Best program to view & edit texture files?

[gap]

Originally Posted by kevinsue

Could someone please tell me which is the best format and program to view and edit these texture files? Many of the .dds files are impossible to see what they actually are, so obviously they are produced in their native format then converted to .dds when complete. Just wondering if it's worth buying Photoshop or something similar?

Hi Kevin

The DDS compression format used for SH5 textures is pretty standard, and any freeware photo editing software should be able opening and/or editing them. IIRC, in Paint.NET DDS file format support is native, whereas if your software of election is GIMP you need for a third-party plugin.

By looking at the screen-capture you posted, I think I know your problem. I start by saying that I never used Paint.NET. Anyway, from what I could collect from the web, I think that the said program merges automatically the RGB with the alpha channel when one is found, treating the latter as an opacity mask (thus the transparent or semi-transparent areas), rather than showing the two of them on two different layers, the way most software do. On a side note, SH5 can use alpha channels both as opacity and specular masks. Probably there are ways to remedy that limitation (I have read about a DXTbmp plugin for Paint.NET), but I am not sure about it. IMO the best idea is switching to GIMP.

Originally Posted by kevinsue

Yeah...I just downloaded Gimp 2.8 and got it working so I'll give that a go when I can get a .dds plugin. Their website is being spammed at the moment so I can't register for their plugins... I'm also hoping that the texture master might be able to point me in the right direction.

Please follow the link below:
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/e...d-for-gimp-2.8

You might also be interested into the normalmap plugin, which allows you to create bump maps from regular textures, see how here (you don't need to swap green and blue channels in SH5)

Another simple tool I use for checking stock texture's properties (compression format, alpha channel, mip levels, etc.), is AMD's The Compressonator, available from the link below:
http://developer.amd.com/tools-and-s...ompressonator/

It is also capable of saving DDS files and it has limited editing functions, but as for that you should better rely on other full-featured programs, as GIMP