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electric man View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote electric man Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: AI aircraft textures
    Posted: 27 May 2017 at 7:15am
Found out that a lot of the AI aircraft still have a 32 bit no mips texture and that hits strong on lower end PC's. I converted them all with the image tool in the SDK to DXT5 and with mip-maps, my frames raised in dense airports with the iFly737 with about 4 to 5 making it much more fluid, maybe somebody here likes it to
Herman
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RayM View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 May 2017 at 11:21am
Herman,

are you able to expand the information regarding your procedures for converting the textures.
A step-by-step account would be useful for all us users.
A long time FSXA and Traffic X user
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electric man View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote electric man Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 May 2017 at 11:49am
Download DDS converter from the next link http://www.ddsconverter.com/
it's free.
Then open the imagetool.exe inside the tool( inside the ZZZ-help folder). Go to the FSX/simobjectx/JFTraffic folder and open that, now for every aircraft type; open the folder belonging to the aircraft type and then open every liverie folder and open the texture folder in there with the imagetool.exe and check it ( column on the right side ) for compression type and mips, if it is DXT5 and has mips then it's okay ( if the size is 1366 Kbs then it's okay, if it is around 4000 kbs then it's 32 bit and if it is around 1025 kbs then it is DXT3 without mips).
If it is not DXT5 then open the image tab and click format and check DXT 5 then in the image tab click on create mip maps and then file and save and you're done.
DXT 5 is way less demanding from the sim and with mip maps it will decrease the burden on the sim because this creates the next resolutions; 1024 ( already there ),512, 256, 128,64; 32 and probably some more so the more distance the AI aircraft is seen, the more small the texture resolution is and hence the less impact it has then if it would be without mip maps.
Hope this helps
Herman
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 May 2017 at 11:43pm
Hmmm, this is interesting.

Opening every livery folder and then each texture folder therein sounds like it took some time to do. How long did it take you to do all the aircraft?
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electric man View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote electric man Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 2017 at 7:14am
Took me about 5 hours and what I noticed was that most aircraft with big textures are those that are the most common in European and North American airports and that could explain why many people see frames drop in big airports around those regions and not other regions
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 2017 at 2:16pm
Herman

thanks for the conversion info - will try to find some time to give it a go.
A long time FSXA and Traffic X user
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freddy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 May 2017 at 10:06am
Ray,

I'd be interested to hear if your results match Herman's in the dense areas/airports; in Europe and North America. This does sound like something I am going to want to do. However, I just can't spare 5 or so hours at the moment. So, let me know how you go.


Herman,

Thanks for sharing this.
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RayM View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 May 2017 at 1:05pm
Freddy,
will post whenever I have the time to give this a try.
A long time FSXA and Traffic X user
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 May 2017 at 1:53pm
Herman,
just taken 10 minutes to look into this idea.
Found that in \Simobjects\TrafficX (and 360) that some textures are .bmp and some are .dds.

Have downloaded "DDSConverter.exe" as suggested.

Found "imagetool.exe" in the FSX SDK 'Terrain' section.

Used this to look at a texture file (.bmp) and used the 'format' and 'create mip maps' as suggested.

Am I now supposed to use the converter to change the new file to DDS?

Sorry to ask this but I have never looked at doing any of this previously.
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electric man View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote electric man Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 May 2017 at 2:41pm
Yes, convert to DXT5 DDS since this works better with FSX and then create mip maps and then just click the save button and that"s it

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 May 2017 at 4:10pm
Herman,

sorry to sound a bit stupid but what is the conversion order?

First, convert to DDS then use 'imagetool' to make DXT5 and Mip Maps.

Or, make DXT5 and MIP MAPS then convert to DDS?
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electric man View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote electric man Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 May 2017 at 4:16pm
First convert to DXT5 and then create mip maps, then "save as" DDS
Most of the textures are already DDS so then just click the save button. I don't think it makes a difference wether you first convert to DXT5 or wether you create mip maps, the outcome will be the same.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 May 2017 at 8:24am
Originally posted by electric man electric man wrote:

First convert to DXT5 and then create mip maps, then "save as" DDS
Most of the textures are already DDS so then just click the save button. I don't think it makes a difference wether you first convert to DXT5 or wether you create mip maps, the outcome will be the same.
Herman


That sounds clear enough - will see what happens. Thanks.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Soaranden Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jun 2017 at 10:27am
A year or so ago, I found a great way to quickly convert a group of bmp textures to dds textures.

