RitoTex

RitoTex is a Photoshop plugin by RitoShark that opens and saves League's .tex and .dds textures directly. It was rebuilt from the old Photoshop TEX Plugin and renamed, so older guides may still call it by the old name.

It is built on Intel's Texture Works Plugin with Microsoft's DirectXTex for compression. Version 2 added native .dds support, more formats, and a faster BC7 encoder.

Repo: github.com/RitoShark/RitoTex-Photoshop

Download the latest release

Latest version: v2.0.2.

What you need before you start

• Adobe Photoshop CS6 or later (64-bit). 32-bit Photoshop will not work.
• Windows.

Install

1. Close Photoshop. If Photoshop is open, the plugin will not load.

2. Download RitoTex.8bi from the Releases page. It is one self-contained file. No extra DLLs to copy.

3. Copy RitoTex.8bi into your Photoshop File Formats folder. The default path is:

   C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop [version]\Required\Plug-ins\File Formats

   Example: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2026\Required\Plug-ins\File Formats.

4. Start Photoshop.

To check it worked: open File > Open and pick a .tex file. If the image loads, the plugin is installed.

Open .tex and .dds files

You have two ways to open a file:

• Click File > Open and pick the .tex or .dds file.
• Drag the file into Photoshop.

The plugin reads the compression and the mipmaps for you.

Save a file (quick save)

Use this when you want the plugin to reuse the file's detected settings.

1. Click File > Save As.
2. Pick League of Legends TEX (or the DDS option) from the file type dropdown.
3. Click Save. The file saves right away with the detected or last-used settings.

Save a file with options

Use this when you want to pick the compression or change quality settings.

1. Click File > Save As.
2. Pick the Options version of the TEX or DDS file type.
3. A settings dialog opens. Set the options you want:
   • Compression format: BC1, BC3, BC5, BC7, or BGRA8 (uncompressed). Use BC3 for textures with alpha. Use BC5 for normal maps. BC7 is highest quality and is the default.
   • Error diffusion dithering: turn on Floyd-Steinberg dithering for smoother gradients (BC1 and BC3).
   • Error metric: Perceptual (recommended) or Uniform.
   • Mipmaps: auto-generate the chain, or build it from your Photoshop layers.
   • Cube maps: save a cross or layer layout for .dds.
   • Normal maps: flip the X or Y channel and renormalize.
4. Click OK. The file saves with your settings.

Settings persist between saves (stored in the Windows Registry), so you only need to set them once.

Features at a glance

• Opens and saves both .tex and .dds, so you may not need a separate DDS plugin.
• Compression formats BC1, BC3, BC5, BC7, and BGRA8 (uncompressed).
• GPU-accelerated BC7 through DirectCompute, with a WARP and CPU fallback. This makes BC7 saves fast.
• Fast multi-threaded compression with the Intel ISPC encoder.
• Auto-detects compression and mipmaps on open.
• Builds mipmaps for you, or from your Photoshop layers.
• Cube map support (cross and layer layouts).
• Normal-map channel flip and renormalize.
• Optional Floyd-Steinberg dithering with a Perceptual or Uniform error metric.
• Preview window to compare the original and the compressed texture before you save.
• Quiet built-in update checker that looks at GitHub Releases about once a day.

Troubleshooting

The plugin doesn't show up in Photoshop

Check each of these:

• Photoshop was fully closed before you copied the file.
• The file is in the Required\Plug-ins\File Formats folder, not the plain Plug-ins folder.
• You are running 64-bit Photoshop.
• The file is named RitoTex.8bi (with the .8bi extension).

"Image dimensions must be divisible by 4" when saving

Block-compressed .tex files need image dimensions divisible by 4. Resize your image to a valid size, like 1024x1024, 2048x2048, or 512x256.

The texture looks wrong in game

• Turn on error diffusion dithering for cleaner gradients.
• Check you picked the right compression. Use BC3 for textures with alpha and BC5 for normal maps.

Credits

• RitoTex: RitoShark.
• Base plugin: Intel Texture Works Plugin (Apache 2.0).
• Compression: Microsoft DirectXTex (MIT License) and the Intel ISPC Texture Compressor.

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