Which compression?

[DocMoebius]

I'm creating some material swaps at the moment with CC0 textures and I need to convert them from png to dds. So far, I always did it this way: Normals = BC5, Specular = BC4, Diffuse = BC3, but I just read a tutorial that uses BC3 for everything. So what's the right way to do it?

[DieFeM]

I've checked some vanilla textures and the most common compression is BC1/BC3 for diffuse and BC5 for specular and normal.

I check/compress the textures with DirectXTex (https://github.com/microsoft/DirectXTex/releases), note that it is a command line tool.

 

This is the command I use to check for the compression:

texdiag.exe info texture.dds

 

To make it easier, I use a batch script where I drop the dds file and it shows the info:

@echo off

C:\DirectXTex\texdiag.exe info %1

pause

[DocMoebius]

Thanks. I'll take experiment a lil bit.

 

Edit: Alright, it seems that specular maps need to be BC5 or else they just won't work. That's at least what happened to me when trying to create material swaps for buildings. The only problem left is that I get micro FPS drops from 60 to 59 when walking around my 2k textured walls in an empty cell.

Edited March 31, 2020 by DocMoebius

[Oynlen]

I have made bc3 speculates before I knew what I was doing. They work on NPCs as in, they reduce the shinyness the darker you make them and the the brighter areas are more reflective.

 

But bc5 is what I use now for both normal and spec. Never tried bc4?

[jkruse05]

I use BC5 for everything. BC3 will work for diffuse, but can sometimes result in quality drop. Just check your textures afterword and make sure they look okay.