To be honest, it kind of feels like you gloss over things and a lot of things are left unexplained. The preset files included were tremendously useful for fixing a problem I had and that I could find no answer to in any tutorial. So thanks for that. Though it feels like I didn't really learn how to solve the problem. If you explained the settings you used for those, your tutorial would be a whole lot better.
This only covers the Photoshop version of Nvidia's DDS, another common tool is the Paint Shop Pro version of the Nvidia DDS. The GUI of both tools is different.
Fairly well done. It does get most of the basic points across, but there are a few other details that should be included. DXT1ARGB will not anti alias your edges. This means jagged lines on angles. DXT3 is good for anti aliasing edges on what would normally be a 1 bit alpha. The difference between DXT3 and 5 is like comparing the difference between a web safe .gif to a .png. As mentioned, the DXT5 has more shades of gray, but what needs to be addressed is that if there are several levels of transparency and a file is saved as DXT3, it cannot be simply saved as DXT5 and have the overly compressed alpha channel correct itself. It will have to be redone, so save your PSD files.
You do not need to create your own alpha channel for the diffuse texture. If you are building it on a transparent background, you can set up all of your transparent and semi transparent layers the way you want and then with the PSD as is, simply save as a .dds file with alpha. Your alpha channel will be created for you.
It doesn't matter at all what your aspect ratio is as long as it is 8x2^. It can be 32x2048 and will work just fine. This cannot be stressed enough, due to too many people not knowing this and making 2048x2048 textures where 256x2048 would suffice.
ARGB8x32 (as mentioned as 8x8x8x is a completely uncompressed format and will allow people to save files in improper aspect ratios (i.e. 1280x960). It has no fail safes incorporated. It is equal to an uncompressed 32 bit .tga file and should be avoided for game use.
Mipmaps should be set to 4. They can be set to have more, but it is pointless. Some companies in the past have used as many as 7 when they were first learning about the DDS format over a decade ago, but have since changed. To benefit the most from using Mipmaps, click the Sharpening dialogue box just under the texture rollout and change the sharpening method to Unsharpen Mask. This will apply an unsharp mask filter to your Mipmaps and make them less noticeable when they kick in. Anything that is a static distance (HUD elements, etc.) should not be saved with Mipmaps.
Thank you. this is useful information. However, it covers only half the problem of getting transparency to actually show. As stated in your tutorial: "Even though you have, and intend to use the alpha channel for transparency effects, settings need to be made in nifScope for the effect to work" And getting nifskope settings right may well be the most problematic part of it all. Maybe a good idea to extend the tutorial to also include the related nifskope settings?
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DXT1ARGB will not anti alias your edges. This means jagged lines on angles. DXT3 is good for anti aliasing edges on what would normally be a 1 bit alpha.
The difference between DXT3 and 5 is like comparing the difference between a web safe .gif to a .png. As mentioned, the DXT5 has more shades of gray, but what needs to be addressed is that if there are several levels of transparency and a file is saved as DXT3, it cannot be simply saved as DXT5 and have the overly compressed alpha channel correct itself. It will have to be redone, so save your PSD files.
You do not need to create your own alpha channel for the diffuse texture. If you are building it on a transparent background, you can set up all of your transparent and semi transparent layers the way you want and then with the PSD as is, simply save as a .dds file with alpha. Your alpha channel will be created for you.
It doesn't matter at all what your aspect ratio is as long as it is 8x2^. It can be 32x2048 and will work just fine. This cannot be stressed enough, due to too many people not knowing this and making 2048x2048 textures where 256x2048 would suffice.
ARGB8x32 (as mentioned as 8x8x8x
Mipmaps should be set to 4. They can be set to have more, but it is pointless. Some companies in the past have used as many as 7 when they were first learning about the DDS format over a decade ago, but have since changed.
To benefit the most from using Mipmaps, click the Sharpening dialogue box just under the texture rollout and change the sharpening method to Unsharpen Mask. This will apply an unsharp mask filter to your Mipmaps and make them less noticeable when they kick in.
Anything that is a static distance (HUD elements, etc.) should not be saved with Mipmaps.
However, it covers only half the problem of getting transparency to actually show. As stated in your tutorial:
"Even though you have, and intend to use the alpha channel for transparency effects,
settings need to be made in nifScope for the effect to work"
And getting nifskope settings right may well be the most problematic part of it all. Maybe a good idea to extend the tutorial to also include the related nifskope settings?