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PebbleBeach

FS2004 and 1024x1024 Textures

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Hello all.

 

I have the St. Louis International Airport (STL) produced by Taxi2gate. It is without doubt one of the better US airports for Fs9. I was admiring the grass textures as well as other terrain textures they use and how wonderfully clear and realistic they are at altitude. In fact, I actually copied them to a new folder and converted them so I could look closer using Photoshop. I was perplexed to find that all of the, were 1024x1024. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was always under the impression FS9 was restrained to 512x512 texture size. So how is it that Taxi2gate was able to get these beautiful textures to display at 1024x1024? And yet a better question is, if 1024x1024 is usable in FS9, then why isn't GEP designed using these size textures as they have done for FSX????

 

Anyone with insight into this?

 

Thanks,

 

Mitch

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So don't really understand either why nobody has released an update for the world textures considering they can look better then default.

There are several payware products that do just that.

 

Given the scope of work required to redraw all of the different classes I would not expect there to be much freeware.

 

There are some freeware that update certain classes, and of course there are several freeware water texture sets available.

 

regards,

Joe


The best gift you can give your children is your time.

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And yet a better question is, if 1024x1024 is usable in FS9, then why isn't GEP designed using these size textures as they have done for FSX????

 

Because each file would be 4 times as large and when you are dealing with over 2000 textures per set you are talking about a large increase in storage size.

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Landclass textures are limited to 256x256. GePro is just that, landclass textures, that's why they aren't any larger. They look far better than the defaults though.

Most other textures (aircraft, buildings, clouds...) can be up to 1024x1024.

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Jon, Aren't your rock textures landclass textures?

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Jon_aus, on 24 Jun 2013 - 10:52 PM, said:

Other textures are at 256x256...

So don't really understand either why nobody has released an update for the world textures considering they can look better then default.

 

JSkorna, on 25 Jun 2013 - 09:24 AM, said:

Because each file would be 4 times as large and when you are dealing with over 2000 textures per set you are talking about a large increase in storage size.

Actually 1024x1024 textures are 16 times larger than 256x256.

 

regards,

Joe


The best gift you can give your children is your time.

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Not at FS computer right now, but what about file size? I admit I don't have much to compare to at the moment.

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Hi Jim,

 

Continuing with my original post, I tried an experiment today. And please let me first say that this topic has probably been discussed here and elsewhere over and over. If this is the case, please excuse my ignorance.

 

Anyway, I copied all of my GEPX night textures from FSX and placed them into a temp folder. I then compared the file names of these with the night textures of FS9. After writing down the file names for FS9, I then verified these same names were identical with the FSX ones. In most cases they were. A couple I had to change and several I had to delete as they are not in FS9 nor do the file types exceed 7. I then copied these FSX night files 1024 x 1024 into FS9 without changing the file format (size, channel, etc.). Booted the sim and bingo. They display very nicely and in my opinion look much better and realistic than the GEP (FS9) ones.

 

So basically what I did is just copy FSX's night files into FS9 without changing anything other than the file name in some cases.

 

It looks so good that I am now going to do all of the summer daytime files as see how it looks.

 

I have heard before that folks had taken FSX files and reduced them to the size that FS9 calls for and were not happy. I on the other hand left the size intact at 1024 x 1024 after seeing how awesome the Taxi2gate terrain files looked. And no, Taxi2gate's 1024 x 1024 files are not just runway and airport types. All of the textures I looked at were 1024 x 1024 to include terrain areas outside of the airport facility. Files you see while on approach. And honestly they look superb!

 

I know that FS9 are not displaying these files in the 1024 x 1024 format. Having said that however, perhaps leaving the files this size allows FS9 to somehow compact and display more vividly than if the files were reduced in size. I dont know. I just know the night textures look fantastic and noticed zero performance hit. I am now anxious to continue this test using the summer FSX files. I'll let you know.

 

Mitch

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I wish to find this GEPX you are referring to.

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Mitch,

 

Find jon_aus recent thread on rock textures.

 

This will explain how MipMaps work and give you a better understanding of what you see.

 

And yes, a 1024 x 1024 DXT1 texture is approx 16x the size of a 256 x 256, for no benefit and much larger resource consumption (bloat)

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Mitch,

I have read these types of threads before; and it does have me curious.

Please let us know the results of your experient with the summer textures.  If it works, I might buy FSX just for the texture files!

Ron

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Joe:

I call it GEPX. Not sure what its called. It's the FSX version of Ground Environment Professional.

 

Hcornea:

I disagree to the no benefit. Placebo effect? No sir. The night textures looked vastly better than what I had. And as I mentioned above, I noticed zero system hit. And understand, this is on a simulator that has one PC running (2) Triplehead2Go's for a total of 7 screens. Three view windows in the front, one view window left, one view window right. In addition, there is a instrument screen for the LevelD ADI, HSI, Speed, RMI, Altimeter, VSI, Clock as well as the seventh screen displaying upper and lower EICAS and flap gauge. Trust me, I would have noticed a performance hit. Now you understand why I use FS9. Could never run this on FSX.

 

Ron:

Yes I have read many threads on here before as well. And from so called experts. Quite honestly, I don't know what to think the majority of the time. If my memory serves me correctly, I've been reading Avsim since the mid 90's. In fact, have even gone to two of their conferences (Orlando & Reading, Pa). Having said this, I can only really remember two people that posted information regarding enhancements to FS9 that benefited me personally. NickN's well written instructions on setting up a PC etc etc. as well as FS9.cfg settings that PSolk shared with me some time ago. Not to undermine anyone at all. It is just that these two stick in my mind as posting information that actually panned out.

 

I'm not sure why the Taxi2gate's terrain textures look so good but I do know that when I converted all of them I was surprised to find they were 1024 x 1024. I'm not a software guy. I'm a builder and a hardware guy. The night textures look brilliant. And yes I will let you know how the summer experiment goes.

 

Best regards,

 

Mitch

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Jim, how bout being more forth coming than simply posting an animated gesture? Are you one of those experts I should be listening to? LMAO. Plz do tell.

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Jim, how bout being more forth coming than simply posting an animated gesture? Are you one of those experts I should be listening to? LMAO. Plz do tell.

 

Let me ask you this - with your new 1024px textures installed, what happens when you go to KSTL and slew around the boundary where the addon scenery meets the landclass textures? Since you now have 1024px landclass textures, which are the same resolution as those supplied with the KSTL scenery, do you see the same sharp, clear resolution outside of the KSTL scenery boundary that you see inside, or do you see a distinct difference in resolution where the KSTL scenery ends and the landclass begins?

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