Im currently using Alpha-searcher to search for those textures that are missing alpha channels and been using DXTbmp to ad the Alpha channels to those textures that are missing them but applying them one by one its extremely time consuming is there a way to add alpha channels  as a batch ??

Yes,

Martin (MW Graphics) has another program called ConvImX. It is at his website:

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/

 

Look under Beta Programs & click the yellow dot next to the name to download.

Yes there are Imagetool batch scripts available, sorry I've forgotten the file name, but all you do is copy your chosen batch file and imagetool.exe into a texture folder and double-click the batch file. DON'T use it in your main texture folder without moving all the sky textures out first - adding alpha channels to those creates a sci-fi nightmare sky...

 

DXTFixerX is a very good tool for just this. It can also check all texture files in a folder for missing alphas before doing the updates.

 

Search the library for DXTFixerX.

 

Henning

I have this utility although i dont think this actually adds the alpha channels i did run this on some backed up textures and it stated the textures where fixed in the log file yet when i ran alphasercher on the same textures it still states Alpha channels are missing. I then had to add the Alpha channels with DXTBMP by opening the textures individually and saving them with alpha channels.

See post #2

Does the program from post no.2 work better than Dxtfixerx? I ran dxtfixerx and it did not make any significant difference, so I do want to give it a shot but wondering if there might be any risk to "destroy or corrupt" textures in my FS9 installation.

What causes you to think that an alpha channel is "missing" from a given texture? It is very possible that it is not there because it is not needed.

What causes you to think that an alpha channel is "missing" from a given texture? It is very possible that it is not there because it is not needed.

Alpha searcher determined the Alpha Channels are missing, Also the computer has a hard time panning around the airport when loading those textures, once i used DXTBMP to Re-saved them with Alpha Channels the scenery was extremely smooth

These are DXT3 with No/Alpha's someone suggested to convert them to DXT1 with No/Alpha i will try this to see what happens 

Yes,

Martin (MW Graphics) has another program called ConvImX. It is at his website:

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/

 

Look under Beta Programs & click the yellow dot next to the name to download.

Ok thanks will try it out on my backed up textures and see what happens

What causes you to think that an alpha channel is "missing" from a given texture?

 

 

Alpha searcher determined the Alpha Channels are missing...

The Alpha channel isn't really missing, the color data is there. If it wasn't we would see a smaller file size.

 

This is a known issue with textures that are converted to DXT3 with the FS9 version of ImageTool and have a solid white (255,255,255 RGB) Alpha channel.

 

Under those conditions ImageTool sets an incorrect flag in the file header which gives the impression that the file is missing an Alpha channel.

 

Having textures with this incorrect flag will cause stutters in FS.

 

In most cases, especially with scenery textures, using DXT1 w/o Alpha will help performance when compared to a DXT3 texture as the file will be smaller and the Alpha is unused anyway.

 

regards,

Joe

Thanks for the information very useful :-)