Okay, so I finally got the money together and now have the student version of Photoshop CS5. It's the 64 bit version.

Here's what I'm wondering. First off, I have an ATI GPU and as I said the 64bit version of Photoshop (I believe I also have the 32bit installed, can't remember if I decided to install them both or not really.)

I need a DDS plugin for it obviously, I want to be able to do some more texture work. So where do I find a DDS plugin that works with the info provided above?

There isn't one. At least not one by nVidia.

Do you have the 32 bit version available? You may have to go back and forth between 64 and 32 bit to author a DDS.

yes.. istall it .. then start the 32 version and then you can open the dds files by clicking on them ...

Damnit, I'll check for the 32 bit version then, fairly sure I installed it.

EDIT: I did, yay!

Oh, just FYI: DXT compression is a lossy compression format, so refrain from opening and saving back and forth, especially with normal maps.

Also... DXT1 and DXT5 is what you want for compression. DXT1 for when you just want a simple On/Off alpha transparency (or need no alpha at all), or DXT5 for when you need a more gradual alpha. DXT3 has visible steps and is ugly, especially when used as a specular channel in the normal maps, and offers no file size difference with DXT5. If anyone says otherwise, they don't know what they're talking about.

If you want to forego compression entirely, use "Unsigned 8.8.8.8", but be advised filesize will be big. In fact, it may be better to reduce a normal map by half on both dimensions and just save as an Unsigned, as the DXT compression does not compress the color channels evenly and causes visible compression artifacting when rendered.

Alright, thanks for the pointers. I've got a few texture mods under my belt, but nothing too fancy, so I appreciate any advice.

I've never done any texture work for Fallout but have some experience with FSX

You could try DXTBmp http://www.btinternet.com/~mnwright/programs/dxtbmp.htm
Its mainly used for flight simulator but should do what you need for FONV

Save your files as .bmp in Photoshop and then use DXTBmp to convert them to dds.

No need, I got the nvidia plugin working. This can be closed now.