[ART] DDS issues

[TheMrDonsantos]

After 48hrs i finally added a custom model to my CS! My very first one ever created, I did so by following Acies basic model guide. The first 20 tries with different models either made Maya crash at export, the model viewer crashed at import/open or anything else that could crash would crash.

My problem seemed to be the texture itself, not the model. I tried saving my UV-map by simply adding ".dds" in the filename when saving in Photoshop, this somehow corrupted the entire file I believe xD

I found no info on how to properly export .dds with the exception of that Nvidia plug-in which doesn't work for me (maybe cause of ATI card I dunno). So what I finally did was downloading a trial version of ""Image Converter Plus" where I converted my .iff files to .dds - applied them in Maya and suddenly all was fine and dandy

Now I have a few questions..
1.
Is there a better way for the .dds export thingy.. I probably did some stupid mistake in photoshop. Do you use any special software or is it as simple as adding ".dds"?... this converter adds a watermark to my images, a bit annoying

2.
The model shows up fine in model viewer, material viewer, model editor and in the game itself.. but in the level editor all I see is the wireframe for the model, no texture or anything. This could be problematic if I created walls for example - suggestions on how to fix this?

3.
I wanna start with simple models such as boxes, crates and work my way forward. Right now my model is simple a box 1x1x1m and is red/blue on all sides as this was my simple test in photoshop. But if I want some real serious textures of wood, should I simply google "2d textures" and add it to my UV?

Are there better programs/plug-ins that help me with adding diffrent textures perfectly. And where should I find theses textures..


4.
Let's say I do have a nice 2d texture of lets say tiled stone. And I want to create a plane in the level editor and use this texture. I somehow first must make it ".mat" How do I best go about this without adding it to a model first?

5.
In the "Outsourcers Guide to Modeling" they speak of the diffrent mappings.. like diffuse, specular, normalmapping. My model I believe simply has the diffuse mapping, I made 1 UV-Map and in the material editor it is selected under Diffuse.

I suppose I should add all the others as well for the most realistic look, do I do this in Maya and how?.. by copying the .DDS several times or something?