.DDS files and Photo Shop

[Silverbiker]

Has the format changed?
Files I modified in 1.49 with PSP I can see and open fine.
Ones created in 1.50 just have feather icon and no preview image.
When I open them in PSP I just get a black image.
I did open them with Paint.net and image was there.
I would prefer to use PSP.
Anybody got any ideas.
I did try google but the results were a lot of ETS2 references but not what I wanted.everything.
Thanks for any help.

[Wolfpig]

If they still are dds files then they should be able to be opened by any software which supports loading off dds files.

So if something does not work in PSP then it is on the end of the Software/the plugin which is used by it.

[Underscore_101_3]

Did you update photoshop perhaps and not added the plugin for dds files to the new version ?

Edit, I should say added a new version of photoshop, an update would of course not make a difference.

[Rivaldman]

Maybe try Blender too?

[Silverbiker]

I'm using an old free version (CSC2) and its been working fine up till now.
I used for my skins and edited some of the the old billboards which had ETS2 and SCS adverts.
What I'm trying to get my head round is this:
Anything I did in PSP in 1.49 is ok.
I have extracted what I want from Base file.
If, as an example, I open an advert from the 1.50 extraction that I had edited in 1.49 it opens as a black square.
If I replace that advert with the edited version from 1.49 it opens fine. That is OK I suppose but there are some more in the 1.50 version that i want to change.
Now, this is the puzzling bit.
I open same 1.50 billboard in Paint.net and the preview is there in the folder and it opens OK. I edit it, save it and close. I now click on that edited dds file and open it with PSP and voila, there is the edited image not a black square.
I set the default program to PSP the older previews are there but the new ones just have the PSP image. If I set default program to Paint then both edited and original preview icons are there.
Another puzzler, anything I have edited from !.50 in Paint that I open in PSP opens fine, no black square.
Confusing or what?

Did try Blender but I'm afraid my ancient grey cells don't have the time or patience.
Took me long enough to learn how to use PSP and don't particularly want to start over again. Most of my modding is creating skins and other simple stuff for myself

[Wolfpig]

Just tested some random dds form the game in gimp (no idea when it got added, but seems that you can laod & save those in it without a extra plugin....or i have it installed and forgotten......) and it gets loaded & shown correctly.

Im not sure, but i think dxtbmp (some old software which converts those files) might show you the used compression etc., so you could check if something has changed there.

But as the dds format is quite old itself even your out of date software should be able to open it as there probably never anything got changed in that.

[Rivaldman]

Just want to know, can the game read the paint.net edited dds files?

[Underscore_101_3]

You could try a different plugin, I think most use one from nvidia, but I use one from, intell if i recall right.

[pieperjohanns]

Originally posted by Rivaldman:

Just want to know, can the game read the paint.net edited dds files?

The proper way to mod images is apparently to use TGA files instead of DDS, as pointed out on the SCS forum. The game will convert them automatically.

[Silverbiker]

Originally posted by Rivaldman:

Just want to know, can the game read the paint.net edited dds files?

Well , games not crashing when its loading up is that's what you mean.
Its just that I like Paintshop as I've been using it since i bought the game (a few years ago now) as I can what I want without thinking about but no doubt if I persevere with Paint (only started using it today) it will become easier.
Likewise , it's not crashing when its loading up my skins into the game that I made with Paintshop.

Originally posted by Underscore_101_3:

You could try a different plugin, I think most use one from nvidia, but I use one from, intell if i recall right.

Yep, been using Nvidia plug-ins since I installed Paintshop.

[Underscore_101_3]

Originally posted by pieperjohanns:

The proper way to mod images is apparently to use TGA files instead

Isnt that for use in Blender?

[pieperjohanns]

Originally posted by Underscore_101_3:

Isnt that for use in Blender?

I don't know anything about Blender. The SCS discussion was about DDS files for truck skins. I switched to TGA files and it works flawlessly.

[Wolfpig]

Originally posted by pieperjohanns:

Originally posted by Underscore_101_3:

Isnt that for use in Blender?

I don't know anything about Blender. The SCS discussion was about DDS files for truck skins. I switched to TGA files and it works flawlessly.

The game does not convert the stuff, there seems to be a converter tool out there which uses that.

But you could, if you want, directly create the proper dds. file.
Most people probably would use the conversion tool as it can be a pain to find out what compression the file needs to be saved as. (if it is not documented anywhere)

[pieperjohanns]

Originally posted by Wolfpig:

The game does not convert the stuff, there seems to be a converter tool out there which uses that.

I don't have any converter tool. I put the TGA files directly into my mod folder (together with the edited TOBJ files) and they show up in the game.

[Underscore_101_3]

It seems a bit counterproductive for the PC memory to use something the game (or videocard) needs to convert, and also SCS is using .dds files, I'm curious what the reasoning behind it is in favour of using .tga files for paint jobs that are not added in Blender.
And tmk .tga doesn't keep transparancy, but not sure about that.

I've learnt to use .dds for paint jobs made with Photoshop or other image app, and .tga for adding textures in Blender, that will then be converted to .dds on export.

But that's another subject, to come back to OP's issue, if pieperjohanns way works for you that's great, but if you prefer to keep using .dds
I'd look into another .dds plugin for Photoshop, it's been a long time since I used the Photoshop version you are using, and currently using the latest so I can't compare anything, but when I used your version with the nvidia plugin it gave me 2 pixel wide black lines around the image, and a 4x4 or 2x2 pixel image would be entirely black when saved as .dds
Nobody with experience I asked had a clue how to deal with that issue using the nvidia plugin, and tried just about all settings it has.

That made me look for another plugin, the intel one that you can find here:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/tool/intel-texture-works-plugin.html
And that worked wonders, still does, ignore the requirements below the Export Formats.

[[JPN] Tutomu Shikigami]

Originally posted by Silverbiker:

Has the format changed?
Files I modified in 1.49 with PSP I can see and open fine.
Ones created in 1.50 just have feather icon and no preview image.
When I open them in PSP I just get a black image.
I did open them with Paint.net and image was there.
I would prefer to use PSP.
Anybody got any ideas.
I did try google but the results were a lot of ETS2 references but not what I wanted.everything.
Thanks for any help.

are you forget create TOBJ files?