AV3-file format

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Hello All, Does anyone have any information on the format of the AV3 texture files used by FS?With thanks in advance :-waveLev

[arno 1]

Which files do you mean? Can you give an example of one of those files that is included with FS?Arno

---

Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Hi Arno, If you look in the main texture folder of FS, you should find plenty examples of AV3 files. For instance 737_wing.av3. Am I misunderstanding your question?With kind regards :-waveLev

[arno 1]

No, that was my question. But I can not find any file with the extension av3 in my FS folder.Arno

---

Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[wsieffert 0]

I'll vouch on that Arno, I don't have any either. I search all five of my computers in the house and the neighbor's computer via the Internet.:-lol The neighbor did have some interesting *.avi files, if you know what I mean!:-eek

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Ok, that leads me to believe that the AV3 files come from an add-on I installed. Could they be "old" FS2000 texture files? They are referenced from the bgl-files of the add-on. I just figured that they were some sort of standard texture file format used by FS.Thanks... :-waveLev

[arno 1]

They can indeed be from an addon scenery. But I think it will then or be normal FS BMP files or the older RAW files (like r8 or so) but just with a custom extension. So it is not really a new format or so :D.Arno

---

Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Hi Arno, Just checked a few of them by using imagetool after having renamed one of the files to one of the extensions that imagetool can handle. It seems ok except for the colors being distorted. I think I can make out shapes... only colors are off.Thanks :-waveLev

[arno 1]

I think it are RAW textures then, what is the size of the files? That can also show a lot :).Arno

---

Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Hi Arno, Dimension wise most of them are 256x256 pixels. File size wise most of them are around 160 Kb, but some go closer to 1 Mb. What does that mean in terms of format if they are RAW?Thanks :-waveLev

[arno 1]

If they are 256x256 I would expect them to be 64 kB if it are RAW files (this are files with no color palette info in them). If they get as big as 1 MB and still have a size of 256x256 I think it are not textures.Arno

---

Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[Guest Barney1]

Doing a search of sites which cater to identifying file extensions reveals no such extension as AV3. The closest thing I could find that relates to both the alpha-numeric combination AV3 and any connection to flightsim is programs to do with GIS, or Geographic Information System. There is a free demo version for one marketed as ArcView available which refers to AV3 in its literature. Its possible that the extensions for the output files are named AVx, where "x" equals a succession of numbers; it is 'locally' assigned; and meant strictly for use by the parent software.Very basically, as I understand the purpose of these programs, they allow for the making of maps by compiling raw data such as that which is used in FS to describe the terrain, trees, bodies of water, etc.Is it possible you were using such a program sometime ago with respect to creating scenery, for example, for FS? Just guessing on my part.

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Hi Barney, Yes, I also stumbled across the ArcView. However, I have never had anything to do with ArcView although I in my previous job worked a lot wil GIS-systems. I am sure that the AV3 files are some sort of texture files that FS can read.Thanks for the effort :-waveLev