Let's go AI Native!

[jont 5]

Hi Guys

Many thanks for all your contributions.

Martin - your database is very, very useful and shows at a glance how few FSX ai military aircraft there are out there. As you say - John Young has created some absolutely stunning models for FSX and I hope he and others will continue to fill the native FSX ai hanger.

Cheers

Jont

[gsnde 0]

Thank you, Jont :smile:

 

Not sure if you ever noticed the "Most missed Military AI Aircraft Poll" that I am running at The Owl's Nest.

Because many models are meanwhile available and others are officially announced, I have added an appropriate remark to their names. Furthermore I took the chance and added all those aircraft you have asked me to add. The list now contains many new exotic and exciting models.

If you want to have a peek which AI aircraft are inbound or want to make your vote, I welcome you to the poll. You can vote more than once in order to support different models.

[jont 5]

Again Martin - many thanks for this - but as I say not many are native FSX - which is what this thread is all about.

Cheers

Jont

[gsnde 0]

Right you are, Jont. Off I go, there is nothing of value I can add which hasn't been said already.

Over & out.

[Sportsfan23 2]

Ok I just installed UT2 today along with the powerpack. This seems like quite the interesting and fun challenge replacing some of the daedalus paints if possible. The first airline I would like to fix is United as I noticed there paints are not updated or anything. 

 

Could somebody explain the process of using World of AI planes with UT2? 

[E6BAV8R 88]

Ok I just installed UT2 today along with the powerpack. This seems like quite the interesting and fun challenge replacing some of the daedalus paints if possible. The first airline I would like to fix is United as I noticed there paints are not updated or anything. 

 

Could somebody explain the process of using World of AI planes with UT2? 

 

I suppose you mean FS9 planes for UT2?  UT2 already includes FSX native models.  The only time you'll need to find other models is if 1) the aircraft model for a plane used in the real world isn't included in UT2, or 2) the aircraft model included with UT2 isn't the correct engine model as in the real world.  Users will only paint the correct engine model variants.

 

For example, United uses the PW engine on their 767s.  UT2 only includes the 767 GE engine.  Therefore, if you want an updated United paint on the 767 you'll have to find a 767 PW aircraft model.  There most likely isn't a 767 PW model that is FSX native, so you'll probably have to use an FS9 767 PW model.  Search around Avsim or Flightsim and the 767 PW model and updated United paint should be easy to find.  When searching for a paint it should tell you the aircraft model it was created for, most likely by filename, to make it easy to search for and find.

[Sportsfan23 2]

This seemed like a really cool and fun thing to do but after trying to figure it out for a couple days and just getting more frustrated by seeing all of the default airlines everywhere I just went back to mytraffic. 

[Dave_YVR 994]

 

 

I just went back to mytraffic

 

Swapping out the dadelous paints is a pain in the butt for sure, but it's sure worth it to have AI that looks good.

[Sportsfan23 2]

Swapping out the dadelous paints is a pain in the butt for sure, but it's sure worth it to have AI that looks good.

 

I agree, I got so confused trying to find the planes and then the repaints to go with the planes. Then trying to figure out how to put them into UT2 it was just a bit much for me. I thought it was going to be like a really simple process but the more I read the more confused I got. 

[Super Six-Four 5]

I find the lack of detailed info on UT2 a little frustrating. Can someone tell me if the paints are mipped? And are they dds? I went through some 300-odd models changing textures to mipped dxt1 and don't really feel like doing that again...

[NGXfanatic 85]

True, the process of finding and importing new paints into UT2 is not explained very well, at least in the UT2 documentation.  I found I had to figure it out on my own, through their forum for registered users.   But once you figure things out, it becomes second nature, but you have to do some research and play around with things until you become comfortable.  

 

The paints are not mipped, and they are .bmp, not DDS.  That said, there is a batch tool and instructions on mipping all the UT2 paints in one fell swoop on the registered forum.  There is no need to individually mip each individual daytime paint or change to DXT1.

[Super Six-Four 5]

The paints are not mipped, and they are .bmp, not DDS. That said, there is a batch tool and instructions on mipping all the UT2 paints in one fell swoop on the registered forum. There is no need to individually mip each individual daytime paint or change to DXT1

 

Thanks. I won't be buying UT2 then. DDS textures do save frame rates on native models, and to not do that is a bit of a half measure. There was a huge discussion about mipping textures in the AI world a while back, and I believe it was concluded that it was best to do that, and is also recommended in the SDK. It certainly looks and performs better on my system.

[NGXfanatic 85]

I had no idea that DDS offers better performance than a comparable sized BMP, I thought it was just processed differently in FSX.  I have noticed almost all my FAIB FSX paints are .DDS, so I'll concede your point that as a image format at least it is preferred for native models.   I am interested in your source for stating that .DDS is more frame rate friendly for FSX native AI models.  But I wouldn't fault UT2's developers for not using DDS, as I have found very few addon scenery or aircraft producers offer .DDS files.  Also UT2 was released long before FSX native models were offered to the freeware community.

 

May I ask, what do you use for AI presently?  

[Super Six-Four 5]

The default aircraft use dds textures, and the SDK was available when FSX was released, so yes, there is every reason to expect UT2 to use dds. The really big no-no is not using mip maps. What I am using now are mostly FS9 models, with what FSX models I can find, mostly Aardvark. I have way too much time invested to go through them all again. Having said that, I will suffer what frame rate hits I take rather than buying one of the other competing traffic packages since I don't care for the look of the models or textures.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

Some incorrect info being posted here.

 

1. Using. dds textures vs. bmp doesn't increase the fps. They are both processed differently and with todays hardware the difference in speed at which they render is so miniscule that you will not see a difference. If you look in the FSX texture folder you wil find many. bmp files that ACES used, cloud textured for example. If. dds were faster ACES would have used them exclusively.

 

Also the reason the default ac use .dds is because. dds are necessary if your using specular maps which they do. AI dont use speculars making. dds unnecessary.

 

2. Mips increase performance by taking some load off the gpu by not making it try and render one sized texture sheet from all distances, near or far.