Paint.net question about converting PNG to DDS

[Isabelle.V.Fuchs]

Hello!

I want to save some memory and so I decided to convert some old grafic files from the old MBM format to the new DDS format. But that seems to be more tricky than I had anticipated.

My problem is, that I have no tool to read mbm files. So I digged out the old mbm2png converter from once. That worked well and now I have my grafics all in png. I changed the MU-files so that the are able to use the PNG instead of the MBM. I trief that in KSP and it workes well.

That was the first part.

First I tried the DDS4KSP program, but that has some errors. It wasn't able to save the bump-files. So I want to use Paint.NET.

I loaded the PNG and now want to save as DDS. But there are so many ooptions that I don't know what to use.

- DXT1

- DXT3

- DXT5

- A8R8G8B8

- (and so on... I don't know...)

Please, does anybody had tried that before? Or can anybody tell me, whar format of DDS is to use for the main maps and for the bump maps?

e.g:

- PART_core.png

- PART-core_bump_png

Any help would be wery nice.

Thank you,

- Isabelle

[Mecripp]

Have you checked out this thread it helps a bunch http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/119873 and you really didn't need to do anything with the MU in if you still have a problem will be glad to help.

[Isabelle.V.Fuchs]

Thank you, MeCripp, for your quick answer.

I hadn't checked this thread. It helped a little. I had forgotton to flip the DDS images vertically. This is okay now. No funny patterns any longer. But the images look terrible.

The thread said this:

Texture Formats:

DXT1

Use this for anything without an alpha channel.

DXT5

Use this for anything with an alpha channel. This includes combined diffuse/shine maps.

DXT5nm

Use this format for normal maps.

I tried a lot combinations. Main map in DXT1, 3 and 5 as well as the bump map in 1, 3 and 5 in any combinations. But always the result was bad or worse.

Since I use Paint.NET I have no sort of DTX5nm. And whatever format I use, the result is war worse than the PNG.

Maybe you have a hint. It is BobCat's MIR I want to convert from MBM to DDS (via PNG). I tried with the Core Module. If you have a suggestion or some hints I would be very happy.

Thank you in advance,

- Isabelle

[Mecripp]

What OS you using ?

[Isabelle.V.Fuchs]

Sorry, I was on my way home. So I wasn't able to answer.

I have Windows 8.1 64 bit. But KSP 32bit of course

On a VM I have Linux Ubuntu. Good enough for work but not for playing. But I have not much experience with Linux yet.

[Mecripp]

Thats what, I'm running and for the textures, I use Gimp there is a plugin for dds for it hope it helps.

[Isabelle.V.Fuchs]

Thank you. I will try this.

[Isabelle.V.Fuchs]

Well... it didn't help.

I dublicated the folder containing the part I tried to 'convert'. I renamed the part itself (the cfg-file as well as the name and the title).

Then I used gimp, loaded the pngs and exported them as dds using the dds plugin. And I didn't forget flipping the images vertivally this time .

The result was discouraging.

There are several option exporting files as dds. I couldn't find the correct format. The 'default' was no help.

DXT1, DXT5 or DXT5nm didn't exist there. There are several other: RGB8, RGBA8, BGR8, ABGR8, (...) ,YCoCg.

I absolutely have no clue, which of these formats may be the right one.

Do you have a suggestion?

[sumghai]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/98672-WIN-KSP-to-DDS-texture-converter

This tool has options to automatically detect which end format is appropriate for each texture, and export it accordingly.

[Mecripp]

Well... it didn't help.

I dublicated the folder containing the part I tried to 'convert'. I renamed the part itself (the cfg-file as well as the name and the title).

Then I used gimp, loaded the pngs and exported them as dds using the dds plugin. And I didn't forget flipping the images vertivally this time .

The result was discouraging.

There are several option exporting files as dds. I couldn't find the correct format. The 'default' was no help.

DXT1, DXT5 or DXT5nm didn't exist there. There are several other: RGB8, RGBA8, BGR8, ABGR8, (...) ,YCoCg.

I absolutely have no clue, which of these formats may be the right one.

Do you have a suggestion?

This 3 is all you really have to worry about DXT1, DXT5 or DXT5nm , If textures don't have a alpha channel use DXT1 if it does have a alpha channel use DXT5 and for any normal map use DXT5nm

And did you get my PM ?

- - - Updated - - -

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/98672-WIN-KSP-to-DDS-texture-converter

This tool has options to automatically detect which end format is appropriate for each texture, and export it accordingly.

That don't always work that good some textures will have a dark side and other will be lighter but thats just on some textures not all and they don't get the normal maps right all the time.

[Isabelle.V.Fuchs]

Hello Sumghai,

I tried that tool before and it didn't work for me. But now I know why. I made a dumb mistake:

I converted the mbm-files with mbm2png and the tried to convert the png-files with KSP2DDS.

Now I tried the KSP2DDS direct against the old mbm-files and yay! it works

Funny, ist't it?

@MeCripp: Thanks again. Your help was very helpfull. Now I am able to use old MIR as I wanted all the time.

My next task is now to convert bobcats Soyuz TMA to dds. I hope it will work as well as it did with MIR.

Thank you all. You are very nice people!

- Isabelle

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/98672-WIN-KSP-to-DDS-texture-converter

This tool has options to automatically detect which end format is appropriate for each texture, and export it accordingly.