[Topgun]

do you have the uncompressed tga versions? the quality is really low, I think it needs to be re-compressed using a higher quality setting.

[Romanmolf]

Which one is low-quality?

[Topgun]

what you sent.

[Romanmolf]

The ''gotcha'' is in DDS, and there are both TGA and DDS versions in your shockwave set here.

[Topgun]

no, they aren't the same shockwave.

[Romanmolf]

They're not, but they both can be in DDS, which is, from what I know, better than TGA.

[Jeff Vader]

DDS, which is, from what I know, better than TGA.

Err, no. At least I remember the other way around. TGA isn't compressed. DDS is. If you want to or have to edit some textures or effects, edit the TGA ones. Then, if it is deemed that they must be compressed to DDS for performance's sake, do so. But only after you've finished with the editing part. When saved in DDS, there is compression which creates artefacts. Many people cannot notice them, especially in the usually hectic situations of FreeSpace. But, if a DDS is edited, then resaved, it is compressed for the second time. This drastically increases the artefacts and is bound to cause noticeable quality loss.

Any hi-fi people are free to correct me if I happen to be talking bullplop here.

[Zacam]

DDS does indeed have an issue where editing an already compressed map creates more generations of compression.

However, DDS does offer an uncompressed mode. Selecting "8.8.8." or "8.8.8.8." (if there is an alpha channel) will give you a non-compressed image equal in quality to the original TGA or PSD. It is a lot more efficient for the game engine to process DDS images, whether they are compressed or not, especially if it is an image that should have mip-maps, which can be generated for any DDS while saving but must be dynamically generated by the game engine for TGA.