Hello, I tried to register with a genuine email address but I received a error message saying that my email address was spam. What sort of site is Alph ind.?

I received a error message saying that my email address was spam

 

Their registering mechanism is stupid. I had the same problem when registering with them.

Try changing your password into a longer one using both letters and numbers, and maybe a bit longer user name and it should pass through.

Thanks Rafal,

 

I did as you suggested and I am now registered.

 

Used the longest placename in the world, Llanfairpwllgwyngllgogoerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.

 

Just kidding.

 

Barry

Yep, PITA as far as I am concerned, especially when you start receiving spam e-mails from them afterwards.

 

What I do is this. I have a temporary e-mail address with my ISP which I use when I don't want anyone to know my permanent one. When I start getting unwanted spam etc I just kill off this temporary address and create another temporary one. So I use a temporary address to register in a forum when all I want is a one-off access and create any username which comes into my head. Simple!!

 

David

 

These days I just use whatever temporary email I can find on google. Every other site wants you to register and I'm tired of it.

I made a macro that barely seems to do what I want. :P

 

Anyway, with this I didn't have to manually save each time. I've used the trial version of this http://www.jitbit.com/macro-recorder/

 

Once you have AlphaSearcher finish its search and made a manual save with dxtbmp(you need to find where dxtbmp is) you can start this macro. Just make sure AlphaSearcher is the next active window after starting the macro, or it will click into whatever else is active. There is a 5 second delay before it saves because some files take a while to load and causes a failure otherwise. (You can lower this limit easily, or increase.)

 

 

Macro: https://dl.dropbox.c.../1968750/fs.mcr

It may not work for you at all, I'm not good at this and the script fails quite easily. But you can create on your own very easily. But I still need to watch in case of something happens.

 

Edit: Updated the script, no 5 second delay. It will wait for it to become active instead. Works pretty well for me right now.

Have you tried ConvImX? This is from the same developer of DXTBMP and, unlike Imagetool, if it catches a white alpha layer, it won't remove it from the bitmap. In 2 hours I made sure that all textures had an alpha channel, and added mipmaps to all my FS9 textures, except for AI and user aircraft. Should I mip also the user aircraft textures?

Thanks Luis, I haven't tried that!

 

As for your question, I MIP all my AI :)

 

 

Thanks for the script Kaan, I may give that a try, I am just getting all my backups done now...

 

And Ian, Thank you for the tip and pointing out what our resident expert Rafal pointed out, I had no idea and it looks like I have a ton of files in need of correction!

Hello, I tried to register with a genuine email address but I received a error message saying that my email address was spam. What sort of site is Alph ind.?

 

I had the same the first time I tried to register so I thought of a different username and password which worked. However, that was five hours ago now and I still haven't received their promised e-mail which will enable me to activate my account.

 

Not good service so I don't think I will bother with them. I have only a very slight problem with stutters at Maastricht - not enough to warrant chasing AlphaSim to get their act together.

So maybe to help each other out we can sort of keep a "key" of what to MIP, what not to MIP and what to Alpha...

 

My understanding (probably wrong)

AI

DXT3

*_T.bmp- MIP w/ Alpha

*_L .bmp- Some confusion but many say to MIP with Alpha

DXT1-?

 

Scenery

DXT3 and 32 Bit

MIP with Alpha

DXt1-?

 

DXT3 Clouds???

Could this be the reason for stuttering in clouds even when using DXt3 textures? Should they be MIP w/Alpha as well?

 

User Aircraft

DXT3 and 32 Bit

Exterior- MIP with Alpha

VC- ??? No MIP with Alpha? I am not sure on this one I thought I remembered you do not MIP the VC textures?...

Used the longest placename in the world, Llanfairpwllgwyngllgogoerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.

 

Just kidding.

 

 

Hey.. that's my username!!

 

 

However, with today's computer specification, FPS in fs9 is no longer a big challenge, but reading Ian's fps above, it's worth to try

Hi.

 

The alpha question has had me wondering too. When I get right down to it, so has the question of what improvement I can get in my framerate! I feel a download coming on later...

 

From Wikipedia, by their internal link from S3 Texture Compression, "In computer graphics alpha compositing is the process of combining an image with a background to create the appearance of partial or full transparency."

 

Everything I have read about alpha channels seems to relate to transparency so I suppose any texture which ought to have some degree of transparency also needs an alpha channel.

 

There's apparently no problem with adding an alpha channel to DXT1 except that you would be using one bit for the transparency (and that one only on or off I suppose) which would reduce the range of colours available.

 

My guess is that VCs don't need an alpha channel as you don't need to see through the panel. On the other hand, perhaps the windscreen et c. do. I don't think a VC would need a mip map either-- you're unlikely to be viewing it at a distance, or suffering a drop in FPS as a result.

 

The same probably goes for the exterior textures of user aircraft: no mip required... unless you use some user aircraft as AI too, in which case mip mapping may be useful.

 

My other guess is that clouds ought to have an alpha channel, else I suppose the ground may not show through correctly. As for mipping their textures, from memory mine don't look as though they are; they're the same shapes and as detailed at a distance.

 

And finally, I have a vague memory of the alpha channel being applied to provide a gloss finish to a surface-- the sun's reflection requiring some transparency.

 

I could be wrong.

D

A *LONG* list of missing alphas for Aerosoft's Schipol scenery - you know, the one that runs like a dog, funny that....

 

Also any users of the Muscat X scenery (which is fairly average as scenery goes, so I've always wondered why it runs poorly) be aware that there's a list of missing alphas as long as your arm for that one too.

Hey Kaan, that macro Recorder is brilliant! Recorded my own without a delay (I like to know what is happening) and it is running on a loop right now!

 

A *LONG* list of missing alphas for Aerosoft's Schipol scenery - you know, the one that runs like a dog, funny that....

 

Also any users of the Muscat X scenery (which is fairly average as scenery goes, so I've always wondered why it runs poorly) be aware that there's a list of missing alphas as long as your arm for that one too.

What about MIP? Should scenery be MIPPED and Alpha or just Alpha? I have a bunch with missing MIP and I thought the rule with scenery was MIP everything...

There is SO much to textures!!!

That macro tool is awesome. I'm mipping everything now because I believe they reduce shimmering and is a right thing to do with fs. Also added alpha to everything.

 

Do you guys know anything about dxtbmp mipmaps filter settings?

I am with you Kaan, For Scenery and AI I am adding MIP's if there are none and Alpha to everything including the lightmaps. (LM files)

 

I have a backup of everything but this seems to be what a lot of people say works best. Sorry I can't help on the DXtbmp mipmap filter settings, I just have a checkbox in include with saving and everything else default...

I think kaiser filtering is the best, from what I can find. No idea about the processing filters.

 

Edit: I'm going to continue to use the box filtering, this isn't a fps game I don't need perfect textures. Just good performance and less shimmering is good enough.