Texture Format

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/Texture Format

Xak(Posted 2008) [#1]
Greetings all:

I have one quick question: What image file format (i.e. .JPG, .BMP, TGA, etc...) is best -or most commonly used- for 3D games?

Thanks


Ross C(Posted 2008) [#2]
Depends what you need. Jpg is smallest on disc usually. .BMP is pointless really, as PNG will produce smaller results with no quality loss. .TGA holds alpha information.

But, .DDS is probably the best format IMHO. Holds alpha and is compressed in VRAM :o)


Xak(Posted 2008) [#3]
Thanks :)


olo(Posted 2008) [#4]
i use .bmp for welcome pages, pause pages and heightmaps etc. and .jpg for textures and stuff


t3K|Mac(Posted 2008) [#5]
i am using DDS only.


Xak(Posted 2008) [#6]
What is DDS? I'm not familiar with that format.


olo(Posted 2008) [#7]
Microsoft DirectDraw Surface (DDS) is a standard format used to store image data in MicrosoftR DirectX.

Microsoft DirectDraw Surface (DDS) is used to store surface and texture data. With textures whose side size is equal to degrees of two, it is possible to save mipmap levels.

This format can store information in compressed and uncompressed pixel format. Use it to store compressed data in DXTn format.

http://www.imageconverterplus.com/help-center/about-icp/supported-formats/dds/


Ross C(Posted 2008) [#8]
It's the dxtc format. Direct X Texture Compression i think it stands for. It allows textures to be stored in VRAM, compressed. Very few texture formats allow this. So it can save you shed loads of VRAM. Could half the memory requirements of a game in VRAM, allowing better performance of your games.

It's got some great alpha features too, and is probably the best format to use masking with. Only drawback i've found, is some applications don't support it. Most do though :o)


Azaratur(Posted 2008) [#9]
Which program save in dds format?
There is such type of converter?

Aza


Ross C(Posted 2008) [#10]
Try this link. I used this for a while, till i found a plugin for my old photoshop version:

http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm


Dreamora(Posted 2008) [#11]
just to add something to the first answer: PNG can hold alpha as well and is much more painless than TGA where different combinations of RLE encoding etc are not supported

and to get DDS: visit the dev corner at www.nvidia.com there is a photoshop plugin.
this plugin can be used with any ps capable application, so as well gimp and pixia and others


Ross C(Posted 2008) [#12]
I'm not a big fan of .TGA format either.


Mustang(Posted 2008) [#13]
I love .tga... and .jpg is crap, as it has artefacts and banding from compression. Bit like .mp3, don't really like that either.


Ross C(Posted 2008) [#14]
Well, it's mainly down to me i think. The old version of photoshop i have coupled with my stupidy, sometimes produce undesired results :o)