DDS Utilities
by Bloodknight · in Artist Corner · 12/11/2009 (6:02 pm) · 4 replies
Firstly... i'm sober, drug free and completely sane, regardless how the next part sounds...
Some time ago, i seemingly installed some kind of utility that let me right click on a DDS file in the shell and open a dialoge that would let me change the format of the DDS file, automatically add the mipmap images to the DDS file amongst other things.
Some time after that i had a catastrophic PC failure, and had to do the usual reinstall my life procedure..
Anyway, now i'm back to wanting to do some texture work, and for the life of me i cannot find this utility, ive spend a whole 2 days almost exclusively installing rebooting etc etc and none of these utilities seems to work.
If somebody out there who cares about the sanity of a fellow developer and budding artist has *any* idea what i'm talking about and could link me to this utility i will do unspeakable things in your name, shrines, towers and maybe even name a cat after you, after all what price sanity? :)
Some time ago, i seemingly installed some kind of utility that let me right click on a DDS file in the shell and open a dialoge that would let me change the format of the DDS file, automatically add the mipmap images to the DDS file amongst other things.
Some time after that i had a catastrophic PC failure, and had to do the usual reinstall my life procedure..
Anyway, now i'm back to wanting to do some texture work, and for the life of me i cannot find this utility, ive spend a whole 2 days almost exclusively installing rebooting etc etc and none of these utilities seems to work.
If somebody out there who cares about the sanity of a fellow developer and budding artist has *any* idea what i'm talking about and could link me to this utility i will do unspeakable things in your name, shrines, towers and maybe even name a cat after you, after all what price sanity? :)
About the author
#2
Sadly the tool is out of date and does not work under Vista or Win7 and it does not support the DXT5_nm flag for normal maps (which prevents the compression from washing out the data). With that said though I still keep the tool handy on my XP machine since it still very useful for converting data around.
12/12/2009 (1:36 am)
There is an app for XP called "DDS Converter 2" which is an old but wonderful tool for quickly and easily converting existing files into DDS format.Sadly the tool is out of date and does not work under Vista or Win7 and it does not support the DXT5_nm flag for normal maps (which prevents the compression from washing out the data). With that said though I still keep the tool handy on my XP machine since it still very useful for converting data around.
#3
http://www.imageconverterplus.com
DDS info:
http://www.imageconverterplus.com/help-center/about-icp/article.php?SECTION_ID=255&ELEMENT_ID=2017&phrase_id=2194726
If you figure it out, let us know please..I am curious.
12/12/2009 (10:07 pm)
image converter plus ?http://www.imageconverterplus.com
DDS info:
http://www.imageconverterplus.com/help-center/about-icp/article.php?SECTION_ID=255&ELEMENT_ID=2017&phrase_id=2194726
If you figure it out, let us know please..I am curious.
#4
Image converter plus looks like a better version of what i was looking for, since my original utility only worked on DDS files, sadly the shell extensions only work in XP and not in Vista, however the batch convertion system is about the best ive seen.
DDS Converter ive used in times past, its a shame it doesnt work correctly in vista.
Both work flawlessly in XP, whether its worth the effort to load up a VMware or VBox solution to get xp working for image processing i'm not sure.
Oh well, i guess i'll have to think about buying image converter plus if they fix the shell extension issue
Thanks for the help guys :)
12/13/2009 (10:27 am)
Wierdness abounds..Image converter plus looks like a better version of what i was looking for, since my original utility only worked on DDS files, sadly the shell extensions only work in XP and not in Vista, however the batch convertion system is about the best ive seen.
DDS Converter ive used in times past, its a shame it doesnt work correctly in vista.
Both work flawlessly in XP, whether its worth the effort to load up a VMware or VBox solution to get xp working for image processing i'm not sure.
Oh well, i guess i'll have to think about buying image converter plus if they fix the shell extension issue
Thanks for the help guys :)
Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]
Pfft! That's what they all say!
I'm not sure that this is what you're looking for but ... on the Nvidia Dev site they have a DDS viewer ...? Maybe not the right one ...
Though after my last "catastrophic PC fail" I've not actually reinstalled it, or a whole load of other things.