Gimp or AMD Compressonator image saving help

[Eu4orick]

Hey there,

 

I don't have a clue how textures are usually saved as when it comes to DDS formating within these programs GIMP & AMD Compressonator. More pacifically in GIMP!

 

Diffuse map / or how I understand the major color texture: how is it saved uncompressed or compressed and what format. For gimp there is RGB8 and then some more within the list to choose...

 

 

Same goes for the normal maps, as I understand end with _msn for Skrim: What format would they go to.

 

Then there are things like wrap and mipmap and other options which the only one I understand is mipmap. I've been avoiding mips because whatever I do wrong with saving these different types of textures I usually get a character looking a bit blocky for some reason. 

 

My goal is to get the best quality possible with the images I edit until I run out of Vram or stability before I start mucking about with performance tweaking with compression etc.

 

hope someone can help me please?

[Absurdity]

Hey there,

 

I don't have a clue how textures are usually saved as when it comes to DDS formating within these programs GIMP & AMD Compressonator. More pacifically in GIMP!

 

Diffuse map / or how I understand the major color texture: how is it saved uncompressed or compressed and what format. For gimp there is RGB8 and then some more within the list to choose...

 

 

Same goes for the normal maps, as I understand end with _msn for Skrim: What format would they go to.

 

Then there are things like wrap and mipmap and other options which the only one I understand is mipmap. I've been avoiding mips because whatever I do wrong with saving these different types of textures I usually get a character looking a bit blocky for some reason. 

 

My goal is to get the best quality possible with the images I edit until I run out of Vram or stability before I start mucking about with performance tweaking with compression etc.

 

hope someone can help me please?

 

The blocky look normally comes from compressing the normal map ,never export it as anything but Default (which saves it as RGBA8 as far as I can remember) or RGB8. RGBA8 is for textures with an alpha channel, for example transparent textures.

I'd generally not compress character textures as the quality loss is pretty obvious.

 

Exporting a texture with mip maps can be useful for performance because from what I read they're used to reduce the texture resolution the further away you are from the object.

 

[Groovtama]

Category = Speed/Quality

Diffuse(no alpha) = DXT1/8.8.8

Diffuse(alpha) = DXT5/8.8.8.8

Normal(no alpha) = 8.8.8

Normal(alpha) = 8.8.8.8

(Specular[_s]) = DXT1 (normally contains no alpha)

(Glow/skin reflection[_sk]) = DXT1 (normally contains no alpha)

 

Leave mipmaps on for anything because they are performance saving for smalll objects in the distance.

 

Compress objects by importance, for example for your PC use uncompressed diffuse textures and stuff, for NPC use compressed. For really large objects that stretch the texture much through UV mapping use uncompressed for unstretching ones compressed.

[Eu4orick]

cheers