[IPAndrews]

I have some background nebulae in TGA format and I need DDS versions. Can someone suggest some appropriate settings? Please see the attatched picture to see the bewildering array of options in front of me.

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[Wanderer]

Use nvdxt (with -highest_quality switch.. or -quality_highest.. cant remember atm )

I am no expert but... Select DXT1 (No alpha). Not really sure if mips are usefull with background nebulae but if you want to get them just select the 'generate MIP maps' and 'Box Filter'.

[taylor]

As Wanderer said, use DXT1, without alpha.  That gives you a good 24-bit compressed image.

Do always include mipmaps though.  They wouldn't be of much use for background nebula (currently anyway), but mipmaps are used for detail level settings.  So users who lower "3D Hardware Textures" in the detail options will get a lower mipmap layer as the highest, with any skipped levels being discarded, and therefore they will be able to save memory.

Always try to use the Mitchell/Linear-Light Kaiser/Kaiser/Gaussian/Cubic filter for mipmaps though, if it's available (ordered by preference, for my tastes anyway).  NEVER use a box filter unless you have no choice, it blurs the mipmaps considerably and loses fine detail/contrast.  Using the command line version of nvDXT you can also specify for it to sharpen mipmap levels, which should help keep everything nice and sharp on top of whatever filter that you use (helps a LOT with some ship textures and with beams).