Dear Friends,I have a little question. I have read many many threads about dxt converion of the texture files. I think it will boost my fps when I convert my textures. I use a lot of AI! But which files do I have to convert? Only the aircraft texture files or all th escenery texture files???Which program should I use for it?Kind regardskim

I imagine that your AI models already use DXT3 textures. If any of them are 32 Bit, you might consider converting them to dxt3. I doubt you'll see an fps increase but the loading time would be quicker.Default FS scenery textures are already quite small. Again, doubt you'd see much of an increase.I used to use imagetool to convert my scenery textures from 32 or 24Bit originals to DXT1's and DXT3's. Now I use DXTBMP as I'm finding it does a vastly superior job in terms of final image quality.Adam

Hi Kim,the Project AI message boards have two lengthy sticky threads that discuss options for converting AI textures to DXT1 or DXT3:http://www.projectai.com/discuss/index.php?board=48.0Adam does have a point about the quality issue with Imagetool vs. DXTBmp. Unfortunately, the latter can't be used in a batch modus. Also, for AI those quality differences probably aren't all that relevant unless you're a screenshot artist. Best approach is to do your own experiments with the two utilities using the same original texture and then make your own decision.Cheers, Holger

Hello Kim,You will most definitely see an enormous increase in frame rates by compressing all textures to DXT format.I have compressed all aircraft, ai aircraft, all scenery, and all cloud textures and get fantastic frame rates, probably better performance than most people here. I have also resized large textures to a smaller size, i.e., 1024 x 1024 pixels to 512 x 512 or even better to 256 x 256 pixels. Rarely get a micro-stutter now and then, as well.This is with autogen all the way up, 3d clouds, 100% ai traffic, extended terrain.I never shut down Windows services either, and always have Avast anti-virus running, as well as ZoneAlarm, Skype, WebWasher, etc. Why bother shutting them down when performance is so good?In case you think I have a great computer, it is a 2-year old e-machines (!), AMD 3000+ (2.177 MHz), 512 MB RAM, and an old FX 5200 that I got on sale. Not the most advanced system out there.The biggest cause of bad performance in FS is excessive texture load and polygon count. Since most ai aircraft are already optimized as far as polygons go, then if you still get low frame rates, your problem is without any doubt the textures.Too many textures and too big will have your graphics card struggling to load and display them.If you take a look at aircraft texture folders, you will immediately see the problem. 32 bit textures are enormous, especially if they are 1024 x 1024 pixels. Often, there are strange things in there, such as a large 32-bit texture that is just a pure color (pure white, or red, or black), when the model should not even use textures for that - these textures can be reduced in size to 8 x 8 pixels and compressed to DXT1.Any aircraft texture without an alpha channel does not have to be in DXT3 and should be compressed to DXT1.I put together a table showing the space taken up by different texture sizes and formats:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/151029.zipThe differences are pretty obvious and the reason for low frame rates becomes clear.You can use Martin Wright's ConvIm to batch convert all textures in a folder at the same time, and then, using DXTBmp, go back and do the ones with alpha channels individually.Don't forget that if you compress and resize the cloud textures, and you should, then you must set "Render to Texture" in order to avoid crashing FS.Best regards.Luis

Luis brought up resizing textures. One thing you can do is downsize all your night textures and put one version of each night texture for each aircraft model into the main FS Texture folder. That way FS isn't loading 10 different versions of night texture for 737-400. Also, 1024x1024 isn't necessary for night textures. You can usually get away with 512x512 or even 256x256.When it comes to textures, everywhere you can get away with smaller texture or DXT1 vs DXT3/32Bit will help. I use smaller autogen, tree, cloud, etc. textures and it looks very close to the same as with larger textures.Matt

Ok I understand that converting all textures is a good plan. But how do I have to do it. What is the best way. I have read something with alpha chanels etc. Isn't there a program which will convert my textures automatix?kim

>Ok I understand that converting all textures is a good plan.>But how do I have to do it. What is the best way. I have read>something with alpha chanels etc. Isn't there a program which>will convert my textures automatix?>>kimBest thing to do is read the two topics that are pinned at the PAI message board (link is included above). That will give you all you need to know.Matt