SIMPE SimPe won't allow me to use DDS when Building DTX

I'm recolouring a custom object (my first time) and I've been able to select PNG images in the Build DTX window successfully, however when I've tried to do the same with images in DDS format I get an "Out of memory" exception/error and I'm bounced back to the Build DTX window where no image has been uploaded.

I found this thread from a few years ago that described the same issue, and the solution given was to ensure that the correct path is set for NVIDIA DDS Utilities in SimPE's preferences. Unfortunately, I've double checked and it seems like this is already done - it's set to C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\DDS Utilities and I don't have that little warning underneath saying that DDS Utilities can't be found.

Has anybody encountered this before? Any ideas on why an "Out of memory" exception is being thrown in this case? It's my understanding that building from a DDS image will help me get higher quality results, which I'm keen to see because the PNG method is coming out a little blurry.

You could try 4Gb patching the SimPE exe? ...I know that works for other SimPE out of memory exceptions. Good Luck!

If you are using Build dxt, you do not use dds images. If you want to use dds you should Import dds. When building dxt you should also be choosing dxt 3, dxt 1 will be pixelated.

Thanks both, for your time!


I appreciate the explanation, thank you. I think I was additionally confused because even the "Import DDS" option isn't working probabaly with DDS files but I'm not too worried about that for now. Build DXT is able to import my PNG files correctly and everything is showing up in game as it should.

I'm using DTX3 already, I think the blurriness is just because the texture I exported from the object is 512x1024 so up close on a 4k resolution screen the image quality seems poor. It's fine from a sensible distance.

While I'm on the subject though, perhaps you could advise me - is there any way to make it so I can import a bigger image with the same aspect ratio, i.e. 1024x2048 instead of 512x1024? When I try to upload an image that doesn't have the exact same width and heigh, it seems to fail. No warning or error or anything, but nothing happens.

Is it possible to increase the texture quality that way?

As long as the image is a power of two, you can build dxt any image size. Some creators use 2048x2048, especially for terrain replacements. I don't use dds so I have no idea if how easy it is to alter size using import dds.

Keep in mind anything larger than 1024 may cause graphical issues in TS2. TS2 has an issue with texture memory, and it just wasn't optimized for large size images.

(21-05-2021 11:44 AM)HugeLunatic Wrote:  As long as the image is a power of two, you can build dxt any image size. Some creators use 2048x2048, especially for terrain replacements. I don't use dds so I have no idea if how easy it is to alter size using import dds.

Keep in mind anything larger than 1024 may cause graphical issues in TS2. TS2 has an issue with texture memory, and it just wasn't optimized for large size images.

Thanks for this, I tried again and it worked - I must have been off with my pixel count the first time.

I've set it to 2048x4096 for now because being able to make out the details is quite important due to the nature of the object. Anything lower means I loser the finer points, like text. No graphical problems so far, touch wood. Here's a preview! I have a handful fo fixes that mean I don't really see as much pink flashing anymore so hopefully I shouldn't have huge issues unless I try to place like 10 of them in the same lot haha.

I appreciate your help, it's made my recolour possible! ❤