Are there any news for the FSX (.DDS) users?

I would be VERY happy if you can do this!

How does one contact the forum administrator at AIG? When I tried to register I got the following mesage:

 

The user scottmiller with Email [email protected] (IP 76.214.5.82) is a Spam, please contact forum administrator.

 

The problem with this is there doesn't seem to be any way to contact the forum adminstrator!

 

I had a similar problem with Navigraph's web site after somekind of change had made to it. I was able to contact Navigraph and got the problem resolved, but in this case there doesn't seem to be amuwau to get help!

If these texture/studder/blurries problems (FS9/FSX) and fixes are "well known" why don't scenery and other developers (AI/repaints etc.) correct them (optimized) prior to distribution?

Is the Alphasearcher available at AVSIM Library, I tried to register on their site and it always failed

I was enthused by this discussion to purchase Texture Doctor and converted a set of bmps to dxt3. Now all the images are shown with their black backgrounds in the scenery. I used dxtfixerx which said all the converted files were missing an alpha channel, so I let dxtfixerx fix the faulty files. Still all the images are shown with their black backgrounds in the scenery.

What did I do wrong?

(I used the TD backup function to convert back to bmps, and the scenery now works fine again).

I would appreciate an expert opinion - please bear in mind I know very little about how the graphics part of FS9 works!

Since I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere I will share part of my experience with this.

If you convert fence, people, or tree textures and end up with a black box around them, or looking through a fence makes the scenery behind it transparent, it's because these textures need to be DXT1 colorkey,

I had found several fences that I could look at and see completely through the building behind it, when I checked the texture it was a DXT3 w/alpha, when I converted it to DXT1 that problem went away.

However you cant have an all white or black alpha. The alpha has to be black and white, black for what you want transparent and white for what you want to be seen, so if the alpha is all black or white you have to create an alpha channel for it. I use Gimp to make the alpha and DXTBMP to add the alpha to the texture.

It took the better part of 4 mo. but I converted every texture in my sim (save for a few prop and window textures) to mipped DXT1 or DXT3. Including all of the 8 bit and .0AF, .1AF etc. I didn't mip anything on any user acft. One word of caution though, until you are comfortable identifying and making B&W alphas for textures that need them I wouldn"t suggest doing this.

On the plus side flt sim no longer shimmers or stutters and I have an 8.5 GB slimmer flt sim.

Now I just wish for 2 things:

1. Developers would make their textures properly so we wouldn't have to do this, and

2. Someone would make a tool to find DXT1's with no mips.

I have done most of my payware sceneries already, (probably about four hours work) as well as all my WoAI aircraft and the main FS9 texture folder. It's tedious, but not really too bad once you get into a routine for doing it. The example of Maastricht was extreme. I tried it first because it had been mentioned in the discussion thread. But I have seen a significant improvement overall and I am probably only halfway there in terms of doing the entire sim. But for me at least, it has been totally worthwhile.

 

The question about the L files was a good one. The instructions seemed to say don't do them, but what I found was that in almost all instances, they already have an alpha channel. So I decided to give it a go with the ones that didn't and I have had zero problems with it. So my advice is yes, do the lightmaps as well. If AlphSearcher identifies it, I fix it until it doesn't find any files needing to be done. Then I move on to another part of the sim.

 

Trust me guys - if I can do it, anyone can. It's easy and surprisingly fast, given the thousands of textures that need to be checked.

 

Cheers

Ian

ps Usual caveat - back up your files before you do it etc... But so far at least, I have had only positive results and zero problems

 

Ian I tried doing this with the Imaginesim WSSS scenery sometime ago but I couldn't find out how to do it (FSX) properly so I was missing textures. I forgot what it was called(DXT3 mipmapping?). But it is because the Imaginesim sceneries in FSX causes shimmering so bad.......... I'll have to check my FS9 version now, but my FPS in FS9 even on an older Core2Duo is so good I haven't really worried about trying to increase my FPS.

I know a newer video card made the eye candy much better, but also made me buy a bigger power supply.

 

So I gave up. At least the FlyTampa stuff is made well. I'll buy the FlyTampa stuff anytime!!

 

If you have any tips on how I can do those textures for FSX in the Imaginesim scenery I would appreciate it.

 

Thanks.

Since I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere I will share part of my experience with this.

