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FS2004 Problem with how textures appear in FS

M

marcoforfs

Messages
10
Country
italy
Hi all!

I come with a problem that is driving me crazy. I am preparing ground polygons for FS9 using ADE. I texture them by 1024x1024 dxt3 textures that I prepared, see the A1.png attached. The textures on the taxiway look pretty fair from the outside of the airplane, I can even see most of the details of the custom concrete and taxiway lines.
But when I am inside the airplane then something weird happen, see A2.png and A3.png below: it seems that when I look at the texture from the airplane, and I am far from the object, the texture becomes vague, any detail is lost.

Is it a problem of visualization of my FS9 settings, or is it a general problem with FS9 sceneries?

Any suggestion/test would is very welcome!



A1.png
A2.png
A3.png
 
dave hoeffgen

dave hoeffgen

Resource contributor
Messages
1,439
Country
germany
That issue is related to the textures' mip maps (down scaled versions of the image inside the same file).
Increasing the texture filter settings in FS can improve the look of it.
You can also try to export the texture without mip maps (what tool do you use?), that results in higher detail at off-normal viewing angles like from the cockpit, but can create moiré patterns in the distance.
 
M

marcoforfs

Messages
10
Country
italy
dave hoeffgen said:
That issue is related to the textures' mip maps (down scaled versions of the image inside the same file).
Increasing the texture filter settings in FS can improve the look of it.
You can also try to export the texture without mip maps (what tool do you use?), that results in higher detail at off-normal viewing angles like from the cockpit, but can create moiré patterns in the distance.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for your reply!

As for texture filtering in FS, if I understand correctly what I should look at, I have these settings:

A4.png


I tried to move the MIP mapping quality up to 8 but I get awkward results, namely all the other taxiway lines become "liquid" in the sense that looking at them from almost all the point of view, what I see is small bunches of yellow that float rather than a stable line.

As for the tool that I use to create the textures:
I firstly create the 1024x1024 24-bit bmp using Paint.net, then import it to DXTBmp, save the file as a dxt3: I don't know how to create a dxt3 without mipmaps using this software.
 
dave hoeffgen

dave hoeffgen

Resource contributor
Messages
1,439
Country
germany
I'm not sure if trilinear is already the best filtering method in FS2004 (I don't have it), or if it can use anisotropic, which gives better results in the later sims.

In DXTBmp you have this little panel on the right handling mip map properites:
1587048802679.png


The upper dropdown menu offers the sampling method used to create the mip maps, which also affect the results (I prefer "Kaiser" as it gives pretty crisp results).
When you uncheck "include when saving" the image will be exported without mip maps.
 
M

marcoforfs

Messages
10
Country
italy
dave hoeffgen said:
I'm not sure if trilinear is already the best filtering method in FS2004 (I don't have it), or if it can use anisotropic, which gives better results in the later sims.

In DXTBmp you have this little panel on the right handling mip map properites:
View attachment 56655

The upper dropdown menu offers the sampling method used to create the mip maps, which also affect the results (I prefer "Kaiser" as it gives pretty crisp results).
When you uncheck "include when saving" the image will be exported without mip maps.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I am doing some experiment to check how to get the best result on my computer, with and without mipmaps, with dxt1 and dxt3 formats. I am also trying to use your Kaiser when I export with mipmaps.

For FS9 we don't have anisotropic: only options are None, Bilinear and Trilinear.

But I wonder if I prepare textures to work well on my computer, what will happen to other users that have different machines/settings if I distribute the scenery?
 
M

marcoforfs

Messages
10
Country
italy
Thank you!
I partially got a compromise: mipmap = 7 in FS settings, no mipmaps when creating the dxt1 for the taxiway, yes mipmap with Kaiser for the apron concrete, dxt3 bmp with Kaiser for the textures that require transparency. I found that changing for bilinear to trilinear filter does not change too much. I think I have to cope with the weird behavior of the scenery at the large distance, which I checked happens not only for my own airport but also for the default FS9 terrain.
 
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