DDS (Texturing FAQ) - Texture Website List

[Vernon]

Texturing Tips

I just wanted to jot down a few tips for texturers, as I have seen some textures in incompatible format lately. Textures should preferably be saved in DDS format, which aids in improving performance in the Morrowind engine. The way it improves performance is to reduce resolution the further away the game camera gets. This is what a Morrowind DDS looks like:

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v486/Vernon_Gedanken/TX_B_N_DarkElf_M_H04.jpg[/img]

There are two ways to save into .dds format. The first is to install the Photoshop plugins by nVidia. Download [url=http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/files/nvidia_photoshop_plugins_6.6.0827.1800.rar]here[/url]or from the attachment below. The second way is to use the attached utility [url=http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/files/dds_converter_2.rar]DDS Converter 2.0[/url].

The way the DDS file is actually saved is following:

Save the texture in the Data Files/Texture directory and choose DDS format in the save as box. Click save and a window will appear like so:

ADDENDUM 20/10/2005: Your image must be flattened and using square dimensions in order to reach the following screen.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v486/Vernon_Gedanken/ddsformatgui.jpg[/img]

Tick the Generate MIP Maps radio button and choose All.

Click the Sharpening Button and select None from the Sharpening Filter dropdown and click OK.

Click the Fading MIP maps button and change the blend amount to 2%
and click OK.

Finally, click save.

NOTE: When you re-open the DDS file you made, it will ask if you want MIP maps displayed with the image. If you just want to view the image, click yes. If you want to edit it, click no. If you edit it with MIP maps displayed, not only will you have to edit every MIP map, but they will also look odd.

To make your job easier, I have also attached a DDS Viewing utility that allows you to view DDS files in Windows Explorer.

Another note I want to make for those that don't know, is that textures in the Morrowind Engine are meant to have pixel dimensions in multiples of two.


I.E.
2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
512
1024

On the same note, textures shouldn't really need to be 1024 pixels in size, but if it is for something like a really big banner, that is fine.

Anyway, following the above guidelines will make Model Reviewing a much easier process and will therefore get your stuff into OoT quicker.

Happy texturing. :) If you have any questions about this stuff, feel free to ask here.

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Texture Sites

(I apologize for the links which not work like they should. At least all of them lead to the right places.)

Please read my note to the page you are downloading from.
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[url=http://www.freefoto.com/browse.jsp?id=33-00-0/]free Photo[/url]

this site has over 300 textures. I'm not quite sure, but they seems to be free.
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[url=http://www.mayang.com/textures//]mayang free textures[/url]

A very good texture site in my opinion. Over 1700 free textures. But unfortunately, you can just download 30 textures each day. But who needs more than 30 textures in one day? :P
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[url=http://textures.forrest.cz//]Texture F[/url]

873 textures. It seems like not all is free. The site has got warnings from other pages about copyright of the textures. Be sure before using any of these.
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[url=http://lemog.club.fr/index.html#/]Lemog club[/url]

A big amount of all free textures. These textures is a little hard to use for people with small texture experience, so if you look for some textures easy to work with, I suggest you try an other site.
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[url=http://www.clearingpoint.de/index-en.html/]clearing point[/url]

Not the biggest amount of textures, but some few wich might be useful. They seem to be free, since there are nothing anywhere saying that they not are. (don't mind the error message...just click the kind of texture you need(fantasy, artificial, nature, etc.))
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Animax: http://www.animax.it/animax/Textures.htm [/size]

A very good good site, with over 1000 free textures. This is one of the best sites I have posted here. Requires Java.
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PixlePoke: http://pixelpoke.com/FREE%20PIXELS.html

this site seems mostly free. A very good site if you gonna add details to your texture, like decoration and such, this is the site for you.
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[url=http://www.imageafter.com/textures.php/]Image after[/url]

Big amount of textures, and they are all free. The size of the textures range from 1600x1200 to 2560x1920. A very good site in my opinion, with a lot of useful textures.
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auto fx: http://www.autofx.com/utc.asp

over 3000 Royalty Free textures. Good site, a lot of stuff that can turn out useful.
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[url=http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/Publish/625//]IBM[/url]
these textures might not be very useful for the kind of work wee are doing, but you might find a texture you need here... free? I'm not sure. Nothing says their value or if they are free.
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Noctua-graphics: http://www.noctua-graphics.de/english/fraset_e.htm

a lot of quite good textures. All textures, materials and 3D objects in the download area can be used without any restrictions in your own private and commercial projects.
You are not allowed to spread them without giving the creators name, to include them in texture collections without a written permission and you strictly may not offer them as textures for sale in any way.
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[url=http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/%7Epbourke/texture//]Astronomy[/url]

