- t00fri
- Developer
- Posts: 8772
- Joined: 29.03.2002
- Age: 22
- With us: 22 years 7 months
- Location: Hamburg, Germany
rthorvald,
yes, this is a familiar issue. Before your time in the
forum, we had extensive "R&D"-type discussions on that issue.
-- Take at least DXT3/24bit color. For textures it's OK.
Forget about DXT1.
-- You need a good conversion algorithm. Unfortunately,
some converters are still buggy. The nvidia tool is
quite good but excessively slow and limited to <= 16k
textures. So for me this is not interesting.
Hence, I coded my own converter ('texconvert')
that uses the latest open source DeVIL library. It's
lightening fast and good for DXT1,3,5.
The sources are available. I even coded a port for Win,
since the Win guys kept complaining that they were
unable to learn how to do a trivial compile themselves
with a free compiler in Win...(I will never be able to
follow this logics..)
-- For hires /normal/ maps, DXT3 is still a big problem.
DDS format is just not smooth enough. JPG/PNG
almost always win, but these formats are too
slow/large for really big textures.
Bye Fridger
yes, this is a familiar issue. Before your time in the
forum, we had extensive "R&D"-type discussions on that issue.
-- Take at least DXT3/24bit color. For textures it's OK.
Forget about DXT1.
-- You need a good conversion algorithm. Unfortunately,
some converters are still buggy. The nvidia tool is
quite good but excessively slow and limited to <= 16k
textures. So for me this is not interesting.
Hence, I coded my own converter ('texconvert')
that uses the latest open source DeVIL library. It's
lightening fast and good for DXT1,3,5.
The sources are available. I even coded a port for Win,
since the Win guys kept complaining that they were
unable to learn how to do a trivial compile themselves
with a free compiler in Win...(I will never be able to
follow this logics..)
-- For hires /normal/ maps, DXT3 is still a big problem.
DDS format is just not smooth enough. JPG/PNG
almost always win, but these formats are too
slow/large for really big textures.
Bye Fridger
t00fri wrote:yes, this is a familiar issue
Thank you for your notes on this!
It is evident GraphicConverter isn?t a good tool for this; it has no way of specifying the details of what to output. I might take a look at your tools, but will have to familiarize myself with deVIL first, i guess.
-rthorvald
- John Van Vliet
- Posts: 2944
- Joined: 28.08.2002
- With us: 22 years 2 months
re
some of us can compile
cygwin,mingw,vc7.net
although i am still learning
cygwin,mingw,vc7.net
although i am still learning