Sharp Building Textures

[N2056 33]

I'm working on my first custom building. My question is how do you get a sharp texture? I know that the smaller the texture the lower the system impact. I made one in PSP that looked pretty good at 1024x1024, but when I downsized it it looked pretty bad. Is it a trade off you have to make? I'm using PSP.Robert

[Guest Larrycx]

Robert,I just came off of a similar situation. Unless I'm wrong FS9 will insist on 256x256 final textures converted to DX 1 format. I've bee playing with photo-real on buildings. I tried a 1024x1024 starting map. When it was resized to 256x256 the textures looked pretty bad. I too use PSP. I found that by starting with 512x512 and reducing my pix that I copy-paste to fit that the final texture is quite a bit better. I have a feeling that 256X256 to start with may be OK or better- havn't tried that yet. You want pretty sharp pix to copy-pase onto the map. I was using some pretty good jpgs from a digital camera with medium resolution. Its a 300mex pix camera. Larry Costa

[Guest ScottR]

Robert, Larry,FS9 is OK with 512x512 textures. I tend to use this size all the time even though smaller is better for frame rates.I use PSP to adjust the original photo at full size then calculate how much the selection needs to be reduced by to fit on the 512x512 bmp. As last steps before size reduction, I always "clarify" then "sharpen", or "sharpen more" depending on the result. Then resize and paste selection to the bitmap.Copy the texture to your scenery folder and use imagetool or dxtbmp to convert to DXT1 format, then don't forget to "create mip maps" before saving.Cheers

[arno 1]

That is correct you can fine use 512x512. I also design my texture at the size I am going to use it. So I resize my photos when I design the texture, till I get a certain resolution (say 16 pixels/meter or so). After that I do not resize my texture anymore, because that would ruin the quality.For some projects I have even used textures that were 1024x256 for example. FS handles that fine and it gave me some more variation in the texture (as I repeated this one).

[Guest Larrycx]

Thanks for the education gents.I don't where I got the impression that FS9 was limited to 256x256 textures. I will pay attention to frame rates and watch the trade-offs. I have a pretty powerful system and need to be aware of other users when I upload a project. I suspect that anyone using less than some of the high power systems would not be using addon scenery, etc.Larry

[Guest Hugo]

>Robert, Larry,>>Copy the texture to your scenery folder and use imagetool or>dxtbmp to convert to DXT1 format, then don't forget to "create>mip maps" before saving.I directly convert 512x512x16M Bmp images to DTX1 with Martin Wright's DTXBmp.The resulting file size is exactly the same as if the starting image had been reduced to 256 colors but the results in FS9 is a lot crisper. Someone to confirm?HugoBTW. Is someone aware of a technic and/or a procedure to produce reflective scenery textures e.g. corrugated metallic sidings or roof, window glass, etc. >>Cheers

[n4gix 4,947]

>I directly convert 512x512x16M Bmp images to DTX1 with Martin>Wright's DTXBmp.The resulting file size is exactly the same as>if the starting image had been reduced to 256 colors but the>results in FS9 is a lot crisper. Someone to confirm?You can also use 888 (8-bit) extended .bmp if you like. Also any size up to 1024x1024 works just fine.>BTW. Is someone aware of a technic and/or a procedure to>produce reflective scenery textures e.g. corrugated metallic>sidings or roof, window glass, etc. Funny you should ask that. I had need of "corrugated siding" just the other day and found several good links to "free for use" images. It's amazing what you can find with a google.com search, and then ask for "images" only. In less than 3 seconds, I had more 'hits' than I'll need in a lifetime! :)http://www.fontplay.com/freephotos/index.htmhttp://www.sceneryplastics.com/scenehome.htmlThe first link has some nice "corrugated siding" and the second has a lot of other neat stuff, including brick, etc.

[Guest Hugo]

Thanks again for the link. Nice stuff there for photorealistic object design. But what I actualy am after is a way, technic, method, procedure or whatnot, to pamper certain object textures to give them some luster, reflectivity, glare, shine etc., somewhat alike what aircraft desingers can acheive on an a/c body, wings.I work with PSPro 6 and Martin Wright's tools. I have no problem with partial or full transparencies but haven't found (undersand...) yet, the way to produce reflective object textures. What I need i guess is a better understanding of alpha channel usage and a good tutorial!!Hugo

[n4gix 4,947]

>Thanks again for the link. Nice stuff there for>photorealistic object design. But what I actualy am after is a>way, technic, method, procedure or whatnot, to pamper certain>object textures to give them some luster, reflectivity, glare,>shine etc., somewhat alike what aircraft desingers can acheive>on an a/c body, wings.Well, I am first and foremost an a/c designer (see the signature :), but very much a neophyte to scenery!>I work with PSPro 6 and Martin Wright's tools. I have no>problem with partial or full transparencies but haven't found>(undersand...) yet, the way to produce reflective object>textures. What I need i guess is a better understanding of>alpha channel usage and a good tutorial!!I'm fairly certain that you cannot create what's called "dynamic shine" on scenery objects. That is the technique where the a/c modeler will specify a value in the specular highlights box in the Material Editor.Reflective surfaces on the model is controlled by the alpha channel of the diffuse texture. A white alpha will not reflect light, but a grey to grey-black will cause whatever "part" is highlighted on the bitmap to reflect light. The key to that effect is ticking off the box in MakeMDL.exe for "Has Reflective Map."Again though, I do not believe that this will affect scenery objects.