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RandallR

Texture enhancer

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Guest richpress

Ive just downloaded Todd Klaas's Texture enhancer. Despite following the readme and having Java runtime v 1.4 installed I don't seem to be able to determine any change in the scenery rendition. I have enhanced progressively up to 100% Any ideas?

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Rich,Sorry to hear you've had problems - I installed and ran Todd's program shortly after its release and the results were wonderful. It really kicks up the color saturation to where it should have been in the first place and removes the "dullness" of the base textures.I also had a problem with Java, but as soon as I upgraded my runtime environment, the program installed and processed properly - looks like you've already taken care of that.When you ran the Enhancer, did you see the files being processed? Did the progress bar run and show the extraction of each texture? Does the texture-enhancer.log in the System directory show that enhancement took place? You may want to "reinitialize" the process. Delete the gentex.pod from the System folder (only if you backed it up to begin with! Replace it with your backup of the original pod. Erase the texture-enhancer.log file so you get a "reset". Run the enhancer again at 25% (I find this gives a nice increase and matches the saturation of TerraScene).If that doesn't work, erase the pod and log files again, copy your backup pod over again, then uninstall and reinstall Texture Enhancer. Run the newly installed program. After that, I wouldn't know what to try next.


Randall Rocke

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Guest Bart

"I wouldn't know what to try next."Screaming and crying while running out of the house diving under a rock in the back yard and curling up into the fetal position and sucking on my thumb works for me!...but that's just me :)c ya :-waveBart flyhelp@zoomtown.comhttp://bartsflyplace.tripod.com/bart_logo3.jpg

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Guest 3cffts

Has this problem been resolved? I am relatively new to FlyII and think it is great, but am having difficulty getting the texture enhancer to work.I have installed/reinstalled both java runtime and Todd's texture enhancer several times. The enhancer appears to update the gentex.pod files and the log is changed but there is no change to the scenery saturation.Other than unzipping the Java runtime file and opening the manager, is there anything else I should be doing? A lot of my scenery, paarticularly in Canada appears very dark green ... almost night-time... terrain around San Francisco is brighter, but could be better.3cffts.

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Actually, it hasn't so much been a problem to resolve as much as it's been an occassional issue with using the proper JAVA in combination with the OS, etc.One thing you have to be really careful about is that any re-application of the texture enhancer needs to be done on the original gentex.pod. That's why it's so important to have a backup of the original file safely set aside. If the Texture Enhancer is run again without restoring the original file, it can "re-enhance" the textures, adding too much chroma. For instance, if you use the default setting of 25% (which I find just fine), then run it again on the same pod - the chroma is increased 50%! This may be why your Canadian textures appear so dark, but that's a guess.Unless you removed it, the San Fancisco area is a custom TerraScene area by Todd Klaus, and therefore shouldn't be affected by the Enhancer.


Randall Rocke

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Guest 3cffts

I have not been able to effect any change to scenery saturation at all. I am running Windows 98SE on a Pentium 4, and the Java file that I downloaded was the off-line version j2er-1_4_2_05 windows-i586-p.exe.Do I have the correct version for my operating system? After unzipping the file (and it installs itself to the default directories) do I have to do anything to link it with the texture enhancer or does it run in the background?I can see from your comment why SanFrancisco scenery is so much better than that around airports without cusstom TerraScenes.

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The version I've used successfully for some time is the Java 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition 1.4.1_01Its filename: j2re-1_4_1_01-windows-i586.exeA version of it is still available here: http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.4.1_02/I checked the Sun Java site and found that the latest version appears to be: j2re-1_4_2_05-windows-i586-p-iftw.exeIt is available for manual download here: http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp


Randall Rocke

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Guest 3cffts

I have downloaded and installed Java runtime 1.4.1_02 as per yourlink. I did this after a complete re-format of C: and a clean install of Win98SE which I updated from the Microsoft site, along with a re-install of Fly II with updates to 2.50.240 and the Texture Enhancer. Still no luck with any change in saturation and I am up to 50%. When I fly out of Raliegh-Durham (KRDU)for example, the terrain is so dark it is like twilight! ... at mid-day time of day!While installing Fly II, the on-screen pictures are great so my video brightness setting seems to be o.k.I have the Java folder and the Texture Enhancer folder both installed in the "Programs" directory. In the control panel Java shows as being in the system tray. Using the Enhancer changes gentex.pod date and time, but does not brighten the scenery.Any other thoughts on what may be the cause of my problem?

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Very strange! Remember, the texture enhancer adds saturation, not brightness. It brings up the color level to where it should have been originally and matches the richer TerraScene color-depth on bordering TerraScenery (25% more color than the default textures). If the Texture Enhancer is run at 25%, for instance, the default textures bordering a TerraScenery would have the same color-depth.Remember that adding color-depth brightens the color, not the luminosity.Was the terrain "dark" before you ran the Enhancer?


Randall Rocke

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Guest 3cffts

Yes, the terrain has been very dark all the time, except for TerraScenes such as San Francisco. Much like perpetual night flying if not able to see the horizon!I have come up with a workaround by adding a couple of add-on drivers to my video card (ASUS V9280 V31.49F) so that I bring up the overall brightness of the screen ... but most things other than Fly II have a really 'washed-out' appearance! It does mean changing system brightness every time that I want to 'Fly II'!I may have to live with this but it is probably worth it, Fly II is a great flight simulator. It is to my mind a far better instrument trainer than several very expensive military flight simulators that I flew in the 50's, 60's and 70's!I do have a query on straight lines appearing saw-toothed, but I will start another thread.Many thanks for your help.Brian / 3cffts

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Brian,I didn't realize you were running an ASUS card...I believe that model is a GeForce variant, so it should be using nVidia drivers and should have no problem with the 240 patch nVidia Fly!II driver updates. Some of the latest nVidia drivers have caused problems with Fly!II - I've tried some of them, but have gone back to v45.23 for good results.Also, check that the following line in your Render.ini is set as follows:vertexIndexFormat=0


Randall Rocke

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Guest 3cffts

Randall, You are right, my video card has the nVidia G-4 Ti4200 chip. I have tried drivers v31.40, v56.55 and v56.72 .... and they are all giving very dark scenery. Also I find that the terrain features are blurred. Airport features are sharp, but have jagged edges, particularly if running at 45 degrees across the screen. All in all, the quality of the my Fly! scenery is nowhere as good as MSFS. But then the flight dynamics of Fly are just excellent as is operation of the cockpit controls and instruments... so I still prefer "Fly!"I tried to download nVidia driver v45.23 from the ASUS website but it is no longer listed. Do you know where I can get it. If it should be on the nVidia website would it still apply to the ASUS video card?Thanks,Brian / 3cffts

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Brian,Here is a link to the nVidia Drivers Archives for the 45.23 driver: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_45.23.htmlI get all of my drivers directly from nVidia, though some people in the forum have used "tweaked" drivers from other sites with some success.I note on the main nVidia download page that they have another new driver (61.76): http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_61.76.htmlIn some cases, I have certainly achieved improved performance by using updated drivers, but unless there was some bug fix involved, or there was a new feature that was required by another program, I stayed with what has worked in the past.


Randall Rocke

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Guest 3cffts

Randall, You are so right about your suggested driver. I re-formatted and re-installed all using your driver and my colours are now pretty good and sharpness is improved. Many thanks, Brian.

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