.dds files

[BladeHeart]

Where SH3 used TGA files for its textures, this game would appear to use dds files.

Could anyone please tell me what "dds" stands for and even what program can open and edit that type of file?

Thanks

[WilhelmTell]

dds stands for direct draw surface I think. You can edit them with photoshop or paintshop pro. But you need a plugin for it from the nvidia site I believe. I'll post a link later...

*edit* Here you can find the Windows Texture Viewer that can read DDS. A link for the plugin is there as well.
--> http://www.nvidia.de/object/windows_texture_viewer.html

[FooFighters]

dds stands for direct draw surface I think. You can edit them with photoshop or paintshop pro. But you need a plugin for it from the nvidia site I believe. I'll post a link later...

*edit* Here you can find the Windows Texture Viewer that can read DDS. A link for the plugin is there as well.
--> http://www.nvidia.de/object/windows_texture_viewer.html

I use DXT bmp to convert from DDS to BMP and visa versa..
It's freeware. Big advantage is that you can also see alpha layers.

http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm
Download link on bottom of page

:up:

[tater]

paint.net is freeware, and it opens both tga and dds files.

tater

[Hawk_345]

you could aslo use GIMP which is freewear, you just have to find and download the .dds plug in.

[DeepIron]

This is a updated variation of the Gimp: http://www.gimphoto.com/ (nice interface, works great!)

The .dds plugin is here: http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/

DTXBmp: http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm

I've been using these to work on SH4 textures. If you convert images to .dds format, you may want to use the DXT5 encoding option if your image has an alpha layer. DXT1 works fine without alpha and SH4 reads both formats.

Cheers!

[BladeHeart]

Thank you gentlemen; plenty of scope there to choose from. :up: