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BadTune
BadTune
Join Date 03/2010
+16

How do you add a DEEP-space skybox?

and what programs do I need to open .dds

July 16, 2011 11:05:10 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Title and subtitle kinda said it. Anyone got an answer or two? ^^

modding
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Whiskey144
Join Date 06/2009
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Reply #1 July 16, 2011 11:53:57 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

For .DDS files, GIMP is a great option. It's open source (ergo, FREE), and very useful. I personally could never really figure it out........but about a bazillion other modders have.

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myfist0
Join Date 01/2010
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Reply #2 July 17, 2011 12:01:19 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

LOL @ bazillion

gimp and PhotoShop need the .DDS plugin, separate downloads for each.

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BadTune
BadTune
Join Date 03/2010
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Reply #3 July 17, 2011 12:28:42 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

yeah I'm wondering where to get the plugins, got gimp it's just...gimpped atm lol

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Ryat
Join Date 06/2006
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Reply #4 July 17, 2011 1:14:41 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

google it, but it does exist

I had it once.

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Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
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Reply #5 July 17, 2011 6:26:31 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I started with Gimp but it's been a long time since I've used it.  Not entirely intuitive and quite complex in capability with little simple instruction for it.

I've been trying to edit the alpha channels but am really not clear when messing with the game's TGAs exactly how to create a new image and then create new alphas to go with them.

So I create my graphic--what exactly needs to happen to create the appropriate alpha channels?

 

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myfist0
Join Date 01/2010
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Reply #6 July 17, 2011 10:46:05 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

For regular TGA files, just make sure all the channels are on RGB & Alfa. The alfa can be a totally different image that is in the RGB channels but that is only used in model meshes.

here is an example from http://soase.weebly.com/texturing.html for ship models.

The "-cl.dds"

This is the color, or diffuse texture, and one that would show the ships colors as they would normally appear in game. Open the file in Photoshop, or Gimp, and view the "channels". You have your normal red, green, and blue channels. These channels you normally don't touch, However you have a 4th channel, an "alpha" channel.

 

The alpha channel represents the "Team Colors" channel. This is what surfaces should display team colors of your fleet. 

Note: Previous to patch 1.12 the Alpha channel was the "Specular Map".

 

You do need to allocate some portion of the -cl. texture's (Alpha) channel to the team color. I think it only has to be 1 pixels worth but it still has to be there for the game engine.

 

Find the gimp dds plugin link here http://soase.weebly.com/modeling-tools.html

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BadTune
Join Date 03/2010
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Reply #7 July 17, 2011 10:59:21 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Karma for fist0 =D  (closing in on that 150 mark lol)

geh...all their mirrors for 2.6.0 are broken I guess, hopping the plugin works with 2.6.11

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