I’m trying to create a wall. It looks OK in GIMP (2.10.32) but if I export it as a DDS (with BC3/DXT5 compression) and then open the DDS file in GIMP, it goes horribly blocky and develops colour casts in places. It might be me making stupid beginner’s mistakes but I suspect it might be artefacts from lossy compression (some of the EA walls seem to suffer from the same thing). I would really like a better result. Any ideas?

Wall in GIMP:


DDS file reopened:

Export the wall again as an uncompressed DDS (8.8.8.8 ARGB or similar) and save it with a different name.

You'll use your DXT5 in TSRW as usual, but after exporting to package, open S3PE, export the multiplier from INSIDE the package and keep its suggested filename. Copy the filename, rename your 8.8.8.8 DDS by pasting it, and replace it on S3PE.

There will be an error message in the _IMG preview, but that's not a problem. Save and put it in game, it will look better. Sometimes the noise won't go away completely, especially on dark recolors (dark green is INFAMOUS for noise) - that's on the game lighting engine and it's not your fault

Thanks I didn't realise that you could use uncompressed image files. It took a couple of attempts to find the right file type (it's called RGBA8 in GIMP) but it seems to be working well.

That's a pity about dark green. I'm rather fond of it, particularly for gloomy Victorian interiors.

Uncompressed files are fine for wall or object multipliers, patterns too, but stay away from then in CAS and ESPECIALLY wallmasks - they can crash your game.

What about bump maps and speculars? Are they OK uncompressed?