Install the dds plugin. NVIDIA Plug-ins supporting Adobe Photoshop x64

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All textures for games from Bethesda, and, in particular, Skyrim are presented in the format .dds. This format can contain several sizes of the same texture inside. Any texture size cannot be used, only: 8 , 16 , 32 , 64 , 128 , 256 , 1024 , 2048 etc. All resources are packaged in .bsa archives with appropriate names. Textures are also called maps. Each diffuse map(colored texture) is accompanied by at least normal map - normal map , the exception is textures for effects and the like. About normal maps is well written on Wiki. In short, normal maps make the low poly model look high poly by adding all sorts of small bulges and bulges, and it is also lilac and has a marker _n(texture name_n.dds) or, now, _msn, so it is impossible to make a mistake when identifying it. Is there some more glow map - glow map , which determines which areas on the texture will glow and which will not, has a marker _g. And also, exclusively for Skyrim, a new map has been introduced - a gloss mask, has a marker _m, determines, when using it (that is, if it is not added, then there will be no gloss anywhere on the model at all), which part of the texture will reflect the environment and to what extent. The Oblivion engine itself finds and loads correctly marked cards, but, for Skyrim, you need to force all the cards into the model, and each in its own slot specially designed for it. Here, in general, that's all.

Tools:

1. Adobe Photoshop
2. Plugin for Photoshop from Nvidia to work with the .dds format and create normal maps.
3. Some unpacker of .bsa archives. For example [b]BSA Browser by Fawzib Rojas .
4. Important! Straight arms.
5. Know a little English. Just a little.

Practice:

It is assumed that Photoshop is already installed, and we are able to communicate more or less tolerably with it.
Install the NVidia plugin , it will add Photoshop's ability to work with .dds format and a menu item Filter -> NVIDIA Tools -> NormalMapFilter.
To extract texture from bsa archive , open downloaded BSA Browser, in it we will open (Menu -> File -> Open...) the BSA archive we need (Path to the folder Skyrim\Skyrim\Data\ Skyrim - Textures.bsa), select the files we need and extract them. This unpacker offers two extraction options: to an arbitrary folder (Menu -> Action -> Extract To ...) or directly to the Data folder (Menu -> Action -> Extract). Folder hierarchy, in both cases, will be created automatically.
Open the texture in Photoshop. When opened, the plugin will take an interest in the reading settings in the following window:

It's better to mark everything as in the image, except for the last checkbox, here it's up to you: if you want to see this window every time, leave the checkbox, if you don't want to - remove it. Paragraph Load MIP Maps is responsible for opening all or one texture size, I recommend turning it off. We do not need to open all sizes, they will be automatically generated when saving the texture.
Change the texture. I will not expand this item now, we are only interested in the settings.
Now save . Here a slightly more complicated window pops up:

Let's analyze it in more detail:
The top drop-down list contains optimization settings and the presence/absence of an alpha channel and its type. All points do not interest us, only 4

DXT1 RGB- select it for all textures without alpha channel
DXT5 ARGB- for all textures with alpha channel
8.8.8 RGB- saving without compression and alpha channel
8.8.8.8 ARGB- uncompressed with alpha channel

The last 2 points are not particularly worth exploiting, because the weight of the texture will turn out to be much larger, they are justified for textures with very smooth color transitions over large areas (for example, a normal map for faces, if saved with compression, then ugly artifacts will appear on the faces of the characters)

Generate MIP Maps- with add. sizes (most common)
Use Existing MIP Maps- select additional sizes yourself
No MIP Maps- without additional sizes

When saving with the generation of additional. sizes can be selected in the drop-down list next to: All (all possible) or specify the desired quantity. I always put All.

Everything else, if you are not in the mood for experiments, we leave as in the image attached above, for our purposes it does not need to be configured.

The use of special add-ons - plug-ins can greatly simplify and speed up the work in Photoshop. Some plugins allow you to perform the same type of actions faster, others add different effects or have other auxiliary functions.

Let's take a look at some free useful plugins for Photoshop CS6.

This plugin allows you to quickly get HEX and RGB color codes. Works in conjunction with the Eyedropper tool. When you click on any color, the plugin places the code on the clipboard, after which the data can be entered into a style file or other document.

Size Marks automatically creates a size mark from a rectangular selection. In addition, the label is placed on a new translucent background and helps the designer to determine the size of elements without unnecessary manipulations and calculations.

A very useful plugin that allows you to search, download and insert pictures into a document. Everything happens right in the Photoshop workspace.

Support for this plugin has been discontinued.

DDS

Developed by Nvidia. DDS plugin for Photoshop CS6 allows you to open and edit game textures in DDS format.

Another plugin for web designers. It includes many templates and standard grids (grid). Built-in modules allow you to quickly create repeating page elements.

The so-called "fish generator". Fish is nonsensical text for filling paragraphs in web page layouts. It is an analogue of online fish generators, but works directly in Photoshop.

Support for this plugin has been discontinued.

This is just a drop in the ocean of plugins for Photoshop CS6. Everyone will find for themselves the necessary set of add-ons, which will increase the convenience and speed of work in their favorite program.

It's done! After several years of waiting, Nvidia has been able to update its NVIDIA Plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and introduced version support into it CS4, CS5 and x64 systems (although it would be more correct to say- 64-bit software versions). Now amateurs and professionals from all over the world can finally stop jumping from 64-bit to 32-bit and back again to create normal maps.

Nvidia Normal Map Filter and DDS Plug-in for 64-bit Photoshop (x64)

• NormalMapFilter- A filter for Photoshop that can turn any image into a Normal Map. The algorithm works according to the Height2Normal principle, i.e. in the original image, dark areas should correspond to depressions, and light areas should correspond to elevations. In other words, for correct processing, manual revision of the original image may be required (if, of course, you care about the quality of the result). There are many customization options available for the filter, as well as the ability to preview in 3D View.

• DDS plug-in- allows you to open and save textures compressed using the DXTC algorithm (.dds format), select the compression profile to use, etc. The DDS (Direct Draw Surface) format is widely used for game development and is often used to compress the textures of game models.

NVIDIA Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop (32-bit) (8.51.0301.0345)
NVIDIA Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop (64-bit) (8.51.0301.0345)
P.S. Be careful with all manipulations with your textures and always save your work before applying one of the filters. In general, saving more often and in different files is a good form.