Post by StellarElite on Feb 8, 2018 13:13:53 GMT -5
Warning this is a rambly post just sharing a particularly mind boggling texture experience. Was hoping you guys could maybe share your experience or advice regarding it as well. 
I remember being surprised when I first started using s4s that png was supported. I’m more inclined to use DDS since that’s what I’m used to and it seems certain things like specular editing need DDS? At least when I look at other threads that seems to be one of the troubleshooting questions.
Anyway I recently released a bikini recolour that I’d been working off and on for like two months. Had the worst time with the textures. I feel like anything with straps tends to always fall victim to "the artifacts". I tried PNG and wound up with blurry extra pixels in all sorts of colours all over. Then I tried DDS after weeks of searching for a mac plug-in and finding one!!! and it worked perfect. For this recolour I didn’t have to do any painting or anything it was a straight recolour (well I added stripes to one set and made another two toned but i didn't mess with the outline really) but the PNG was still a no go.
Anyway yesterday I picked up another recolour I’ve been working on which turns a patterned one solid which meant basically filling it in and repainting the folds etc. This one was odd the main diffuse textures was larger than the alpha and completely blocky pixelled like it was outlined with the 1px pencil tool in PS. I was put off by that and copied the smaller, smoother alpha over and used it as the main texture which seemed logical. They should be exactly identical right? Well no of course it wasn't because reasons. The artifacts would pop up either as light pixels on the dark colours or dark pixels on the light colours and I tried every which way. Changing DDS settings, switching back to PNG, trying to paint them out etc. I almost gave up but started fresh again using the original diffuse with it's big blockyness and away I went. It went swimmingly. So I guess my lesson here was to not reinvent the wheel too much and don't get to close to the edges when painting. Any other tips/techniques?
Anyway after all that, what is the difference between using PNG and DDS? Is one better than the other? Easier? Or is it use one for certain things and the other for other things?
Thanks for listening!
Natasha.
I remember being surprised when I first started using s4s that png was supported. I’m more inclined to use DDS since that’s what I’m used to and it seems certain things like specular editing need DDS? At least when I look at other threads that seems to be one of the troubleshooting questions.
Anyway I recently released a bikini recolour that I’d been working off and on for like two months. Had the worst time with the textures. I feel like anything with straps tends to always fall victim to "the artifacts". I tried PNG and wound up with blurry extra pixels in all sorts of colours all over. Then I tried DDS after weeks of searching for a mac plug-in and finding one!!! and it worked perfect. For this recolour I didn’t have to do any painting or anything it was a straight recolour (well I added stripes to one set and made another two toned but i didn't mess with the outline really) but the PNG was still a no go.
Anyway yesterday I picked up another recolour I’ve been working on which turns a patterned one solid which meant basically filling it in and repainting the folds etc. This one was odd the main diffuse textures was larger than the alpha and completely blocky pixelled like it was outlined with the 1px pencil tool in PS. I was put off by that and copied the smaller, smoother alpha over and used it as the main texture which seemed logical. They should be exactly identical right? Well no of course it wasn't because reasons. The artifacts would pop up either as light pixels on the dark colours or dark pixels on the light colours and I tried every which way. Changing DDS settings, switching back to PNG, trying to paint them out etc. I almost gave up but started fresh again using the original diffuse with it's big blockyness and away I went. It went swimmingly. So I guess my lesson here was to not reinvent the wheel too much and don't get to close to the edges when painting. Any other tips/techniques?
Anyway after all that, what is the difference between using PNG and DDS? Is one better than the other? Easier? Or is it use one for certain things and the other for other things?
Thanks for listening!
Natasha.
