DDS & BMP.....Need understanding....

[Mistro]

I'm trying to understand why some plane's texture folders are different from others. I'm still fairly new at repainting. I successfully repainted one of Thomas Ruth's airbus models as all I had to do was find the "main" dds file etc. Since this was the first and only type of texture folder I did so far, I understand it well.
But some planes have bmp. only, some with dds only, and some with both bmp. + dds files in the texture folders where the parts of the plane is scattered into many files. Why do some use only bmp while some use only dds or both?

[BrandonF]

Some modelers don't bother to convert their textures to DDS. The DDS format is better for FSX. That's why it is used. FS2004 doesn't support the DDS format. So any add-ons from FS9 that you get for FSX will probably not have the textures converted. If the add-on is used in FSX, no matter what sim it is for, (FS9 or FS2002) you can convert the textures to DDS and it will work.

8-)

[drbob777]

in FSX all the default aircraft use .DDS files

When it comes to third party freeware aircraft its really what the designer used. If im correct .DDS has alot to do with reflections and light/pixel shading

In short if you want to edit .DDS files open them in DXTbmp and save them as a editable BMP or JPG then resave them back as a .DDS

[BrandonF]

If saving as a DDS file, make sure the texture and alpha channel are flipped. In the menu bar, go to Image > Flip Image and Alpha.

8-)

[Mistro]

Thanks for the info!
So I can convert a file orginally found as bmp to dds after editing? Been experimenting today but I been trying to save the files as they were found.

[Bruce448]

Thanks for the info!
So I can convert a file orginally found as bmp to dds after editing? Been experimenting today but I been trying to save the files as they were found.

to make it even easier for you to convert the *.bmp to *.dds try this batch file that I use, just place the contents of the zip file into the texture folder that you wish to convert, and double click the [glow=yellow,2,300]bmp2dds.bat[/glow] file and the rest should be done for you, all you will need to do afterwards is remove the bmp files to a safe place.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2d9r7gudux7v867/bmp2dds.zip

the bat file can be modified to convert other formats to .dds, just drop me a line.

Bruce

[Mistro]

Thanks Bruce!

[patchz]

Yes, definitely thanks Bruce.
I eventually want to convert all my FS9 port over to .dds and this will make it much easier.