Oh yeah, definitely you can see the difference when you view the two textures side by side. But like you say, its much harder to distinguish any difference within the sim itself and that is really all I'm interested in...

Where in microsoft or the internet would I find imagetool.exe ?thanks

Why? Probably because they can.Cal

For one, it's included in the MS FS2004 SDK for GMAX. It may be included with gMax, I can't remember and it might be in the scenery SDK too, but not sure.Cal

I use them in specific circumstances where that extra detail is required to render detail in the skins. Specific examples include bare metal detail and in some very complex curved skins where warp etc is difficult to manage. However, when I release a skin set, a lot of times I'll mix DXT3 and 32 bit depending on where that extra detail is needed. I almost never release a complete 32 bit set. Thats overkill most of the time.Eric

Shouldnt be hard. use the following bat file to convert 32 bit bitmps to DXT3 in one go. Imagetool supports batch file handling.imagetool -batch -DXT3 -nomip -alpha *.bmpren *.mip *.bmpThe above saved as a bat file will covert files to DXT3 with no mipmaps and an alpha channel.Eric

only diffence that i noticed is that if you use a gradient similar to a microsoft FS sunset and then you make it DXT3 you get a simitraspaerent aircraft at sunset.With 32bit you dont get that problem...BTW this is only with the FSD Senaca I havent used this on other aircraft....

Thanks for all the response guys, very interesting.The reason why I asked, is because lately I have seen a trend for "most" textures to be in 32-bit, and I am even seeing lightmaps that are 32-bit.In my FS folder, I can reduce the physical size of one of my iDFG A319 texture folders from 40mb, to 14mb, by changing the textures too DXT3, and "in sim" they look identical.If everybody were to limit where 32-bit was being used (i mean is it really nessecary to have 32-bit gear textures?, or 32-bit interior textures?) we would save on download time, bandwidth, HDD space, not to mention increased performance "in sim".I think DXT3 format has a "stigma" attached to it for being bad quality, but this just isnt the case.CheersDan.

I think mixing 32-bit and DXTC textures is the best approach. With certain textures, the difference is noticable while most of the time it is not.However, the idea behind DXTC was never to improve performance - it's supposed to increase *quality* - because the texture is compressed to 1/6th its original size, bigger textures can be used with good performance. This was demonstrated with the Unreal Tournament game - it included one whole CD of compressed textures that made the uncompressed default ones look like a joke.FS of course has internal limits to the max texture resolution so the primary use of compression is to increase performance. I can't say I notice much of a difference performance-wise with a 128MB videocard but 32-bit textures do take a little longer to load up when switching views.

I just downloaded Chris Willis' newest cloud textures. I had these installed before, because they (a) improve performance and (:( make the fog look better. Before I install the new textures, though, one question: which set should I use for better performance, DXT3 or 32-bit? (I'm assuming from what I just read that the answer is DXT3.)

Because I can :) and because it has better detail :)

Dan,How are you? I can't agree with you, although I wish it was always like that.I have seen that pretty much depends on the model (I think) how the quality of the DXT3 looks.I have done many repaints and tried them in DXT3. I have no idea why, but some look identical (like you say) and others look terrible, loosing a lot of quality in the convertion. Cheers, Leo

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimul...wnloads_sdk.aspJon

32 bits is better choice for me, dunno any real reason why hehehe :D

In hand painted paints the difference between 32 bit and DXT3 is hard to spot.... in photoreal the diffence is clear (photoreal does not compress well) .Also landing lights do not compress well if you want pure light it's got to be 32bit otherwise you get a mottled effect. :) regardsEdhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/94266.jpg