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Guest johnchamapgne

Suggestions please, my textures are intermittment

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Guest johnchamapgne

Any suggestions would be appreciated for help with my MAAM-SIM R4d package. the same symton shows up for the two dc3 variants.the problem is that when i select any of the maam-sim aircrat they come up gray. sometimes they come up with the texture, most often not.the other aircraft in fs2004 are working ok. the default dc3 has the full range of textures.i went to the manual and reset the realism and hardware settings as described in the manual. no change.I am using a compaq 6450pentinum 4 at about 2.5 ghz1 ghz of memoryati 9200 pro video cardI am suspecting I inadvertently reset some display paramenter either in fs9 or on my video card. I am considering re-instlling the package and re-applying the patch.any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.thanksjohn champagne

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Do the "problem" liveries show up grey in the Aircraft Selection preview window as well as after they've been loaded, or only after loading ?If the answer is Yes, I'd look in your aircraft.cfg file to check that the correct texture folders are being referenced.If the answer is No, and the same selected livery sometimes appears, sometimes doesn't, I'd suspect you have a memory/graphics problem (although this seems unlikely with your hardware specs.) Possibly updating your graphics drivers would solve the problem.As for the settings, you could try saving your current fs9.cfg file then deleting it and allow FS2004 to rebuild a default one. At least this would get you to a defined starting point.Failing this, if you still have problems with the MAAM DC-3, and can load other, high-memory-intensive-livery add-ons (such as those from FSD) then re-installing the MAAM-Sim package may be a good move.Cheers,Alastair

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Guest johnchamapgne

Alastair,thanks for the response. the liveries show up in grey, most of time, in the selector window.I will try the fs9.cfg solution. then go to the re-install.I will also check for the latest ATI driver updates, i thought i was current.thanksjohn>Do the "problem" liveries show up grey in the Aircraft>Selection preview window as well as after they've been loaded,>or only after loading ?>>If the answer is Yes, I'd look in your aircraft.cfg file to>check that the correct texture folders are being referenced.>>If the answer is No, and the same selected livery sometimes>appears, sometimes doesn't, I'd suspect you have a>memory/graphics problem (although this seems unlikely with>your hardware specs.) Possibly updating your graphics drivers>would solve the problem.>>As for the settings, you could try saving your current fs9.cfg>file then deleting it and allow FS2004 to rebuild a default>one. At least this would get you to a defined starting point.>>Failing this, if you still have problems with the MAAM DC-3,>and can load other, high-memory-intensive-livery add-ons (such>as those from FSD) then re-installing the MAAM-Sim package may>be a good move.>>Cheers,>>Alastair

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Guest ogeva

Let me get this straight - they show up grey in the selector window, but fine when loading the aircraft and flying it within FS?If this is the case then it's the cfg thing.But if they show up gray withing the sim, they mught not be of the correct bmp format.Try loading them with the dxt2bmp format (with the load extended textures) option, then save them back as a "888" or "dx3 with alpha" format. FS supports only these textures (the dx3 being a compressed format that loads faster, but looks a little less sharp).

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Guest johnchamapgne

Thanks for all the suggestions. I finally ended up re-installing the complete package and patch and the problem cleared up. I also restored my computer to direcx 9.0b from direcx 9.0c which may have been a culprit also.thanksjohn

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Guest ogeva

Great! I'm happy it worked for you as I am already waiting to put my dirty little fingers on you repaints!

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JohnAh, DirectX 9.0c. Buggy. I do suggest waiting for the end-user release which will be part of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. May be already out, I haven't checked over the past day or so.It is worth highlighting, too, that the three key external textures on the MAAM-SIM 'planes are saved in 32-bit 888 format and, as 1024x1024 bitmaps, are 4MB each. That's 12MB (duhhh ... I'm sure you worked that out yourself) each time you load the external view. We have had a little difficulty with this at DC-3 Airways in multiplayer, where we are often flying 15-20 MAAM-SIM aircraft in view at the same time. Not only is the texture thing a bit of a problem, but of course these ladies are very polygon-intensive compared to the default 'planes too.What we have done is backed up the three key external textures for every livery (bm_fuse_1_t, bm_fuse_2_t, hsurf_t) and saved the originals as DXT3 format (which preserves the alpha channels) and without MIPS, to preserve sharpness. This reduces the file size of each to 1MB, and I challenge anybody to spot a significant difference in quality in general usage. Zoom in on rivets, well maybe, but hey, we're fliers not FAA inspectors.Certainly, this manoeuvre has made an appreciable difference to our multiplayer frame rates, going from 1-2FPS in busy airports (yes, horrible) to 15-20FPS. 'Nuff said, I think.Mark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP FleetDC-3 Airwayshttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

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Guest johnchamapgne

I really appreciate all the feedback. I have heard about this dxt3 format. what program do i need to open the textures then save them as dxt3. I have photshop. I have found something at http://www.gjsmith.com/Tutorial/step_6.htm which describes some utility programs to save stuff as dxt3. I am beginning to think my processing power is being taxed by something.thanksjohn

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Guest johnchamapgne

Thanks for the information. Using the file convertor program mentioned in your link and converting those 3 files to DXT3 has appeared to fix this problem.I appreciate all the suggestions I received.ThanksJohn

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