pain.net & .dds ? Heelp

[mofailed999]

Hello so i used to mess around with oldrim textures using gimp. Using the skyrim anniversary GOG 1.6.659.0 I discovered that gimp can't see any .dds files anymore so i'm trying paint.net which can see/create the .dds images needed for the game.

 

Question is can anyone explain how to save a .dds image through paint.net?

 

There are so many different settings to choose from? If i don't choose the correct settings the image will fail to work in game.

 

EDIT: ok its BC3 (Linear,DXT5) setting & "generate mip maps" ticked. Hope this helps someone.

Edited November 23, 2022 by mofailed999

[anjenthedog]

If you load an image file, (rather than starting from scratch with a blank page) Paint.Net will automatically choose the right image format for saving. or should I say, it will choose the native format of the image being edited.

[mofailed999]

If you load an image file, (rather than starting from scratch with a blank page) Paint.Net will automatically choose the right image format for saving. or should I say, it will choose the native format of the image being edited.

 

Thanks i'm getting the hang of it i think.

[anjenthedog]

Yup. looks more bite than it is. (IMO) Unless you have reason not to do so, just accept the defaults it presents for dds save format when the save-file dialog comes up. That will preserve the original format.

[LostForrest]

The format of the dds needs to be the right size in order for skyrim to work. The game only works with squares. I suggest you take any existing dds file that the game uses and replace the texure with your own texture. When it asks to change the size don't allow. You can simply copy photo's from anywhere and past into paint.net. To get existing dds files extract from the base game file with BAE extractor. You will find it as skyrim - texures.bsa file. Applying texures is one thing but you might also want to set the correct UV-map in nifscope. This is fairly basic and should be properly coverd in yt turorials.

Edited December 11, 2022 by DarkBlade13

[0000000000000000000000]

BC7 maybe is better choise? I use Paint.net & I'm saving images to bc7 format. Works fine in SE. I'm not good for explaining. Maybe this article help https://wiki.beyondskyrim.org/wiki/Arcane_University:DDS_Data_Format

[Algabar]

BC7 maybe is better choise? I use Paint.net & I'm saving images to bc7 format. Works fine in SE. I'm not good for explaining. Maybe this article help https://wiki.beyondskyrim.org/wiki/Arcane_University:DDS_Data_Format

Yep. BC7 is your "go to "format. BC5 is only necessary, if you need an additional alpha channecl (e.g. for transparency). Otherwise, BC5 is just a waste of disk space and memory.

[xrayy]

BC7 is not lossless but it has a far superior compression compared to BC3 dxt 5. be aware it is not compatible to skyrim le and other dx 9 related games using dds files. dx9 games will crash if you try to use BC7 compressed dds textures instead of BC3 dxt5. i use paint net to convert lossless gimp related textures (tga format) to HQ BC7 dds format.

[anjenthedog]

If you're simply editing an existing dds in Paint dot Net, as I believe the OP was learning to do, I really don't see the need to fuss with changing formats. It just complicates the matter. He or she can experiment later.