GIMP plugin to open SSE .dds files?

[Anunya]

I have a dds plugin for gimp, but it only opens a limited subset of .dds files.

 

Does anyone know where to get a plugin that can open all the different .dds files used in SSE? Ideally from an official type site? I've googled a fair bit, but so far have been unable to find anything useful.

 

Slowly working my way towards making some content, but it seems to be a long journey...

[t.ara]

the dds formats are seriously generated by using photoshop with an official dds-exporter-tool for developers. This can become achieved by creating an account at nvidia and then you have access to all the developer´s tools, which are made to support professional software. GIMP also has an dds exporter (tool), but it is more simple and mostly working for more handier formats of the past.

If u create new assets and new textures for objects, you can do that by using substance-painter, which allows to export the suiting texture files for skyrim se with additional maps, which have not been used inside of oldrim.

If working with GIMP, I would export two or one diffuse map only, suiting to SLE and also use that inside of sse, 2K is an ideal size for both games. Normal maps you can do with xNormal if you know how to use high resolution generated surfaces (zBrush) and use those during the process of normal-mapping with the correct angulary setting for skyrim.

Photoshop is little sad in handling in compare with GIMP but it is possible to easily learn the workflow for some new or existing textures, to be remade and working inside of skyrim.

Photoshop 2 is free available and uses also a little older support for dds-export and normal-map creation-but i think it can ´t use this latest professional dds-exporter. But you can load that and look if photoshop is interesting for you at least.

The software, if not running in 64bit mode maybe can´t work with the dds-files, coming and handled by skyrim sse. GIMP still is installed in the x32-software folder, but it´s meant to be with 64-bit support. Maybe the manufactors made those formats of dds depend on the version of software for 64-bit, only. Old photoshop may not open the sse-format-textures!...From my logical way of thinking, this should ONLY depend of the importer-tool and exporter-tool and not of the software and it´s programmed format.

[traison]

Gimp's plugin has always been 10 years behind in development.

 

The way I do it is by using Microsoft's DirectXTex together with Gimp. It's manual work, but can be easily automated with various 3rd party tools. No priated software required, no accounts that will track your every movement. No always-online requirements.

 

"It just works." - T. Howard

[t.ara]

you can try if this is working for you:

 

You put this here:    

 

G:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

 

It has quite various setting possibilities but the latest new formats may be missing.

This will in any case support everything which is handled in OLDRIM.

 

p.s. "G:\" is here at the moment one of my SSD-path as I am creating a new installation by using some different SSD s for data-transfering....(sorry)-for you it maybe is "C:\"

 

 

 

dds.exe

Edited March 11, 2023 by t.ara

[t.ara]

The nvidia exporter I use for photoshop is free, but you need to have an account at nvidia, as mentioned...it offers all the formats and also is handling complexer formats.

In any case would I create my textures at first for SKYRIM and if really wanted/needed for SSE. And you can also use all textures of SLE directly inside of SSE-no problem.

[t.ara]

If you use photoshop 2, let me know, I also have nvidia tools for that older version, specially supporting those formats. (but: not working for the SSE-stuff!!)

[t.ara]

Beside it´s not bad to have normal-map-creator (free$), xNormal (free$) and maybe PIXPLANT (not free$), which is in between really GREAT for seamless-texture-creations, which are all used in skyrim on spacy objects like walls and brick-walls, ground-floors and so on...you can mix textures and edit them in a very decent way:

Beside creating seamless textures, this app can export lot of formats and you can trim very fast a nice looking normal-map as well.

 

 

[Anunya]

Thanks for all the replies - a little more complexity than I was initially hoping for so it'll take me a bit to process

 

I'm using GIMP because it's free and has no registration, so it was (I thought) the path of least resistance. I can actually export functional .dds files (as in, I see them in game though I haven't gotten all the settings right).

 

The main thing I'm trying to figure out right now is how to open skin texture files as I want to use them as reference as I work on the overlays.

 

Lots of info here which I appreciate. I'll try to work through it and see if I can get anywhere  

 

If I can get my overlays working with SE I'll happily try to get them for LE as well, but step one is just... you know, making them and getting into the game on my own machine.

[traison]

Gimps plugin can't open new dds files. Like I said it's 10 years behind in development. Microsoft's DirectXTex can. Paint.Net apparently can as well but it may not be free.

[Anunya]

Okay, I downloaded paint.net (the free version, but if this proves useful I'll get a paid version) and it can open the skin files, so that's ONE STEP closer to success  

 

Of course, the tutorial I'm following references using GIMP and PS, not paint.net but hopefully I can work my way through. If not, this forum will probably see more posts from me

 

Thanks again!

[DeathApproaches]

Stop. You're doing it wrong. :-) You should not be tied to a specific graphics editor to do this. That's the point. gimp, if you already know gimp, is your best tool. Or if you know photoshop, then photoshop is the best tool.

 

As everyone is telling you, the .dds format isn't a set solid-ground standard, it's a collection of, what, a dozen subformats? They have names usually BC#... but expecting anyone's tools but the guy that created it to handle everything is going to be a paid program, for sure. That's a lot of work! Just the variants of how many layers can be embedded, or the dozen compression formats? Good luck!

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/texture-block-compression-in-direct3d-11

 

"a little more complexity than I was initially hoping for"

 

Hmm. Is that a problem? If not? Hey I would tell you to make it MORE complex. Seriously. Because it's predictable behaviour then. Use a Microsoft tool to convert to some intermediary format, do your UV texture editing magic, then re-assemble your various layers as a .dds for whatever level of BC# and compression support you need. Baddabing!

