hey im trying to save a file as a .dds using adobe photoshop cs4 and im just wondering what i need my settings need to be cause it never lets me click save hears a pic.

This tutorial should help ya a bit.

http://modsonline.com/Tutorials-read-316.html

I thought Photoshop CS4 didn't have a nVidia plugin for .DDS?

That tutorial says to save as DXT3, which for the community-made converters (dds2iwi) wont work. It needs to be DXT5 to make the IWI header info correct, and make sure "generate mipmaps" is check marked - not "use existing mipmaps".

If, on the other hand, you are simply using Asset Manager to create your IWI file and materials, you can save in pretty much any DDS format, just that different ones acheive different effects:

DXT1 - with no alpha channel is fine for many IWI files, natably loadscreens.

DXT3-DXT5 if you are using an alpha channel, any of those will work.

hey, still haveing a problem. it seems to work when i have these settings. Here

also works when i click on 32bit ARGB.

also when i do click save it dose show this.Here

and hears another Also. when i do click okay and go to convert it in asset manager i get this error.Here

edited on Jan. 13, 2010 01:15 pm by liltc64

I would imagine that the poster who said above that the NVidia DDS plugin doesnt work for CS4 is correct.

Also, the plugin you are using is well out of date. The latest is version 8.3.

I was just about to start a new thread, but I will ask my question here.
It's about normal maps. I saved a texture with CS2 as a .DDS normal map, with the following settings:

DXT1, 2D texture, generate mip maps (all)
in Image Options, Image Type is Normal Map Tangent Space
in Normal Map Settings, I checked the Convert to tangent space normal map; the rest of the settings are default (Filter Type - 4 sample, Alpha Field - Height, Height Source - Average RGB, Alternate Sources - None, Normalize unchecked)

but when I try to convert the image, it says that the normal map has to be in an uncompressed color format.
I assume it's got something to do with the DXT1 option, but I don't know which one to choose.

cskiller86 writes...

DXT1 no alpha.

I have Win Vista 64bit and CS4 - for me the .dds PlugIn works fine...

That's what I have DXT1 RGB 4 bits per pixel no alpha (the first option).
I just read a post by Kill3r, where he said that normal maps need to be TGA. I'll try with that and report back.

LE: Yup, conversion works with TGA. Not sure how it will look in-game though.