For anyone that's interested, I've just uploaded v1.2, which has these changes:
Added the navigation keys "left arrow" and "right arrow" to main result list. Once the list is completely displayed, you can use the up and down arrow keys to move to the next and previous rows, and now also change the resolution on the right side (Default, Hi-Res, Custom). (regm9)
Several internal tweaks and fixes.
Please let me know what you think, Endorse or Vote if you find it useful.
I've installed to my external drive (K:) where my games are installed. I use Win 10 Pro. I ran the installer after extracting to desktop, and have opened the program, but all I see is the primary window showing: "Start", "Stop", Progress bar, "Search" and "Reset". File display box below that. Image Preview stuff at the right. There IS NO set-up button visible. Where is it located? Hitting "Start" just displays the warning Missing BA2 file path.
The "Extract" button is there = no set-up button. What I am seeing on my PC screen also appears to be truncated - like the bottom and right side are cut short - may be a resolution thing, but that would be abnormal for a program's appearance.
1920 x 1080 and that is the native rez. (I use a 50" screen) I had of course, already considered a change. but when I have done so in the past, it destroys my desktop, etc. lol quite a mess to re-arrange.
I want to use this badly as I'm compiling my own archive on some random texture mods. However, it doesn't work for us MO2 users because our Data folder is virtual. Any suggestions?
Sure! Most mod organizers fill up your Data folder with everything (and this has a very noticeable impact on load times). The way MO2 works is it creates a virtual Data folder that's not something you can see in Windows Explorer (it's a sort of hidden system that's contained within the MO2 program). You can see it inside MO2 but as far as I know you can't do much to the files there. I'm not sure if I could drop this into the actual Data tab within MO2, I'd have to ask their team. It's really the best mod organizer there is. NMM is old and dated and very finicky. I won't even go into my thoughts about Vortex. Trust me, MO2 is by far the best there is for managing your mods.
As far as opening my DDS files, strangely enough, I had Honeyview installed on my computer and didn't even realize it could open DDS files, so I'm set. It doesn't have the spiffy layout yours does, but hey, it's something. If you still want more info on MO2 I'm more than happy to answer any questions. I'm no expert but I've been using it for three years.
Hi, Currently looking for a DDS file viewer, came across you mod and this post and just wanted to clarify something. You can actually browse texture mods (packed and unpacked) managed by MO2 in Windows Explorer. All Mods managed by MO2 would be in the MO2 Mods folder (usually \MO2\<game>\Mods\<Mod Folder>). So if your mod can browse folders other than the Fallout 4\Data folder, then it should work fine for MO2 users.
I am not sure of the technical bits but MO2's goal is to leave the Fallout 4 data folder in pristine condition so instead of copying mods in/out of \data it uses "USVFS - User Space Virtual File System" to allow Fallout 4 to see MO2's mods folders.
The Data folder is virtual once you start loading the game. It is still a physical folder on your system where the mods are installed. Settings - Paths - Mods. That will show you were they are installed within MO2.
Note: If you use MO2 to manage multiple games instead of Portable mode, then they will be in a hidden folder on your system You need to unhide hidden folders to access it. C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer\Fallout 4\Mods That is where all your installed mods are. The bold underlined folder is the hidden folder.
I am having the exact same problem as the previous poster. So no setup option in the upper right part. Does this program, need to be installed to a specific folder or path?
I never did fully understand the problem that the previous poster was trying to describe.
Could you post a screenshot here, to help give me an idea of what your seeing, please? If I can get a clear idea of what is happening, I will gladly fix it.
Ok let me see if I understand this. I can install your program to see the BA files from Fallout itself. I can also use it to see BA files from Flacon etc. Can I also use this to replace the files from Fallout with ones from others? I think that would help reduce load times etc rather a lot which is why I am thinking of doing this. Thanks for your program and time.
I can install your program to see the BA files from Fallout itself. I can also use it to see BA files from Flacon etc.
Yes.
Can I also use this to replace the files from Fallout with ones from others?
Currently no, but that is an excellent idea!Updating texture files is always tricky business though. Something I will consider, but unfortunately no ETA on that.
