Hello I went through a couple of tutorials and because they are all of different age they refer to different releases of rF2 and its material editor / manager. I have attached a screenshot of all compression formats GIMP 2.10 is offering - maybe someone can help if I am using the right ones or not (and which one to use instead). Also attached screenshots of export formats I am using for car body paint (BC3/DXT5 with generating mipmaps) and would use for 5-layer region file (BC1/DXT1 with generating mipmaps). I am unsure about regions file (generate mm or not) and what about files containing windows or extras? BC3/DXT5 with mm or not ... Thanks for help, Dietmar
im using BC3/DXT5 for both alt.dds, region and window. sometimes I cant get a good enough window export, I then export it as png and use paint.net to export to BC7. I never use mipmaps, but honestly dont know if I actual should use it. Remember Gimp recently got a new feature so you dont have to flatten first, before export. now you can export visible layers to dds. And path tool is crusial feature when making areas and lines on cars. and you can reload a path and reedit it.
As always ... pretty helpful information - thank you both. I was not aware of paint.net being so powerful because I assumed it is kind of an online version of paint - checked it out and it is an alternative I think. I had a closer look to GIMP and need to say sorry - I have not recognized the option to export visible layers (saves an extra step and some anger as I have saved my skin flattened a couple of times). I will try to use workaround by using GIMP for painting and exporting to PNG and afterwards using paint.net for exporting it with BC7. Would be nice to get the info on mipmaps (but as Coutie does not mentioned it I think we can leave it out). Thanks, Dietmar
Yes, use mipmaps, you don't need gimp, a texture converter is shipped with the game. Just use the suffix alba and it'll make it BC7. https://docs.studio-397.com/developers-guide/development-tools/maps-converter
Just for someone like me: I am exporting / saving body skin and regions file as TGA and using the mapconverter to make proper DDS files - do I need to flatten the skin / region before exporting to TGA ? Or can I leave it as it is and the mapconverter will do the job (merging all visible layers)?
@StoneRacing I think exporting to TGA will automatic flatten visible layers. but try... If I was you I would export to BC3 until design is finished, and then as a final step export to TGA and convert with batch file.
That is a good suggestion in order to reduce "clicks" ;-) Just exporting in GIMP with the "all visible layers" option reduces manual interaction to pressing CTRL+E / CMD+E (Mac) which is quite an improvement to me. I am using an "empty" regions file until the very last steps of painting and then I fill the regions in order to export regions file afterwards.
