Need some help from the experts in advising on this tweak process with the Alpha Channel on textures. Has anyone using DX-10 tried this?

 

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/382519-a-huge-fps-increase/

Was reading the very same thread with interest today. Not got a chance to have a play yet though.

Just for clarifiation, as there are about 3 different topics covered in that thread. I am asking specifically about finding DXT3 and DXT5 textures with missing Alpha channel flag and having the flag added using the DXTFixerX program. I was not asking about MipMaps which I think is more of an FS9 issue.

I do this for all my textures. And repeat this when I installed a new addon.

 

I use first DXTfixerX. That fixes textures without a alpha channel. Then I run Alphasearcher. The textures that come up as missing alpha channel I convert with a batch with imagetool to dxt1. Because dxt1 has automaticlly an alpha channel (the same does dxtfixer) Then I convert the textures with missing mipmaps to the same format with mips. The texture size will increase but there will be less shimmering. As for the alpha channel there will be less loading stutters.

Hi Mark; Eef; Turbo:

Yeah - I had noticed the AlphaSearcher a couple of months ago, but not the DXT3Fixer, so I pulled it down, along with the comments from many of the posters on the forums mentioned. I'll make their different discussions into something a tad more understandable (for me :( ) and post it back her along with local links to the files, so that we and other interested folk can get a bit of hands-on testing, and we'll see just what happens. We might learn something (more) new!

All the best!

:drinks:

Well I was suffering from some very long stutters (3-5 second pauses every once in a while). After backing up some of the key files identified by DXT3Fixer and then processing the files through the program, I did end up with no noticeable stutters. It may be coincidence and I continue to test. I get the feeling there were a few ground textures from addons that were the cause of the problem and they are now fixed.

Are you using any kind of Macro script, Mark. I did similar, manually, though. All Orbx and latest FT products passed, a few of the modified FS9 PDX, and modified FT FS9 SEA files had to be done, but CYYJ (Don Grovestine's) needed most changes. I didn't particularly notice any difference, but it was not a fair test, as I had been doing a bunch of changing/moving scenery's up/down, out and around. All (my) aircraft are fine, but as earlier noted somewhere the Dornier is not DX10 compatible, so that one has some attention coming. All of it's textures were puuled up, both DXT and mips, so there's a bunch of work, too!!

 

On the other hand, Mark - I see no reason that work of this nature will not yield the results claimed. I think, too, that it may be one of those hidden but significant "fixes" which may well warrant a documented mention with regard to improving the overall DX10 simulation - so another big "Thank You" going out for this new input!

 

Retirement?? What retirement??

 

:lol:

I just used the automated process from DXT3FixerX. The program will find all of the files to add the alpha channel to and then process the files. You have the option of seeing the list first before processing and I used this list for my backup. Unfortunately it does not backup the files for you automatically. As for adding mips, I have not done it and I am just living with a little bit of shimmering at some addon airports.

Did a bit more testing last night with NGX and in an area where I always get long pauses. Great news, no more pauses, smooth sailing! If you have not already tried this I suggest you give it a go.

Just the fact that it will improve on the opportunity to kill - or fully get rid of - pauses or stutters, as the sim tries to manage the aberrant textures - is worth the effort, Mark. DXT3Fixer is going in the doc right now.

 

I guess this boosts your rating up to "Chief Cook and Bottle-Washer"! Congratulations!

 

:lol:

I will confirm it works great, been using it for some time, Each time I add another addon I have run it as a check.

Making sure to put the x in the box for a report first, if it reports a problem I go ahead with the fix it.