I see. Ok then, so no replacing files on Fallout. Any chance that one could combine then all of the textures out that that one likes? For instance could I take say Flacons and Vivids and combine those, replacing one texture with another then? It would certainly make the files smaller of course. Also what is the size limit of texture files? I have seen BA files in the gigabytes range. Is there a limit or no?
Your expertise in this matter is invaluable. Thanks for your time and patience for us noobs
This looks really useful. I don't suppose you know if there's any way to make it work with Mod Organizer? With MO my Data folder is pretty much empty / vanilla FO4.
Unfortunately I don't have much experience using MO, so I can't say for certain. However, I'm think you should be able to choose the path where MO has the texture files in MO (BA2, \Data\Texture), and the tool should work fine.
Let me know it does (or doesn't), since I know MO is popular.
That's the problem. MO uses a virtual file system. My Data folder is almost straight vanilla. None of my mods are in the Data folder. They are unzipped, waiting in their own folders to be "installed" on launch. So unless I can run your app through MO, or there's some other workaround, it won't work.
Maybe someone else on here has tried it?
No big deal either way. I don't view too many DDS files anyway, so I don't really need it. It just looks like a cool tool, and there definitely have been times when it would have been useful.
Same situation with NMM. I looked up, found and used this tool, to try and help me find a texture problem. I have a LOT of mods installed, and somehow... the game is pulling the 'wrong' texture for my femalebody_d.dds. I have the 'right' texture where it should be... but with NMM and UniquePlayer, it's a mess figuring out where the game is cherry picking the wrong mod from. My plan? Look through ALL the body textures to find the one I see in-game; then I'd know where it's being pulled from, and could fix it from there. Unfortunately, this viewer doesn't seem to work with a non "Data" folder. I've pointed it right to the folder that contains the texture files, or even the parent folder above that, and no dice.
Great tool, just doesn't fit what I really need =(
It does look like Paint Dot Net also works as a DDS viewer to some degree. Not as fast/nice a layout as yours though.
I have had more generic browser version of this tool "on the books" for awhile now, but unfortunately no ETA.
Windows 10 has built in capability for viewing dds thumbnails, and then I also have the WTV tool installed for view the full image: http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_texture_viewer.html
If you suspect that the femalebody_d.dds file you're searching for is packed in a BA2 file, you'll need to use the browser utility that's available on Nexus to search for it.
I did find a PC to test on and run the whole update sequence, from v1.0 to v1.1 and then from v1.1 to v1.2, also I tried installing v1.2 aftre uninstalling v1.1
The relevant one, from v1.1 to v 1.2 was rather successful, it retained setup info about folders and picked up already existing textures index from v1.1 run, even when v1.1 was uninstalled before installing v1.2.
A couple of small details that could be potentially confusing: Windows "installed programs" list always shows v1.0, program title bar shows v1.1 even after v1.2 was installed.
Also installer shows three "standard" options to choose from, "Modify", "Repair" and "Uninstall", which one is to be used for an upgrade, "Modify"?.
Anyway, program is getting better, thanks for your work!
I'm not sure of the complexity involved, sorry if it out of the project scope, but there is a couple of ideas I think would make already useful program a greater tool for comparing big texture packs.
1. Hot key for switching the source on the right viewer side while being on the the left, filelist side, and using arrow up/down to browse would be very handy. Also if that source radio button could stick to "chosen" column, it would make fast browsing through middle column easier.
2. The big one is an option to "Hide/Unhide" HiRes and Custom (linked to Data folder) columns and adding maybe 2-3 extra Custom (user configurable paths) columns. Those paths obviously would be populated manually by unpacking relevant packs by user.
Very handy for comparing let say "Default" stock textures with the great and huge texture packs from FlaconOil and Valius
My reasoning would be:
HiRes DLC textures looks exactly like anyone would expect from exact but upscaled copy of stock textures. Also with rising popularity of packing custom textures into ba2 archive, thanks to nice recent tutorial, resulting "Data\Textures" folder would probably consist of small sets of either uniques or personal preference overrides. In other words something already chosen to be there as final override or not existing in Stock set at all.
