Reduced City Textures for Third Age Total War 2

[Devils_Advocate]

Not to undermine this submod, but with the next TATW patch a huge performance increase will come anyway. All textures will have the exactly same quality and resolution as now but half their file size!
Simply because they all will be saved in the dxt1 format than in the useless dxt5 format what they have now. (file size from 1.33 mb now to 666kb, or somthing like that).
It will positively affect the campaign map as well as particularly the battle map. You will receive a performance increase from approximatly 10-20 percent, according to my test, in every battle (siege or open field)!

[Scorpius Centaurus]

Not to undermine this submod, but with the next TATW patch a huge performance increase will come anyway. All textures will have the exactly same quality and resolution as now but half their file size!
Simply because they all will be saved in the dxt1 format than in the useless dxt5 format what they have now. (file size from 1.33 mb now to 666kb, or somthing like that).
It will positively affect the campaign map as well as particularly the battle map. You will receive a performance increase from approximatly 10-20 percent, according to my test, in every battle (siege or open field)!

Yep, I have done the same with my tatw game. Saved all the settlements as dxt1 and it halves the size of the texture file. I also did it for all the units too. It makes a huge difference in performance and you don't lose any quality. The normals work fine and the reflections/shine on armour and weapons are still there. If a unit does not have any grey shading in it's alpha, only pure black or pure white or both, then it can be saved as dxt1.

[Ishan]

Not to undermine this submod, but with the next TATW patch a huge performance increase will come anyway. All textures will have the exactly same quality and resolution as now but half their file size!
Simply because they all will be saved in the dxt1 format than in the useless dxt5 format what they have now. (file size from 1.33 mb now to 666kb, or somthing like that).
It will positively affect the campaign map as well as particularly the battle map. You will receive a performance increase from approximatly 10-20 percent, according to my test, in every battle (siege or open field)!

This submod will still give a fps boost in siege battle without the DXT 1 thing & lol it seems TATW dev members read the SS forums regularly.

If a unit does not have any grey shading in it's alpha, only pure black or pure white or both, then it can be saved as dxt1.

There is no grey shading in alpha channels only Black(0,0,0) & white(255,255,255). Black giving transparency and vice versa. If transparency is not being utilized then one can save the texture as DXT1.

[Scorpius Centaurus]

There is no grey shading in alpha channels only Black(0,0,0) & white(255,255,255). Black giving transparency and vice versa. If transparency is not being utilized then one can save the texture as DXT1.

What I mean by grey shading is when the transparency of the Alpha is less than 100%.


I found out about using dxt1 from this thread.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=143321

Thank Martin Wright of MW Graphics. ;-)

I've noticed lot of "pro" skinners don't seem to know the difference between a DXT1 and DXT5 .dds:

I've seen several major skin packs where all the texture files that should be saved as DXT1 are saved as DXT5, whcih creates an unneeded alpha channel that doubles the used video memory for that one skin.

This can waste a HUGE amount of video memory and cause crashes in large battles.

DXTbmp is a great way to make sure the skin is saved in the proper format.

If the alpha channel is all white, it's a DXT1.

If the alpha channel is grey scale shaded, like the areas around bow quivers, helm visors, axes, etc, then it's a DXT5.

DXTbmp will also save a shaded DXT5 alpha as a DXT1 with alpha, which has a pure black and white alpha channel.

For a archer militia skin for example, only the bow quiver is represented in the DXT5 alpha channel, grey scaled.

If you save it as a DXT1 with alpha, it decreases the video memory usage by half, but the unit will show more jaggedy around the quiver on the battlemap, since the shading around the quiver has been removed and changed to just black and white, but with AA turned on, the difference is barely noticeable. It's a question of detail vs performance.

Normal map textures and blood/dirt overlay textures are always DXT5s, so they use a significant part of a battle's video memory.

I'll post some example screens soon as examples.

[Ishan]

What I mean by grey shading is when the transparency of the Alpha is less than 100%.


I found out about using dxt1 from this thread.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=143321

From that^ thread:-

Important note: DXTBmp will automatically save DXT1 in the proper format if it includes a 1 bit alpha channel, ie., the alpha channel only contains

pure black (0,0,0) and pure white (255,255,255).

Otherwise it will save as a DXT1 (no alpha).

If it has a interpolated (shaded) alpha (ie, black white , and gray) you must save as a DXT5.

Gray transparency is not supported by M2 Engine either it's 100% or 0%.

[DeadlyPhoenix]

Ok, I'm totally newb to this but since I play on a laptop this is a very interesting idea to at least try and implement it on my system.

I've read up on both topics (this one here and new graphics), but before I mess up my game totally or do anything wrong, I'd like to ask which files I should convert. (no need to list them all one by one, just a general idea perhaps if possible)

I got an example, could I convert files like this found in the file \Medieval II Total War\mods\Third_Age_SP\data\unit_models\_units\elven_rangers\textures



as you maybe can read, it's originally saved as a .TEXTURE (of which I understand: DDS DXT5), seeing as the alpha is completely white: I can save thiis as: ACE DXT1 TEXTURE and any other similar texture file to decrease the stress on my vid card?

[Gigantus]

Marvelous news! Can this be done with unit textures as well?

[Devils_Advocate]

This submod will still give a fps boost in siege battle without the DXT 1 thing & lol it seems TATW dev members read the SS forums regularly.

No, not me. But I guess KK does. However, we found that issue at the same time on different ways.
The importance is, it doesn´t reduce the quality of the texture, what this submod does.

Marvelous news! Can this be done with unit textures as well?

Of course. Every dds texture, which does not need the alpha channel can be converted; units, settlements, sky boxes, ground textures, some strat map textures etc. not the vegetation though, which usually uses the alpha channel.

[Ourk]

How do you actually convert them ? (sorry if it is a dumb question ^^)

[Ishan]

Use DXTBmp or mass convert them in DXT1 with one click via PS.

However, we found that issue at the same time on different ways.

Great minds thinks alike.

[Devils_Advocate]

Use DXTBmp or mass convert them in DXT1 with one click via PS.

Great minds thinks alike.

I wish I could confirm. In fact I rather rely on the saying: A false friend agrees, a true one disagrees.

[Ishan]

@DeadlyPhoenix
No bro you are doing it wrong. Choose option save as Creative Assembly Texture then choose which type DXT1 or 5.

[DeadlyPhoenix]

Thanks a lot. Other than that, I do can transform the example given into DXT1 ?

[Ishan]

You can convert any Picture file.

[DeadlyPhoenix]

I do hope that there is a better way than opening them all one by one and click for each texture file -> save as -> confirm -> times 1000x

Would be terrific if there is a way to open them all at the same time and save them all at once into a DXT 1 file

I'm just doing it all one by one now in my TATW_SP file to see if it works properly and that I don't mess anything up. So far so good, negative point is .. that MOS 5.0 is about to come out today or tomorrow and that I so thus will have to do it ALL over again

[Super-noob]

I'm also interested in changing the files. So I'll re-ask if you can save them all in one click?

I have never used this program before. How do I use it ?

[Gigantus]

There is no bulk converter as such - because you edit the files they need to be saved individually.

There was a converter that would bulk convert DDS to TEXTURE format and vice versa, but that won't help you here.

[Makrell]

does this work with frome and exoanded map

[Gigantus]

I would guess so, it just replaces the existing textures. Nothing game breaking.

[Gigantus]

Reduction of textures should only be a last resort if you are REALLY having performance problems that cannot be solved by reducing the graphic options that are available in the game.