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MSFS20 Final .dds is very large for a custom texture.

C

cesarsm84

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mexico
Hello!
I just created my first custom textures for an airport I am doing and the pngs are about 56KB each, but the final dds file are about +16 MB, my airport went from 300KB to 350 MB just with 20 textures, is there a reason for that? did I set something wrong with photoshop? or do you have to do something else while you import the texture to the material editor?.

Cheers!.
 
Are the textures for a model or ground materials?

Edit: If the textures are used for ground materials, the file size is about right. If they are used for models, then the size is way too big. Ground textures use 32-bit DDS files, which can definitely be 16 or more MB (I don't have a MSFS generated 2048px DDS laying around, so I don't have an exact figure). Model textures usually use DXT5 (Includes an Alpha channel) and DXT1 (No Alpha), which are 5.33MB and 2.66MB, respectively.
 
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christopherbritton said:
Are the textures for a model or ground materials?

Edit: If the textures are used for ground materials, the file size is about right. If they are used for models, then the size is way too big. Ground textures use 32-bit DDS files, which can definitely be 16 or more MB. Model textures usually use DXT5 (Includes an Alpha channel) and DXT1 (No Alpha), which are 5.33MB and 2.66MB, respectively.
Click to expand...
Ok, I see thank you, I will keep trying, I just created a 1024x1024, and is +/-4.3 MB, all 2048 textures, are 16MB, I will change my files I think, OHHH my! another evening wasted.

Cheers, buddy!
 
Aprons only have a resolution of 15cm/px at the moment (The same as the max aerial resolution), so downscaling is probably a decent idea. Now, what resolution equals 15cm, I'm not sure, but 1024px is a good start. Always keep your higher resolution sources as a backup.

If you don't want to use the DDS files in your final project, you can swap them for PNG files. The LODs actually behave a bit better when you do this. To do that:

1. Rename your FLAGS and JSON files accordingly (See image). You do not need to edit the contents of either of these files.
msfs_png_swap.PNG



2. Open and Edit the Library.xml file. Change the file format extension on each <Texture FileName= line for the texture you have swapped to .PNG.
library_xml_window.PNG


3. Next, open layout.json in either WordPad or NotePad. Update all the "path" file names for each material/file path that you changed in the materials texture folder. Make sure they match exactly. Ignore the "date" value.
layout_json_window.PNG


4. Now, still in layout.json, you need to update the file size value for Library.xml and your newly swapped in PNG files. Right click each file and open Properties. Use the Size: value in bytes (ex. 2,082 bytes = "size": 2082).
library_xml_prop.PNG


Now, the downside is, doing this swap makes doing updates to your package a little more inconvenient, as you will have to do this again each time you update your package. However, if you get the materials how you like them and no longer need to make changes to them, you can just keep a copy of the MaterialLibs folder and the updated layout.json. Then all you need to do is swap out the folder and copy the updated sections from your updated layout.json to the newly generated copy and replace. This is a lot easier than redoing the entire process each time. :)
 
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Wow, I will definitely do this, but is there any difference in that albedo PNG file? or is it just a simple png file?

Thank you so much for this mini-tutorial!
 
Many thanks, Christopher, for sharing this work-flow as a useful learning resource, as we identify alternative ways to work "outside" the MSFS-2020 SDK GUI. :)

GaryGB
 
cesarsm84 said:
Wow, I will definitely do this, but is there any difference in that albedo PNG file? or is it just a simple png file?

Thank you so much for this mini-tutorial!
Click to expand...
Looking at my Albedo PNG, I used just a standard 8 Bit/Channel and exported as normal with lossless compression in Photoshop. For the Comp texture, it looks like it's recommended to use 16 Bit/Channel, however I have only used 8. I may have to go back and redo it as 16 to see if there is a difference. Although, this isn't directly specified for Normal/Roughness/Metallic.

From the SDK:
It is recommended to use a lossless format at 16 bits per pixel, such as 16bpp .PNG. This is especially important for roughness/metal/occlusion maps, where Microsoft Flight Simulator remaps the data to a curve to have more precision in the dark areas before compressing (which is then remapped again in the shader).
Click to expand...
 
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