Hello,I am having some shimmering issues with older FSX scenery - FLYMex comes to mind but their are others.I know individuals apply their own mipmaps to the scenery using image tool.Can some kind individual please explain how to do this?Also, can you just do it for all of the textures in one folder and if so, you do you do it?

I used imagetool to add mips to .bmp files and I use DDS Converter 2 to add mips to .dds files.I don't have time to give you a full run down, but I can give a couple things to get started.Before you do anything, make sure to back up the whole texture folder of the scenery that you are going to work on, just in case something goes wrong or you don't like the results you can easily revert back to the originals.With DDS Converter you will need to open it an inside select an output folder where the new textures will go and in the options tab you will need to select the DXT format (DXT1, DXT3, DTX5, etc.) and the level of mip maps to be created (I usually leave it set to 0 which is automatic and lets the tool add the amount of maps that the texture needs). I usually mip the day and night textures which would be listed for example like: KLAX_Terminal_01.dds and KLAX_Terminal_01_LM.dds. Some textures that are the night texture or light map are listed as xxx_LM or xxx_L. If you mip the day and not the night/lightmap texture then you may get the shimmering when the night textures are displayed in the evening.For some sceneried that use .dds and .bmp texures I do the .dds textures as I just described, and then use Imagetool to do the .bmp textures. I have it set up so that I can do a batch file of .bmps all at once using the Scenery_Make_DXT3_Mipmap, rather than doing them one at time.You will notice that textures that are 1024X1024 and not miped already are usually 1025 Kb in size. After mips they will be 1366KB in size.So to get started what I would do is:1. Back up the original texture folder2. Copy the texture folder you are going to work with to your desktop to make it easy to get to3. Open the folder and first mip the .bmps using Image tool. I usually first mip the .bmps that are 1025KB in size.4. Look for the .dds files that are 1025KB and mip them to the corresponding DXT type that the original file is. For example if you highlight a file like KLAX_Terminal_01.dds and it says its DXT5 then select the same compression and miplevel=0 to let DDS Converter add the number of mips that the texture needs. Sometimes it will only add 8 maps other times it will add 10 maps5. Place all the new mipped textures back to the original texture folder and try it out in FSX. If you see some shimmering still make a note of what objects are shimmering and then find those textures in the desktop folder and add mips to them and retest in FSX.I usually dont mip any texture files that are smaller than 342KB in size and sometimes you will see one that is like 65KB or 11KB and when you open them the are solid colors not like a building texture sheet. I usually stay away from those because sometimes mipping them has caused me problems.Anyway, this is a very rough idea of what to do since I don't have much time at the moment and each scenery is different. FSDT and Flytampa are really good about having mips already in the scenery, while most stuff that Aerosoft produces doesn't have mips and you have to do it yourself.As long as you make a backup first of your original textures you cant really mess anything up. Sometime I will have to do a few runs of a mip session to get it to look and perform the way I want.You can also do your aircraft textures the same way, except that I usually dont mip the speculars or the bump maps, nor do I map those in a scenery file if they are included.Good luck and I will try to offer more help if you need it.I'm sure there are others here that can go into more depth than I did. Andr

Thanks. That seems easy enough. The main product I am working on right now is the FlyMex scenery - 60 some airports, there are over 1,200 textures. At least they are all .bmp'sAnyway, I noticed in the FT Vioenna thread that there is a file somewhere that there is a batch file for this. Does anyone know where I can find that file? Also, I noticed somewhere that I shouldn't do the night files. Is this correct.Thanks for the help Sean. I know you are pressed for time so if anyone else knows that would be fantastic.Edit: One other thing - how does the texture having a alpha channel affect this process. I am new to playing with textures so I am not really even sure what the alpha channel does - something to do you transparency or reflective textures?

Check you pm box for some info.

Also, I noticed somewhere that I shouldn't do the night files. Is this correct.

Never heard that. It would be correct if you want the night textures to keep shimmering. When it comes to mipping AI planes I dont do the light maps because the batch file doesnt touch them.However, when I mip scenery textures I always do the light maps or night textures, otherwise if I dont they look good in the day but shimmer at night.

Makes sense. Thanks for the help

Makes sense. Thanks for the help

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Check your box again for another message I just sent

HelloThank you for that explanation, maybe now I can get Fly tampas KSEA to stay still and also ISD's LIMC 2005 in fs9which is the worst I have seen for flicker.

Never heard that. It would be correct if you want the night textures to keep shimmering. When it comes to mipping AI planes I dont do the light maps because the batch file doesnt touch them.However, when I mip scenery textures I always do the light maps or night textures, otherwise if I dont they look good in the day but shimmer at night.

 

cmpbellsjc, here's from NickN:

 

Furthermore, ALL textures regardless of scenery, AI, or addon aircraft should be DXT or DDS and mip-mapped with two exceptions: Interior aircraft or virtual cockpit textures, and, exterior night textures that are not 'light maps' and all DXT textures other than the two defined here, must be mip-mapped.

 

 

What are the "exterior night textures that are not 'light maps'"? Can I tell the difference from the file names?

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

cmpbellsjc, here's from NickN:

 

 

What are the "exterior night textures that are not 'light maps'"? Can I tell the difference from the file names?

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

Not sure what Nick means by exterior night textures that are not light maps. Usually any texture that is displayed at night is named with a lm at the end of the texture name.

 

For example if you have a hangar texture that displays in the day and also the night, the texture would be named something like:

 

Hangar.dds for the day texture

Hangar_lm.dds for the night texture.

 

That being said, I still mip map my night/light map textures to reduce shimmer. If I don't do the night textures they tend to shimmer at night just like the daytime textures would do in the day if you didn't mip them.

 

I've been mapping my night textures for going on 7 years and have had no bad effect or performance issue from doing so, however just like everything sim related your milage may vary.

I should ask NickN then and post what he answers.

 

Meanwhile I'll mip map all the files missing mip-maps, except for propellers and, perhaps, some ground textures. 

 

Thank  you, cmpbellsjc.

 

Dirk.