Took much longer than I expected to write the guide so sorry if I kept you waiting. I should also start by saying I only tried this with my Nvidia GTX580 card, not sure how well this will work with ATI cards for example. OK...here goes... A simple step-by-step guide but first as always a little disclaimer...when doing this kind of stuff please understand you're doing this at your own risk should anything go wrong and don't expect PMDG to provide any support. However it's a very simple process and nothing can really go wrong if you make sure to follow the steps below carefully so don't let this scare you off. I would also like to make clear that I'm in no way an expert myself but only learned how to accomplish this the other day and I'm sure many of you know far more about textures and graphic conversions etc than I do. However should you have any further questions or problems I will of course help you the best way I can. Since I don't own PhotoShop or a similar program this guide will be based on a free program called Gimp but if you're more familiar with another program that can resize textures you are of course free to use that program instead of Gimp. One advice, you will save LOTS of time and hazzle by only converting to DXT5 format and include MipMaps without resizing the textures so don't resize the textures if you don't find it necessary caused by low FPS after converting to DXT5. !!! One last and important thing before we start, at the end of this guide is a list of textures that you don't need to convert. At least I didn't convert them and one of them actually caused real trouble and another one made a funny effect so I highly recommend you don't convert the textures I mention at the end of this guide so start by looking them up so you don't convert them by mistake !!! OK...now from the boring stuff to the fun stuff 1. Download DXTBmp from here -> http://www.btinterne...oad/dxtbmpx.EXE and install it 2. Download Gimp from here -> http://puzzle.dl.sou...686-setup-1.exe and install it. This step is only required if you want to resize the textures to make them smaller. I ended up staying with the default size of all textures I converted and thus I really didn't need the Gimp application in the end but I kept it installed anyway if I maybe need it in the future...always nice with a free but yet very sophisticated graphics application 3. Make a backup of the following folders. Obviously if you don't intend to convert textures for one or more of these models you don't need a backup of that or those specific folders. However you will always want a backup of the PMDG 737-800NGX folder since this folder is the base folder for the NGX holding many of the textures used by all models. Also the path to Microsoft Flight Simulator X may of course be different on your computer depending on where you have FSX installed F:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGXF:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX WLF:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-900NGXF:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-900NGX WL There are 3 types of textures you can perform this MipMap trick on

• external (and maybe also some internal?) textures common for all NGX models located in ...\PMDG 737-800NGX\texture.common
• internal virtual cockpit textures also common for all NGX models located in ...\PMDG 737-800NGX\textures.vc
• external (and maybe also some internal?) textures for any livery you have installed in a subfolder called Texture.XX under the specific model the livery is built for where XX is a combination of characters unique for your specific livery. In my case for example I have the Scandinavian 737-800WL (LN-RRH Freja Viking) livery installed and the textures are located in a subfolder called Texture.SK under the ...\PMDG 737-800NGX WL folder

