Converting .BMP to .DDS advice needed

[genolune]

I want to state this up front: I moved several times this year, changed computers, lost programs, files, etc. that I used to use for Fallout 4 so forgive me if it seems like I should already know this stuff. I lucked out a little in that my signature has some old references that I can comb over to find something hopefully.

 

I am working on creating realistic world maps for New Vegas, using the raw bitmaps provided here https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/57245/? to be compatible with Fallout New Vegas and the instructions & Shiloh’s mods detailed here https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/58602/?

 

The end result is going to be high quality topographical maps for all of the game for those like me who like to spot some interesting building or detail on the map and travel there to check it out.

 

Questions:
1) How do I determine the file size in pixels of the .BMP? Hovering over the file Mojave Wasteland - Pristine.bmp gives me a size of 6472x6475. Am I correct in remembering that the file size must be a power of 2, ie (1024x1024, 2048x2048, 4096x4096)?

2) How do I determine the file size in pixels of the .DDS file? What is a good program that is free that will allow me to view the .BMP and .DDS file size in pixels and edit the size and convert to .DDS?

3) Less of a question and more of a statement, but the end result is a replacer for the following file Data\Textures\interface\worldmapwasteland_nv_1024_no_map.dds Once I get the correct tools and procedures down, then I can go about making the whole mod as I have all the original files, filepaths, and bitmaps on my computer.

[nightscrawl]

For a free program, you can use Gimp to view/create dds.

 

Any image program, even Microsoft Paint, will allow you to see the pixel dimensions of the image you open with it.

 

Ideally, you would open the default image you're going to be replacing and see what size that is and then just edit your new image accordingly. And yes, your new image will need to be in those dimensions, just like the default image is: 1024, 2048, 4096, etc.

[madmongo]

GIMP, Paint.Net (not the Paint that comes with windows), and Photoshop can all handle dds files. Photoshop isn't free. GIMP and Paint.Net are both free. With GIMP you'll need a dds plugin. Older versions of Paint.Net required a dds plugin but newer versions come with dds support built-in. Both GIMP and Paint.Net allow you to view the current image size and resize it to whatever size is desired. Of the two, I personally find Paint.Net to be more intuitive and easier to use but GIMP is more powerful at certain things. GIMP is probably the more popular of the two among modders here. Either works, so really it just comes down to personal preference.

 

Images should be powers of two, as was already noted (256, 512, 1024, 2048, etc). Note that FNV is an old 32 bit game, and its texture caching system is known to be a bit buggy (it seems to be one of the main things responsible for the game getting slower and slower and possibly crashing if you play for several hours at a time). The more textures you load and the bigger textures you load, the more you tax the texture caching system. So it's a trade-off. You can have a game that looks prettier and crashes more often, or you can have a game that is more stable but has lower resolution textures with less detail. You can't have both. I personally am a bit reluctant to use textures over 1024 x 1024 for my stuff unless it is something that absolutely has to have that extra level of detail.

 

I have noticed that some folks are creating textures that don't work on all of the different texture quality settings. I'm not sure why this is. Any texture that I have created in GIMP or Paint.Net has worked fine. I don't know if they have the export settings wrong or if it's something else going on. Maybe they are using Photoshop (which I've never used because it costs money and the free tools work) and maybe it's something with the settings in Photoshop or something. I dunno. Whatever you use, if you plan on releasing it to the public, make sure it works with all of the different texture settings. For those textures that are screwed up, simply opening them up in Paint.Net and saving them will fix them.