Introducing Hide/Unhide option would save screen space for the extra custom columns while leaving an option to keep the default ones, or anything in between really, up to user needs/preferences.
Just an idea.
Funny thing is with version 1.1 I was able to substitute actual textures in "hardcoded" locations (after initial population was done), but with 1.2 changes that option is out I guess. And it was really hard to keep track of which texture pack is where anyway.
Even more funnier thing is while I was typing all this the version 1.2 disappeared.
Thanks for trying the viewer, and for the great suggestions.
1. This is already available. The standard navigation keys work, so simply click on any row on the left side to select the data grid, then hit the up, down, page-up, page-down, etc as you like. For the radio buttons, I'll see what can be done. This get's tricky since in some cases not all three radio button options are available when switching between textures. In that scenario (like only a Default, and a Custom), switch to the highest res available?
2. Sounds like basically a general purpose tool for comparing folders? I'm open to the idea, but it's likely a new, separate tool from this one. Actually, this is not the first time this has been requested, so I'll add it to the to-do list, but unfortunately no ETA for now.
Regarding v1.2 - actually, that was a number mistake on my part when I initially uploaded v1.1. v1.1 is the true version number, and the latest one available.v1.2 is upcoming; possible by next week.
I probably wasn't very clear about point 1 I meant the jumping of "window focus" or whatever it is properly called in programming
Ideal (from my point of view anyway) workflow would be as follow:
A) search for (by filtering or manually) the group of textures of interest, let's say Landscape\Roads\Asphalt* group B) click on the first one (on the left side inside the file list) C) press designated Hot-key (let's say F3) which would select "next available radio button i.e. next source" without losing focus on the left side D) press arrow down will switch to "next file in the list" E) repeat
As it is now arrow down will select next source, because by mouse click on radio control the "focus" would follow and switch to radio buttons. And to put it back to file list you will need another mouse move, find target and click.
Also lost focus on radio control pushes it back to last available source I think, usually it's stays on Custom, if there is Custom texture. If it is possible to make it "sticky" until user manually select different source, by mouse clicking or "F3", if that's got implemented, it would help with cases of related textures, when you need to go back and do a quick preview of all three Asphalts (main, trim, cracks) within the same source, because they have to match each other and replacing one has to lead to replacing the whole group. Possible logic would be "stay on selected source while it's available and fall back to Default otherwise" maybe.
In short: arrow down - F3 - F3 - F3 and repeat versus click precisely on file line, move mouse right , click precisely on default source, arrow down, arrow down, move mouse left, find and click precisely on next file line and repeat
It's not only about natural laziness, all of the moving and targeting with mouse shifts attention from actual texture comparing. while with one finger on "F3" and another on arrow down user focus always on preview screen.
Regarding point 2
It's definitely not about generic folder comparing, it's about expanding the usefulness of the tool beyond stock or hires dlc supplied textures (and a single point of customization for final override like "Custom"). 3rd party texture packs are great, but sometimes they intersect in a few textures, sometimes in whole subsets. Brick walls, auto tires, Nuka Cola vendor machine, gravel, trash cans and containers, federalist furniture to name a few. With a couple more columns (and ability to hide those that were already decided on) it would be invaluable tool, helping decide which actual texture will make it to the "Custom", or even in which order to load those extra packs if they supplied as ba2 archives, in which case Data\Textures\<Subset with multiple sources> should be empty in conflicting subsets/subfolders.
Some upgrade experience, just FYI
I installed version 1.1 (briefly aka v1.2) and installer for some reason refused to proceed untill older version is removed. With that done the whole initialization extract thing had to be repeated. As those folders already has been populated by v1.0 it had to override and apparently failed somewhere along the way, had to rerun again. I mean extraction must be done no questions there, but why installer was insisting on uninstalling? It's over 120G of "static" archived content, maybe there a way around redoing actual extraction if it has been done once and in the same folder. Maybe uninstalling clears that mark or something. Maybe deleting HiResPackBA2 and DefaultBA2 if re-exraction is inevitable would actually help.
