Graphics - Loading Slow

[Guest airbus_01]

I have a 2.8 Ghz PC with 512 MB of Ram and Radeon 9800 Video Card. The problem I have is that on some of the addon sceneries and especially with PAI AI Planes, The graphics load slow. Even happens on Posky and Meljet planes.For example, I am using addon scenery at KBOS (Logan International) and it is populated with PAI Traffic. I switch to spot plane view and when I swing over to see the airport and terminals, most of the planes and some of the airport scenery is just grey, then after maybe 3 - 5 seconds, the bitmaps load and I see the normal scenery.Some of the more detailed non AI planes are worse. May take 5 - 7 seconds to load the bitmaps. I have not updated my video drivers in a while as they seem stable. Is there a setting in the FS9.cfg that may help with this? I think this is related to 32 Bit bitmaps or maybe DXT3 format. Is it easy to convert the graphics to say DXT1? Thanks,Mark

[Guest Stainless]

Hi, :)I used to (still do to a smaller extent though) have the same problem. You were thinking along the right lines regarding 32bit and DXT3. 32bit textures are pretty massive when compared to DXT3 textures, so consequently take longer to load. Converting planes with 32bit textures to DXT3 eases the problem (but will be a long and painful process to do on all of your AI planes -so i'd just use it on the Posky and MelJet planes), as the textures are smaller they are loaded quicker. The trade-off is that the textures lose a little detail and clarity when being converted from 32bit to DXT3.Hope this helps you get sorted...