So to sum up the folders you're interested in are F:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX\texture.commonF:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX\texture.vcF:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\NGX model\your installed livery Since my main problem when I started this thread was a shimmering effect when panning around in the virtual cockpit my initial goal was to find the textures holding the gauges etc in the virtual cockpit that caused the most shimmering problems. The virtual cockpit textures are as described above found in a subfolder to the PMDG 737-800NGX folder called texture.vc so this was the folder I started converting textures in. After converting a few textures I decided to convert all textures instead of trying to manually find the specific textures including objects that were causing shimmering. After I converted all textures in the texture.vc folder and found out just how good the result was I decided to also convert the common external textures and then also the textures specific for my installed Scandinavian livery. To see just how good the result is I suggest before you start converting any textures start FSX with the NGX and then in spot view for example zoom in on the tyres for example and zoom in and out a couple of times and notice the shimmering effect on the tyres. You can do the same thing in the v/c watching the edge of the fuel temp gauge for example. The best way to see how bad the shimmering are in some locations in the v/c press and hold the SPACE key and then use the mouse to slowly pan around in the cockpit and notice the while/shimmering lines here and there. Then do this test again after you have converted all textures at the end of this guide and I'm sure you will understand why I'm so happy about all this OK, enough talking already 4. Go into one of the texture folders described above and double-click on the texture you want to convert. You might be asked what program should be used to open this file. Browse for the DXTBmp program and to make it easy for yourself check that you always want to use this program to open this type of file so you don't have to answer this question for every file 5. When DXTBmp starts select your editor by going to Prefs->Select Editor and then browse for Gimp (gimp-2.6.exe) or for your own editor if not using Gimp. This step is of course only required once and then your choice of editor will be remembered by DXTBmp and you can skip this step 6. Once the texture is loaded in DXTBmp start by looking at the title bar of DXTBmp where you will see the size of the texture, for example 1024 x 1024. If none of the values are greater than 1024 you can skip directly from here to step 11. This is because 1024 is the biggest texture size FSX will handle by default and I don't see any reason to go lower than that but this is just my personal guess/opinion. Export the Alpha Channel by going to Alpha->Export Alpha Channel in the menu and then save the file using a name of your own choice (the name is not important) in a location of your own choice (the location is not important) 7. Send the image to the editor by going to Image->Send to Editor in the menu 8. Once the texture is loaded in Gimp resize the image by going to Picture->Scale picture (I have the Swedish version so I hope this is the correct menu wordings in English or whatever language you're running Gimp in. It seems Gimp will default to your local language) and then enter the new values for width and height. If you for example have a texture that is 2048x2048 then you could enter 1024 and when pressing the TAB key the other value will change accordingly. I guess it's a good idea to always keep the relation between the width and height values so if you have a 2048 x 2048 texture and change the width value to 1024 the height value will also change to 1024. Once you're happy with the new values press the Scale button to resize the texture 9. Save the resized texture by going to File->Save As and then enter the original name of the texture (without the extension) and save it in a location of your own choice as a Windows BMP picture. After you press the Save button make sure 24 bits is selected under the Advanced Settings option that will be available from the next popup window by pressing the plus sign. Once you have verified this press the Save button again to finally save the resized texture 10. Open the texture you just saved in step 9 in DXTBmp and import the Alpha channel by going to Alpha->Import Alpha Channel in the menu. Here you will get a warning message, just press the OK button. Then locate the alpha channel file you exported in step 6 and press the Open key 11. At the right hand of the DXTBmp window make sure the 'Include when saving' is ticked under MipMaps settings, leave the other settings as they are. Then save the texture in DXT5 format by going to File->Save As->DDS Texture in the menu and make sure the name is correct (the original name of the texture you are converting) and also make sure the Save as type is set to DDS DXT5. Then save the texture in it's correct location (where the original texture is located) answering 'Yes' when asked if the existing file should be overwritten 12. You've just converted your first texture to DXT5 with MipMaps included, congratulations Now repeat these steps for all textures you want to convert Below are the textures you shouldn't / don't need to convert for the different folders texture.common folder PMDG_737NGX_env (this one causes real problems so DON'T convert it!!)pmdg_737NGX_redLTfresnel_llightsPMDG_737NGX_NavGreen_Flash_LoVisPMDG_737NGX_Strobe_Flash_LoVisPMDG_737NGX_NavRed_Flash_LoVispmdg_737NGX_nose (this causes a funny effect on the nose of the a/c, no harm but not the way it should look...)pmdg_737NGX_whiteLTpmdg_737NGX_landLTpmdg_737NGX_beaconLTpmdg_737NGX_greenLTfresnel_rampPMDG_737NGX_Strobe_Flash_HiVisPMDG_737NGX_GreenPMDG_737NGX_Redpmdg_737NGX_ll_fresnelpmdg_737NGX_ll_splashpmdg_737NGX_ll_splash_1PMDG_737NGX_LL_EXT_LowVisPMDG_737NGX_LL_EXTPMDG_737NGX_DarkPMDG_737NGX_Whitepmdg_737NGX_night texture.vc folder PMDG_NGX_VC_Knob_ShadowPMDG_NGX_VC_AH_ShadowPMDG_NGX_VC_Fresnel_Ramp What I thought would be a short and simple guide turned out to be rather long but I hope it will give you guidence to accomplish what I did and enjoy finally getting rid of that ugly shimmering once and for all when flying the otherwise so beautiful NGX, I'm looking forward to hear about your results!!

Richard, umm, what if your not resizing any textures and don't d/l gimp. What editor am I supposed to use and what steps above can I skip if I don't want to resize anything?

Thanks Richard. This is great. I formatted your post as a mini-tutorial and printed it as a pdf so we can use it off-line and make notes. Hope you don't mind. Click to download a pdf of WebMaximus' mini-tutorial from above. Ray

Nice job, Richard. I'm always impressed by people like you who do not quit until an obstacle is overcome by any means necessary. I probably would have given up at Gimp.

Thanks Richard. This is great. I formatted your post as a mini-tutorial and printed it as a pdf so we can use it off-line and make notes. Hope you don't mind. Click to download a pdf of WebMaximus' mini-tutorial from above. Ray

I don't mind at all Ray, I'm flattered and I hope I didn't make too many errors in the guide and that it will help all of you guys enjoy the NGX the way I'm enjoying it right now with zero shimmering When some of you have had the time to "test-drive" the guide making sure it works as intended maybe an idea would also be for you to upload your PDF to AVSIM's file library for easy downloading for all AVSIM users. One thing though that just struck me is that after SP1 for the NGX is released where you as I understood it will be able to choose what resolution you want for your textures you might end up having to perform all this converting to DXT5 including MipMaps all over again but at least you then should be familiar how it's done and hopefully it will be a rather quick process since the need to resize any textures shouldn't be there any longer if you can choose to already have the original textures in 1024 x 1024 size. All you need to do then is to open them in DXTBmp and re-save them in DXT5 format with MipMaps included. And who knows...if we're real lucky maybe the original 1024 textures included with SP1 will come with MipMaps already included

Nice job, Richard. I'm always impressed by people like you who do not quit until an obstacle is overcome by any means necessary. I probably would have given up at Gimp.

