MipMaps actually work right! [pictures]

[Brian Doney 127]

For the actual conversions, imagetool > everything else, period.

[styckx 1,871]

Imagetool is perfectly capable of saving .dds in DXT1, DXT5, or 32 bit, just make sure you're using the FSX version of Imagetool and not the FS9 version. It's batch processing capabilities make it worth throwing all the others out, also can convert a .psd directly so when you're processing 100+ GP textures every 20 minutes or so there's nothing that compares IMHO.

 

So I installed the the Prepar3D SDK and gave Imagetool a glance over.. Where are these batch tools? I'd love to batch convert Extended bmp to DDS...  I loaded a few bmp's, create mips for each, "Save All" and... Nothing saves and I'm not even so much as prompted for anything.. Save, and Save As work as intended though..

 

I did find DDS Converter the other day though to make batch converting DDS w/ mips a hands off process now.. 

[Jim Robinson 122]

Still trying to get up & running with P3D2 so I'm speaking of the FSX version of Imagetool here, but you can run batch commands from a command window, a batch file, or better yet IMHO put a shortcut  to Imagetool in your "Send to" folder and then you can just select a .psd, .bmp, or whatever and right click > Send to > ImageTool_DXT5_DDS or ImageTool_DXT1_DDS whichever you desire.

 

So go into the "Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK" folder, right click/drag Imagetool a short distance and "Create shortcut here". Move the shortcut into your Send to folder, rename it "ImageTool_DXT5_DDS", then right click and choose "Properties". In the target field add a space after "Imagetool.exe" and then the flags -nobeep -brief -dds -dxt5 and hit OK. (use -nobeep -brief -nomip -dds -dxt5 if you don't want Imagetool to generate mips)

 

Now when you right click a .psd, .bmp, etc. and do "Send to > ImageTool_DXT5_DDS" it will process and output the .dds in the same folder the source was in (be careful here if the source is a .dds to begin with as it will overwrite). You can send one file to Imagetool or one hundred - it will process them all.

 

You'll need a special shortcut in the Send to folder for each type of output, if you also want DXT1 capability make another shortcut, move it to the Send to folder, rename it ImageTool_DXT1_DDS, and then add the flags -nobeep -brief -dds -dxt1. Both options will show up on the right click context menu.

 

If you open a command window in the folder Imagetool is in and type Imagetool -help at the prompt you'll get a list of possible flags you can use, you can save it to a .txt file by pressing Ctrl+C, closing the help dialog, and then pasting it into Notepad.

 

Another damn handy tip is to put a copy of Imagetool.exe in your Windows\Syswow64 folder and reboot the machine. You can then run Imagetool commands from a command prompt from any folder on the system without having to place a copy of Imagetool in the folder first or typing out the full path at the command prompt.

 

Jim

[styckx 1,871]

Still trying to get up & running with P3D2 so I'm speaking of the FSX version of Imagetool here, but you can run batch commands from a command window, a batch file, or better yet IMHO put a shortcut  to Imagetool in your "Send to" folder and then you can just select a .psd, .bmp, or whatever and right click > Send to > ImageTool_DXT5_DDS or ImageTool_DXT1_DDS whichever you desire.

 

So go into the "Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK" folder, right click/drag Imagetool a short distance and "Create shortcut here". Move the shortcut into your Send to folder, rename it "ImageTool_DXT5_DDS", then right click and choose "Properties". In the target field add a space after "Imagetool.exe" and then the flags -nobeep -brief -dds -dxt5 and hit OK. (use -nobeep -brief -nomip -dds -dxt5 if you don't want Imagetool to generate mips)

 

Now when you right click a .psd, .bmp, etc. and do "Send to > ImageTool_DXT5_DDS" it will process and output the .dds in the same folder the source was in (be careful here if the source is a .dds to begin with as it will overwrite). You can send one file to Imagetool or one hundred - it will process them all.

 

You'll need a special shortcut in the Send to folder for each type of output, if you also want DXT1 capability make another shortcut, move it to the Send to folder, rename it ImageTool_DXT1_DDS, and then add the flags -nobeep -brief -dds -dxt1. Both options will show up on the right click context menu.

 

If you open a command window in the folder Imagetool is in and type Imagetool -help at the prompt you'll get a list of possible flags you can use, you can save it to a .txt file by pressing Ctrl+C, closing the help dialog, and then pasting it into Notepad.

 

Another damn handy tip is to put a copy of Imagetool.exe in your Windows\Syswow64 folder and reboot the machine. You can then run Imagetool commands from a command prompt from any folder on the system without having to place a copy of Imagetool in the folder first or typing out the full path at the command prompt.

 

Jim

 

That right there is a darn informative post.  Thanks a bunch, and understood all of it.  Thanks again Jim, very helpful.  :cool:

[Jim Robinson 122]

No worries Bill, glad you found it useful :smile:

[BimmerCop 332]

So I just learned something and am really disappointed and embarrassed..... If any of you give a hoot about your FSX or Prepar3D performance I would read this.. 

 

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096

 

^ We've all heard that repeated constantly about being "a must have tweak"... 

 

"You need to set TML of 4096 in FSX cfg to use HD planes". 

 

"It will display 1024 but you will still suffer the performance of 4096"

 

I've heard this a bajillion times... You have too.. For god sakes I've actually repeated this non-sense..  And it never clicked until now the dog and pony show this was the entire time..

 

This is only true if if the planes actually use mipmaps.. Which nearly none of them do. Can anyone actually name one? If an aircraft is using unmipped 4096 textures.. FSX (or Prepar3D) doesn't care what TML you are set at.. It j will just display the 4096 textures  because it has no other stupid choice.  So it makes sense when I kept saying "FSX blurs when you use mipmaps" because I never set 4096 in FSX's cfg because like most others I never saw a lick of difference when I did or didn't... So when I converted to mipmaps it was only showing the 1024x1024  or lower chain of that mip-map. at all times in FSX..

 

In P3D I set 2048/4096 from day one because I don't need to waste my time checking if it reset itself like FSX..  I only set it to 2048/4096 because I was trained to and P3D made it easy. And let's face it.. I had no idea what it actually did.. Either did a lot of you I bet.

 

Long story short... FSX used mip-maps right the entire time if you just set 4096 in the config but FSX aircraft developers cheated you out of performance because instead of using mip-maps like they should have from day one and telling you explicitly to set TML of 4096 they just skipped the mips, and used 4096 or 2048 unmipped textures instead assuming no one would ever read instructions to set TML of 4096..

 

Who here honestly ever saw a difference with aircraft in FSX between a tml of 4096 and 1024?????  Exactly.. Because it was all a farce..  The only honest people have been airport and scenery designers.. I'm beyond annoyed and embarrassed just finding this out....  So much performance, and overhead lost to stupid non-sense. Over 7 years of playing with and repainting textures in Photoshop and I got sucked into this now obvious old wives tale... Just embarrassing.. 

 

Hi Bill,

 

Sorry to revive this old thread but I am a bit confused after reading this.

 

So, is it best to just leave the TML dropdown box set at 4096 with P3D v2.x?

 

Also, where can I get that tool you posted a screenshot of, in the first page of this thread?

 

I would like to add some mipmaps to the ground textures on a scenery I use. Thanks in advance!

[StoreyedTrain 13]

Does the P3D "problem-output-file" i forgot it`s name, right now have problem entries telling "texture has no mips" above a certain texture size ?

 

If not this could be handy to debug the content.