How to view (or edit) dds file

Anything and everything that's related to OGRE or the wider graphics field that doesn't fit into the other forums.
Post Reply
123iamking
Gremlin
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:16 pm
x 4

How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by 123iamking »

I'm trying to create particle effect, so I'm looking for a tool to do that.
I see that NVidia develops some tools to do that. I just try Windows Texture Viewer but with this tool, I can't see anything in the explode.dds file (download from Explosion tutorial) or I can't fully see SaintPetersBasilica.dds (where is the camera guy?).

So I wonder what tool that made these dds file?
123iamking
Gremlin
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:16 pm
x 4

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by 123iamking »

Ok, so Windows Texture Viewer can only view simple dds file, if you want to view & edit complicated dds, you must use Adobe Photoshop Plug-ins. I think Adobe Photoshop Plug-ins is the best solution for me now.
xrgo
OGRE Expert User
OGRE Expert User
Posts: 1148
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:59 pm
Location: Chile
x 168

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by xrgo »

I use Photoshop and Gimp, both need plugins
User avatar
SolarPortal
OGRE Contributor
OGRE Contributor
Posts: 203
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:29 pm
Location: UK
x 51
Contact:

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by SolarPortal »

For viewing, we swapped our main windows explorer for a tool called Directory Opus which allows DDS files to be viewed as thumbnails or in the view pane. Or if you add a dds.dll file into the viewers folder of that app, then you can just double click to open the file. It works with almost all the DDS files except dun dun ...dunnn... BC5_SNORM lol :P

As for editing, we use photoshop with the nvidia plugin..
Lead developer of the Skyline Game Engine: https://aurasoft-skyline.co.uk
User avatar
dark_sylinc
OGRE Team Member
OGRE Team Member
Posts: 5296
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2007 4:55 pm
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
x 1278
Contact:

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by dark_sylinc »

Two more choices:
  • Visual Studio. It can view and even edit DDS files. Though most of the time I edit DDS files, it doesn't end up working the way I expected.
  • texconv. It may be command line, but it's very powerful. You can convert between DDS back and forth.
User avatar
Kojack
OGRE Moderator
OGRE Moderator
Posts: 7157
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2004 7:35 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia
x 534

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by Kojack »

I use Paint.Net (free paint program), it supports loading and saving DDS files (11 different DDS formats supported for saving).

DirectX Texture Tool (part of the June2010 DirectX sdk, called dxtex.exe) is awesome for many DDS things. It can do cube maps, volume textures, manual mipmap creation, etc.
123iamking
Gremlin
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:16 pm
x 4

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by 123iamking »

So I got some programs to view dds file and I'd like to make a comparison :)
Sample Explosion & SaintPetersBasilica.dds

Adobe Photoshop Plug-ins: View & Edit capable, view completely.
Image
Image

Windows Texture Viewer (WTV.exe): View dds only, but can't view completely. Ops :oops: , I was wrong, please check this post
Image
Image

DxTex.exe (Path="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)\Utilities\bin\x86\DxTex.exe"): View dds, but can't view completely. Ops :oops: , I was wrong again, please check this post
Image
Image

Visual Studio 2015: View & Simple Edit capable, but can't view completely.
Image
Image

As you can see, only Photoshop can view the full content of the dds file, other program miss some content.
Last edited by 123iamking on Thu Nov 16, 2017 4:37 am, edited 3 times in total.
paroj
OGRE Team Member
OGRE Team Member
Posts: 1994
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2014 2:51 pm
x 1074
Contact:

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by paroj »

123iamking wrote: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:37 am View dds only, but can't view completely.

Image
123iamking
Gremlin
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:16 pm
x 4

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by 123iamking »

paroj wrote: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:29 am Image
@paroj: thank paroj, I didn't see that :p
So I stand correctly: Windows Texture Viewer is good for viewing dds.
  • press Left/Right arrow to navigate MipMap which is just the resolution of the image.
  • press X and Z to navigate to other Side.
  • Color effect: press R or G or B to filter color. Press A to toggle Alpha. Press N to navigate post-process.
  • Press U to switch between RGB & Alpha (the explode.dds below is pink because it is in A RGB mode, just press U to switch to RGB or you can press A to turn off Alpha then you can see the explosion)
    123iamking wrote: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:37 am Image
    Image
Wow, this program can do quite a lot.
User avatar
Kojack
OGRE Moderator
OGRE Moderator
Posts: 7157
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2004 7:35 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia
x 534

Re: How to view (or edit) dds file

Post by Kojack »

DirectX Texture Tool can fully view them too. Go to the view menu, you can see the shortcuts for changing volume slice, mip map or cube map face.
(The basilica image uses cube map faces)

I used it to make a custom debug texture. I manually placed solid colour images in each mip level (instead of auto mip generation). For example 1024x1024 was solid red, 512x512 was green, 256x256 was blue, etc. Then when you put that texture on a mesh, the colour on screen shows which mip level is used for each pixel. If your mesh never shows red, then 1024x1024 was a waste of space for it.
Post Reply