Blurry textures - why?

[TwoLow]

Are some a/c just designed with blurry textures to help the game run faster or what?

I have downloaded a ton of 'project ai' stuff and some of it looks awsome then other airlines just look awful for how blurry the textures are.

I have downloaded multiple flyable planes from the same designer and seen where one looks great and the next one looks blurry. Why are some designed blurry and some aren't?

Its amazing how colorful and crisp the colors are on project ai's jamica or aloha airlines...then delta and northwest just look horrible

[ashaman]

The effect 'blurry texture' on some airplane is due to the use of the mipmaps in the repaint's textures and to the videocard being too busy doing other things and having too little power remaining to give to the aircraft's textures.

A solution to the problem you have is to try and dial back the scenery complexity, this way the video card has more power to elaborate the textures on the airplane (on the TI4400 I had I used to do this). Most of the times it works fine, to the price of some detail in the scenery.

Another thing you could do is use a software to edit away the mipmaps from the textures that blur more often. Having never done it I don't know what software to suggest, though. Try asking around.

[TwoLow]

Its not the video card and these particular planes always load this way, no matter where the settings are. They load that way when I simply view them when picking out a a/c to fly before starting a flight. I know the occassional plane looks blurry till the computer catches up loading the scenery but these particular planes are just always out of focus.

Simular to the default a/c. The Global and Orbits were the worst painted things I have ever seen.

Here are two quick examples...when I get a little more time I can show far worse examples:


Blurry Delta
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/GCS0011.jpg


Non Blurry SouthWest

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/GCS0012.jpg

[|| Andy ||]

Go into FS display settings, on the last tab, make sure mip mapping details are set high, and the global texture size..

[Katahu]

Try this.

Zoom in real close to the model and then zoom out. As you zoom in real close, the mip maps should sharpen for better clarity. If it doesn't then I guess you you might want to check the global texture detail on the display menu.

[TwoLow]

Looks like moving the mipmap and global textures up did help a lot. Weird that it affected some planes so badly but other planes look just perfect.

As you can see below the Deltas still come up slightly blurred but look far better than they did before.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/GCS0013.jpg

[JBaymore]

TwoLow,

I learned this the hard way when I was learning to do repaints.  You need to "kill" thje mipmaps in the aircraft's folders.  Otherwise they can look like crap even fresh loaded and at close range.

I can't remember right now exactly HOW one does this... but I think it involves opening the aircraft's paint files in DTX2BMP and then clicking a button in the program that says basically" don't use mipmaps" and then resaving them.

I fixed a number of Project AI liveries this way.

Someone else more "current" in repainting will likely give you the real skinny.  I have onely done one repaint for personal use so far... and that was a while ago.

best,

...................john

[TacitBlue]

Okay then, explain this. I have the Be-103 from Avsim, and its textures are blurry sometimes, and then when I hit Alt to try changing some settings, they get even blurrier, hit alt again, and they clear up. It goes through three stages- clear, slightly blurred, and really blurred. Wierd isn't it?

[Katahu]

Flight Simulator is just like us. Weird.

[Sambcfc]

I had the same problem, just fiddle around with the graphics, keep changing it to high or low resolution.
Or close any other activities 'ie' internet explorer, this may lag the game which causes the crap graphics.

[microlight]

It certainly sounds like the mip map issue, and I use a freeware program called DXTBmp (available at www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm) to remove mipmaps from all of my plane textures - no more blurred textures.

It's very simple - DXTBmp does two things well - it serves as an interface for repainting, but what's relevant here is that you can open the offending texture file and remove the mip maps. Here's how:

- open up DXTBmp and un-click the mip map button on the right (remove the tick)
- load the offending texture
- save it as the same filename. That's it. (If they are 32 bit textures you can save them as DXT3 to compress the file and speed up texture loading times.)

[microlight]

Oh, and by the way, the screen shots posted are way over the pixel size limit for these forums - the mods may well take them out!

[TacitBlue]

Thanks for the info Micro, I will check that out. I might even try repainting. One question though: Would textures that are already clear look any different without mip-maps?

[microlight]

Not necessarily. If they don't go blurry at distance, then maybe they were originally saved without mip maps by the author.