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Very odd DDS file behavior...

PRB

PRB

Administrator
Staff member
Here's a strange one:

If I modify a dds texture file, FSX will not display it again. Just show up black. For example:

1. Save dds to bitmap.
2. Open bitmap in Photoshop (or PSP, doesn't matter)
3. Modify bmp
4. Save bmp back to dds DXT5 (using DXTBmp or ImageTool, doesn't matter)
5. Replace dds file in texture folder.

FSX will not show the new texture. It comes up all black in FSX. But it gets better. If I load the model in ModelConverterX, the new texture does show up just fine.

This does not happen when modifying bmp files, as in FS9 or ported over FS9 planes in FSX. Just dds files.

I have a pristine, virgin installation of FSX on a different computer, so I tried modifying a dds on that computer to see what would happen. If I go through the five steps above on the virgin installation, I have no problems. The new texture shows up fine in FS. However, if I copy the texture file I modified on the other computer, to the computer with the pristine installation, it shows up black in the virgin FSX! Something is “happening” to dds files on that computer.

One other thing. I fired up FSX and selected a plane with a paint that I made months ago, with dds files. It loads up and displays the dds files ok. So whatever is happening to dds files has not affected files made previously.

Very strange. Anyone ever see such a thing?

- Paul

P.S. If I modify the dds file on the "pristine" computer, then copy it to the "broke" computer, it displays ok! Not sure what to make of that.
 
PRB said:
Here's a strange one......
Click to expand...

This might be an apples to orange comparison, but you might find something helpful in the following......


1. Save dds to bitmap. (I open dds, invert image and alpha channel, and save to tga)
2. Open bitmap in Photoshop (or PSP, doesn't matter) (I open the tga in photoshop and save it as a layered PSD file)
3. Modify bmp (I modify the layered PSD)
4. Save bmp back to dds DXT5 (I save the layered PSD back to a tga file)
4a. I open the tga, invert the image and alpha channel, and save to DDS.
5. Replace dds file in texture folder.

Tommy

 
jeansy said:
is the .bmp still in the same texture folder as the .dds?
Click to expand...

No. I have a "work" folder into which all the psd and bmps live. So only the dds files, thumbnail image, and texture.cfg file are in the texture folder.

- Paul
 
tommieboy said:
This might be an apples to orange comparison, but you might find something helpful in the following......


1. Save dds to bitmap. (I open dds, invert image and alpha channel, and save to tga)
2. Open bitmap in Photoshop (or PSP, doesn't matter) (I open the tga in photoshop and save it as a layered PSD file)
3. Modify bmp (I modify the layered PSD)
4. Save bmp back to dds DXT5 (I save the layered PSD back to a tga file)
4a. I open the tga, invert the image and alpha channel, and save to DDS.
5. Replace dds file in texture folder.

Tommy
Click to expand...

Rgr that. I'm doing basically the same, more or less. My "step 3" actually consists of saving the bmp that came out of DXTBmp as a PSD, flipping it, etc., then saving it back as a bmp.

- Paul
 
PRB said:
No. I have a "work" folder into which all the psd and bmps live. So only the dds files, thumbnail image, and texture.cfg file are in the texture folder.

- Paul
Click to expand...

ok, that happens to me when the 2 formats are in the same folder, hmmmm well if if the palne is coming up black, its loading the folder ok, not the textures

ok heres something that may sound odd, but have you got save mip maps ticked
 
jeansy said:
ok, that happens to me when the 2 formats are in the same folder, hmmmm well if if the palne is coming up black, its loading the folder ok, not the textures

ok heres something that may sound odd, but have you got save mip maps ticked
Click to expand...

Well, this is interesting. I hadn't been saving them with the "use mips" checkbox checked, because I don't like the effect. But, I just tried saving the file with mips selected, and that texture shows in FSX! Now why would that be the case? I never use mips, and all the other paints I made work fine without mips. Until today anyway!

- Paul
 
PRB said:
Well, this is interesting. I hadn't been saving them with the "use mips" checkbox checked, because I don't like the effect. But, I just tried saving the file with mips selected, and that texture shows in FSX! Now why would that be the case? I never use mips, and all the other paints I made work fine without mips. Until today anyway!

