I know...there's only about a 100 of these tweaks around :-roll Ok, here's what has been working great for me lately: converting aircraft textures from 32-bit or DXT 3 to DXT 1. I get great outside views load times with no stutters, and I've seen around a 5 fps jump. I don't usually use the VC, and if the plane looks OK from the outside that is all I care about. Not for those who want great looking planes as the quality will decrease. I run a P4 3.0, 1GB, and GeForce 5700LE. I just did a conversion of the textures for the Wilco CRJ200 for the outside textures. I went from 26 MB of total texture size to 5.4 MB with the conversion. The program I use is a DXT-bmp program I found at http://fly.to/mwgfx/ You will also need to install a .dll; info on the site. Very easy to use: just open the file, then re-save in the format you want. A bit tedious if the plane has a lot of texture files, but seems to be worth it, at least for me. Mike

This has been a known solution for some time--most developers are now using DXT3 in their latest releases. Martin's DXTBMP is a great tool and is often praised in the forums.-John

>I know...there's only about a 100 of these tweaks around>:-roll>> Ok, here's what has been working great for me lately:>converting aircraft textures from 32-bit or DXT 3 to DXT 1. >I get great outside views load times with no stutters, and>I've seen around a 5 fps jump. >> I don't usually use the VC, and if the plane looks OK from>the outside that is all I care about. Not for those who want>great looking planes as the quality will decrease. I run a P4>3.0, 1GB, and GeForce 5700LE.>> I just did a conversion of the textures for the Wilco>CRJ200 for the outside textures. I went from 26 MB of total>texture size to 5.4 MB with the conversion.>> The program I use is a DXT-bmp program I found at>http://fly.to/mwgfx/ You will also need to install a .dll;>info on the site. Very easy to use: just open the file, then>re-save in the format you want. A bit tedious if the plane>has a lot of texture files, but seems to be worth it, at least>for me. >> Mike>you only need to do this because of your video card.. it is choking your system like you wouldn't know - change it. otherwise converting textures will do no good at all really.. 32bit and DXT3 looks the same, but may save on loading times and saves on drive space. it's like JPEG v. RAW for the camera inclided. best of both worlds.