i'm having no sucess in loading dds files in photoshop (even with the Nvidia plugin) so after searching the web i found this extremely usefull Free converter

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/dds_converter_v21.zip

Thanks for this post.Usefull.

Yes, very useful.
I have a question though: I convertet a file to psd and chaged it, but now I can't convert it back because it says "size not a power of 2". What do I do?

i'm having no sucess in loading dds files in photoshop (even with the Nvidia plugin) so after searching the web i found this extremely usefull Free converter

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/dds_converter_v21.zip

Yes, very useful.
I have a question though: I convertet a file to psd and chaged it, but now I can't convert it back because it says "size not a power of 2". What do I do?

You can get an alternative:http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?act=download&id=362&agree=yes
It might be Rome Total War but try

Yes, very useful.
I have a question though: I convertet a file to psd and chaged it, but now I can't convert it back because it says "size not a power of 2". What do I do?

That means that your image dimensions are not in a power of 2 (i.e. 2, 4, 8...128,256,512,1024..etcetc)
For example, you can have 128x512, or a 256x256 but you can't have something like 10x32 or 401x378

Download link doesn't seem to work here there.

When I go through some .dds with the pogram, in Desert War in my case, the program closes by itself. Is that a known issue?

You can get an alternative:http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?act=download&id=362&agree=yes
It might be Rome Total War but try
This is a nice and simple program that works both ways (DDS -> BMP -> DDS). I like it. However, does anyone know which settings to use for the DDS conversion? When I edited a file as BMP and tried to conver it back, the original colours had changed and the transparency was no longer recognised by the program.

Compression is DXT3, which should be all you need.

what do I use this for???

It's a useful program sometimes, but I use it sparingly because it often doesn't identify alpha channels for some odd reason.

This program works excellent :goodjob:

I have installed the program, but when I pull up a *.dds file that works in the game, all I get is a blank square. When I convert that to another format, I get a blank square in a new format.

What am I doing wrong? I don't see any instructions with the software.

well when i try to ompen a dds file, the program get close and i'm back to windows...

I believe the program is designed to close when you do the conversion. It seems the default input and output file formats are the same, so it would appear you have done nothing. Change the output type, and see if that helps.

well when i try to ompen a dds file, the program get close and i'm back to windows...

Same happens to me. I can't get it to work!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

Same happens to me. I can't get it to work!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

Ehm, when does this happen? When you click on a dds file or when you click on "Convert"? Because the program automatically shuts down after converting.

So here's my problem, when I convert a photoshop file to a dds and use it in Civ4 it looks blurry. I though I might have done something wrong in the ps file so I converted an existing icon to a ps file and converted it back to a dds and used that file and it too looks blurry. Any ideas?

I am having a problem. Everytime I convert my .BMP to .DDS, when I enter the game, the flag is blank. Any ideas?

The converters seem to work on the dds files of other games but on the CIV4 dds files for the flags I just get a blank square.

And where to get a program which allows other dimensions than 2^n?

The converters seem to work on the dds files of other games but on the CIV4 dds files for the flags I just get a blank square.

The program is working correctly. The flags in Civ4 are alpha Masked with a gray solid tone primary layer. You need to understand alpha masking intimately to use most of the graphics files in the game.

I've used this program more or less exclusively for all my work and I've never had a problem, save one. For some reason, as others above have commented, I cannot open a .dds file created with photoshop. As soon as I click the .dds the program craps the bed and crashes out. Quite frustrating. But other than that, it works brilliantly.

For what it's worth, I do all my conversions between .dds and .png since .png files will preserve the alpha mask (be sure to click the preserve option in the editor).

The program is working correctly. The flags in Civ4 are alpha Masked with a gray solid tone primary layer. You need to understand alpha masking intimately to use most of the graphics files in the game.

I've used this program more or less exclusively for all my work and I've never had a problem, save one. For some reason, as others above have commented, I cannot open a .dds file created with photoshop. As soon as I click the .dds the program craps the bed and crashes out. Quite frustrating. But other than that, it works brilliantly.

For what it's worth, I do all my conversions between .dds and .png since .png files will preserve the alpha mask (be sure to click the preserve option in the editor).


So how then do you get your "white" flag to show up correctly? I even changed the 0 to a 1 in the XML area.

EDIT never mind, i used DXT and was alot simpler but thx anyways.

I don't understand this power of two thing. Using MS Paint should I got in and change the pixel width and heighth of the image to 128x128. I tryed this and I still get the error.

Could one of the graphic wizards please give a few steps on how to use this prog to make a improperly sized image the right size? :)

I don't understand this power of two thing. Using MS Paint should I got in and change the pixel width and heighth of the image to 128x128. I tryed this and I still get the error.

Could one of the graphic wizards please give a few steps on how to use this prog to make a improperly sized image the right size?

Try down load The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/index.html) - it is basically Paintshop Pro - but it's free.

It will also let you RESIZE your images properly before converting them to .dds

Cub

Converted my .BMP and .JPG to 2^n [I]Attributes[I] with MSPaint. DDS conversion seems to be working OK except for color swaps.

So here's my problem, when I convert a photoshop file to a dds and use it in Civ4 it looks blurry. I though I might have done something wrong in the ps file so I converted an existing icon to a ps file and converted it back to a dds and used that file and it too looks blurry. Any ideas?

I have been having this problem too. Also, the .dds files that other modders have made often show up blurry in CIV, and many of them crash the DDS Converter program (the one linked in the first post). When I try to select them in the converter screen, the program just spontaneously quits.

Any suggestions for this?

I've downloaded a .DDS plugin for Photoshop, however despite being able to use it fine, I can only find a few of the files to edit. These are the 'city screen icons' and the production, culture, research etc... icons. I can't find any files along the lines of promotions etc... where are these files kept and how do you find them?
Thanks

KISSDemon - If you head to the Firaxis site you can find out how to unpack the art folder so every dds is available.

I just downloaded 'DDS Converter 2.1' yesterday and tried it out.
I just reinstalled it again, and it still gives me the same results.

I try to open it, and I get the 'working' cursor... then nothing happens.
I can't get the program to run... is there another converter, or something to get Corel PhotoPaint 10 to edit dds files?

I also have nifSkope... and all the models come up as white. (Imagine a great prophet with no face and is pure white...)
I think I can get away with not seeing how the dds looks on the model, so long as I can edit the dds somewhere.

I don't wish to convert, just be able to see the dds file as a thumbnail. I tried to install the dds thumbnail viewer, but all it did was install a dll file. Am I supposed to do something with that?

I liked the DDS Converter, but it has a number of shortcomings (not the least of which is that you can't define an alpha channel from within the program, which is why so many people can't get their images to show up). After some searching I found this program (http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm) from Charcoal's "Add a Civ" tutorial. It lets you view and edit your DDS files and supports limited conversion from BMP format. In conjunction with the DDS Converter, you'll have a powerful tool.

When i try to convert a .dds file to a .bmp file on the DDS Conv. 2.1, all it does is close and nothing happens. :confused::confused::confused::confused::confused: :confused:Help?

use paintdotnet instead.

DDS Converter would not work for me on Vista--it never produced any output. I found this: http://www.irfanview.com/ which, if you also install the plugin pack, is working like a charm in spitting out web friendly graphics from the DDS files included in the PAK's.