Starfield Mod:Converting Textures to DDS with AssetWatcher

This guide will teach you how to use a tool that comes with the Starfield CreationKit called AssetWatcher. AssetWatcher is used to convert FBX files from 3ds Max to NIFs and also textures in TIFF format to the DDS format for both PC and Xbox.

Why/Why not AssetWatcher?

There are a handful of tools out there that will do this conversion for you. There's plugins for Photoshop, NVIDIA Texture Tool Exporter, a Paint.NET plugin etc.

There is a lot of discourse on what compression is "best" for textures in Starfield. This guide is not going to recommend anything in the way of compression.

If you'd like to learn more about DDS and Block Compression, you can find the documentation here. This documentation lists the available compression formats and their capabilities if you are curious.

The good news is, AssetWatcher will take care of it for you.

Why

• It handles textures in batches instead of one by one
• It exports DDS files with the same compression used by BGS (this could be a "why not" depending on how you look at it)
• It can handle Xbox textures in the same way BGS does and comes with xtexconv.exe to convert them properly

Why Not

• You want full control how the textures are converted
  • AssetWatcher CAN be configured with whatever compression/settings you want, however you have to know the JSON schema for it well enough
• You have a specific pipeline
• Your textures are not TIFFs and you don't have an easy way to convert them

Setting up AssetWatcher

If you've used AssetWatcher before for meshes, this process will be very similar.

Choose a Source Directory

The first step is to choose a source directory, this directory must be outside of the Starfield directory and be named Textures.

For example: C:\My Mods\My Cool Mod\Assets\Textures.

Subdirectories

If configured, AssetWatcher will also copy from subdirectories recursively and keep their structure. This is very helpful for separating your mods textures from other textures in the Data\Textures directory so it's recommended to use this feature.

For example:

• If your source directory is C:\My Mods\My Cool Mod\Assets\Textures
• and you export your textures from your tooling of choice to C:\My Mods\My Cool Mod\Assets\Textures\My Cool Mod\Furniture
• then AssetWatcher will convert them and export them into Data\Textures\My Cool Mod\Furniture

Create the Project

AssetWatcher separates different export "jobs" as projects.

1. Open AssetWatcher by navigating to <STARFIELD>\Tools\AssetWatcher\AssetWatcher.exe
2. Click Settings and the Create New Project button on the right
   
3. Give the new project a Name
4. Check Textures
5. Choose your platform(s), we'll choose PC and Xbox Series X
   • There shouldn't be a difference between Series X vs. Series S. You could make a new config for lower resolution textures for Series S if you wanted to.
6. Choose the Source folder and select the directory you chose in the previous step
7. Ensure Watch all subfolders (recursive) is checked, this will ensure AssetWatcher looks at all subdirectories of your source directory
8. Choose the Output folder for PC which must be <PATH TO STARFIELD>\Data\Textures
9. Choose the Output folder for Xbox which should be <PATH TO STARFIELD>\Xbox\Data\Textures but you can put it anywhere. It must not be <PATH TO STARFIELD>\Data\Textures.

   If you've selected XBox Series X or XBox Series S under Platform, you'll be able to choose a separate location for your Xbox textures. Storing these outside of the Starfield directory will prevent them from overwriting the PC textures you'll use for testing.

   In other words, output them somewhere other than Starfield\Data\Textures and remember that location for when you make your archives for Xbox.

   If you have AssetWatcher output them to Starfield\Data\Textures its likely going to cause issues when you get into the game to test your materials.

10. Ensure Keep source folder hierarchy is checked
    • This will ensure AssetWatcher looks and copies the directory structure from where you save your TIFFs
11. It should look something like this:
    
12. Click Save

Let the Exports Flow

After saving, with AssetWatcher open, export your textures to the source directory you chose in Step 1. If everything was configured correctly you should see entries in the Export Jobs tab and DDS files in your Starfield\Data\Textures directory!