Not the best textures, but some quite useful...
These textures may be freely used as backgrounds, textures in 3D scenes, parts of images, etc but they may not be redistributed as (or part of) a texture collection. The textures are divided into the following categories and an attempt has been made not to burden any single page with too many images. Be aware that some textures can be interpreted in a number of ways.
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3Dcafe: http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/textures.asp

all free. Some of the textures is might hard to use... There are not very many textures here that we can use. Most of them is textures from modern objects. Grass, wood and natural stuff might be used though...
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3dexellence: http://www.3dexcellence.com/textures.html

This site contains 202 textures ... all free. Many of them can turn out quite useful.
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[url=http://www.renfield-imaging.50megs.com/index.html//]renfield-imaging[/url]

from the page: "On this site, you will find hundreds of textures designed to delight the eye and fire the imagination. Best of all, these images are free for your usage. The only request we make is that our images not be included in any other texture or web art collection without our consent. Also, if you have a commercial project in which our textures are used, we'd like you to let us know (if for no other reason so that we can call our Moms and brag about it!)."

Java powered
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[url=http://main.3dnuta.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,8//]3dnuta[/url]

This site has textures almost EXACTLY how we need them. I'm not sure if they are free are not. Check yourself, and report back to me if they are not free.
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[url=http://www.3dtotal.com//]3dtotal[/url]

Very few textures which might fit best to decoration. At least they are free
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3dmaxer: http://www.3dmaxer.dk/Textures.asp

This is a danish site. Not bad textures, but you have to join to use them... Free? not sure. Joining is for free at least.
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[url=http://www.3dmd.net/gallery//]3dmd[/url]

quite good textures. Unfortunately is the textures copyrighted to the site...
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[url=http://www.afflict.net//]afflict[/url]

a 100% free copyrighted site. The textures seems quite good, though a lot of them is based on modern objects.
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[url=http://amazingtextures.com/textures/index.php//]amazingtextures[/url]

over 500 textures that seems to be free. a lot of them can definitely be used
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[aro101]

Another tip for everyone that starts to work with dds files(not only for them though). Take a look at this short brief whenever you're creating a new dds file an you're not sure what options to choose.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/DDS_Files


How to make cool normalmaps:
http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=799551&view=findpost&p=11632873

[Fishcake]

may i add some to the list?

sorry if there are some duplicates to the above list.


[url=http://www.cgtextures.com/]CG textures[/url]This is my favourite by far!

[url=http://www.2textured.com/main.php]2Textured[/url] - There is a couple of hundred here quite useful
[url=http://www.textureking.com/]Texture king[/url]
[url=http://www.bencloward.com/resources_textures.shtml]Ben Cloward[/url]
[url=http://free3dstextures.com/]Free 3ds Textures[/url]
[url=http://www.davegh.com/blade/davegh.htm]David Gurrea[/url]
[url=http://www.blender3d.ch/frozenmist/index.php?dir=.]Blender Texture library[/url]
[url=http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/texture_colour/]Texture, Colour[/url]
[url=http://www.noctua-graphics.de/english/fraset_e.htm]Noctua graphics[/url]
[url=http://www.grungetextures.com/gallery/]Grunge textures[/url]
[url=http://www.texturelove.com/textures/]Texture Love[/url]
[url=http://texturez.com/]Texturez[/url]
[url=http://www.change-books.com/free-art-textures/]Free Art textures[/url]
[url=http://www.lughertexture.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1]Lugher Texture[/url] -select the category at the top
[url=http://www.3d-rekonstruktionen.de/downloads/]3d-rekonstruktionen[/url]
[url=http://www.texturevault.com/]Texture Vault[/url]
[url=http://www.freetextures.org/]Free textures.org[/url]
[url=http://www.mega-tex.nl/highqualitytextures/]Mega tex[/url]
[url=http://sharecg.com/b/6/textures]Share Cg[/url]
[url=http://texturebits.blogspot.com/]Texture bits[/url]
[url=http://textures.forrest.cz/cgi-bin/texturesmain.cgi?s=3&p=0&r=3]textures.forrest.cz[/url]
[url=http://www.back-of-beyond.co.uk/texturemain.html]Back of beyond[/url]
[url=http://texturebarn.headfirstdm.com/]Texture Barn[/url]
[url=http://www.spectralogue.com/textures/index.php]Spectralogue[/url]
[url=http://www.wildharmonystudio.com/textures/main.php?cmd=album]Wild Harmony studio[/url] - quite large collection