If you convert fence, people, or tree textures and end up with a black box around them, or looking through a fence makes the scenery behind it transparent, it's because these textures need to be DXT1 colorkey,

I had found several fences that I could look at and see completely through the building behind it, when I checked the texture it was a DXT3 w/alpha, when I converted it to DXT1 that problem went away.

However you cant have an all white or black alpha. The alpha has to be black and white, black for what you want transparent and white for what you want to be seen, so if the alpha is all black or white you have to create an alpha channel for it. I use Gimp to make the alpha and DXTBMP to add the alpha to the texture.

It took the better part of 4 mo. but I converted every texture in my sim (save for a few prop and window textures) to mipped DXT1 or DXT3. Including all of the 8 bit and .0AF, .1AF etc. I didn't mip anything on any user acft. One word of caution though, until you are comfortable identifying and making B&W alphas for textures that need them I wouldn"t suggest doing this.

On the plus side flt sim no longer shimmers or stutters and I have an 8.5 GB slimmer flt sim.

Now I just wish for 2 things:

1. Developers would make their textures properly so we wouldn't have to do this, and

2. Someone would make a tool to find DXT1's with no mips.

 

Does anyone know the original fence texture names in stock FS9?

 

...particularly this fence texture. At night, after converting, it just shows a gray, textureless object at multiple airports that use it.

Does anyone know the original fence texture names in stock FS9?

 

...particularly this fence texture. At night, after converting, it just shows a gray, textureless object at multiple airports that use it.

 

Disregard the above. Found the culprit. Thanks.

Since I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere I will share part of my experience with this.

If you convert fence, people, or tree textures and end up with a black box around them, or looking through a fence makes the scenery behind it transparent, it's because these textures need to be DXT1 colorkey,

I had found several fences that I could look at and see completely through the building behind it, when I checked the texture it was a DXT3 w/alpha, when I converted it to DXT1 that problem went away.

However you cant have an all white or black alpha. The alpha has to be black and white, black for what you want transparent and white for what you want to be seen, so if the alpha is all black or white you have to create an alpha channel for it. I use Gimp to make the alpha and DXTBMP to add the alpha to the texture.

It took the better part of 4 mo. but I converted every texture in my sim (save for a few prop and window textures) to mipped DXT1 or DXT3. Including all of the 8 bit and .0AF, .1AF etc. I didn't mip anything on any user acft. One word of caution though, until you are comfortable identifying and making B&W alphas for textures that need them I wouldn"t suggest doing this.

On the plus side flt sim no longer shimmers or stutters and I have an 8.5 GB slimmer flt sim.

Now I just wish for 2 things:

1. Developers would make their textures properly so we wouldn't have to do this, and

2. Someone would make a tool to find DXT1's with no mips.

 

Is there a guide?

Like I said above I tried but gave up since the guide I followed had holes in it.....

Is there a guide?

 

I don't know if there is a guide or tutorial written on the subject. I just learned how to do it myself after reading this discussion about it on AIG forums here http://www.alpha-india.net/forums/index.php?topic=3634.0 (may have to register, not sure)

 

It's a very long but interesting read.

 

As far as ImagineSim Scenery they have a bad habit of not mip-mapping their textures and thats why they shimmer so bad.

 

No mip-maps causes shimmering and no alpha on a DXT3 or DXT5 format texture causes severe stuttering.

So can someone please clarify what software we need exactly? I've read through every comment and by the looks of it you just need dxtfixerx?

 

Could someone post instructions on exactly what we need in terms of the software and what we need to do, I'm sure many others would also appreciate it ^_^ . One of the hardout guys who understand it completely could do it maybe?

 

Cheers everyone! Would be appreciated :smile: .

 

Thanks!

The tools I use to find, fix, edit textures are:

Imagetool - FS2004SDK

IBrowse, DXTBMP, ConvimX - http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/

GIMP - http://www.gimp.org/

 

And the link I posted for the AIG Forum discussion above.

Once you get the hang of it, it's very easy to do, time consuming, but easy.

Do we have to change it individually and every single one? Do i have to make a mip map etc? Can i just use Dxtfixerx and just do that small upgrade rather than the complicated stuff cause i will have no hang of it and don't want to spend so much time haha. I know, im a lazy fella hehe.

 

Can i just Dxtfixerx it?

Can we just run Dxtfixerx for the fix? Are making mip maps and such really necessary?