I am working on creating my own runway textures,but i need assistance in determining the most optimum format.Dxt1-no alpha, or dxt3 alpha?Mips or no Mips?Can someone please explain the differences,pros/cons of each format.Dimitri.

For runway textures there is no advantage to having an alpha channel unless you want to have transparent edges like the default grass textures.DXT1 w/o alpha will be a smaller file and in theory give better performance.The idea behind Mips is to increase performance by allowing the sim to render lower res textures at a greater distance.Most of the default textures are Mipped. The ones that are not Mipped happen to be the more common textures that also have more detail. I believe these are not Mipped so the detail is not lost at a distance.I would experiment with your system and see if Mipped textures appear blurry and without detail. If so, then remove the Mips. In theory, Mips will improve performance, but as always YMMV.regards,Joe

Joe thank you for your help in this area.You guys are a wealth of information!Best regards,Dimitri

For runway textures there is no advantage to having an alpha channel unless you want to have transparent edges like the default grass textures.DXT1 w/o alpha will be a smaller file and in theory give better performance.The idea behind Mips is to increase performance by allowing the sim to render lower res textures at a greater distance.Most of the default textures are Mipped. The ones that are not Mipped happen to be the more common textures that also have more detail. I believe these are not Mipped so the detail is not lost at a distance.I would experiment with your system and see if Mipped textures appear blurry and without detail. If so, then remove the Mips. In theory, Mips will improve performance, but as always YMMV.regards,Joe

Hi JoeI would like to ask you for another texture problem, as I understood your knowledge of the matter is very deep .As I'm not confident with GMax and others 3D programs, I'm trying to obtain a scenery with the statue of my town by using a model with an other picture, where I substitute the original picture with the one I created (with Paint first and then Imagetool to obtain 32 bit or DXT1, etc): at last, I'm able to see the created new object, but "without" background transparency, as per enclosed FS9 printscreen, my texture and the original one. In fact, in my picture I was not be able to obtain any #Mip Level (??): I'm afraid I followed a wrong procedure.Coud you be so kind to help me for the solution, helping me to grow up?Thanks in advance and best regardsAldo

Ciao Aldo,Who is the babe? Anyway, your statue texture does not have an alpha channel. This is another layer in the image file that indicates what part of the image should be transparent.Generally, you can make the alpha channel in any good image editing program (Photoshop, the GIMP, etc.), but I suppose that most of us use Martin Wright's handy utilities:http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/For example, with DXTBmp, you can load your texture, indicate that the pure black around the statue should be transparent, and the tool will create the final DXT bitmap. Very easy to use.Good luck. Best regards.Luis

Ciao Luis Felixnice instructions: well understood and problem solved using Paint and Imagetool!thanks for the infosbye AldoPS: The babe in the picture is the "most covered" one of the "EZ-babes" models series