I am a new user to Gimp and I am trying to convert various textures to dds format for use in the game Skyrim. Specifically, converting them to transparencies. These are two before/after images of one I am working on. The one img is a transparent png files and the second is the result as viewed on my player. This result is the usual outcome. How do I get the img clarity to transfer to the exported DDS file?

It might help someone give you a meaningful answer if you give a few more details.

Gimp 2.10.12 will export a dds file in various formats. If you are not using the latest version you should update.

Which export option do you use? see screenshot 01

The png you posted does not have an alpha channel. Is that intentional?

It does however, resemble an image with transparent areas, exported to a dds file (DXT5) screenshot 02

Sorry I can not help more. I do not play any computer games.

If you do not get a sensible answer from this forum in a reasonable time, my advice is, ask your questions on a dedicated games forum.

I am using 2.10.12. I use the BC3.DXT5 option to save. The PNG was an Image I
downlaoded from the web as 'transparent'. That's all I know. Most of the game
modders use Adobe so much of the advice is not applicable with Gimp. I am new
to working with DDS files so I dont know what info someone would need to know.
My question pertains to how to make the PNG I posted transparent while retaining
the color intensity as the original. An example of use would be a 2 layer dress
with a solid white skirt with a pale pink transparent outer layer using the PNG
design as its texture. So far my conversions are grainy and washed out as I
posted.

First your 'transparent' png.

Go to Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel and if that is 'greyed-out' then the image has transparency. (You can also see in the layers dialogue, a layer **without** an alpha channel has a ** bold** layer name)

I will attach your image in what I think it should look like, as a Gimp xcf image and a screenshot comparison of a DXT viewer showing the exported dds file.

I did a bit of digging and found this about SkyRim. https://kasprutz.tumblr.com/post/126812437384/dds-format-guide-for-skyrim. No Gimp mentioned but it looks like BC3 / DXT5 should be OK.

However there is a PDF on the subject here that advises Alpha Exponent (DXT5) for quality
https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-How-To-Use-The-Gimp-DDS-Plugin?pid=6196#pid6196 right at the end of the PDF.

Sorry I can not be much help but again I am not into those game graphics and I appreciate that most information is written for PS users.

Attachments: * https://www.gimpusers.com/system/attachments/1227/original/dds.jpg * https://www.gimpusers.com/system/attachments/1228/original/original.xcf

rich404 (via www.gimpusers.com/forums)

On 8/3/2019 02:18, Sorceress99 wrote:

First your 'transparent' png.

Go to Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel and if that is 'greyed-out'
then the image has transparency. (You can also see in the layers dialogue, a
layer **without** an alpha channel has a ** bold** layer name)

I will attach your image in what I think it should look like, as a Gimp xcf
image and a screenshot comparison of a DXT viewer showing the exported dds file.

I did a bit of digging and found this about SkyRim. https://kasprutz.tumblr.com/post/126812437384/dds-format-guide-for-skyrim. No
Gimp mentioned but it looks like BC3 / DXT5 should be OK.

However there is a PDF on the subject here that advises Alpha Exponent (DXT5)
for quality
https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-How-To-Use-The-Gimp-DDS-Plugin?pid=6196#pid6196 right at the end of the PDF.

Sorry I can not be much help but again I am not into those game graphics and I
appreciate that most information is written for PS users.

Attachments: * https://www.gimpusers.com/system/attachments/1227/original/dds.jpg *
https://www.gimpusers.com/system/attachments/1228/original/original.xcf

Appreciate the input. I am enjoying the new Gimp2.10.12 much better than 2.8. Much more versatile and supports DDS files. As i mentioned earlier, I am a newbie with DDS files so much to learn. Mostly I aimed at retexuring armor and clothing. I want to take images from the net and convert them to DDS. Lof of images of lace that I want to use without losing the depth of color or sharpness. I did manage to convert a beautiful blue lace thru trial an error and It worked nice. But I cant remember how I did it so I know Gimp can do what I want. Most everyone I know uses Adobe and getting them to help can be an arduous process so I am hoping to be able to do for myself. Thanks again for you help.

It's been a few years since I worked with DXT5.  I always saved my source image data in tiff files as they seem to be easiest to manipulate.  The thing with DXT5 is that the compression breaks your image into blocks and stores info about the colors and alpha in each block.  There's only a few bits of alpha data per block so if you are starting with 8-bit RGBA image it could be the alpha has too much gradient and info is lost in the compression.  You might try extracting the alpha to a layer and working with it as a grey-scale layer to experiment on.

scott s.

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