Hi, I am in the process of replacing the AI fleet on UT with the more FPS models of AI aardvark.I noticed that the UT textures use MIPS and Aardvark does not.Of course the Penalty of UT would be the size of the file: 1.3Mb against the 1.0Mb for the Aardvark planes at 1024X1024 My question is: PERFORMANCE WISE... MIPS or NO MIPSI have a High end System and run AI at 100%, but a friend of mine has a slower machine and we are trying the ultimate tweak to get most bang out of his rig.

No MIPS, they make very, very little difference to performance, but can look awfullDan

Excellent Dan, Thanks...So we agree on DXT3 no MIPS.

I hate mips lol never use them in my paints... as Dan told ya the give blurry stuff...Andr

I use mips.It's the preferred format for MS/DX and according to the SDK, if you don't use mips then the sim creates its own, as needed, which are inferior.Up to you but I have never seen any evidence that mips slow anything at all

Mips do improve performance, but they look terrible on aircraft, as has been noted. The thing is, if you are going to use them on AI planes only, then I doubt you will see much of a difference unless you are very close to the aircraft. FS only creates it's own mips on 8-bit bitmaps, (and maybe only on scenery) so, if you are using DXT1/3 then this won't be an issue. Also, use DXT1 instead of DXT3 unless you need the extra levels of alpha channels.The choice is yours, and there are only a few trade-offs. My recommendation is that for AI you use DXT1 (opaque) with mipmaps. For "flyable" aircraft, use DXT3 (multiple levels of alpha channel) with no mipmaps.- Martin

Martin......In testing the new scenery for Bob Burnstein ' Harvey Field', He posted some ground textures with and with out mips... Almost all replyed back that the textures were faster and sharper WITHOUT the mips. So.....That blows that out the window. Mips are not worth the trouble.Joe W.

To some degree, does it not also depend on the users video card capabilities along with configuration/settings/drivers as to whether mips are the best option or not.I have had experience of folk reporting blurry problems with mipped a/c textures yet on my system it has rendered pin sharp.Regards,Martin

Actually MIPs hurt performance slightly, not improve it. I talked to a former employee of nvidia who pointed out that Mips were designed not to improve framerates, but to help the visual quality by reducing the flickering on models at a distance. Even though it seems to make sense to think of mips as a sort of "LOD's for textures" they're not. They just slightly clog up the video card's memory. No mips, less drain on the texture memory.David R