jpennell Wrote:Didn't that post by jmarshall refer to the display of cached fanart as dds - i don't think it went as far as reading dds as the source fanart pics from the storage media, did it?

Marvel Wrote:Lol ive just tried compiling the makedds.exe file myself but i must be doing something wrong. Im also trying to convert my .tbns using the nvidia texture tools, but im not having much luck there either all i get is ".jpg is not a supported image". If i manage to get it sorted il post how i did it thedalmeny

thedalmeny Wrote:Hehe thanks!

Just be nice to have the MakeDDS.exe and convert.bat - as then it's just a fact of connecting to my Acer Revo.. Putting them inside the fanart folder and executing the batch file from my Windows PC, removes so much hassle.

At least that's the impression i've gotten?

I wonder where the .zip has gone from the thread.

Marvel Wrote:Lol ive just tried compiling the makedds.exe file myself but i must be doing something wrong. Im also trying to convert my .tbns using the nvidia texture tools, but im not having much luck there either all i get is ".jpg is not a supported image". If i manage to get it sorted il post how i did it thedalmeny

IceNine Wrote:This wouldn't actually work, the .dds files need to be made on your Acer machine. If they are on your Windows machine, XBMC won't copy them over. I have added some additional instructions to your other thread here.


EDIT: Here is the other post, just to keep everything together.

thedalmeny, the .dds files are stored on the Acer but if you convert them on the Windows machine you will have to copy any new fanart from the Acer to the Windows machine, convert them, then copy them back any time you add anything new. The thread on compressed textures has directions on setting up the conversion tools and scripts directly on the Acer so you don't need to copy things back and forth.

It sounds like your Linux knowledge is pretty limited, so I will try to be as detailed as possible. Since you are running Live, which doesn't have much of a GUI past XBMC, download PuTTY to your Windows machine and connect to your Acer over the network using SSH (should be the default connection type, all you should need to put into PuTTY is the IP address of your Acer). I believe the username/password for Live is xbmc/xbmc once you get PuTTY running.

To download the installers for the Texture Tools and CUDA Tools, you can either download the .run files on your Windows machine and FTP them somewhere on your Acer, or if you are connected with PuTTY run these commands:

Code:

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://nvidia-texture-tools.googlecode.com/files/nvidia-texture-tools-2.0.7-1.tar.gz
wget http://www.nvidia.com/object/thankyou.html?url=/compute/cuda/2_3/toolkit/cudatoolkit_2.3_linux_32_ubuntu9.04.run
tar -xvzf nvidia-texture-tools-2.0.7-1.tar.gz
sudo sh cudatoolkit_2.3_linux_32_ubuntu9.04.run
cd nvidia-texture-tools-2.0.7-1

That should get CUDA Tools installed and the Texture Tools code ready to compile. Then you should be able to follow the directions here exactly (except skip the CUDA Tools installation since you would have already done it) to get the Texture Tools installed and running. Once that is done, you can create a script (probably most easily done on your Windows machine, then FTP'd over) to automatically compress any new fanart you have into .dds format. Then, as long as you have <useddsfanart> enabled in your advancedsettings.xml you should be good to go. As of right now the script will still need to be run any time new fanart is added, but keep in mind this feature is still very early on in development.

IceNine Wrote:You are correct, you would need to copy all of the .tbn files from the Fanart folder on your Acer to your Windows machine, convert them all, then copy the .dds files back to the Acer. Then you would enable <useddsfanart>. Unfortunately I don't have a copy of MakeDDS.exe, I've never actually even seen it. I have used the nVidia Texture Tools (Windows version) on my Windows machine though and know it works, so that is the way I would suggest you go. Once you have that installed, you can use this batch script

Code:

ren *.tbn *.jpg
for %%x in (*.jpg) do "C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVIDIA Texture Tools 2\bin\nvcompress.exe" -fast -bc1 %%x
ren *.jpg *.tbn

in the folder where all your .tbn files are, then copy the .dds files back to your Acer. You'll want to keep both the .tbn and .dds files on your Acer, XBMC is going to remake the .tbn files anyway if you delete them. Hopefully this will be a bit easier for you, and don't forget that eventually this will be an official feature of XBMC and we won't have to go through all this to use it. Until then, maybe I will see if I can make an instructional video on how to do this before the devs make it automatic.