-------------------------------------------------------------------DDS Converter 2.

1 | Release Notes | March 18th, 2005

Copyright (c) 2004-2005 Yannick 'Bluehair' Leon. All rights reserved
-------------------------------------------------------------------Contact: bluehair@d3files.com or bluehair@wanadoo.fr
-------------------------------------------------------------------|---- Manifest ----|
The setup program has installed the following files:
|- Readme.txt
|- DDS Converter 2.exe
|--------------------|- DevIL.dll
in the previewer and
|- ILU.dll
, DDS -> TGA etc
|- ILUT.dll
|--------------------|- nvdxt.exe
files
|--------------------|- s3tc.exe
ernative to nVidia's
|- vic32.dll

; open source image library used to load images

; perform generic conversions such as PNG -> JPG

; nVidia's command line tool used to create DDS

; older tool from S3 Graphics included as an alt

The latest version of nvDXT can be obtained from this link: http://developer.nv
idia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html
As concerns the program itself, it can be downloaded from the following places:
|- http://doom3.filefront.com/file/;29052
|- http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/;29412
|---- Intro ----|
This program was initially designed to batchly generate DXT-compressed textures
out of common image files. Since nVidia's tool is used to achieve this goal, thi
s program mostly acts as a front-end to this tool.
|---- Changes since v2.0----|
+
+
+

Various improvements on the user interface:

'Options' dialog redone/recoded
ESC key disabled in child dialogs
added dragging support

+
+
+

Improved DDS Support:

Alpha channel will now be saved if the sources have one
Number of mipmaps + their filtering method can be specified
Any command-line switches supported by nvDXT can be specified

|---- Notes ----|

- The small button beside 'Reset', '.\', makes the output folder match the input
's

- The 'Convert' button will remain disabled until you select an output folder
- The 'Opacity' slider won't have any effect on Win9x systems
- The number of mipmaps reported doesn't include the image displayed in the prev
iewer. The DirectX Texture Tool (included in the DirectX SDK) will add one to th
is number
- Problems and limitations:
+ nvDXT v6.60 fails to read BMP/PNG files; PSD support doesn't seem to be great
either
+ S3TC only reads TGA files
To bypass these limitations, DDS Converter 2 generates a temporary TGA file usin
g DevIL to eventually have any file types converted into DDS. This means that nv
DXT and S3TC will work faster when the sources are:
++ JPG/TGA and PSD files (not recommended) for nvDXT
++ TGA files for S3TC
+ DevIL ain't a flawless library and may brutally fail to read or otherwise conv
ert some files sometimes. DDS Converter 2 cannot predict those unreported failur
es and they could cause it to crash as well.
Take notice that I *rarely* have experienced such problems in practice. If it wa
s the case, I wouldn't have released this program!
- Random thoughts if you experience trouble:
+ delete the INI file to revert to the program's default settings
+ disable the previewer; by the way, it is not recommended to preview hi-res ima
ges (1024x768 and above) as it would take some time to read them
+ disable the transparency feature by setting "$default window transparency:" to
0 in the INI file
|---- Outro ----|
This will likely be the last update to this program, I think it is quite good as
it stands currently. This doesn't mean I won't think about a v3 at some point t
hough, as I like creating MFC tools :) I'm currently working on a long-term game
-related project using the Power Render 3D engine; I did and still learn a lot a
bout maths/game design/programming/modeling etc and it's now high time for me to
put all that knowledge into practice!
Thank you for your interest in this modest program :)
-Bluehair