DXT Compression.......the Meatball test

Since the introduction of the DXT1 compressed format the main restriction on the widespread use of it is the difficulty of keeping good quality. Not only in the Mips but even in the main image itself.

Because of the nature of the compression format the worst effects are seen when 3 widely contrasting colours meet in a small area. A typical example of this is if you try to add the red centre to the default Aircraft wing decals. Where the white, red and blue are close together Artifacts are created by the compression. These get much worse down the smaller mips. If you can get the "Meatballs" right then the rest should be pretty good

		The original DXTBmp compression routines Ugh!
		DXT Compression using 555-1 data passed through ImageTool then the individual mips compressed to DXT
		DXT Compression using 565 data passed through ImageTool and then compressing the mips individually
		DXT Compression created by passing through the nvDXT program from nVidia Note also less "added weathering" to the wing surface detail
And the mips of the nvDXT created image..... I think we might be there now!

Go to the nVidia Developers pages to obtain nvDXT and the PhotoShop/PSP plugin