[REL] SH 5 Lifeboats

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by SteelViking

Like I said, I made this change in Zedi's campaign files, and I did not see a difference. But, I would think things might run smoother if we were in fact pointing to the correct texture file.

Game engine doesn't care. If it can't find .tga and there is a .dds available (same name) it will use it. If both are available it will use the .dds.

I left the ships with Zedi's campaign as .tga in case someone wanted to use .tgas instead of .dds. Remember .dds is a compressed format that has to be uncompressed. TGA is not.

[SteelViking]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

Game engine doesn't care. If it can't find .tga and there is a .dds available (same name) it will use it. If both are available it will use the .dds.

I left the ships with Zedi's campaign as .tga in case someone wanted to use .tgas instead of .dds. Remember .dds is a compressed format that has to be uncompressed. TGA is not.

I figured the game engine didn't really have problem with seeing the wrong file extension since it still renders the textures, but I don't see why we should be telling it the wrong one when we know exactly what it is. It is one more operation for the game engine to deal with......

Edit: Also, .dds files only get compressed if you tell GIMP to compress them, otherwise it leaves them uncompressed. Where as Photoshop requires them to be compressed.....just one of the reasons I will never switch to Photoshop.

2nd Edit: Just look at my interior mod, I didn't compress any of the textures because .dds compression damages images.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by SteelViking

I figured the game engine didn't really have problem with seeing the wrong file extension since it still renders the textures, but I don't see why we should be telling it the wrong one when we know exactly what it is. It is one more operation for the game engine to deal with......

Not really. All of that is loaded/figured out at game start. If you think it's doing it dynamically then pick a texture and change it while in game. See if the game engine uses the new texture.

[brett25]

thanks for this excellent mod

[SteelViking]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

Not really. All of that is loaded/figured out at game start. If you think it's doing it dynamically then pick a texture and change it while in game. See if the game engine uses the new texture.

Good point, wasn't thinking about it in terms of program overhead, but still. We know we are dealing with .dds files, why not tell it to look for a .dds? I just don't see an advantage.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by SteelViking

Good point, wasn't thinking about it in terms of program overhead, but still. We know we are dealing with .dds files, why not tell it to look for a .dds? I just don't see an advantage.

The only advantage I see to leaving them as .tga is so that users who can't make .dds files can still make .tga files for them. Trying to cater to the broadest range of users is why I left them as .tga.

[SteelViking]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

The only advantage I see to leaving them as .tga is so that users who can't make .dds files can still make .tga files for them. Trying to cater to the broadest range of users is why I left them as .tga.

Anyone who can make .tga files can make .dds files. If they can't, as in they don't have the right GIMP plug in, they can ask me for it, I will give it to them.

Edit: I really think we need to strive to clean up our mods, that is make them as stable as possible. Leaving loose ends like file extensions that are not correct seems like an unnecessary risk. But, I don't wish to argue, if this how everyone wants them left, so be it.