Sorry for another the wall of text, best of luck with coding and everything
1) I can definitely do that; probably will use the left and right arrows keys for this.
2) For the other enhancement with the extra folder support, it's still different enough to warrant a separate application from this one, but I'm open to the idea.
3) For the problem of having to re-extract the textures after an update, it's sounds like you may have set the Extract Folder path to same location where you installed the viewer?In that case, I recommend using a completely separate folder like C:\Temp (or whatever).
Actually extract folder was set to d:\TMP and program installed into d:\tools\ FO4_Image_Viewer (or something similar)
If I could find vesion 1.0 (and another pc with windows and .NETinstalled), I'll try to install it with all defaults and then upgrade to v 1.1 to see if anything changes.
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Latest News:
For anyone that's interested, I've just uploaded v1.2, which has these changes:
- Added the navigation keys "left arrow" and "right arrow" to main result list. Once the list is completely displayed, you can use the up and down arrow keys to move to the next and previous rows, and now also change the resolution on the right side (Default, Hi-Res, Custom). (regm9)
- Several internal tweaks and fixes.
Please let me know what you think, Endorse or Vote if you find it useful.For the original Skyrim version, please see: Skyrim DDS Image Viewer
Fallout 4, especially with the Hi-Res DLC, has nearly 125 GB of texture files, so you will need at least that much free space to use this utility.
In addition, extracting the texture files will take several minutes depending on your hardware. However this should only need to be done once.
Each file has a green checkmark next to it once Nexus says it's ok: files
The actual results are here: report
Best Regards!
Thanks
Best Regards!
What I am seeing on my PC screen also appears to be truncated - like the bottom and right side are cut short - may be a resolution thing, but that would be abnormal for a program's appearance.
My best guess to try to resize the main form:
1) Double-click on the form title bar.
2) Slide the entire form to the left.
Best Regards!
Any chance you could post additional information about this?
Please let me know, thanks!
As far as opening my DDS files, strangely enough, I had Honeyview installed on my computer and didn't even realize it could open DDS files, so I'm set. It doesn't have the spiffy layout yours does, but hey, it's something. If you still want more info on MO2 I'm more than happy to answer any questions. I'm no expert but I've been using it for three years.
Although, based on how you describe MO2 working, I'm not sure there's I can do.
That virtual directory is only accessible by MO2? It's not viewable in Windows Explorer?
Currently looking for a DDS file viewer, came across you mod and this post and just wanted to clarify something. You can actually browse texture mods (packed and unpacked) managed by MO2 in Windows Explorer. All Mods managed by MO2 would be in the MO2 Mods folder (usually \MO2\<game>\Mods\<Mod Folder>). So if your mod can browse folders other than the Fallout 4\Data folder, then it should work fine for MO2 users.
I am not sure of the technical bits but MO2's goal is to leave the Fallout 4 data folder in pristine condition so instead of copying mods in/out of \data it uses "USVFS - User Space Virtual File System" to allow Fallout 4 to see MO2's mods folders.
It is still a physical folder on your system where the mods are installed.
Settings - Paths - Mods. That will show you were they are installed within MO2.
Note: If you use MO2 to manage multiple games instead of Portable mode, then they will be in a hidden folder on your system
You need to unhide hidden folders to access it.
C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer\Fallout 4\Mods
That is where all your installed mods are. The bold underlined folder is the hidden folder.
Could you post a screenshot here, to help give me an idea of what your seeing, please? If I can get a clear idea of what is happening, I will gladly fix it.
Best Regards!
I can install your program to see the BA files from Fallout itself. I can also use it to see BA files from Flacon etc. Can I also use this to replace the files from Fallout with ones from others?
I think that would help reduce load times etc rather a lot which is why I am thinking of doing this.
Thanks for your program and time.
Best Regards!
Any chance that one could combine then all of the textures out that that one likes?
For instance could I take say Flacons and Vivids and combine those, replacing one texture with another then?
It would certainly make the files smaller of course.
Also what is the size limit of texture files?
