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peter12213
November 24th, 2009, 17:55
Hi guys just a few shots from me in the L-39 and what an aircraft it is, I love it. So Here to our Mike, the 5 star developer and the friend to SOH he is. His support and talent has no bounds, is that enough lol haha, but no really v1.3 is like nothing I've ever experienced in fsx, so for that he is a GOD! Enjoy the shots Fellas!

I converted the textures to DXT1 in my DXTbmp conveter even though they are DXT1 from Lotus they were blurry but they arn't now, god knows why they were on my system though? I thought about converting them to DXT1No Alpha but didn't in the end but it probs wouldn't hurt if you know how. I'd love to know why so many developers use 32 bit textures or DXT5 because I can make the finest of textures in dXT1 with or without alphas, they work with no differerance in fsx, but I think it may be down to the self shadowing feature, who knows?

Enjoy these anyway!

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/4403/2009112522229140.png

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4886/2009112523434140.png

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/1096/2009112523521687.png

Lotus
November 24th, 2009, 18:37
Thanks very much Peter, I appreciate it, glad you like it. :) My textures all employ mipmaps, which means your "global texture resolution" slider in the FSX display settings has to be on maximum in order to keep them sharp is all. If it's on anything else they'll appear blurry.

Cheers, and have fun. :)

-Mike

peter12213
November 24th, 2009, 18:43
yeah I tried that but as you know it causes peasants like me problems lol. Any time you can email me and I'll do that kind of labourious labour for you, Mike you are the best developer your textures are like no other but one thing why are they DXT1 but still blurry? may I send you my program then no mater what the settings everyone can have the same, no matter what!

spotlope
November 24th, 2009, 18:46
I agree, Mike has officially been elevated to "FS god" status in my book. Peter, you'll find that DXT1, while being a champ in the performance department, gets part of that boost via supporting only 1-bit alpha channels. So if a dev uses the texture alpha for a subtle effect - reflection for instance - DXT1 just won't do. It's like trying to craft fine jewelry wearing oven mitts. Thankfully, there are lots of other tricks that sometimes obviate the need for fancy 16-bit alphas, and for these DXT1 is fine. There is no "one size fits all" in the dev world.

Lotus
November 24th, 2009, 19:16
Thanks very much Spotlope, and you're spot on (sorry coudn't resist!). The way the textures are made has a lot to do with the material blending choices for the model. There are so many ways to skin a cat there, and everyone seems to prefer a different method. :)

Peter, the blurriness can depend on the texture filtering settings in your videocard as well. Re-saving my DXT1 textures in another program cannot actually improve their quality, there is simply no way. I suspect the difference you're seeing is that in doing this you are removing the mipmaps, which will make the textures appear a bit sharper at a distance, but it comes at the cost of some performance. Doing this can also make them "shimmer" a bit more.

If you set the global texture resolution slider in FSX to maximum and set your videocard's drivers to use its best quality texture filtering mode, they should be very sharp even with mipmaps. This is a common complaint about textures in FSX though, and not limited to the L-39. Using mipmaps in textures just means you have to have the right settings in FSX and in your videocard to keep them looking their best.

Including mipmaps is a design choice I have to stick with though since I made the airplane for multiplayer flyers first (and will always do so!) :). It really helps a ton with performance when you get a bunch of people flying in formation together. On singleplayer though it makes very little difference, so if you prefer to re-save the textures without mips, it's all good! As long as you like the result. :)

Btw, if you're curious to know if your re-saving is removing the mipmaps you can check the file sizes before and after. The standard diffuse textures should be 683 kb each. If you save them without mips they will drop to 513 kb.

Cheers,

-Mike

peter12213
November 24th, 2009, 19:32
Mike I'm using a nvidia7600gs which is bad but I really feel that even in a great system my textures would halp as mipmaps and all other shine and specs and or what ever is working but at a lot less system stress!