Hi folks, total noob alert... I'm futzing around with gimp 2.8 on win7 64bit, trying to create a skin for the c6r (something really basic, a white car with some tux stickers on the bonnet and on the sides). I can load the PSD file into gimp fine, exporting it to DDS also works, but no matter what compression level I set, the resulting dds is always 21,6MB in size which naturally makes it useless for online racing (2048x2048 texture size). I've tried to compress the dds file using compressonator by AMD (v1.5), but trying to load the resulting dds file (that i've saved in compressonator by using the "save compressed" function) into gimp or rf2 results in a more or less empy image. I'd be most grateful for any hints to point me in the right direction... are any additional libs / tools needed for gimp for compression to work? All the best, Uwe
Hi mate. You could try to export to .dds and then compress the .dds file with this : ( Free Download ) : DXTBMP : http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/DXTBmp-Download-53836.html I always use Photoshop so I have no idea if it will work for what you are attempting but i've used it a lot with .dds files before and it handles them well enough. Good Luck !
Are you using this plug-in: http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/ ? Here is a sample I used this past Saturday--note the DDS size of 5.3MB. Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, GIMP 2.8.
Thanks for your replies, folks, I've now switched to MyPaint.net which suffices for now (total skinning noob here), but I'll try the google code plugin in a minute, thanks for pointing it out. MPN compresses a 2048^2 skin down to about 4MB which seems ok. All the best, Uwe https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1983539/images/GRAB_000.JPG https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1983539/images/GRAB_001.JPG https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1983539/images/GRAB_002.JPG
Ok, the google code plugin seems to enable compression when I use "save selected layer" and it comes down to about 5,33MB for a 2048^2 skin. Thanks! Uwe
You can Flatten the image before you exporting... View attachment 6151 Just like the my skins. For some reason they have this haze appearance to them.. On the left is the actual color in the PS/GIMP file. Car on the left car I used Alpha Exponent (DXT5) Car on the right is using BC3/DXT5 Any ideas?
Make sure there is an alpha component to your flat before you create your DDS. In GIMP it is easy to determine-- see the semi-transparent appearance of my skin in the screenshot a few posts above. And a quick shot of the skin in-game, though it isn't the best illustration. Basically the "Nissan", "370z", "Z" and gas cap are high alphas; the main paint is around 128/128/128; the #13's and the banner on deck are a little higher; the words in the license plate area are high, with the black background at 0,0,0; and the hood logo alpha is a straight gray-scale of the image.
Thanks for the tip but I am not know of what you mean... know of any tutorials that explains the use of the Alpha channel in GIMP?
Sorry, no. I build my skins in PSP and perform the DDS conversion of the flat in GIMP. The NVidia plug-ins do not work with my version of PSP.
in gimp 2.0 ,click on image menu title, then selected flatten image, alpha channels tutorials gimp2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQCziSTNJgQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9aZdPqs17M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2PftcbJ4oQ
Does some guys know how to save in .dds in Gimp that actually work in game ? Make it easy to understand please, I just took the template of the ISI helmet, put some noob work and can't see it ingame. That's about the settings to choose before making it a .dds I guess. EDIT: I found a solution by saving it as .psd in gimp, and saving it as .dds by using Paint.net.
merge layer groups then merge all layers, until you have only one layer, extract the image to dds, or you can click ''flatten image'' instead but you need this dds plugin to do so. you must download this http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/ you can open dds files with gimp if you have the dds plugin too. my guide to skinning in gimp. http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/13807-gimp-skinning its important the skins are the correct size so the last part in the tuturial is very important. compressions settigns that worked for me,some of the settings are impossible to use: settings that worked for me when i made skins for cars,and they are the settigns you should use, none of the other settings will give you the result you want,becouse htey ruin the skin: BC3/DXT5 and using: generate mipmaps
