SSE texture compression, formats, optimization, and tools?

[Tylersteinfeldt01]

So this is a really in depth question. First, What is the best format to use wih SSE textures? What tools can be used/downloaded for free to achieve this? Is there a tool that compresses and/or formats the texture to said optimal format?

I read on a link- https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/5h6c0p/texture_compression_and_you_skyrim_se_edition/ -that BC7 is the best format for normal maps, but I'm really looking for a way to do this in bulk, for all textures (not just normals), and for free. As well as compression tool like Ordenator textures for 32bit Skyrim https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801/

So far I've been unable to find anything useful.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Tylersteinfeldt01

[Deleted3897072User]

BC7 is the best there is because it is lossless, but note that if your files are previously been compressed, for example as DXT5, you will gain nothing by converting them to BC7 because the detail has already been lost. It's only worth doing if your sources have never been compressed.

 

That said, yes, you can do it in bulk and for free.

 

There is a tool called texconv which is an exe file that would normally be run in a command window. You can download it from, for example, http://www.2shared.com/file/ggJNPmfk/TexConv.html. It needs a file called VComp120.dll which you may have to download separately. I got mine from https://fix4dll.com/vcomp120_dll

There are some utilities around that provide front ends to texconv but I haven't found one that I like, so I just run it from a .bat file. If you put the .exe and the .dll in a folder somewhere, make in and out subfolders, then make a .bat file with the line

texconv.exe -f BC7_UNORM -o out in\*.dds

it will convert all the dds files in your 'in' folder to BC7 and put them in the 'out' folder.

 

Hope this helps.

[Niborino9409]

I was told to try this when I wanted to reduce the size of textures :smile:

 

Optimizer Textures (Ordenador)

Edited November 27, 2017 by Niborino9409

[Tylersteinfeldt01]

BC7 is the best there is because it is lossless, but note that if your files are previously been compressed, for example as DXT5, you will gain nothing by converting them to BC7 because the detail has already been lost. It's only worth doing if your sources have never been compressed.

 

That said, yes, you can do it in bulk and for free.

 

There is a tool called texconv which is an exe file that would normally be run in a command window. You can download it from, for example, http://www.2shared.com/file/ggJNPmfk/TexConv.html. It needs a file called VComp120.dll which you may have to download separately. I got mine from https://fix4dll.com/vcomp120_dll

 

There are some utilities around that provide front ends to texconv but I haven't found one that I like, so I just run it from a .bat file. If you put the .exe and the .dll in a folder somewhere, make in and out subfolders, then make a .bat file with the line

texconv.exe -f BC7_UNORM -o out in\*.dds

it will convert all the dds files in your 'in' folder to BC7 and put them in the 'out' folder.

 

Hope this helps.

Great Info! Thanks!

[Tylersteinfeldt01]

I was told to try this when I wanted to reduce the size of textures :smile:

 

Optimizer Textures (Ordenador)

It's great for 32 bit skyrim, but using it on sse textures is said to cause instability and quality issues. There was a sse version but it got taken down bc it was so broken.

[loik2]

.

Edited June 28, 2018 by loik2

[tomomi1922]

One small annoyance, I can't get BC7 to show as thumbnail for Windows 10's Explorer. It only shows the Photoshop icon.

[TheWilloughbian]

If you want to use DXT5, paint.net seems to have a little better compression than GIMP. I usually edit my textures with GIMP and save them uncompressed then compress them with paint.net. Paint.net also has a plugin available that will open BC7. However you have to rename the file extension to ".DDS2" for it to work.

 

If you want to use BC7, Compressonator will do it.