Blidariu Ioan (not sure which is your first name sorry...) I can't thank you enough for learning me this tip about converting textures to include MipMaps. After a short learning and trial & error period I have just completed converting all both external and v/c textures to DXT5 with MipMaps included and WOW WOW WOW...it's like I got a new a/c and the image quality is nothing but spectacular !!! You see the HUGE difference already when you start FSX in the little preview window where your selected a/c is spinning and then when you start a flight and see the a/c in-game and slowly pan around both in spot view and inside the v/c...this might be one of the most exiting things I've experienced yet in FS and I've been simming for quite some years I should tell you... Still can't understand why PMDG didn't deliver the NGX with all DXT5 MipMap'ed textures instead at least as an option for those with a GFX card that can handle it becuase the difference...well...I already said it...is HUUUGE. THANK YOU SO MUCH ...and edited to add that the very ugly and annoying shimmering effect that made me start this thread in the first place now after converting the textures and including mipmaps is nothing but a faint memory! For instance before I converted the textures looking at the tires in spot view when zooming in and out looked more like a shimmering mess rather than a tire but now the tires actually look like real tires made of rubber and you can zoom in and out and pan how much you want and you won't see a single shimmering effect...almost too good to be true

hmm i have been following this post with great interest! and it seems you got a good result - I am one of those that is a bit scared to play about with textures etc, but by the sounds of it you managed quite easy - is there any way you can step by step what you did exactly so that I can give it a go? That would be great!! Kye

Sure, me too. IMO this kind of tweak should be available to everyone. I use Photoshop every day for my work, so I have the kit, but I haven't a clue about mipping textures or where to find them. Once you have the textures presumably you run a script in PS and convert the whole folder?

I'll write an easy step-by-step guide how I converted the textures when I get home from work.

I'll write an easy step-by-step guide how I converted the textures when I get home from work.

Cheers matey. You're top man

I'll write an easy step-by-step guide how I converted the textures when I get home from work.

I'm also very interested in trying this out as well. A step by step guide would be fantastic!

I'm also very interested in trying this out as well. A step by step guide would be fantastic!

+1

I thought I knew Photoshop inside and out, but I have to admit I've never heard of mipmapping. I also would like to see your step by step guide.

lol the pressure's on u now!!!!!!!

Blidariu Ioan (not sure which is your first name sorry...) I can't thank you enough for learning me this tip about converting textures to include MipMaps. After a short learning and trial & error period I have just completed converting all both external and v/c textures to DXT5 with MipMaps included and WOW WOW WOW...it's like I got a new a/c and the image quality is nothing but spectacular !!! You see the HUGE difference already when you start FSX in the little preview window where your selected a/c is spinning and then when you start a flight and see the a/c in-game and slowly pan around both in spot view and inside the v/c...this might be one of the most exiting things I've experienced yet in FS and I've been simming for quite some years I should tell you... Still can't understand why PMDG didn't deliver the NGX with all DXT5 MipMap'ed textures instead at least as an option for those with a GFX card that can handle it becuase the difference...well...I already said it...is HUUUGE. THANK YOU SO MUCH ...and edited to add that the very ugly and annoying shimmering effect that made me start this thread in the first place now after converting the textures and including mipmaps is nothing but a faint memory! For instance before I converted the textures looking at the tires in spot view when zooming in and out looked more like a shimmering mess rather than a tire but now the tires actually look like real tires made of rubber and you can zoom in and out and pan how much you want and you won't see a single shimmering effect...almost too good to be true

Good to hear you have been successful in your quest to kill the shimmering. Can you tell us which files you did the mipmap treatment on? Maybe someone will zip up a few as a test case to see if we can all benefit from mipmapping. TABS says the SP1 will have add a means of choosing 1024 - 2048 - 4096 up front but i haven't heard any official talk about mipmaps. Ray

Guess I should have kept my mouth shut I've just started writing the simple guide and will post it in the next 30 minutes or so I hope.

Thanks, I'll check it out and maybe I can find some tutorial that might help me converting the textures to mipmaps as suggested to get rid of all shimmering. Would be more than happy if I could accomplish that!

Hi Richard, I read you want to mipmap texture.You can always try FSps extreme. It is a small program. Not very expensive. You can use mipmaps for your texture and it gives me 6-9 more fps Eric Ah to late! you sorted it out already. Good to read.

Edited September 27, 201114 yr by Ericd

Richard, can you please include a link to the program you used to do this as well. I have tinkered with mipmapping textures with the FSX SDK on all the Imaginesim scenery's to get rid of the horrid shimmering with those airports to good effect. I would like to mipmap my NGX textures as well. I look forward to following your guide.

Good to hear you have been successful in your quest to kill the shimmering. Can you tell us which files you did the mipmap treatment on? Maybe someone will zip up a few as a test case to see if we can all benefit from mipmapping. TABS says the SP1 will have add a means of choosing 1024 - 2048 - 4096 up front but i haven't heard any official talk about mipmaps. Ray

I started by only convert and include mipmaps for the textures where I found some of the gauges causing the shimmering effect but after I while I realised it might be easier to simply convert all textures. However I found one texture that caused problems when converting so I excluded that one and I also excluded some very small textures for lights effects, shadows etc. I will list those excluded textures in the guide I'm writing. I could make a zip file of all converted textures and upload it somewhere so you guys could simply download this zip file and then extract the textures and thus saving you from the work converting the textures yourself but since I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do that I will just write the guide for now so anyone who wants to try this on their own can.

Richard, can you please include a link to the program you used to do this as well. I have tinkered with mipmapping textures with the FSX SDK on all the Imaginesim scenery's to get rid of the horrid shimmering with those airports to good effect. I would like to mipmap my NGX textures as well. I look forward to following your guide.

Yes, I will include links in my guide.

Blidariu Ioan (not sure which is your first name sorry...) I can't thank you enough for learning me this tip about converting textures to include MipMaps. After a short learning and trial & error period I have just completed converting all both external and v/c textures to DXT5 with MipMaps included and WOW WOW WOW...it's like I got a new a/c and the image quality is nothing but spectacular !!! You see the HUGE difference already when you start FSX in the little preview window where your selected a/c is spinning and then when you start a flight and see the a/c in-game and slowly pan around both in spot view and inside the v/c...this might be one of the most exiting things I've experienced yet in FS and I've been simming for quite some years I should tell you... Still can't understand why PMDG didn't deliver the NGX with all DXT5 MipMap'ed textures instead at least as an option for those with a GFX card that can handle it becuase the difference...well...I already said it...is HUUUGE. THANK YOU SO MUCH ...and edited to add that the very ugly and annoying shimmering effect that made me start this thread in the first place now after converting the textures and including mipmaps is nothing but a faint memory! For instance before I converted the textures looking at the tires in spot view when zooming in and out looked more like a shimmering mess rather than a tire but now the tires actually look like real tires made of rubber and you can zoom in and out and pan how much you want and you won't see a single shimmering effect...almost too good to be true

I'm glad it worked for you! :D

I thought I knew Photoshop inside and out, but I have to admit I've never heard of mipmapping.

It's a specific feature for the dds texture format. To save textures with mip maps in Photoshop you need the nVidia DDS plug-in: http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop