NVidia DDS plugin problem

[Stemin]

I'm using the NVidia plugin with Adobe CS5. I really don't have any formal training with this stuff so I'm trying to learn as I go and I recently figured out (With the help of someone on this forum) how to add an alpha layer to my normal map to help with light shading in game. It was suggested I save as a

"DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha"

and I have been doing that for my normal maps. But the problem I'm running into is I have a real headache of a time now getting the NVidia filter to switch back to colormap when I'm making edits to the actual texture. I go into the "Image Options" folder and change it to colormap, click ok, but when I go back in I see it immediately has changed back to Normal Map Tangent space. The 2d and 3d previews reflect that.

 

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[cain9580]

All the maps can be kept on separate files. I use a .psd for diffuse,normal, and environment. I keep all three open when editing so I can just duplicate from color to normal, desaturate to make normal map, then duplicate from normal to environment. It works best if you make a copy of the desaturated layer before you do a normal so you can copy and paste it to the alpha layer on the normal map.

 

Make sure you group your layers according to the location on the actual model so you can quickly change something if you need to.