ace to dds

[pwillard]

...And it has been mentioned before... DDS is a tremendous final format, but it is not ideal for being edited and saved back again as DDS. DDS Compression is LOSSY (unlike lossless compressions of many other formats), so repeated editing of a DDS image will degrade it. It is best to only use DDS as a final version, much like turning a Microsoft Word document into a PDF. You always want to keep that WORD Document handy and you don't want to try to edit the PDF.

[geepster775]

The easy way.
Use Shapeviewer to export the .ace textures as .bmp no alpha, or .tga w/alpha.
Open the .tga or .bmp with PaintDotNet and save as a .dds.

Randy

You can do direct ACE to DDS conversions using DXTBMP. Fire off the utility, open an ACE, and save as DDS.

For many of the later-era MSTS payware ACE textures (i.e. the SLI Feather River equipment pack) where any editing or renumbering was not needed, I just did a simple conversion from ACE to DDS using the DXTBMP utility and then mated these textures with any upgraded shapes (from newer, OR era releases) where opportunities to upgrade existed. Then these revamped rolling stock items were imported into my DDS-only installation of OR grade routes.

If I were doing any edits or new numbers sourced from those late MSTS-era ACE files, then I would use TGAtools to convert to Targa, make the edits and then save directly to PSD and DDS in photoshop. And then mate them with any improved shapes if available.

[OSRFan]

The easy way.
Use Shapeviewer to export the .ace textures as .bmp no alpha, or .tga w/alpha.
Open the .tga or .bmp with PaintDotNet and save as a .dds.

Randy

That's the way I've been doing it for years. Once you get the hang of it, 10 files is no slower than nvDXT, and much less finicky than DXTbmp, where my experience has been that one must save the texture file and the alpha separately . I've done it all three ways, and much prefer shape file viewer.

[rdayt]

I was thinking of editing a texture for a tree or a locomotive.
Would there be a need to convert large numbers of aces to ddss?
Everything I work on ends up as a dds but I leave the other aces alone.

Randy

[rrdiesel87]

The method I prefer for converting .ace to .dds is to export the textures from shape viewer to .tga or .bmp files then process and re-export them in Photoshop using the Nvidia developer tools DDS plugin.