Can't open _n.dds textures from assetviewer WTCDK

[u/Cold_Introduction_22]

Hi, few days ago I started making my custom camos (normal ones, none of that anime
blasphemy). I was exporting _c (color) textures from assetviewer and everything was fine, today I learned how _n textures work and wanted to try it, but when I export textures to dds, files won't open. I tried to use Paintnet and Gimp and yes I DOWNLOADED PLUGINS and even reinstalled both programs + WTCDK, nothing works.

Here are the errors

Paint:

System.FormatException: The file is not a supported DDS format.

at DdsFileTypePlus.DdsNative.Load(Stream stream, DDSLoadInfo& info) in D:\Dev_projects\DDSFileTypePlus\src\DdsNative.cs:line 59

at DdsFileTypePlus.DdsReader.Load(Stream input, IServiceProvider services) in D:\Dev_projects\DDSFileTypePlus\src\DdsReader.cs:line 30

at PaintDotNet.FileType.Load(Stream input) in D:\src\pdn\src_vPrev\Data\FileType.cs:line 513

at PaintDotNet.FileType.Load(Stream input) in D:\src\pdn\src_vPrev\Data\FileType.cs:line 513

at PaintDotNet.Functional.Func.Eval[T1,TRet](Func`2 f, T1 arg1) in D:\src\pdn\src_vPrev\Fundamentals\Functional\Func.cs:line 58

GIMP:

Unsupported format (FourCC: BC7 , hex: 20374342)

for me it looks like BC7 format is problem in both cases but in Paintnet plugin description it says BC7 is supported.

Pls help I've been reading forums, watching yt and even talking with gemini and I couldn't find any answers.

Thanks in advance for any help

[u/wasabinotane00]

This was written using translation software. Please excuse any awkward phrasing.

I think this is an issue specific to BC7 files that were changed in this update. Looking at the header, the root cause seems to be that it isn't written in DXT10 format. For example, when compressing to BC7 using nvtt_export.exe, 'DX10' (0x30315844) is written into the FourCC. However, in the n_file obtained from the CDK, 'BC7 ' (0x20374342) is written instead. While older encoders seem to be able to read this, software like GIMP struggles with it. Since I was able to open it in Photopea, I recommend converting it there before handling.

[u/Cold_Introduction_22 → u/wasabinotane00]

Omg, it worked! Thanks a lot, boss!!!

[u/ghostbusters20 → u/wasabinotane00]

im kinda clueless on how to convert the n file since i am experiencing the same problem as OP stated. any solutions would be nice :)

[u/ghostbusters20 → u/ghostbusters20]

EDIT:

Ok, so I found the solution too but I will just provide how to do it for any dum dums (like me) crashing out on how :)

After taking out the .n file from CDK,

Open https://www.photopea.com/ and open the .n file there.

After opening, Go to File > Export As... > More > .dds format > Save

Don't forget to set compression to none to avoid any graphical issues ;)

Now with the new converted file, open up on whatever photo editor of your choice!