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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 13, 2022 19:16:16 GMT -5
Hi all! I've been working on an 18th Century gown that utilizes overlays to add patterns on top of a solid-colored gown. So players start with this (in many swatches):
The player then equips an overlay that will add a pattern on top of the gown's diffuse. The overlay is an accessory in the piercings category - there is no mesh, just a diffuse with transparency. When equipped, you can achieve something like this (in so many different color combinations):
I'm running into an issue with artifacts though on some of the overlay swatches. This doesn't happen with every single swatch, but only a few colors. And the artifacts aren't in the same spot on each of the problem swatches, so I don't think there's any problem areas in my textures? Additionally, I've opened my diffuse files in my image viewer, and the artifacts aren't there on the actual diffuse files. So for whatever reason, I'm only running into some sort of issue when actually importing into S4S - and re-importing these same diffuse files as the opposite file-type (.dds or .png) doesn't solve my issue.
Here's a few of the problem swatches...
This one below is the same exact pattern as the monochrome floral above. For whatever reason some of these swatches get red spots on the tips of leaves/petals. Again, not every single swatch, some are perfectly fine?
Here's a few striped swatches with issues too - you can see some artifacts dead-center on the bodice. And again, not every swatch is like this:
Any insight would be helpful! |
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Post by mauvemorn on Jun 14, 2022 4:27:33 GMT -5
Hi. This is a matter of how the image is compressed. To be honest, I do not have a good solution for this. You can try getting a psd file into a different software (like photopea, free online software) and resaving it as dds there. Make sure to choose BC3 or DXT5 with enabled Mipmaps. It is possible that it will compress the image in a different way that will yield better results.
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 14, 2022 7:05:12 GMT -5
Hi. This is a matter of how the image is compressed. To be honest, I do not have a good solution for this. You can try getting a psd file into a different software (like photopea, free online software) and resaving it as dds there. Make sure to choose BC3 or DXT5 with enabled Mipmaps. It is possible that it will compress the image in a different way that will yield better results. Hi mauvemorn! Thanks so much for getting back to me. So I guess what I don't fully understand is that this artifacts are not on my textures before importing to s4s. Which would mean that there's a problem with the way s4s is compressing the texture once imported right? If that's the case, and all of my texture files start from the same exact export settings in Gimp, wouldn't every single swatch have artifacts when importing into s4s? I just can't wrap my head around why some colors are affected but others are not... Also should note that I'm a Gimp user and not Photoshop, so I'm working with .xcf and exporting to either .png or .dds (both are completely fine when exporting from Gimp if I open the texture in a photo viewer) |
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Post by mauvemorn on Jun 14, 2022 12:59:22 GMT -5
i don't know how exactly all of this works but i know four things: - This is generally depends on the image. Some colors just do not save well (you can see it even on maxis items), thin lines (one pixel thick) may not save well; - dds is a compressed format. Every time you import, export, save it, it undergoes compression and the image becomes worse. I to this day do not know if, upon import, s4s convert the image to dds or RLE 2 (or rather i do not know if RLE 2 is a file format akin to dds or something else). I usually recommend people to export and import the diffuse in png. s4s will convert it upon import but other times it should stay uncompressed( because png is an uncompressed format). This generally yields better results for me personally but others find better luck saving in dds, so it is just a matter of trying; - s4s developer once mentioned that other software may use different compression algorithms, so you might have better luck saving dds in different software. Again, don't know if s4s will convert it to something else, but maybe you'll get a better result - the size (dimensions) may also come into play. Say, you have a 1 pixel line on a 2048x4096 texture. Without hq mode ts4 will display it as 1024x2048. That one pixel line cannot become 0,5 pixel, so when the image is resized, the line will look "smeared".
In the pattern opaque on the texture with red spots? Like, the tips of the leaves, are they opaque or slightly transparent/gray in the alpha?
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 14, 2022 17:18:41 GMT -5
mauvemorn - thank you for all of this info! Very insightful! I am aware of the degradation of .dds files when opening and re-exporting multiple times - I generally just work in Gimp's .xcf file and export a brand new .dds after changes (or I just stick with .png altogether) I think my best bet is to try some other software for exporting to see if I have any better luck! Regarding the floral pattern, there is some transparency on tips of the leaves/petals - without it the pattern's edges looked too sharp/pixelated. I may try eliminating some of that transparency to see if that might solve anything. For the stripes, there isn't any transparency in the stripes themselves. And there aren't any stripes as small as 1 pixel, so I don't think that could be the answer for that issue unfortch. And all of my textures are 1024x2048, so couldn't be issues with the game scaling down textures.
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