17 réponses à ce sujet

[Ugly_Duck]

I want to do some work with images for the game, but I need better editing software.  I'm currently using MS Paint & GIMP.

I wasn't sure which was better: Paintshop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate or Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.

If neither of these are funtional enough for making new textures, screenshots, etc for NWN2, please suggest something for me (try to keep it no more expensive that $90 US too).

Thanks,.

[dunniteowl]

You should be able to get by with Photoshop Elements. It came with my Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch and while I haven't tested it's full functionality, following a couple of texturing tutorials for Photoshop didn't pose any obstacles when it came to selecting features and functions the tutorials called for when making textures. The GIMP should allow this also, but I actually find the GIMP harder to use than PS and that's saying something.

dno

[dunniteowl]

Sorry, as for screenies, you don't need either of those to do screenshots. You can take a screen shot and pop it into MS Paint for all that matters. I use MS Paint to edit screenies for guides and tutorials. I guess it really depends on how full bore you plan to edit. Sorry, didn't answer this the first time and didn't feel like editing my earlier post.

dno

[liorbil]

 For heavier tasks, you can try the GIMP at www.gimp.org
It is free.

[Ugly_Duck]

dunniteowl wrote...

You should be able to get by with Photoshop Elements. It came with my Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch and while I haven't tested it's full functionality, following a couple of texturing tutorials for Photoshop didn't pose any obstacles when it came to selecting features and functions the tutorials called for when making textures. The GIMP should allow this also, but I actually find the GIMP harder to use than PS and that's saying something.
dno

Thanks for the information dno; I ordered "Adobe Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements Bundle v9" just a little while ago.  I'm so very excited!!!

[dunniteowl]

Yeah, when I ordered my Bamboo tablet, I was thinking, "Photoshop Elements? What's that for, just editing photos?" It may not be the CS (Complete Suite) but it's pretty full featured as far as I can tell. I don't have the latest version, but it seems to be able to do all the texturing editing necessary to get 'er done.

dno

[casadechrisso]

Elements has come a long way. These days, I think even as a graphics designer/semi-professional photographer you can easily get by with PS Elements.



I'm not sure about it's abilities regarding alpha channels and plugins though, which is quite important when it comes to textures, especially once you start with normal maps. For Photoshop nVidia has DDS and normal map filter plugins for download, Elements might not be able to handle either of those, so you might have to use external tools (like CrazyBump and a DDS converter) or might have to grab GIMP for those tasks still. For the standard texturing (aka painting/retouching) I prefer Photoshop (Elements) by far though.



For quick screenshot crops, resizing, some basic editing Paint.NET is a nice lightweight & free alternative: http://www.getpaint.net/



One important tip regarding screenshots in NWN2: By default, NWN2 saves them as jpgs with a really horrible compression. If you want quality screenshots, open your nwn2.ini file and change the line "ScreenshotFormat=jpg" to "ScreenshotFormat=bmp". You'll end up with large (aka uncompressed) files, which means, a screenie at a resolution of 1600x1200 is about 7mb in size. However, you have the best quality and the difference to jpg is easy to see.

[Ugly_Duck]

casadechrisso wrote...

Elements has come a long way. These days, I think even as a graphics designer/semi-professional photographer you can easily get by with PS Elements.

I'm not sure about it's abilities regarding alpha channels and plugins though, which is quite important when it comes to textures, especially once you start with normal maps. For Photoshop nVidia has DDS and normal map filter plugins for download, Elements might not be able to handle either of those, so you might have to use external tools (like CrazyBump and a DDS converter) or might have to grab GIMP for those tasks still. For the standard texturing (aka painting/retouching) I prefer Photoshop (Elements) by far though.

For quick screenshot crops, resizing, some basic editing Paint.NET is a nice lightweight & free alternative: http://www.getpaint.net/

One important tip regarding screenshots in NWN2: By default, NWN2 saves them as jpgs with a really horrible compression. If you want quality screenshots, open your nwn2.ini file and change the line "ScreenshotFormat=jpg" to "ScreenshotFormat=bmp". You'll end up with large (aka uncompressed) files, which means, a screenie at a resolution of 1600x1200 is about 7mb in size. However, you have the best quality and the difference to jpg is easy to see.

My game does not save screenshots for some reason.  I checked the Program Files (x86) location, and the My Documents section, but there was nothing.  There is no 'Screenshots' folder in either location.

I made one for each then took some screenies, but nothing showed up in either.

[MasterChanger]

Screenshots don't go into a special sub-folder, they should go right into MyDocs/NWN2 and take the form of NWN2_SS_[some probably random number]. Usually when I take a screenshot (and I believe you can set which key will do this in your keybindings) I'll see a momentary screen skip and sometimes a yellow "SCREEN CAPTURED" message across the screen.

[Ugly_Duck]

Ok got the shots to show up in the file, but they're still jpeg.



I put BMP next to the line like you said, ( ScreenshotFormat=BMP ), but the shot was a jpeg file still. I also edited this line on the nwn.ini file too.

[dunniteowl]

Actually it's not a random number, I believe it is SS_DayMonthYear_ in numeric format. I don't have my system available to check, but I believe it also has hours minutes seconds as well in the file name.

dno

[kevL]

re. screenshot format
I've heard people say .bmp & .png - but the more official stance I've come across suggests only .tga or .jpg

so here's what I've got in my nwn2.ini and it works fine (except the file sizes and no. of pics I take is ..!)

[Graphics Options]
ScreenshotFormat=tga

[dunniteowl]

my default seems to be .jpg.

dno

[kevL]

dunniteowl wrote...

my default seems to be .jpg.
dno

.. couldn't live with the compression artifacts. Someday I'll have to batch process them into Jpegs i guess, but with less noticeable settings than default

[The Fred]

Screenshots aside, I personally use Paint.NET, since it's free, can handle TGAs, and can do stuff.

[rjshae]

I've used PaintShopPro for years and it's proven quite useful for a variety of purposes. There's still some areas I'd like to see improved, but overall it's quite capable. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with Photoshop Elements so I can't really compare the two.

[Shallina]

Gimp is very powerfull and free.