distorted textures

[highfive]

I'm having an issue with aircraft I have downloaded (no blame to anyone implied!). When I scroll through available aircraft it seems that FS2004 starts to have trouble loading textures. Once the problem starts subsequent aircraft paints usually will appear distorted as well. If I select the aircraft to fly the texture looks fine. If I decide to select other aircraft the same thing happens, the first few might look OK then textures will again become distorted  :-X. Higher quality paints jobs seem to be affected quicker and with more severe distortion. Once the problem starts it seems to get progessively worse  :P. I have changed the graphics settings for both the display & aircraft (several configs.) and this does not seem to help. Before I reloaded FS2004 was careful to clean-up/defrag the drive. With lots of space, 1 GiG of Ram & an ATI 9600 All In Wonder I wonder what is going on :-/. Not that it matters I have installed the FS2004 9.1 update as well.
Any ideas Lords of the Fliers  ;)

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[Hai Perso Coyone?]

Crank up you Global Texture Size to Max.....a word of caution though...this will impact performance...

[highfive]

Trilinear filtering, all boxes checked, max-global  :-/. Same thing . As soon as I select the aircraft -poof- it's fine -strange-  :P!

[wji]

May I suggest using only DXT3 file format

[highfive]

I know that DXT3 is one type of painting texture format, but by simply looking at the downloaded file where do I look to find out which method is used . Excuse my ignorance but I have not dabbled into the FS2004 painting dept. as yet. Textures are just a bunch of bitmaps, do I need to download a graphic/livery editor or is there a 3rd. party Flight Sim manager program that I should use  :P to determine the technique used to paint a craft. Thanks anywhy I'll postpone the uninstall . This is a loaded question but why DXT3 and do you know who uses it (for example) like Opensky & SGA?

Thanks again,

Highfive

[highfive]

ATI video board owners take note - new Catalyst driver available Jan. 16, 2006
It is almost refreshing to find out it was not something I did to mess things up . It seems that ATI has released a new driver that fixes my issue. I have updated/reloaded my ATI video drivers 3 times in the last 6 months . Between Dec. 23, 2005 and the last update Jan. 16, 2006 they must have figured something out .

The latest driver from ATI 6-1_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_29602.exe from the above date seems addressed to all ATI boards (please check yourself). Go directly to the ATI site because the download.com directs you to the older driver from Dec. of last year. The pain with changing these video drivers is that you have to uninstall the old drivers first, each time. It seems ATI is attempting to steamline the #'s of drivers & that is a good thing! As of a couple weeks ago there use to be a maze of drivers for my board, now only 2.

The only way my ATI - TV monitor works is if I use the base install and don't update it . There is a new update for the ATI - TV driver & I hope they (at ATI) have figured out what the problem with that driver is . Of course I did not figure my problem out until I unloaded FS2004 - again :-/.

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[garymbuska]

Hate to hear the bad news :-/  I know what a pain it the A##
that can be. Try not to be so quick to reinstall. Allways try to think what has changed since the last time I used FS2004 and un do that sometimes it helps. But only SOMETIMES!

[highfive]

I was surprised that there was already a new patch the old one was barely 3 weeks old. I download the last driver around the New Year that is why I hadn't checked before - my bad .

Download.com (5th most popular driver today) was the old ATI video driver from Dec. 23 so I bet I'm not the only one having issues. The first re-install had to be done :-/. That was a pain because 80 Gigs is out of hand . The last re-install was 10 times quicker. As long as it works, it was a lesson well learned .

I have a 5 y/o nephew Austin that has been infatuated with airplanes since he was 1 and that is not a stretch. I think he said Boeing before ba-ba (bottle) . At 5 y/o my nephew does not exactly have a very delicate touch when flying . He would just perfer to scroll though the different aircraft then to even fly.

He now knows literally hundreds of types of aircraft and the country/company that flys them . I am just beginning to show him how to really fly, but I want to keep it fun. That is how I ended up with so many aircraft - plus it is nice to have a lot of options . Hey it worked for Tiger Woods .

[wji]

"This is a loaded question but why DXT3 and do you know who uses it (for example) like Opensky & SGA?"

Because, as Martin Wright states, they can be up to eight-times smaller filesize (and look the same in FS9)

. . . do you know who uses it (for example) like Opensky & SGA?"

Many FS9 Addon planes ship with both 32bit Extended and 16bit DXT3 formats for their products. The user can then select the set of textures they prefer. The enduser can always convert to DXT3 using DXTbmp(x)

Learn more about Martin Wright's DXTbmp here.

All the information regarding MSFS file formats and the DXTbmp(x) conversion program are provided FREE by Martin Wright. All we have to do is learn how to apply it.

[highfive]

Thanks wji,

Using add-ons (whatever they may be) in FS is always a learning experience . I understand the smaller the better (less 1 & 0's for my Video card to move around). Much like bitmaps compared to Gif's or even better JPegs. I must say the beautiful thing about FS is that it is as much about function, as it is about flying. I mean that there are so many ways mess with game (add this / change that) you end learning new things about it each time . I can't forget to mention forums such as this one on Simviation are key! Just when you are about put a blowtorch to FS disc someone comes along and offers you a light .

Genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration.
Thomas Edison

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