- Paul
Click to expand...

to be honest it just happened out of the blue for me as well, i never used it and one day they went black, took me hours swearing at the screen to work that out, i have no idea why but it worked, ive always been against using mip maps in fsx for paints but less than 12mths ago i had to tick the box,

I use photoshop now to convert my files to dds, i dont have tick yes to mip maps thank god
 
jeansy said:
to be honest it just happened out of the blue for me as well, i never used it and one day they went black, took me hours swearing at the screen to work that out, i have no idea why but it worked, ive always been against using mip maps in fsx for paints but less than 12mths ago i had to tick the box,

I use photoshop now to convert my files to dds, i dont have tick yes to mip maps thank god
Click to expand...

Most interesting. Thanks jeansy! I'll get that dds plugin for Photoshop then.

- Paul
 
PRB said:
Most interesting. Thanks jeansy! I'll get that dds plugin for Photoshop then.

- Paul
Click to expand...

It has more benifits using photoshop, i found that large pixels ie (4096x) and even some very fine detailed 2048x files got down scaled and txt and fine detail became blurry in the dds, with photoshop they come out crystal clear

after a while trust me, you will look back and say why didnt i do this sooner
 
Just installed the DDS NVIDIA plugin for PH. Works beautifully. Why haven't I done this before? :icon_lol: Thanks jeansy! :salute: :guinness:

- Paul
 
OK....I got that one......

At what point do you flip (invert) the image / alpha channel when you bring the DDS into Photoshop to read upright? Like wise, how do you invert the image / alpha channel back when saving back to DDS via the Photoshop Plug-in? I'm using Photoshop CS4.

Tommy
 
When you select "save as...", and select "DDS", you get a dialog with many options, among them is a check box labeled "Save Flipped Vertically". If you check that, it will automatically flip it. I haven't tried opening a dds file directly, since up to now I've been working with a paint kit, which starts out as a Photoshop file. I'm guessing if you openeda dds directly, you'd flip it manually, save it to PSD, modify it, then save it as above.

- Paul
 
jeansy said:
to be honest it just happened out of the blue for me as well, i never used it and one day they went black, took me hours swearing at the screen to work that out, i have no idea why but it worked, ive always been against using mip maps in fsx for paints but less than 12mths ago i had to tick the box,

I use photoshop now to convert my files to dds, i dont have tick yes to mip maps thank god
Click to expand...

Bonjour Paul,

Sorry to barge in on your exchange but the above happened to me a few days ago...

I had been using DXTBMP with the "save mipmaps ticked" (DXT5) and had to live with some blurries on certain angles. I decided to untick the save mipmaps and all my textures then started to appear black !

I finally solved my problem by downloading the latest version of DXTBMP with the necessary dll and bingo ! No more blurries and no more black skins...
I'm wondering if the original DXTBMP had gone bad after my reinstall of all my programs to a new pc (Windows 7 at 64 bits) this Summer...

You might want to try that route, just in case...

Good luck,

Fleurdelys
 
fleurdelys said:
Bonjour Paul,

Sorry to barge in on your exchange but the above happened to me a few days ago...

I had been using DXTBMP with the "save mipmaps ticked" (DXT5) and had to live with some blurries on certain angles. I decided to untick the save mipmaps and all my textures then started to appear black !

I finally solved my problem by downloading the latest version of DXTBMP with the necessary dll and bingo ! No more blurries and no more black skins...
I'm wondering if the original DXTBMP had gone bad after my reinstall of all my programs to a new pc (Windows 7 at 64 bits) this Summer...

You might want to try that route, just in case...

Good luck,

Fleurdelys
Click to expand...

Ahh, thanks Fleurdelys, good info. I hadn't even considred downloading the lastest version of DXTBmp. I did try re-installing it, but I installed the same version. I will go find the new one. Interesting that seems to happening to several of us all of a sudden. I wonder if a recent Windows update might have done this?

- Paul
 
PRB said:
I wonder if a recent Windows update might have done this?
Click to expand...

Actually that is a very good conjecture. There have been reports that the Win update dated 12/12 did all sorts of things to fonts and graphics. This has been rectified since (I think - because some of my fonts went missing and now are back). So might be an interesting experiment to see if the original fault persists.
 
I have been trying to get Martin Wright's site for the last 3 days with no luck, has he moved somewhere ??

Rich
 
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