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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 16th Feb 2008 at 6:17 AM
Default simpe killing texture quality on transparent images- help, please!
I'm making an object that requires the use of some very 'delicate' textures (super-low opacities, transparent in areas, etc.), as it's supposed to mimic shafts of light coming in through a window when it's all finished.

However, I can't seem to get around SimPE's compression of textures. I'm doing everything right-- I think. Building DXT's, not importing, using DXT3 format... but I still can't keep the quality in the texture.

Here is the original .png, as exported from photoshop (with black in the background, so you can actually see it)


When I checked in-game, it looked wretched. So I went into SimPE and exported the texture from there (from the right-click menu on the image in the TXTR) and this is what it spit out:

Ugh. So my question: is there a way to force SimPE into not compressing the texture at all, or is there some workaround for this? I can provide the package file or textures or anything else. Guuuhhhhh.
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Scholar
#2 Old 16th Feb 2008 at 7:58 AM Last edited by pixelhate : 16th Feb 2008 at 1:33 PM.
I've experimented some similar trouble. You could try :
- in dxt5 (give sometimes bettering)
- to play with the filters from the dxt builder (I've never had the courage to study them systematicely)
- to use .DDs file (will give often satisfaction with these kind of trouble)

Understand Material definition-TXMT and customize the look of your objects ! This way

"The longer something exists in this world, the more wear and tear it will have."
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 16th Feb 2008 at 8:11 AM
Ah, thank you for responding!

I had played around with the filters in the builder, but nothing seemed to work. I'll try your advice about dxt5 and .dds. *crosses fingers*

Thanks, again.
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#4 Old 16th Feb 2008 at 8:25 AM
Another thing that seems to help when you're facing over-compression of your textures is adding just the tiniest bit of monochromatic noise to your image - you should be able to see it in your graphics editing program as a bit of fuzz but it shouldn't really look "noisy" if that makes any sense. That little added bit of detail does increase file size, but it also decreases the amount of ugly patchy compression you'll tend to get. That, combined with the tips above about DXT5 and playing with the filters should probably get you the effect you want.

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 16th Feb 2008 at 8:39 AM
It's funny you mention that, HP-- I tried that trick also, and yet: FAIL. SimPE hates me a little. :/

It looks like the dxt5 is working, though; I'm loading up the game to check.

Thanks for the advice!

EDIT: Yay!!! The dxt5 did work. Thanks for the help, guys! :lovestruc
Scholar
#6 Old 17th Feb 2008 at 6:20 PM
Ah ! Thanks for the tip HP !

Understand Material definition-TXMT and customize the look of your objects ! This way

"The longer something exists in this world, the more wear and tear it will have."
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