Custom Texture Tool PS v50.1

[LuismaSP]

(09-05-2017, 07:26 AM)Bighead Wrote: This is the one that is used:
https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXTex/releases/download/jul2017/texconv.exe

BC7 can not be viewed natively by Windows. If you want to test to see if the image is working correctly, go to the "Advanced" options of the script and load the "Basic Image Viewer". Drag and drop the image and it should display.

Like Psycho, i can´t  "Install" the DirectX TexConv since it´s a DOS program. And i can´t figure how to use it with the Custom Texture Tool PS v26.1. If i open the Custom Texture Tool PS v26.1, in the "Options" section > DDS Generating program, i only see the ImageMagick program, and i can´t change it to another like the DirectX TexConv or the Compressonator (Already installed it).

Please, could you tell us how we can do this? I´m trying to convert a .DDS image (DXT3) to DDS (BC7) and i tried everything. Even with the compressonator itself, and it tells me all the time "Processing compresed source and compressed destination is not supported"  

Thanks in advance!

[Techie Android]

(09-05-2017, 12:57 PM)LuismaSP Wrote: Like Psycho, i can´t  "Install" the DirectX TexConv since it´s a DOS program. And i can´t figure how to use it with the Custom Texture Tool PS v26.1. If i open the Custom Texture Tool PS v26.1, in the "Options" section > DDS Generating program, i only see the ImageMagick program, and i can´t change it to another like the DirectX TexConv or the Compressonator (Already installed it).

Please, could you tell us how we can do this? I´m trying to convert a .DDS image (DXT3) to DDS (BC7) and i tried everything. Even with the compressonator itself, and it tells me all the time "Processing compresed source and compressed destination is not supported"  

Thanks in advance!

Have you added the file to the default location that the Custom Texture Tool looks for it at?

[LuismaSP]

(09-05-2017, 12:57 PM)LuismaSP Wrote: Like Psycho, i can´t  "Install" the DirectX TexConv since it´s a DOS program. And i can´t figure how to use it with the Custom Texture Tool PS v26.1. If i open the Custom Texture Tool PS v26.1, in the "Options" section > DDS Generating program, i only see the ImageMagick program, and i can´t change it to another like the DirectX TexConv or the Compressonator (Already installed it).

Please, could you tell us how we can do this? I´m trying to convert a .DDS image (DXT3) to DDS (BC7) and i tried everything. Even with the compressonator itself, and it tells me all the time "Processing compresed source and compressed destination is not supported"  

Thanks in advance!

Ooops, my fault, i changed the path in the script and now works

Only need to see where is the option, to convert the BC7 using alpha channel.

[Bighead]

(09-05-2017, 12:57 PM)LuismaSP Wrote: Like Psycho, i can´t  "Install" the DirectX TexConv since it´s a DOS program. And i can´t figure how to use it with the Custom Texture Tool PS v26.1. If i open the Custom Texture Tool PS v26.1, in the "Options" section > DDS Generating program, i only see the ImageMagick program, and i can´t change it to another like the DirectX TexConv or the Compressonator (Already installed it).

ImageMagick, DDS Utilities, and Compressonator are the only programs that can be "installed". The reason the script can pick these up without configuration is because their installers create entries in the registry for these programs that contain the install path which I can grab. Compressonator seems to change every version, so that only works for so long... For everything else, the "Configure Paths" button in the options allows changing the paths to the various programs, but I'm assuming from your second post you figured that out already.

(09-05-2017, 12:57 PM)LuismaSP Wrote: I´m trying to convert a .DDS image (DXT3) to DDS (BC7) and i tried everything. Even with the compressonator itself, and it tells me all the time "Processing compresed source and compressed destination is not supported"

Two things here. First, why do you want to convert a DXTn texture to BC7? You will not gain anything from this, except lose compatibility with older graphics cards. Second, Compressonator by itself does not allow converting DDS to DDS through CLI. I believe the GUI can do this IIRC. The script uses a few tricks to pull this off by first converting the image to PNG using ImageMagick or TexConv, then using Compressonator to create a DDS image.

