Bitmaps and Prepar3D
Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Bitmaps and Prepar3D

  1. #1
    SOH-CM-2014
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    The land where dust is manufactured and people are high temp tested!
    Age
    62
    Posts
    12,330

    Bitmaps and Prepar3D

    Hey all,

    I have noticed that one of my fave planes, the Carenado FSX C-185F has horrible frame rates at Diamond Point scenery in P3D.

    I made a discovery. The package has Bitmaps for the textures.

    FSX and ESP and Prepar3D are geared to run DDS format textures which run the best in simulators (and most game platforms). Now, with that said, P3D can run Bitmaps also, but not as fast.

    So, if you have a plane, perhaps even a FS9 port-over, note that you can convert the textures to DDS format and that should raise the frame rates a bit on that plane. On my rig, I have Adobe Photoshop 6.0 with the freeware nVidia graphics tools for the gaming industry, like the DDS editing tools. You can thus take a Bitmap and convert it to DDS DXT5 format. You must then flip the texture 'vertically'. DO NOT ROTATE IT 180 Degrees! Just flip it vertically.

    Supposedly when a texture is DDS and flipped, the computer can read it 'faster' which means faster frame rates.

    Other programs, as you know, can create DDS textures from bitmaps, such as freeware GIMP, freeware SDK graphics converter by Aces/MS/FS, and also Photo Shop Pro (different then Adobe's Photoshop or PS). Another fave that is freeware is DXTBmp.exe here; file:///C:/Graphics/MWGraphics/DXTBmp/DXTBmp.htm They also have a cool program for doing batches; actually two; Convim and ConvimX which together can mass 'decompile' FS formats, then mass-batch compile to FSX / P3D format and will auto-flip the textures as well. Very nice tools, a must for Devs and repainters.



    So, that is your heads up on Bitmaps and P3D / FSX / ESP. DDS textures run best! Convert your Bitmaps if you have low frame rates.



    Bill
    LHC
    Humble Poly bender and warrior of Vertices


    Alienware Console i7 3770 CPU 3.40 GHz / 16 Gigs of RAM / GTX660 GC w/2 Gigs of VRAM / Windows 7 64 Ultimate
    Running 3X Samsung 840 SSD HD's, 200 Gig each, 500/500 Read/Write

  2. #2
    SOH Staff Tako_Kichi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    SW Ontario, Canada (Ex-pat Brit)
    Age
    66
    Posts
    5,120
    If you weren't aware Bill there is a neat little utility that will convert a whole folder of BMP files to DDS format with just one double-click of a .bat file. I have used it and it works very well.

    Do a Google search for 'bmp2dds.zip' (without the quotes) and you should find it at several locations.
    Larry


  3. #3
    SOH-CM-2014
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    The land where dust is manufactured and people are high temp tested!
    Age
    62
    Posts
    12,330
    Dang!

    Many thanks Larry! I will look that up. That is some great news.



    Bill
    Humble Poly bender and warrior of Vertices


    Alienware Console i7 3770 CPU 3.40 GHz / 16 Gigs of RAM / GTX660 GC w/2 Gigs of VRAM / Windows 7 64 Ultimate
    Running 3X Samsung 840 SSD HD's, 200 Gig each, 500/500 Read/Write

  4. #4
    Thanks for the reminder Bill, I knew there was something I'd been meaning to do.
    I use ImageTool out of the FSX SDK with a simple bat file, works a treat.

    Did you notice the P38 that comes with P3D, not only does it use BMP's but its also an FS9 portover.
    Asus ROG Maximus XI Hero
    i9-9900K
    32Gb Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR4 3200MHz
    MSI RTX 2080Ti Ventus
    Corsair H115i Cooler
    Corsair RM850X PSU
    Phanteks Evolv X case
    Asus VG32G Monitor 2560x1440
    Win 10
    Oculus Quest 2
    Logitech G29
    Saitek X56
    Saitek Pro Pedals
    Saitek Cessna Trim Wheel

Similar Threads

  1. Prepar3D on same HDD as FSX?
    By DaveKDEN in forum Prepar3D V1-4
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: July 19th, 2013, 12:06
  2. SLI for prepar3d
    By TeiscoDelRay in forum Prepar3D V1-4
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: May 1st, 2013, 11:31
  3. Panel Bitmaps
    By harrybasset in forum FS 2002/2004 General Discussion
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: December 6th, 2011, 00:29
  4. Seabee Panel Bitmaps Uploaded
    By falcon409 in forum FSX General Discussion
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: December 23rd, 2009, 04:13

Members who have read this thread: 1

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •