Normalmap Compression

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Very Important

The normalmap DDS compression section is here for historical documentation purposes only. It is very strongly suggested that you do not distribute DDS/DXT compressed normalmaps for use in The Dark Mod.

Compress Normalmaps

You'll need ATI's "The Compressonator" application version 1.21.1044 with this exact version - other (newer) versions do not support the format that Doom 3 requires for dds normalmaps! Install/unzip it to a folder and create a shortcut if you like.


  • Open your source (TGA) file
  • Create Mip Maps using the Box-Filter with the lowest mip map size of 1x1 (same as for the diffuse maps).

01 normal mips.jpg

  • Compress your normalmap using the UberCompressor in DXT5 RXGB format with the colour weighting of red=0, green=0.5, blue=0.5 and "adaptive" disabled.

02 normal compression.jpg

  • Save your DDS to the dds/ tree, e.g. dds/textures/darkmod/stone/blah_local.dds. You won't need to add the dds/ path prefix to your shader definition, this is automatically added by the game.