(09-05-2017, 01:05 PM)LuismaSP Wrote: Ooops, my fault, i changed the path in the script and now works

Only need to see where is the option, to convert the BC7 using alpha channel.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. BC7 fully supports alpha channels by default and requires no configuration. If you convert an image with transparency to BC7, the transparency will be kept.

[LuismaSP]

(09-05-2017, 03:59 PM)Bighead Wrote: ImageMagick, DDS Utilities, and Compressonator are the only programs that can be "installed". The reason the script can pick these up without configuration is because their installers create entries in the registry for these programs that contain the install path which I can grab. Compressonator seems to change every version, so that only works for so long... For everything else, the "Configure Paths" button in the options allows changing the paths to the various programs, but I'm assuming from your second post you figured that out already.

Two things here. First, why do you want to convert a DXTn texture to BC7? You will not gain anything from this, except lose compatibility with older graphics cards. Second, Compressonator by itself does not allow converting DDS to DDS through CLI. I believe the GUI can do this IIRC. The script uses a few tricks to pull this off by first converting the image to PNG using ImageMagick or TexConv, then using Compressonator to create a DDS image.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. BC7 fully supports alpha channels by default and requires no configuration. If you convert an image with transparency to BC7, the transparency will be kept.



I want to convert DDS (DXT3) to DDS (BC7) to gain some quality in the images... but now i´m thinking that is nonsense because the DXT3 it´s already compressed and lost a part of his original quality. I think i need to search again for the original PNG images and then convert it to BC7.

BTW thanks for your reply

[Techie Android]

(09-05-2017, 11:19 PM)LuismaSP Wrote: I want to convert DDS (DXT3) to DDS (BC7) to gain some quality in the images... but now i´m thinking that is nonsense because the DXT3 it´s already compressed and lost a part of his original quality. I think i need to search again for the original PNG images and then convert it to BC7.

BTW thanks for your reply Smile

Yeah it's always best to compress from the original source (this rule applies to everything e.g. textures, picture, audio & video). It is impossible to get more quality by using a more efficient compressing method, in fact you'll probably just lose more.

[Techie Android]

Hey Bighead I was wondering about the quality to performance ratio that DDS BC7 gives. Example https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-super-paper-mario-hires-texture-pack would the 8x quality textures here, if converted from png to DDS BC7 (which I've done) run faster than the 4x quality textures in png format?

[Bighead]

Probably. Assume a base texture of 128x128. Comparing sizes of 4x:512x512 and 8x:1024x1024 as an example, assuming DXT5/BC7 (both are 16 bytes per compressed block). The PNG texture must be decompressed on the GPU.

PNG:
512 * 512 * 4 = 1048576 Bytes (1 MB)
1024 * 1024 * 4 = 4194304 Bytes (4 MB)

DDS:
512 * 512 = 262144 Bytes (0.25 MB)
1024 * 1024 = 1048576 Bytes (1 MB)

The 1024x1024 DDS texture should consume the same amount of memory as the 512x512 PNG texture plus faster decoding, so DDS should still be faster.

[Techie Android]

(09-06-2017, 08:17 AM)Bighead Wrote: Probably. Assume a base texture of 128x128. Comparing sizes of 4x:512x512 and 8x:1024x1024 as an example, assuming DXT5/BC7 (both are 16 bytes per compressed block). The PNG texture must be decompressed on the GPU.

PNG:
512 * 512 * 4 = 1048576 Bytes (1 MB)
1024 * 1024 * 4 = 4194304 Bytes (4 MB)

DDS:
512 * 512 = 262144 Bytes (0.25 MB)
1024 * 1024 = 1048576 Bytes (1 MB)

The 1024x1024 DDS texture should consume the same amount of memory as the 512x512 PNG texture plus faster decoding, so DDS should still be faster.

Wow! Thanks. That just exactly the info I was wanting.

[Techie Android]

It took all night in my VM converting my textures to DDS BC7, I used TexConv and set it all up right, and everything came out botched. Do you know what happened?

Take a look here: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-uhd-animal-crossing-gc-texture-project?pid=453244#pid453244