One quick question for the "experts".  I have corrected all textures not having an alpha channel.  Took awhile, but OK.

I am now checking for missing mipmaps and I have a ZILLION of them (mucho more than  missing alphas.  Is it important that I add mipmaps to these textures, and if so, why (not being smart, just never played around with textures before) ..... AND ..... is there a "better" way of doing it besides one at a time?

 

Thanks for your help and advice

 

P.S.  Should that include aircraft textures as well? ..... uh oh .....think that more than one question.

Have you tried making a copy of the Aerosoft AFCAD and placing it in the scenery/world/scenery folder?

 

Ok I did that and my AI planes are good now! Now do I keep both AFCADs? Or do I delete the AFCAD that is in the Heathrow scenery folder?

I use a program called 'MipMap Manager' gwillmot.

http://stuff4fs.com/newpage.asp?JS=True&Folder=MipMaps

 

Hope you find benefit too.   B)

Ok I did that and my AI planes are good now! Now do I keep both AFCADs? Or do I delete the AFCAD that is in the Heathrow scenery folder?

Keep both of them. The Aerosoft AFCAD is at a different elevation than the default airport is. By placing a copy in a folder of lower priority than the default, you override the default elevation. When FS sees two or more instances of a scenery at different elevations, it always resolves the conflict by favoring and displaying the elevation of the most basal layer. (The geometry of the higher priority layer is still displayed, but at the lower layers elevation.) The override works by placing a copy of the desired airport in the most basal position, so that when FS resolves an elevation conflict, the desired elevation is set. If you removed the original AFCAD, you'd get the geometry of the default airport AFCAD displayed at the elevation of the Aerosoft file, giving you elevation issues and messed up scenery all around...

 

Therefore, leave both AFCADs where they are and do likewise for every scenery you have a similar problem at.

 

 

Is it important that I add mipmaps to these textures, and if so, why

 

1. Adding mips to scenery will prevent any shimmering/flickering at distance so better visually.

 

2.Better performance as less memory is being used (further the distance the smaller the texture loaded)

 

Mips and alphas = better performance + better visuals.

 

I mipmap all scenery and AI just not the aircraft I fly.

 

So why are supposedly top pay ware scenery developers selling us sceneries without mips and alphas?

 

It makes me quite angry actually as performance should be at the top of any flightsim developers list.

I use a program called 'MipMap Manager' gwillmot.

http://stuff4fs.com/newpage.asp?JS=True&Folder=MipMaps

 

Hope you find benefit too.   B)

 

Many thanks.  Have downloaded and will keep me busy for awhile.

gwillmot

 

 

From a spotters point of view I would go with UK2000. In fact I prefer UK2000 full stop….it does have better frame rates.

 

+1

1. Adding mips to scenery will prevent any shimmering/flickering at distance so better visually.

 

2.Better performance as less memory is being used (further the distance the smaller the texture loaded)

 

Mips and alphas = better performance + better visuals.

 

I mipmap all scenery and AI just not the aircraft I fly.

 

So why are supposedly top pay ware scenery developers selling us sceneries without mips and alphas?

 

It makes me quite angry actually as performance should be at the top of any flightsim developers list.

 

I agree entirely, and I think I'd rather remove a single mipmap when necessary than convert large numbers by adding them.

 

For any reader who isn't aware of it, I think it's worth linking a thread to which you and I both contributed. It seems that some Gmax models can cause bad blurring by forcing FS9 to load the wrong mipmap. See here:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/399398-model-surface-causing-textures-to-blur/?hl=%2Bblur#entry2596370

 

In those cases, it's necessary either to strip the mipmaps from the problem models or to fix the Gmax model (see the second post in the link). I haven't seen the effect on scenery, only planes. From what Tom wrote I guess the tweaker is only good for scenery models. I haven't tried it.

 

As an aside (a bit of a cheek given the topic) I recently bought UK2000 EGLL on the strength of comments in this thread. It looks absolutely amazing though my crumbling geriatric PC can barely handle it (c. 15 FPS with half my AI suppressed...). For those of you with modern machines that run on that new-fangled electricity stuff, I'd recommend it.

 

Best regards,

D