Can someone explain .DTS "mipmaps" in GIMP?

[Padmewan]

I suspect one reason why my experimental mod keeps grinding to a halt is that I don't use mipmaps for my custom terrain. I notice that all terrain files have mipmap layers, each with dimensions exactly 50% of the previous, down to 1x2 pixels. I think these are used when zooming and also to create perspective, for looking at terrain at an angle as it recedes (since, if you put blank layers in, you'll get magenta in any tile you're not looking at close-up and dead-on).

The problem is that GIMP seems unable to handle layers of different sizes. You have the option, when saving a .DTS file, to create "mipmaps" which automatically create layers as described above. However, each layer is blank, and if you attempt to copy, shrink, and paste the terrain into each sub-layer, GIMP will complain about the lack of a "volume map" and simply save each sub-layer as blank (thus generating the magenta described above).

What am I doing wrong in GIMP? It seems like I've gotten 90% of the way there but just can get the thing to save! Suggestions?

[edit: I mean ".dds"]

 

[Padmewan]

* bump *

I'm really stuck on this one!

 

[sharick]

I had the same problem but I didn't have the patiance to solve it in Gimp. I found Nvidia DDS plugins for Photoshop and made them work in Paint Shop Pro which is my favorite 2D software. When saving using these plugins you get so many more options than Gimp and everything works well so far.

 

[Chillaxation]

I suspect one reason why my experimental mod keeps grinding to a halt is that I don't use mipmaps for my custom terrain. I notice that all terrain files have mipmap layers, each with dimensions exactly 50% of the previous, down to 1x2 pixels. I think these are used when zooming and also to create perspective, for looking at terrain at an angle as it recedes (since, if you put blank layers in, you'll get magenta in any tile you're not looking at close-up and dead-on).

The problem is that GIMP seems unable to handle layers of different sizes. You have the option, when saving a .DTS file, to create "mipmaps" which automatically create layers as described above. However, each layer is blank, and if you attempt to copy, shrink, and paste the terrain into each sub-layer, GIMP will complain about the lack of a "volume map" and simply save each sub-layer as blank (thus generating the magenta described above).

What am I doing wrong in GIMP? It seems like I've gotten 90% of the way there but just can get the thing to save! Suggestions?

[edit: I mean ".dds"]

Basically you have to use a thirdparty program to automatically create mipmaps to work around this problem. There's a program called dtxbmp out there. Get it, then delete all the mipmap layers and save your edited file with DTX3 compression. Then open it with dtxbmp and there's a checkbox in the main window that offers you the option to save it with usable mipmaps. Use these, then open it again in the GIMP.

I don't know how to modify these mipmaps, I assume that dtxbmp uses its own algorithms and that the best solution is to have a clean original. Wiser sources than I may contradict this however.