I have seen BA files in the gigabytes range. Is there a limit or no?
Your expertise in this matter is invaluable.
Thanks for your time and patience for us noobs
Thanks for trying the viewer, and also for the kind feedback!
Best Regards!
Unfortunately I don't have much experience using MO, so I can't say for certain. However, I'm think you should be able to choose the path where MO has the texture files in MO (BA2, \Data\Texture), and the tool should work fine.
Let me know it does (or doesn't), since I know MO is popular.
Best Regards!
Maybe someone else on here has tried it?
No big deal either way. I don't view too many DDS files anyway, so I don't really need it. It just looks like a cool tool, and there definitely have been times when it would have been useful.
Great tool, just doesn't fit what I really need =(
It does look like Paint Dot Net also works as a DDS viewer to some degree. Not as fast/nice a layout as yours though.
I have had more generic browser version of this tool "on the books" for awhile now, but unfortunately no ETA.
Windows 10 has built in capability for viewing dds thumbnails, and then I also have the WTV tool installed for view the full image:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_texture_viewer.html
If you suspect that the femalebody_d.dds file you're searching for is packed in a BA2 file, you'll need to use the browser utility that's available on Nexus to search for it.
Best Regards!
I already built the basic browser a while back... and forgot!
Here:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30745?tab=files
I did find a PC to test on and run the whole update sequence, from v1.0 to v1.1 and then from v1.1 to v1.2, also I tried
installing v1.2 aftre uninstalling v1.1
The relevant one, from v1.1 to v 1.2 was rather successful, it retained setup info about folders and picked up already
existing textures index from v1.1 run, even when v1.1 was uninstalled before installing v1.2.
A couple of small details that could be potentially confusing: Windows "installed programs" list always shows v1.0,
program title bar shows v1.1 even after v1.2 was installed.
Also installer shows three "standard" options to choose from, "Modify", "Repair" and "Uninstall", which one is to be used
for an upgrade, "Modify"?.
Anyway, program is getting better, thanks for your work!
Regards
Thanks for the update; and the kind feedback.
For the uninstall always showing v1.0, guessing that it may be related to not fully uninstalling from the previous version?
Also, it's best to always completely uninstall, even if other options are available.
Best Regards!
Thanks so much for the very useful tool!
Do you have any plans for feature expansion?
I'm not sure of the complexity involved, sorry if it out of the project scope, but there is a couple of ideas I think would make
already useful program a greater tool for comparing big texture packs.
1.
Hot key for switching the source on the right viewer side while being on the the left, filelist side, and using arrow up/down
to browse would be very handy.
Also if that source radio button could stick to "chosen" column, it would make fast browsing through middle column easier.
2.
The big one is an option to "Hide/Unhide" HiRes and Custom (linked to Data folder) columns and adding maybe 2-3 extra
Custom (user configurable paths) columns. Those paths obviously would be populated manually by unpacking relevant packs by user.
Very handy for comparing let say "Default" stock textures with the great and huge texture packs from FlaconOil and Valius
My reasoning would be:
HiRes DLC textures looks exactly like anyone would expect from exact but upscaled copy of stock textures.
Also with rising popularity of packing custom textures into ba2 archive, thanks to nice recent tutorial,
resulting "Data\Textures" folder would probably consist of small sets of either uniques or personal preference overrides.
In other words something already chosen to be there as final override or not existing in Stock set at all.
Introducing Hide/Unhide option would save screen space for the extra custom columns while leaving an option to keep the default ones,
or anything in between really, up to user needs/preferences.
Just an idea.
Funny thing is with version 1.1 I was able to substitute actual textures in "hardcoded" locations (after initial population was done),
but with 1.2 changes that option is out I guess. And it was really hard to keep track of which texture pack is where anyway.
Even more funnier thing is while I was typing all this the version 1.2 disappeared.
Thanks for trying the viewer, and for the great suggestions.
1. This is already available. The standard navigation keys work, so simply click on any row on the left side to select the data grid, then hit the up, down, page-up, page-down, etc as you like. For the radio buttons, I'll see what can be done. This get's tricky since in some cases not all three radio button options are available when switching between textures. In that scenario (like only a Default, and a Custom), switch to the highest res available?
