Hi,
I want to make an app (st like a screen saver) which must create a 3d environment from 6 images stored in its resouces(cube mapping) but as far as I know it is only possible to create a cube map texture from a .dds file created by dxtex tool.
so is there a way to create a cube map from anything other than that?

What's wrong with the dxtex tool? (Ok, other than a mediocre UI)

You could create the cube map at runtime by drawing the 6 faces into a new cube map
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.xna.framework.graphics.rendertargetcube.aspx

ATI AMD has CubeMapGen, which a a bunch more options and lets you save a DDS file.
http://developer.amd.com/gpu/cubemapgen/pages/default.aspx

You could probably also make your own content processor to stitch them together.

You can make your own tool if you like. The DDS format is well documented and can be found here. That should include everything you would ever need to know about DDS.

There is nothing wrong with dxtex but I need my executables to be able to run with no other dependencies therefore I need to embed textures as resources, also since I need to be able to change embeded textures of exe's later, they must be regular bitmaps.
(think of a screen saver generator which imports bitmaps and exports portable screen saver exes)

 also I'm not using managed directx.

You can create a cube map with IDirect3DDevice9::CreateCubeTexture, then once you created the cube map, you lock the face with the following function IDirect3DCubeTexture9::LockRect and upload the texture into the D3DLOCKED_RECT struct this gives back.

In DX 10 you use ID3D10Device::CreateTexture3D with a misc flag saying its a textureCube.

Thanks, Yes that should do it but I don't know how to work with LockRect(), any sample would be greatly appreciated.

The D3DLOCKED_RECT is a structure that contains a pointer to the bitmap data and a pitch value. The pitch value tells you how many bytes there are in one row, the format tells you how long one pixel is so from there on you can calculate how many pixels are in one row and how much is padding. Padding data has no value and you dont have to give it a value.

Noekk, nice concept. I was looking to do a same thing.

Is it possible you can show your source? (im a noob at XNA so i don't know where to start)

Mean while I tried to make the cube in a different way then yours, and this is the anwsered topic about that.
Maybe its handy for you 2

http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/42802.aspx

Hi,

I've just started looking into this and have a question about creating the panoramic effect you see in the program from one texture. I'm using the DirectX Texture Tool and the sample skybox project for xna. I understand that the skybox needs 6 textures stitched together so all sides of the cube are covered but what if you just want the same texture repeated on all sides? The sample dds file only shows one of it's textures in the DirectX Texture Tool so I don't understand how you set what texture appears on what side. Is this done in another program before you load it into the texture tool?

Thanks.

Just create a new cube map texture in the texture tool and then select the face through View -> Cube map face and the face you want. Then just kopie the pixels in and safe the file. The texture tool is meant to view and create dds textures.