I was searching google for autogen improvements while I came across this. Very interesting, and I'm about to try it out (made a backup of coruse ;))http://www.flightsimworld.com/forums/index...showtopic=90965What do you guys think?I also see that DDS Converter has an option to make mipmaps for the file, so this could help performance a lot.

Seems like DDS Converter 2 doesn't work :(. Well I have better news. AMD has a tool called "TheCompressonator" that you can use to compress and converter texture files. I will post the link so you can download it, but you must get free registration at AMD Developer Center before you can download the files. There are command-line converters from different companies for you not lazy tech savvy people, but I still prefer theCompressonator!http://developer.amd.com/gpu/compressonato...es/default.aspxOnce you have it setup. Open theCompressonator, choose the file associations you want and the interface will come up.Go to File > Batch Compress > Your Main FSX Directory > Scenery\Globabl\Texture Select the files you want to convert (in my case that is all of them).For the output FILE format, select "DDS"Select "ATi 3Dc Compression"Select "Options" that precedes[/u]Select "DXT5"Your done :(

I wouldn't waste your time, it was worked on extensively during FSX beta testing and it was a complete waste of time. The same subject popped up again on that same website in the last 12 months or so and I replied saying that it was a waste of time in a post on the very first page of replies. Needless to say many many pages later after lots of people had tried, failed and many wrecked their FSX installs in the process pretty much everyone came to the conclusion, it was a waste of time.Basically if you are running FSX on a PC that was built since FSX was released you wont see the slightest bit of difference unless you spent $40 dollars on a graphics card. If you are running it on a PC who's technology is older than FSX itself you are probably wasting your time trying to run FSX on it anyway, stick with FS9 or get your wallet out :( .

I wouldn't waste your time, it was worked on extensively during FSX beta testing and it was a complete waste of time. The same subject popped up again on that same website in the last 12 months or so and I replied saying that it was a waste of time in a post on the very first page of replies. Needless to say many many pages later after lots of people had tried, failed and many wrecked their FSX installs in the process pretty much everyone came to the conclusion, it was a waste of time.Basically if you are running FSX on a PC that was built since FSX was released you wont see the slightest bit of difference unless you spent $40 dollars on a graphics card. If you are running it on a PC who's technology is older than FSX itself you are probably wasting your time trying to run FSX on it anyway, stick with FS9 or get your wallet out :( .

My performance is fine, I mean I get 24+ FPS most of the times, it just I want to set autogen to extremely dense on both sliders, which I know is kind of insane, but if I can get more FPS on extremley dense (usually around 16+ FPS), I will be happy! Everything else is pretty much max as well.Converting as we speak... I'll report back. It seems like you have to convert a few files at a time, because selecting all at once doesn't work. NVM, I can't beleive I missed the convert all button :(.

Back now with the results.......I converted to DXT5 and......................................... My sim broke, I tried copying back the backup, but its genuinely broken. :( :(. Here comes 2 days of painful reinstallation :( JUST KIDDING, JUST KIDDINGI am AMAZED............... Extremely Dense, with virtualy NO FPS hit at all, I mean maybe 1 or 2 FPS than Dense, but it was negligible and the sim was still smooth, and I also GAINED FPS over DXT1, so its not like I lost anything. . There was also no corruption whatsoever, and it seems like the sim might have loaded a bit faster! You guys should try it out if you want some extra FPS in those situations where there is heavy autogen, like London, NY, Paris, etc. It only takes about 5 minutes to convert all the textures on my PC, and you can also try converting custom scenery textures as well. The extensions still have the same ending, so it does not really add a risk with files that try and call up a file with a specific extension. Plus the alpha channel and things like that are still reserved so I don't see what the problem is. Next up is the main Textures folder!

Glad to hear it wasn't a waste of time. Excellent news. I'll be trying that later tonight. Thanks for the info gman!Thaellar

Glad to hear it wasn't a waste of time. Excellent news. I'll be trying that later tonight. Thanks for the info gman!Thaellar

No problem. Hope it goes well for you too! I think this is what the original team should have done, and what most developors should. DXT5 has almost no quality reduction and is a good optimized file format for video cards!

So, you've converted DDS/DXT1 textures to DDS/DXT5 format (which is 75% larger file size) and you've seen an improvement? :(

So, you've converted DDS/DXT1 textures to DDS/DXT5 format (which is 75% larger file size) and you've seen an improvement? :(

Somehow yes :(. I was thinking the same thing too when I saw that some of the file sizes were large. I thought it would be insane to have performance increase, but it did, and it seemed like FSX was less streesed, just smooth sailing...err gliding. Not all file sizes increased and not all increased 75%.

I know i already tried it last year, but can't remember why i dumped it right away. But i know it didn't work for me.

I know i already tried it last year, but can't remember why i dumped it right away. But i know it didn't work for me.

Because it is one of the worse things someone could do to a FSX install.. If I only had a nickel for everytime someone did this and discovered not soon after what a huge mistake it was going back to 2006... LOL

Thanks for the back up Nick, I'm getting sick of telling folk they are wasting their time over and over again, they will never learn, that's why I cant be bothered to explain things any more, I cant even be bothered to link to the huge threads about this very subject. Carry on knock yourselves out :(

I saw a performance increase, I don't know why, but I did. Not all file sizes increased, and they did not increase 75%, some stayed the same. The folder was about 600MB then it increased to about 800MB after if I remember correctly. I think cards can probably process DXT5 files faster and the graphics software is optimized for DXT textures (1-5), and its true because in other games, decals and other small objects of small importance use DXT5 instead of DXT1. It just improves performance, simple as that. The card also has to decompress textures if you guys remember, and that can cause slower loading or a framerate hit. With DXT5 having a lower compression ratio, it can help the card decompress the textures faster. I think this is why it improves performance, but I am not entirely sure. No disrespect, but I would rather let someone that designs video acceleration drivers or gfx cards explain, why this is or is not good. I have not seen any bad things happen, I did 4 successful flights yesterday on extremely dense autogen on both sliders, no corruption, no loss of visual quality for me, even right up at the buildings with a helicopter. Its just autogen for me anyway, I don't love it, and I don't hate it. It just helps increase realism and I am not flying 5 AGL near buildings all the time. I always have a backup to go to incase of emergency, or I can convert textures back to DXT5.Thanks for the help, but I will stay with this until I see a problem come up.

For the output FILE format, select "DDS"Select "ATi 3Dc Compression"Select "Options" that precedes[/u]Select "DXT5"Your done :(

http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtop...160&hl=dxt5

Also there is ways to totally eliminate the detail loss by using DXT compression. ATI with their X800 have invented a lossless 3dc compression of normal maps which is used to give characters in fps games like Doom 3, Far Cry Serious SAM 2 etc a look that fools you that they are a lot more detailed than they really are. Now this technique should be perfectly possible to implement in FS 2006 as well. What they do is that they create objects with 100 000 polygons or something. Then create a normal map that consists of a fraction of that number of polygons. Then you compress that with 3dc which is similar to DXT5 but DXT5 causes some corruption so 3dc is better and ATI have support for it in their hardware. Could be used for autogen or airplane models to increase performance and/or image quality.I don

Is this for ATi or AMD exclusively? It wouldn't install on Vista x64. It said I was missing something (didn't say what) and rolled back and uninstalled. I appreciated the rollback rather than install and then error when trying to run it.Andy or Nick, is there a concise layman's explanation of why this is bad? I want to try it just to check it out. I'll copy my textures back if there is the slightest problem. But I don't want to create issues that are frustratingly fixable.Thaellar