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Alternate options for BC7 texture work?


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I have an ancient Photoshop CS3 and cannot possibly afford the latest Photoshop version that the Intel texture plugin requires. Are there any other options for opening and creating a BC7 file? As long as it can convert to/from an uncompressed DDS file, I think it'll be good to go.

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Gimp 2.0 will open and save the _n.dds and _s.dds files with the associated plugin installed.

 

Paint.net will open the _d.dds files without issue.

 

You don't have to use BC7 for compression, the game will happily load BC5 files, which Paint.net can open and save natively.

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But I'd like to have the capacity to save normal maps as BC7, since that's the least compression-mutilating to normal maps.

Well, realistically there isn't any noticeable difference, unless you are specifically building textures to run only at 4K. BC5 is perfectly fine for the level of quality required for FO4's game engine.

 

There is also the fact that anyone not running a system with Bugthesda's "requirements" for their HR texture pack, will have pop-in issues and poorer performance if you use BC7.

 

Apart from the plugins for Photoshop, I don't of any consumer level tools yet available though. There "might" be some developer level tools around, but I'm not how "user friendly" they will be, and they will be very slow to compress your textures.

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  • 6 months later...

I'm surprised nobody pointed out the obviousness that is Elric which is part of the Fallout 4 CK. It interfaces with the xtexconv.exe that is also included so you can batch convert a folder or one by one. Just save as uncompressed (suggested for less quality loss) and it will let you specify an output type and convert to that.

 

I haven't tested but it might even be able to take other formats for input (ie tga) and convert to your desired BC3/5/7 DDS.

 

Edit: And I just realized someone necro'd a very old post. Oh well still my content is relevant.

Edited by BigAndFlabby
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