This tutorial shows you have to properly save .dds & .tex files to work in League of Legends and what you might need for programs to be able to work with the filetype.
You have to copy this “About” text under Post settings in the “Excerpt” space in order for our tutorial lists to work properly. Try to make it not too long.
If you encounter any issues with this tutorial or you don’t understand part of it, you can ask for help on the Killerskins-Discord server.
Table of Contents
Required tutorials
In order to follow this tutorial you must understand and be able to follow the following tutorials:
Required tools
Any graphic editor that can handle .dds files:
- Photoshop + Plugin
- NVIDIA Texture Tools (Nvidia Graphics card required, can also use the other one)
- Intel Texture Works
- Gimp
- Paint.net
If you need a .tex file:
Explanation of compressions
.dds itself has a lot of compressions, however LoL mainly is using 2. Compressions are mainly written as BCX and DTX X, it varies between programs what the main name is.
Here is the difference between compressions on SG Janna. Her tassels usually are transparent in-game.
BC1 / DTX 1
This compression supports no alpha / transparency.
BC3 / DXT 5
This compression does support alpha / transparency.
So basically if you use BC3 / DXT 5 you are always on the safe side.
Saving a .dds
I will be saving with a BC3 compression in all the following guides, but see point 3 for a compression explanation.
Photoshop + Nvidia Texture tools
Go to File – Save as… and select DDS
Next, under Format select “BC 3 RGBA 8 bpp…”, turn off “Generate Mipmaps” and under Compression Quality select “Highest”.
Then press Save.
Photoshop + Intel Texture works
Missing.
Gimp
Warning:
in Gimp, make sure your layer does not overlap or is smaller than the image boundaries. If that’s the case, the image size will be changed.
.dds export in Gimp also only supports 1 layer, so merge visible layers before exporting.
Go to File – Export As..
Name the file however you need and add the extension .dds
For the .dds settings, set it to this.
Paint.net
Warning:
Adding another image that is larger as a layer paint.net will expand the canvas.
To prevent this don’t drag and drop the image, copy and paste it and it will prompt to expand the canvas or keep its size (it will be pasted on the background layer, make a new layer and paste the image on it)
If the image is outside of the canvas it WILL NOT be expanded and saved as a whole, just what’s inside the canvas
When image editing is done click file->save as
On the dropdown saying .png or .pdn select Direct Draw Surface (.dds)
There is another dropdown after where its BC1 linear DXT1 by default, set it to BC3 linear DXT5, other settings are fine
If there are multiple layers paint.net will need to flatten the image.
Simply press flatten and the image will be saved. If you want your layers back to edit something just undo.
Converting between .dds and .tex
Export your .dds with the BC3 / DXT5 compression, because it will not work otherwise.
Take your .dds file and drag-and-drop it onto the tex2dds.exe.
Then you get a .tex file of this texture.
If you need to edit a .tex file, simply do these steps the other way around: drag-and-drop the .tex file onto the tex2dds.exe.