 

The DirectX# Tooklits are free too. Since we're talking SSE, here's the link to DX11TK: https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXTK

 

I am partial to command line tools, and I don't know how to do this without my command line tools, so if you're OK with manual tools, https://github.com/microsoft/DirectXTex/  This is command line stuff, texconv.exe texassemble.exe and texdiag.exe (they work standalone you don't need the DX11TK per se, but I'd get everything if I were you.) Just click Releases and grab the 3 .exes directly, put them wherever you want.

 

If you want to see the kinds of stuff that game developers (modders too!)  have to put up with? I highly suggest Chuck Walbourn's blog... see if you like "Living without D3Dx" (it's a decade old and still relevant, how cool is that?)

 

If you find that interesting reading? You might be a games developer!

[Anunya]

I'm not an engineer / coder, alas. As for graphics packages, I'm passingly familiar with PS and GIMP, but not so much there's a big loss in switching from one to the other or to paint.net. And if there is, it's not like it's a problem to work in GIMP, save it as a common format, and then open it in paint.net to save it as a .dds

 

Which leads to the next question. Saving as a .dds gives me a whole lot of options. Any idea which one is appropriate for SSE (and LE, for that matter)? Or are they all fine?

 

The (old) tutorial (for LE, though I'm on SE) says it should be DTX5 ARGB, which you'll notice is not on the list below. I'm going to pick B5G5R51 on the theory that it has 5 and ARGB in it... but it's not a choice I make with great confidence.

 

[anjenthedog]

FWIW... I use Paint Dot Net for DDS editing. It has native DDS support (not sure if it natively supports every variant but it lists quite a few @ around 2dozen). And it's donationware.

 

If your DDS work isn't too complex and whichever OS you use isn't incompatible, I might suggest considering giving it a try

 

 

[Anunya]

Hurray!

 

I now have my test image files appearing on my character in racemenu, more or less as expected. They are significantly uglier than I imagined - even for my simple tests - so now I'll have to work in the paint program to make it look better. That (like everything else) will probably end up being harder than told myself it'd be.

 

And yeah, it ended up being paint.net that was the final step.

 

Thanks for the input everyone - very helpful 

 

... one step closer.

[t.ara]

2 hours ago, Anunya said:

Hurray!

 

I now have my test image files appearing on my character in racemenu, more or less as expected. They are significantly uglier than I imagined - even for my simple tests - so now I'll have to work in the paint program to make it look better. That (like everything else) will probably end up being harder than told myself it'd be.

 

And yeah, it ended up being paint.net that was the final step.

 

Thanks for the input everyone - very helpful 

 

... one step closer.

Such overlays you are talking about have to be made by using the 3dmodel which you can paint on-without any further skin...this painting later will become overlayed with the skin Photoshop/Gimp....in that way will you get the structure of paintings at those places, where you are awaiting them..this is a job inside of substance-painter or others, comparable apps. You need in any case the body with the UV-mapping as a starting point 3D-model.

[traison]

BC7 for SSE/AE, BC3 for LE and before. However, different types of textures may require different formats. Also, if you don't want 4 GiB skin textures, you'd want to find a format that is both compatible, has all the features you need and has the most optimal compression to quality ratio. ie. do you need the alpha channel? That list paint.net is giving you doesn't seem to be listing the supported channels, but back in the day it was basically DXT1 (BC1) for anything without alpha, and DXT5 (BC3) for everything else. Easiest way to figure this out is probably to open existing textures and checking what format they were saved in.

[t.ara]

DXT1, DXT3, DXT5, or 5.6.5. Is supporting by all the mentioned software/apps with suiting plugins, if made well, this stuff is looking well enough and works perfect between 256MB-1K-2K filesizes. (SKYRIM, LE, SLE, SSE, SKYRIM SE)

SE is BC7 compatible, mostly looking like uncompressed, but SSE still has lot of crappy textures, which died after auto-converting and sharpening, done by bethesda´s texture-overhaul-job. Photoshop plugins: intel plugin, nvidia plugin, gimp no way.  Attention! 4K and BC 7 is no garant for quality-textures which can be compared with ease between both games!!! (SKYRIM SE, SSE).

 

[t.ara]

30 minutes ago, traison said:

BC7 for SSE/AE, BC3 for LE and before. However, different types of textures may require different formats. Also, if you don't want 4 GiB skin textures, you'd want to find a format that is both compatible, has all the features you need and has the most optimal compression to quality ratio. ie. do you need the alpha channel? That list paint.net is giving you doesn't seem to be listing the supported channels, but back in the day it was basically DXT1 (BC1) for anything without alpha, and DXT5 (BC3) for everything else. Easiest way to figure this out is probably to open existing textures and checking what format they were saved in.

Yes, and if working well, one is creating LIGHT-weighted stuff in quality, which looks much more nicer than to use the latest technology and blow onto the quads 4K and upper for no reason. THis texture-job means to get LOT of experience, which can´t be reached after some few days of work...it is a job which is based on years of practising.

[Anunya]

 

8 hours ago, t.ara said:

Such overlays you are talking about have to be made by using the 3dmodel which you can paint on-without any further skin...this painting later will become overlayed with the skin Photoshop/Gimp....in that way will you get the structure of paintings at those places, where you are awaiting them..this is a job inside of substance-painter or others, comparable apps. You need in any case the body with the UV-mapping as a starting point 3D-model.

 

That might be where I end up, I suppose. Thanks for the pointers. Still learning  

[t.ara]

On 3/12/2023 at 5:36 PM, Anunya said:

 

 

That might be where I end up, I suppose. Thanks for the pointers. Still learning  

Yes, we can not do everything...we need to let also some tasks for others:-)))-?

But if you like you can look some videos related to substance-painter on utup:-)))