FSX: Textures Question

[OleBoy]

I got to thinking about all the textures related in the flight simulators and their purpose after doing some port overs of a few aircraft.

BMP files are a bit more taxing of lesser machines in FSX. Hence the reason for converting the files to DDS. I know the subject will have all sorts of response with different opinions.

I've ran fs9 textures of aircraft in FSX and I get all sorts of lag, stutters and blurries. But then when I converted them all to DDS, all that went away and the aircraft, and FSX worked smooth as silk. An obvious and beneficial difference for my machine.

Going based with the end results I've been thinking of converting a specific scenerys files from BMP-to-DDS for a comparison. Question is, will FSX run after the conversion?


Here we go. Let the responses commence :jump:


Never mind. I should have looked before I leaped. The textures are already mainly in DDS format (shrug)

[Bjoern]

If the textures used by a model aren't in the format specified in the .mdl file, FSX will take longer to load that texture. So if a .mdl references to a .bmp file and you've got your textures in .dds, FSX will first look for .bmp first and then for .dds.

So if you've got a ton of AI running you better have your textures in .bmp format (unless the author specified the use of .dds files in the model) or your HDD will run a ton of unnecessary disk searches.

The theory behind it:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Texture_-_Missing_%28FSX%29#Simobject_texture_search_paths

[OleBoy]

Thanks Bjoern.

I ran into a very similar topic related. Where porting over aircraft was the subject. Quite the debate.

Thanks for the link

[Bjoern]

No problem. Enlightenment is my business. :d