2. Sounds like basically a general purpose tool for comparing folders? I'm open to the idea, but it's likely a new, separate tool from this one. Actually, this is not the first time this has been requested, so I'll add it to the to-do list, but unfortunately no ETA for now.
Regarding v1.2 - actually, that was a number mistake on my part when I initially uploaded v1.1. v1.1 is the true version number, and the latest one available.v1.2 is upcoming; possible by next week.
Best Regards!
I probably wasn't very clear about point 1
I meant the jumping of "window focus" or whatever it is properly called in programming
Ideal (from my point of view anyway) workflow would be as follow:
A) search for (by filtering or manually) the group of textures of interest, let's say Landscape\Roads\Asphalt* group
B) click on the first one (on the left side inside the file list)
C) press designated Hot-key (let's say F3) which would select "next available radio button i.e. next source" without losing focus on the left side
D) press arrow down will switch to "next file in the list"
E) repeat
As it is now arrow down will select next source, because by mouse click on radio control the "focus" would follow and switch to radio buttons.
And to put it back to file list you will need another mouse move, find target and click.
Also lost focus on radio control pushes it back to last available source I think, usually it's stays on Custom, if there is Custom texture.
If it is possible to make it "sticky" until user manually select different source, by mouse clicking or "F3", if that's got implemented,
it would help with cases of related textures, when you need to go back and do a quick preview of all three Asphalts (main, trim, cracks)
within the same source, because they have to match each other and replacing one has to lead to replacing the whole group.
Possible logic would be "stay on selected source while it's available and fall back to Default otherwise" maybe.
In short:
arrow down - F3 - F3 - F3 and repeat
versus
click precisely on file line, move mouse right , click precisely on default source, arrow down, arrow down, move mouse left,
find and click precisely on next file line and repeat
It's not only about natural laziness, all of the moving and targeting with mouse shifts attention from actual texture comparing.
while with one finger on "F3" and another on arrow down user focus always on preview screen.
Regarding point 2
It's definitely not about generic folder comparing, it's about expanding the usefulness of the tool beyond stock or hires dlc
supplied textures (and a single point of customization for final override like "Custom").
3rd party texture packs are great, but sometimes they intersect in a few textures, sometimes in whole subsets.
Brick walls, auto tires, Nuka Cola vendor machine, gravel, trash cans and containers, federalist furniture to name a few.
With a couple more columns (and ability to hide those that were already decided on) it would be invaluable tool, helping decide
which actual texture will make it to the "Custom", or even in which order to load those extra packs if they supplied
as ba2 archives, in which case Data\Textures\<Subset with multiple sources> should be empty in conflicting subsets/subfolders.
Some upgrade experience, just FYI
I installed version 1.1 (briefly aka v1.2) and installer for some reason refused to proceed untill older version is removed.
With that done the whole initialization extract thing had to be repeated. As those folders already has been populated by v1.0
it had to override and apparently failed somewhere along the way, had to rerun again.
I mean extraction must be done no questions there, but why installer was insisting on uninstalling? It's over 120G of "static"
archived content, maybe there a way around redoing actual extraction if it has been done once and in the same folder.
Maybe uninstalling clears that mark or something. Maybe deleting HiResPackBA2 and DefaultBA2 if re-exraction
is inevitable would actually help.
Sorry for another the wall of text, best of luck with coding and everything
1) I can definitely do that; probably will use the left and right arrows keys for this.
2) For the other enhancement with the extra folder support, it's still different enough to warrant a separate application from this one, but I'm open to the idea.
3) For the problem of having to re-extract the textures after an update, it's sounds like you may have set the Extract Folder path to same location where you installed the viewer?In that case, I recommend using a completely separate folder like C:\Temp (or whatever).
Best Regards!
If I could find vesion 1.0 (and another pc with windows and .NETinstalled), I'll try to install it with all defaults and then upgrade to v 1.1 to see if anything changes.
Regards