Texture decision time

[Zöltuger]

I'm currently doing a repaint of the Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue B737-800's
for the default model in FSX, but I've run into a problem.

• Basically, if I save the texture with DXT5 compression (which I've been doing for all my repaints so far), the red and blue on the fuselage writing are bleeding into each other. This doesn't look great, particularly at high zoom levels. (Looks acceptable if you zoom out)
• The alternative is to have a 32-bit texture. The file size is larger, and I can't seem to disable mip-mapping, which gives it a blurry appearance when it isn't viewed from side on.

So therefore I pose the question to the people who will be using this repaint. Do you want me to release the textures with DXT5 compression (with colour bleeding and no mip-maps) or 32-bit (with mip-maps but no colour bleeding). Or do you have some other solution which could solve this dilemma?

I'll try to post some screenshots later to show the extent of the problem.

[Jimmy]

I would rather have it nice and clear looking side on, and only messy lookin from certain angles rather than bleeding colour witch would look odd all the time.. The ms texture files are rather..compact so file size isn't really a problem..

[Zöltuger]

interesting, 5-1 at the moment for the 32bit textures. FYI, the 32-bits are 4MB in size compared to 1MB for the DXT.
here is what the problem with the DXT5's:
medium zoom: (note in this pic the writing on the winglet is back to front- unfortunaley MS only provides for 1 outside winglet on this texture


closeup:


extreme closeup:

[toprob]

That just doesn't really look right, it looks like you are seeing lower mips. Do you have your Global Textures set all the way up? (You need a Massive setting to see 1024x textures.)
There are a number of reasons why you won't see full mips -- your sim settings, your graphics card settings, or just because the GPU is swamped.
I'd always prefer DXT, otherwise it's just too easy to overload the GPU. Sure, you get some artifacts with DXT compression, and you'll notice it most around sharp edges, but the memory savings more than make up for it. Remember that you are sharing video memory with airports, AI, scenery, clouds, autogen etc.

[Zöltuger]

That just doesn't really look right, it looks like you are seeing lower mips. Do you have your Global Textures set all the way up? (You need a Massive setting to see 1024x textures.)

those screenies aren't mipping, it's an actual problem with the DXT5 compression- if you look at the actual texture file, it's doing the same thing.
the 32-bit compression doesn't suffer this problem, but since i didn't save the file with mip-maps, i can only assume it's my PC that's creating them. i'll try turning global textures up higher- but in practise, who is going to have their texture resolution this high (especially given FSX's love of pushing hardware)

[creator2003]

id go for dx textures fs lovs them my s76 chopper has 32bit and drop about 5 flps if not more ....dx is the way to go for a nice all rounder

[toprob]

My advice would be use default Texture Resolution for default scenery, always turn it up for addons. That really means though that the minimum spec really becomes 128MB graphics for FS2004, and 256MB for FSX.
How do you process your textures?

[Zöltuger]

imagetool and sometimes DXTBMP