General Question Editing Orbiter DDS Files

[DelRioPilot]

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this. Feel free to move it if need be.

I've searched the Orbiter forums and Google in general, but cannot find a solution to my problem.

I've been trying to edit the STSVC01.dds file (its virtual cockpit), to make some minor changes in Photoshop (using Nvidia's DDS plugin), but it seems like my changes do nothing.

When opening the file in Photoshop, I select "generate Mip maps" or something to that effect. But when it opens, all I have to deal with is a single, somewhat low resolution image. If I make a change to the DDS and save, that change doesn't show up when I test it in Orbiter.

So I guess the main question is how do I edit the Orbiter DDS mip maps? I've also tried Paint.net, but seem to have run into the same problem. If there is a solution or some better, free DDS editing program, that'd be great.

 

[Hlynkacg]

I edit mine using GIMP an open source (free) image editing program.

Download and Install GIMP with the "Direct Draw Surface" plugin and you'll be in buisiness.

ETA: Orbiter uses BC1/DTX1 compression and the alpha-layer for transperancy. The DDS Pluggin will prompt you for this information when you go to save the edited file.

Mipmap should be generated automaitically based on the base texture.

 

[dgatsoulis]

There are two versions of the textures for Atlantis. A low-res (1024*1024) placed in the Orbiter\Textures\Antlantis\ directory and a high-res one (2048*2048) placed in the Orbiter\Textures2\Antlantis\ directory.

You can choose which one Orbiter uses in the Orbiter Launchpad → Extra → Vessel Configuration → Atlantis Configuration (double-click).

By default Orbiter uses the high-res ones, so you should edit the ones in the Textures2 directory.

Also, when you open a .dds file, it's better to use the "Load Using Default Sizes" option and save with the "Generate Mip Maps" option.

 

[orb]

I'm not sure why it's asking you to generate mip-maps while you are opening the image. In my opinion, it should ask you whether to generate mip-maps only when you are saving it back to DDS.

Maybe it's asking you whether to import the image with all mip-maps. In this case the low resolution image you are getting may be one of the mip-maps instead of the main image. If that's the case, don't generate mip-maps at that point (you can always generate them later, even with some external programs, like DxTex).

You shouldn't edit mip-maps, only the main image. Mip-maps are scaled down versions of it, and they normally should be generated from it and not edited separately.

Are you saving your image as DDS and put it to the same location as original file? If so, are you being asked to replace the existing file?

 

[DelRioPilot]

Thanks a lot guys.

Dgatsoulis, you're absolutely right. The problem was I was editing the low-res texture, which explains why it didn't show up in Orbiter.

I edited the hi-res one, and the change can be seen.

To answer your question though Orb, it was actually asking if I should "Load Mipmaps" upon opening them, not generating them. Indeed it asked if I should generate them when saving the file.