Ok then, so on "main" surfaces you "could" get a better finish, but is it really nessacary to have pilot heads, gear textures, gear bay textures etc etc etc in 32-bit aswell?.Take the SimTech Beech18, ALL of the textures were 32-bit (about 4mb a piece) when only 2 textures files "could" have benifited from 32-bit textures.This reduction in the use of 32-bit textures is benifital to everyone.Dan.

Hi guys!Being known for having done a few repaints myself, all of this was pretty interesting reading with some good arguments for both sides.At one time I was in the habit of uploading repaints in two versions, DXT3 and 32-bit.Lately I have stopped doing that, uploading only in 32-bit, the medium in which most of my work is done. I can see the difference but, with a few exceptions, it is usually very minimal versus the file size. Preferring all the detail I can get, I personally prefer 32-bit but I also finally have a machine that can run it.I don

Much appreciated, saves me the trouble of running imagetool batch files on those big texture folders!Jon

Let me see, have I got this right? I can use imagetool.exe toconvert any 32bit image to dxt3?If thats the case can I convert all the VC images used withPMDG 737-600/700 to dxt3 and gain an increase in FPS?My system is CPU and Video Card challenged, cpu is theAMD XP2600+ and the video is a Nvidia 64MX. Runs the737 at 19.3 fps if I run with sliders around the middleof the range.VC is very poor, only achieve between 9 to 12 fps. Itwould be very nice to reduce the load and squeeze justenough out to make it viable.catmar

There is one problem, and hopefully someone wiser than I will explain how to resolve it: some 32 bit image dimensions are not a power of two, I assume they can be arbitrarly. I believe that dxt3 images however must have dimensions that are a power of two. So if you have a 700x300 bitmap, that will not convert properly. In my limited experience this problem has only come up the the panel folder, not in the .texture folder.I personally don't know how much you'll gain in FPS. Best bet is to simply give it a try. Benchmark your FPS with your a/c of choice above, back up your .texture folder for that a/c, and run imagetool and convert to dxt3 and see what happens. If it doesn't make a diff, then you can restore your 32-bit textures.Here's my imagetool batch file, courtesy of someone in this forum; I don't know enough about batch files to do this intelligently so I simply put this batch file the texture folder in question, run it, et voila, disk space galore.C:Progra~1FS2004~1TERRAI~1Terrai~1imagetool -batch -DXT3 -nomip -alpha *.bmpren *.mip *.bmpNote the 8 character format of the path to imagetool, replace with your own path.Jon

I think it's a trade off in the end...I had a problem when doing a set of Harvard/Texan repaints. When compressing in DXT3, the quality in general would be good, but when looking at the insignia's and lettering, it looked blocky. I compressed another set of textures (For the same aircraft) into 32 Bit and it looked much better. In the end I went with the 32 Bit textures. I didn't notice a performance loss/gain, but I think that can be put down to the fact that the 3D model wasn't a resource hog to begin with.DXT's fine for general painting when there aren't any designs or complex logo's, but the minute you put that sort of stuff in, to keep the quality for the textures up, you need to go 32 Bit. Also remember that the logo's were probably in Jpeg format before you converted them into bitmaps, so there's already a loss in quality to begin with.Regards,Stratobat

Stratobat..............if you run the 32-bit texture through PSP first and add one sharpen filter BEFORE DXT3 compression, you will not get the degradation you speak of.Dan,

Hey Dan,I'll give it a go, thanks :-hahRegards,Stratobat

Hey Dan,Gave it a try and I still get the blocky bits around insignia's. I also noticed a fine line around the lettering.Regards,Stratobat

DXT compression is lossy so you always lose detail, whether or not you can see it. Textures comprised of large regions of solid color will not display artifacts from the compression so you won't notice much of a difference in quality.As Stratobat related, fine details are the most susceptible to degredation since, like JPEG, DXT reduces data in square regions of the texture. When the area is compressed, the detail is reduced. This artifacting is also noticeable with lines and curves in high-contrast areas (e.g. dark lines against light backgrounds). You won't notice it at all in regions of single color.I've done some repaints that looked beautiful in 32-bit. However, when compressing them to DXT3, almost all the subtle nuances of the paint disappeared. I've also had stripes get mangled by the compression. So there can be a significant difference.If you want to optimize the size of your textures while still maintaining the best quality, put textures with low or no detail into DXT files. Then, put gradient and high-detail textures into 32-bit files.As with other kinds of compression, knowing your content and what works best with what kinds of compression (or none at all) are the keys to providing the most "bang for the buck".Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums ModeratorRenegade/Seawolf Design Group (RSDG)[table border=2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1][tr][td][table border=0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0][tr][td bgcolor=#6f0000]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75t.gif[/td][td align=center" bgcolor="#FFFFF6]Bush Flying Unlimited"At home in the wild"Looking for adventure? Come join us! * [link:bfu.avsim.net|Web Site] * [link:www.cafepress.com/bfu,bfu2,bfu3,bfu4|BFU Store] * [link:bfu.avsim.net/index_NewRecruits.html]Join!][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table

Is there a batch converter out there that will convert a lot of different textures to Dxt3 at the same time? Converting the pmdg 737s vc and cabin textures really increased fps and texture load times with minimal loss in quality. Id like to try converting some of Fs's textures to Dxt3 as well but there are so many of them lol. The loss in texture quality is definitely noticeable on some textures but in a vc and cabin, who cares if its slightly blurry or slightly discolored its better than having razor sharp vc textures that take 10 seconds to load and slow you're sim to a crawl.Andrew

Andrew,See imagetool use in this thread.C:Progra~1FS2004~1TERRAI~1Terrai~1imagetool -batch -DXT3 -nomip -alpha *.bmpren *.mip *.bmpJon

Dan I have a mix in my textures but the fuse/wing/tail will be in 32 bit...There is a difference in color balance and detail when converted to DXT3...For me it's a balance in performance and quality but a decrease in quality is seen when converted to DXT3...Hence every conversion you have to do concessions...I "hand draw" most of my stuff but don't like the loss during the conversion...Far better quality in 32 bit regarding fuse/wing/tail stuff all the other textures could be DXT3 ;-) Andr