Thanks Dennis, I guess you're right I can be quite stubborn if I have a goal in front of me that I feel might be worth the effort and in this case the end result was worth both the effort and time BIG TIME !! However the real credit for all this should go to Blidariu Ioan who is the guy coming up with the idea of converting the textures and inlude MipMaps in the first place - thanks again for that !!

It would be interesting to see what PMDG has to say about including textures with mipmaps.

Richard, umm, what if your not resizing any textures and don't d/l gimp. What editor am I supposed to use and what steps above can I skip if I don't want to resize anything?

Eric, In step 1 in my guide you download and install DXTBmp which is the only editor you will need if you don't want to/feel the need to resize the textures so in step 6 you will already have a texture open in DXTBmp and all you need to do is save it in DXT5 format including MipMaps and overwrite the original texture and you're done and can continue with the next texture the same way. So a very simplified (and short this time ) guide if you don't want/need to resize the textures would be 1. Make a backup of all your textures so you can restore the originals should you need/want to2. Open the texture you want to convert in DXTBmp3. Save the texture in the same location using the same name and make sure to save it in DXT5 format with the include MipMaps option ticked and answer 'Yes' when you get the question if you want to overwrite the existing file

It would be interesting to see what PMDG has to say about including textures with mipmaps.

Yes it will and again since I'm nothing but an ordinary flight simmer and no expert in any way when it comes to textures maybe there's a backside of this coin that I haven't yet discovered that would be a reason why it's not a good idea to convert the textures to include MipMaps but as I understood it including MipMaps in textures is an already well-known method of reducing the shimmering effect in FSX so I hope there isn't any bad backside of this coin because the effect so far is really really great !!

Richard, many thanks, I figured it out. I am now about to fire her up and see what she looks like!

Richard, many thanks, I figured it out. I am now about to fire her up and see what she looks like!

That's great, looking forward to hear what you think :(

I don't mind at all Ray, I'm flattered and I hope I didn't make too many errors in the guide and that it will help all of you guys enjoy the NGX the way I'm enjoying it right now with zero shimmering When some of you have had the time to "test-drive" the guide making sure it works as intended maybe an idea would also be for you to upload your PDF to AVSIM's file library for easy downloading for all AVSIM users. One thing though that just struck me is that after SP1 for the NGX is released where you as I understood it will be able to choose what resolution you want for your textures you might end up having to perform all this converting to DXT5 including MipMaps all over again but at least you then should be familiar how it's done and hopefully it will be a rather quick process since the need to resize any textures shouldn't be there any longer if you can choose to already have the original textures in 1024 x 1024 size. All you need to do then is to open them in DXTBmp and re-save them in DXT5 format with MipMaps included. And who knows...if we're real lucky maybe the original 1024 textures included with SP1 will come with MipMaps already included Thanks Dennis, I guess you're right I can be quite stubborn if I have a goal in front of me that I feel might be worth the effort and in this case the end result was worth both the effort and time BIG TIME !! However the real credit for all this should go to Blidariu Ioan who is the guy coming up with the idea of converting the textures and inlude MipMaps in the first place - thanks again for that !!

It sure sounds to me like PMDG could make a bunch of brownie points by giving us the option of installing MipMaps or not along with the 3 choices of texture levels. They would only have to do it once for everyone who opted for the mipmaps. Maybe this post will catch their attention and something really good will happen. Ray

Richard, Works great. However, for all...do not mip map this texture: PMDG_NGX_Transparency_Clip.dds. It is in the texture.vc folder. This will cause a white cone type effect when you have the HGS down and in use.

Richard, Works great. However, for all...do not mip map this texture: PMDG_NGX_Transparency_Clip.dds. It is in the texture.vc folder. This will cause a white cone type effect when you have the HGS down and in use.

That's good to hear and thanks for reporting back about the PMDG_NGX_Transparency_Clip texture! For anyone else finding a texture that in some way causes problems when converted or anything else that doesn't work as it should by following the guide please report back in here like Eric did so we all can benefit from your findings and so the PDF document can be updated accordingly. Ray, could you please add this PMDG_NGX_Transparency_Clip texture to your PDF document under the texture.vc section of files that should not be converted?

Many thanks for the guide Richard (and Ray) I'm assuming this technique can be used on airport textures as well?? Although I don't appear to suffer too bad with regards to the NGX (will try the mipmapping proceedure anyway), I get really bad shimmering on addon airports like Madeira (LPMA) and Lisbon (LPPT). It mainly affects taxiways and some terminal buildings. Can anyone recommend which textures I might need to mipmap in order to fix addon sceneries? I find it odd that Aerosoft and PMDG don't at least include the option to install mipmap textures. There has to be some reason for that?

Brilliant Richard!!! Many many thanks for this! Will install these later! cant wait! Kye