BITMAP Texture Problem

[edzmen]

I've encountered a problem with edited textures going blurry when trying to repaint textures for FS2002 using DXTBMP.

The aircraft was designed for FS2004, but someone told me FS2002 & 2004 run on basically the same engine anyway so it wont matter. Planes can run fine on either.

The original texture was saved in 888 32 bit BMP format.
When i edited it in DXTBMP and ran the plane in FS2002 - the fuselage textures i'd edited were all blurred.
This had not happened when i ran the plane with un-edited, original textures.
But i HAD saved the edited textures in their ORIGINAL 888 32 bit format.  ???

So i tried to convert them to 555-1 BMP texture and the same thing happened. I havn't tried DXT format yet - i thought id better get advice first...

Has anyone else had a problem with the edited/saved texture going blurry in FS2002 when doing repaints using DXTBMP as a converter.
Is there anything i can change in order to make them sharper???

I'd be REALLY greatfull for any advice or tips!!
Cheers!
Ed

[garymbuska]

I do not think that fs2002 and fs2004 are the same in that respect. I know that a fs2002 plane usually will not display correctly in fs2004. The problem is that you probably need a different paint program.

[Hagar]

You could try disabling MipMaps before saving the textures. The latest version of DXTBmp has a checkbox option on the right-hand side of the UI. This apparently does the trick for some people. It depends on your system & video card.

Try saving the textures in a variety of formats including DXT1 & DXT3 to see which work best for you. Load the original repainted textures each time as continually reformatting the same textures might affect the image quality.

[oldhorse]

Mr Hagar

[Hagar]

Hi Rich. I only updated to the latest version of DXTBmp a few days ago. I noticed the UI has been changed from previous versions. Uncheck the box to disable MipMaps.



Although I know the basics I'm not an experienced repainter. I've noticed this green tinge when editing default textures in the DXT formats. I'm not sure what you can do about it apart from changing the colours on the original textures.

PS. It's always best to work from a master texture saved in the native format of your graphics editor. Repeated editing/reformatting of textures in compressed formats will reduce the quality & make the green tinge worse.

[edzmen]

Mr Hagar,

What can i say other than THANKS VERY MUCH!!!

I tried dissabling MIPMAPS in the UI on the right of DXTBMP and when i came to fly the plane in FS2002 the textures were sharp as normal!
The textures continue to be sharp after multiple edits/saves - I havn't tried compressing them as a DXT format as this could loose quality. But they seem to work fine as the original 888 32 bit - so i'll stick with that.

I would never have thought to try MIPMAPS before - i didn't realise it made such a difference - plus i dont have a clue what they do!  :)

Thankyou for saving my project!!
Best wishes,
Ed

[oldhorse]

OK
I to had just download the new one. of coarse it default
with the alpha channel close when I seen the picture
went looking.  will play around with the green thing
          THANKS SO VERY MUCH SIR
   
     The DUM blind oldhorse  ::)
                   RICH

[Hagar]

Glad my suggestion worked Ed. I like to keep textures in their original format if possible. This is not always the best option & using the Extended BMP formats can considerably reduce the texture file size without affecting the quality. Whether or not the Mips display effectively will depend on how the textures were assigned on the original model. I suspect the author of the aircraft you're working on used 888 32 bit textures without MipMaps. I copied this from DXTBmp Help. Lots of great tips in there from the best in the business.

Mips

Mips are the multiple sub-images contained in an Extended Bitmap or DDS texture. For any given size of texture the file will also include a chain of images each half the size of the previous one. A 512x512 image will also contain a 256x256 version, a 128x128 version and so on right down to 1x1 (or 4x4 for DXT as this works with 4x4 pixel blocks)

All Extended and DDS formats are saved with Mips. This may be switched off using the "Include with save" checkbox in the MipMaps section of the right toolbar. It is recommended that you only switch this off when you have a particular need. All games and Flightsims are designed to run best with mipped images for most textures.

Keep trying Rich. Don't put yourself down. I've been at this for 5 years & learn something new on this forum almost every day. It's all a matter of practice & experience + a good memory.

[Merlin66]

I use DXTBmp all the time with the YAS series of Spitfires ( for CFS2) to compress the 1024 x 1024 original textures. There's no loss of resolution when compressing the file ONCE at the end. I use DXT1 format.