Here's what I do:

1. I created a folder that I maintain for temporarily holding the bmp textures that I want to convert.

2. I copy the bmp textures to the folder that I maintain for converting bmp textures to DDS.

3. I put a copy of imagetool.exe in the same folder.

4. I created a batch file, which I named "Convert BMP to DDS.bat" (without the quotes, of course). I saved the batch file to the same folder.

    Here are the contents of the batch file (which can be created with any plain text editor):

    @echo Convert all textures to .dds
    imagetool -batch -nogui -dxt5 -dds -nodither -r *.bmp
    del *.bmp

    Note that the batch file will delete all of the bmp textures from the folder after converting the
    textures to DDS.

5. I double-click on the Convert BMP to DDS.bat file to run the file.

Now the folder contains only DDS textures, imagetool.exe, and the batch file.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jun 2017 at 11:29pm

Soaranden lives! It's good to see a post from you.

Now that is a cool idea ... the batch file idea will make light work of the task. I like it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jun 2017 at 7:53am
When I look thru the texture folders for a particular aircraft, each the textures which go with the aircraft variants all have the same file name, e.g. JFAIBNI_t.bmp, so it looked to me that it was not possible to do a batch conversion on all texture files for one aircraft. (If they all have the same name, you will end up with only one file in the folder when copying the .bmp files into the folder.)

Does having the "-r" function in the batch file mean that you can copy the "texture.x" folder, (each of which contains an identically named .bmp), into the "Conversion ..." folder, and 'imagetool' will then look into each folder, do the conversion and replace the .bmp with a DXT5 + MIPS / .dds file? And it will do this in each of the "texture.x" folders?

Otherwise I cannot 'see' how this very potentially useful batch file will work.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Soaranden Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jun 2017 at 2:22pm
Originally posted by RayM RayM wrote:

When I look thru the texture folders for a particular aircraft, each the textures which go with the aircraft variants all have the same file name, e.g. JFAIBNI_t.bmp, so it looked to me that it was not possible to do a batch conversion on all texture files for one aircraft. (If they all have the same name, you will end up with only one file in the folder when copying the .bmp files into the folder.)

Does having the "-r" function in the batch file mean that you can copy the "texture.x" folder, (each of which contains an identically named .bmp), into the "Conversion ..." folder, and 'imagetool' will then look into each folder, do the conversion and replace the .bmp with a DXT5 + MIPS / .dds file? And it will do this in each of the "texture.x" folders?

Otherwise I cannot 'see' how this very potentially useful batch file will work.


Hi, Ray,

I copy only a group of uniquely-named BMP texture files into the folder that contains the batch file. I don't put sub folders into the conversion folder. As you point out, aircraft variants usually contain file names that are identical. When putting textures into the folder containing the batch file, it is important to copy (rather than move) the texture files from their original location. After the batch file has been run, you can use a good text editor to find all instances of a particular BMP file and automatically replace each instance with its newly-created DDS file. The alternative would be to do the finding and replacing manually. Whether doing the replacing with a text editor or doing the replacing manually, you will need to remember the location of the folder or locations of the folders (to constrain the searching) that contain the BMP files that you will be replacing.

Although I decided to use files only, you can experiment using sub folders, if you like. Be sure to create backups before you do so. I still have the -r switch in my own batch file.

If you want to make modifications to the batch file, or if you want to write your own batch file for image processing, below are the Imagetool switches, as shown in the FSX SDK.



Dan

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RayM View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jun 2017 at 4:06pm
Thanks for your response.

I will do some tests based upon my current thinking but making backups before I start.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2017 at 2:57am
If I read the HELP file correctly ... and after doing some Googling ... it appears that provided Imagetool is in the path, you can run it from anywhere (there's probably no need to create a TEMP folder to do the work) ... AND ... using the -r switch, it should be able to go through the input folders, one by one, and do the conversion (no need to copy the files and use a text editor etc to work out where to copy them back to later).  But, I could be wrong ... let's see what Ray's tests reveal.
 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2017 at 7:09am
Originally posted by freddy freddy wrote:


... let's see what Ray's tests reveal.
 


No pressure there then!   
A long time FSXA and Traffic X user
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