Saving DDS File Correctly

Dark Spot on Planet Textures

from Sins Forums

Hello all!

This is my first post on these forums, nice to meet you all.

I'm currently trying to make my own little mod for Sins and it is slow going but I'm getting there:P

At the moment I have a minor problem with my planet textures that I could use a little hand with.  I've created the new planet type and got it in the game and working with my texture looking fine except there is a round shadow on the planets.  It only occurs on my textures (as far as I can see).  To try and get around it I copied one of your alphas from the Gas Giant texture (I'm creating a Blue Gas Giant) and that did not solve the problem.   The shadow is created by the sun (the last thing that should create a shadow).

I think the problem is probably down to me not selecting the right options when saving the DDS file.  Can anyone tell me which boxes to check in the Nvidia box that pops up when I save my DDS files in Photoshop?

Or if something else is causing this and you know what it is, please let me know!

Grateful for any help,

Delta

modding
2,221 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

A screenshot would be more helpful. What kind of shadow? Also, have you imported any new meshes or are you using the vanilla meshes and just changing the textures?

As for options, use DTX5 format,  choose 2D texture, generate MIPmaps - all and under image options, choose color map as the image type.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

 

I hope that image works, if not I'll have to try another tomorrow.  The closer you zoom in to the planet the more noticable the shadow becomes.

I am using the vanilla Gas Giant Mesh.  It has simply been copied, renamed and had the texture changed.  I tried saving as DTX5 and I do check generate mip maps ( i also tried generate specific number of mipmaps set to 9) but the color map option I can not find so I will also check for an update to the Nvidia plugin for photoshop.

This happens to all my textures btw no matter which mesh i put them on (even if i literally just overwrite a texture in the games texture directory).

I'm really stumped.

Thanks for the quick reply ManSh00ter!

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Make sure all the color channels match an existing planet texture, and that it has an alpha channel If it doesnt have an alpha channel wierd things happen.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I managed to sort it out! Thanks guys for your help.

It seems the game was not fond of my alpha channel.  I am now using a desaturated version of my colour picture with the contrast turned up and the brightness turned down as my alpha channel.  It made the planet look better as well as removing the shadow caused by the star.

And ManSh00ter you were right, DTX5 seems to be the right format.  Thanks!