DDS Textures

[Timm]

Hi Guys,
I would like to ask for some info here. I been doing texture painting for some years now but just recently gone over to FSX. Now the texture are done in DDS format but I have noticed that some you painters save your work as "DDS DXT5" and some as "DDS 888-8 32 bit" Can you please tell me which one is the best when transferring my work via DXTBmp and what is the difference other that the size IE DXT5 is only 1meg where as the 32bit one is 4megs. Timm

2958

[Wozza]

Hi Tim
DXT5 still has some loss in quality during the compression but not as bad as the dxt3 compression we used when working with bmps
888-8 32 bit is basically loss less,you be pretty hard pressed to see any loss from your 32 bit maters
That said the texture file size can be a killer on FPS inside fsx,dependent on how many textures the project has and size of the texture for example a 32bit 1024X1024 will give you a file size roughly of 4meg, a 2048X2048 dxt5 will also give you a file size of about the same 4meg. a 2048X2048 X32bit will give you a great looking texture in every way but will be around 15 to 16meg :icon_eek: so like most things its a compromise at least with fsx we have a few more option ;)
I tend to aim for 64meg as the total size of all textures for a given project, there no rational behind it just what I aim for :)
Wozza

[Timm]

That said the texture file size can be a killer on FPS inside fsx
Hi Wozza,
Thanks for the info. I was going to mention the drop in FPS when using the 32 bit texture. I just re-done the above Bell 212 textures to that of the DXT5 setting and was amazed by no drop at all in the FPS. Timm

[Bjoern]

I tend to aim for 64meg as the total size of all textures for a given project, there no rational behind it just what I aim for :)

I second that.

I don't know what the appeal of a huge texture folder (with lots of small-res texture files) is anyways.