45px single icon?

[Irkalla]

[SIZE="+3"]***SOLVED***[/SIZE]

Export your texture sheets as 32-bit ARGB(8:8:8:8.) DXT compression only allows dimensions that are multiples of 4. Also, if you're exporting with MIPs, you must have dimensions being powers of 2. Don't export with MIPs, it's unneeded.

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I was wondering how Firaxis got by with 45px single icons. As far as I know, the icons must be a power multiple of 4.

What I've been doing is using 4x4 sheets.

Any ideas?


Civ5Buildings_Babylon.xml

[COLOR="Silver"]<IconTextureAtlases>
	<Row>
		<Atlas>NEB_BW_ATLAS</Atlas>
		<IconSize>256</IconSize>
		<Filename>BuildingAtlas256_DLC_D.dds</Filename>
		<IconsPerRow>1</IconsPerRow>
		<IconsPerColumn>1</IconsPerColumn>
	</Row>
	<Row>
		<Atlas>NEB_BW_ATLAS</Atlas>
		<IconSize>128</IconSize>
		<Filename>BuildingAtlas128_DLC_D.dds</Filename>
		<IconsPerRow>1</IconsPerRow>
		<IconsPerColumn>1</IconsPerColumn>
	</Row>
	<Row>
		<Atlas>NEB_BW_ATLAS</Atlas>
		<IconSize>64</IconSize>
		<Filename>BuildingAtlas64_DLC_D.dds</Filename>
		<IconsPerRow>1</IconsPerRow>
		<IconsPerColumn>1</IconsPerColumn>
	</Row>[/COLOR]
[B]	<Row>
		<Atlas>NEB_BW_ATLAS</Atlas>
		<IconSize>45</IconSize>
		<Filename>BuildingAtlas45_DLC_D.dds</Filename>
		<IconsPerRow>1</IconsPerRow>
		<IconsPerColumn>1</IconsPerColumn>
	</Row>[/B]
[COLOR="Silver"]</IconTextureAtlases>[/COLOR]

 

[Nutty]

My understanding is the requirement for powers of 2 is for mipmaps, which don't apply here. Use a different program or adjust your settings to export/convert your DDS files.

 

[Irkalla]

My understanding is the requirement for powers of 2 is for mipmaps, which don't apply here. Use a different program or adjust your settings to export/convert your DDS files.

Yeah I've turned mips off and everything, but it says that it requires the texture itself to be a power multiple of 4.

I'm using nVIDIA's D3D/DDS Plugin for Photoshop CS2.

 

[Nutty]

Oh! Well, Firaxis must not have used DXT, then.

 

[whoward69]

You can certainly create single 45x45 icons by using Gimp and following the process given here - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=459392 - (which is no compression, RGBA8 IIRC) - as I have done for a number of my mods

 

[Barathor]

Irkalla, I use Photoshop and the Nvidia plugin as well. If you already use Photoshop, give the 8:8:8:8 ARGB format a try. It's probably the same as the GIMP one that whoward69 recommended, a 32 bit (8x4) format using the 4 channels.

I typically use that one, but sometimes I use the DXT ones for simple images without a lot of gradients and/or that are smaller. Also, I've found that a nice feature on that plugin is the "3D View" button; it'll give you a preview of different formats, all at once, that are compatible with your GPU and you can choose which one looks best (or which ones show little difference). Though, on larger images; again, with many shades and gradients; you'll definitely see a difference.

Also, here's an interesting link I came across while I was trying to look-up info on the RGBA8 format that GIMP uses :
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/dds_types.html

(Pardon the web address. <sigh> )

 

[Irkalla]

www.poopinmymouth.com

hint hint dumbass

Well they could certainly be more descriptive with their error msgs.

hey do this

here have some help

Woot, thanks guys. I'll definitely try all this junk and see how it works. Yeah, I'm kinda new to Direct Draw Surface's format...

I'm used to working with Valve's VTF format, which afaik the only formats that work are the DXT formats. Old habits...

EDIT: Holy sh*t guys, there's definitely a quality difference.

Definitely going with top-right (32bit ARGB)

Time to re-do ALL my icons.

EDIT: And all the other textures

 

[Nutty]

hint hint dumbass

Hahaha, that wasn't quite the tone I was going for... I had no idea that was part of the DXT specification, either, until I checked. I agree, "for this format" needs to be at the end of that error message.

Time to re-do ALL my icons.

EDIT: And all the other textures

Careful with the textures, one of my PC's can barely run CiV as it is; there's a reason Firaxis is using compression.

 

[Irkalla]

Hahaha, that wasn't quite the tone I was going for... I had no idea that was part of the DXT specification, either, until I checked. I agree, "for this format" needs to be at the end of that error message.


Careful with the textures, one of my PC's can barely run CiV as it is; there's a reason Firaxis is using compression.

They're obviously not using DXT as it requires multiple of four width and height.

Also, I think alpha icons are meant to use the entire canvas, whereas colour icons are meant to use the circle in the canvas. Why couldn't they have been consistent with this?

But yeah, everything's come out looking good. Except the Alpha civ icons and my unit flags, but they're just the wrong size.

 

[Nutty]

They're obviously not using DXT as it requires multiple of four width and height.

It's a mix. I can find files with no compression, DXT1, DXT3, and DXT5.

A lot of the UI stuff is uncompressed, but I mostly play with units, which are DXT5.

 

[Pouakai]

From my experience the multiples of four only affects compression, uncompressed .dds files are fine, and at that size can still be handled by the game.

 

[Irkalla]

It's a mix. I can find files with no compression, DXT1, DXT3, and DXT5.

A lot of the UI stuff is uncompressed, but I mostly play with units, which are DXT5.

Usually any texture that's meant for a 3D model instead of a 2D surface is going to be compressed. I think the 256-512 range is where uncompressed textures' size outstrip their quality. Most models are going to use larger than 512 sheets but something like units I could see using something like 256 or even 128 sheets. Though I'd personally use 512 on mine just for quality's sake. If it's possible, that is.

Do you actually model, or do you just do retextures?

 

[Nutty]

Er, sorry, but what's a sheet?

Just retex, and not much, at that.

 

[Irkalla]

Er, sorry, but what's a sheet?

Just retex, and not much, at that.

It's a word that I and others have used to refer to a texture. Like, once you've got your model unwrapped and stuff, the 2D image of the texture can be said to be a sheet.

I'm not the best person to ask about terminology, though.