Batch mip removal

[chomp_rock]

Does anyone here know if there is a way to perform a batch mip map removal so you don't have to do it one file at a time?

Half of the aircraft I delete from my aircraft folder are deleted because the developer used mips in the textures and there were too many texture files to de-mip manually.

[chomp_rock]

I don't think you know what you are talking about...

[Sterk]

Whats the reason you want to de-mip textures?
Just wondering...

[chomp_rock]

Mips make texures blurry and have no noticable performance benifit in FS9.

[Hagar]

I think whether Mips affect display quality or not depends on your video card. I never had any problems with them myself. For batch removal I suggest you check out Martin Wright's site. http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/
Look on the Beta Programs page. If he hasn't come up with anything it's either not possible or nobody thought of doing it.

[RollerBall]

chomp, you usually only find that there are a few files in a texture folder that are for the external model that will benefit from de-mipping. All you can do is fire up DTXBmp, uncheck include mipps and then just manually load and resave each one in turn to over-write the original file with a mippless version. Doesn't take too long....

[MattNW]

It won't do a batch removal but DXTBmp will let you select to remove mips. As long as the program is running you don't have to reselect for each file. Just load and save. Usually all you need to remove is the mips from the outside texture files. At most I think six or seven files (or at least it is on some of my more complex aircraft). VC files and other textures usually don't use mips or the textures aren't seen except from close so leaving the mips in doesn't hurt.

[commoner]

chomp, you usually only find that there are a few files in a texture folder that are for the external model that will benefit from de-mipping. All you can do is fire up DTXBmp, uncheck include mipps and then just manually load and resave each one in turn to over-write the original file with a mippless version. Doesn't take too long....

...never thought of doing this, but just how would I know if a file is "mipped" or not..........and which files are usually mipped or not.....thanks..........commoner  ;)

[Bell206freak]

I've noticed that MIPs have no performance gain on my system. I have a pretty powerful video card, 800MB RAM and a 3GhZ processor and even then the aircraft textures appear blurry with them installed.

Which is why I prefer not to have them installed.

I wonder if eliminating the MIPs in ground textures will have the same effect...

[Hagar]

[quote]...never thought of doing this, but just how would I know if a file is "mipped" or not..........and which files are usually mipped or not.....thanks..........commoner

[commoner]

...mmm....thanks Hagar...think I'll just go for a fly and forget about it then .....commoner

[RollerBall]

Not sure I agree with Doug on this one (rare occurrence nowadays  :) ) Most people complain about blurry textures on the default aircraft and demipping the textures cures it. Mips also affect FR so it can help if you have a lot of AI, but the downside is that when viewed from a distance, de-mipped textures (and colours) disappear so an AI some distance away will be just a tiny white model.

But that doesn't come into it for the plane you fly. I had a GeForce 3 TI and I now have a Radeon 9700 Pro and I have found with both that the textures of most of the planes I download and fly have been improved by de-mipping. In fact you'll find that most designers who know nowadays don't mip their textures.

...never thought of doing this, but just how would I know if a file is "mipped" or not..........and which files are usually mipped or not.....thanks..........commoner  ;)

Derek, when you open an extended bmp texture file in DXTBmp.exe it tells you (1) what type of file it is and (2) how many mips it has. My advice is find a plane that you think has 'blurry' textures, or one whose textures 'pop' in or out of focus, take a backup copy of its texture folder and use the method I described. You could be surprised at the results  ;)

[commoner]

...mmm.....conflicting views there lads ...thanks for the input Roller....It will be interesting to check that out. I do have DTXBmp so I'll experiment some....after backing up of course ...commoner .

[chomp_rock]

Doesn't take too long....

You are wrong there my friend, I do use DXTBMP to "manually" remove mips in textures and I am tired of it, i.e. the 160+ texture files for the JetBlue A320 I downloaded would take hours to de-mip and I don't have that time so I simply delete tha AC. Same thing with the Galeb everyone raves about, I deleted it because I don't have time to de-mip the textures 1 by 1.

[Hagar]

the 160+ texture files for the JetBlue A320 I downloaded would take hours to de-mip and I don't have that time so I simply delete tha AC.

160+ textures on one aircraft is beyond my imagination. Just shows how behind the times I am.
I can only suppose the author wasn't too worried about organising the textures economically & used a different texture for each major part. This explains the huge size of some aircraft downloads these days. The default aircraft are a good example of how it can be done with a little thought.

I can only speak from personal experience & as I mentioned earlier, removing Mips makes no difference to the display quality on my own system. It obviously does on others & I can't argue with everyone that confirms this. It might be an idea to mail Martin Wright & ask him if batch removal of Mips is possible. It's quite likely the idea never occurred to him & if it can be done he's your man. They don't call him "Wizard" for nothing.