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gmoneyprs

How to Modify the Landclass - Taxi2Gate MMMX

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Hi everyone. Just figured I'd let you all know that I bought MMMX after the sale (naturally, of course!) and have decided to redo the landclass... lemme explain:

 

In P3D--and especially using the PMDG 777 or 737 (common aircraft at MMMX)--I've found that I'll OOM pretty quick. This seems to be due to 2 things: the use of higher resolution textures at the airport and the massive amounts of autogen in the "MMMX-terrain" folder.

 

The solution to the first issue is rather simple and I can elaborate here if anyone is interested. It will cut down a couple hundred MBs of VAS, however, with my current settings and config, I will still OOM (it is very close - if I only had another 100-200Mb of headroom). With this issue, I can not share any files unfortunately... so I can write a brief tutorial.

 

The second issue involves disabling/deleting the "MMMX-terrain" folder and then redoing the landclass for Mexico City. It's not completely necessary but the default landclass isn't correct nor does the area look very good. Lastly, the photo blending in T2G's terrain folder is, er, less than desirable... especially with FTX Global. I've found a good method for doing this reasonably quickly and reasonably accurately thus I've decided to take it on. The good news here is that I will be able to share the landclass file (I guess I will load into the AVSIM Library) since the work will be completely my own.

 

Let me know if anyone is interested...

 

Also, by the way, thanks Carlo K. for the runway lighting attributes. I was going to start on that as well (and it is easy) but you saved me some time and guesswork by proving the settings.

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Let me know if anyone is interested...

 

I'm definitely interested in your insights. So it would be great if you could write a quick tutorial. Thanks in advance!


i7-10700K@5.0GHz ∣ Asus ROG Strix Gaming Z490-E Gaming ∣ 32Gb@3600MHz ∣ AMD Radeon 6900 XT

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Let me know if anyone is interested...

 

Thanks Greg

 

I am interesting in both the options.. please let us know. I'd like to try both of them

 

Thanks

 

I need a similar solution for Fly Tampa's OMDB too. That also cannot be used with PMDG 777 or 737NGX with my current settings in P3D V2.4


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

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I've used both PMDGs with FlyTampa's OMDB and have had plenty of VAS headroom. And, to boot, I keep my settings slammed pretty hard to the right. Cloud shadows, reflections, AI, etc. What other addons are you using?

 

So, to the first point: resizing and compressing DDS files is relatively simple and there a couple of batch programs out there that will do this for you.

 

There's another AVSIM user with the handle "cmpbellsjc" who I, ironically, found in another thread (here) about the same issue with the same airport. While he said that he resized and compressed files manually--and to generally avoid batch operators--I could never track down any of his posts where he described how to do this in detail. Perhaps my forum search skills need improvement...

 

Anyway, get yourself a copy of "Optimizer Textures" ("OT" for short) for free here:

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801

 

Copy your MMMX texture folder to your desktop. OT will give you the option to backup textures but I usually just copy the texture folder to my desktop. 6:1, half dozen to another. More about this point later but pull out the file named "red-tarmac.bmp" and put it in a safe place.

 

Open TO. In the upper-left, you'll see a familiar folder icon where you can browse to the folder that you want to optimize. Browse to the texture folder on your desktop.

 

On the line below that, simply just make sure that the textures box is checked.

 

Next, make sure the following operations are checked and that their associated options are specified as follows:

 

- If no mask in image, compress to DXT5.

- If mask in image is 1bit, compress to DXT5.

- If mask in image is translucy [sic], compress to DXT5.

- Delete unnecessary files etc...

- Mipmaps... make if not mipmaps

[Resize patterns remains unchecked]

- Resize down... If > 1024

 

No need to mess with the BSA tab. Also, you can configure backup options in the More/Extras tab but, at least with the example here, it's not necessary since I already had you copy the folder that we'll be optimizing.

 

Hit "Start"! When it asks you if you want to resize textures, of course hit "yes." If you have backup off, then it will make sure that you don't want to backup textures. Again, up to you but, at least for this tutorial, just hit "no."

 

You'll see it resize and/or compress files as needed. When it finishes, you're essentially done. Add the "red-tarmac-.bmp" file back into the folder and then feel free to compare the new texture folder size with the old/original one. Should be something like 200mb for the former and 800mb+ for the latter. Obviously, you don't take that entire difference in the form of VAS when you get into the sim but you save a good bit. Replace the old texture folder in the MMMX installation with the new one.

 

Lastly, the reason that I had you remove the .bmp file from the folder before optimizing is because TO doesn't seem to like .bmp files and/or DDS files that are encoded a certain way. I'm not an expert in this field at all (but don't worry, this process works great) but I can tell when I open some DDS files in IrfanView, it will occasionnaly tell me that a file is really a bitmap but incorrectly labeled with a DDS extension. I have no idea why that would be the case (I would assume, though, that there's not really a problem with the file but, rather, a skilled texture artist used a technqiue that IrfanView doesn't recognize). Either way, OT doesn't like those files either.

 

As is commonly the case, most scenery texture folders are filled only with "OT-friendly" DDS files but you should still check before using a batch converter like OT. Back to OMDB, I've found that many developers nowadays--including FlyTampa (even their older stuff) compress/encode their DDS files in an efficent way. If you use IrfanView (you can get it for free... you will also need their plugin pack to view DDS files), simply open up a DDS file and hit your "i" key and you can see the resolution and current compression method, if any.

 

FYI I also used the same process for T2G's KMCO, PacSim's RPLL, and Paulo Ricardo's SBFZ. All three of those are fantastic works in their own right but I took the liberty in reducing the file sizes. All 3 were pretty VAS-intensive but now, not so much.

 

T2G did, however, use efficient textures in MMMX-city and I'm not surprised by this. I would reckon that they made the judgment call to only use high-def textures in areas where you would reasonably encounter them upclose, e.g. the airport itself. That being said, you can't really shave any file size or VAS in the MMMX-city folder, nor can you do anything with the MMMX-terrain folder since the texture side only contains autogen files. Hence why I'm dumping that entire folder and creating my own landclass...

 

Hope this helps...

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This was split from the Bargain Hunter's Shack topic about the sale (now over) of Taxi2Gate's MMMX.  The Bargain Hunter's forum is used to post bargains not, tutorials.

 

Best regards,


Jim Young | AVSIM Online! - Simming's Premier Resource!

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Many thanks Greg, I had no idea there was a program that would batch conversions like this, much better than doing each one manually!!


Dave

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A big thank you Greg for taking the effort to explain in Laymens terms how to resize textures. Ive already fixed a number of airports and hunting around my library for more. I found KEWR by drzewiecki was 4098 so that one got zapped back down. B)


ZORAN

 

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