Textures

[KAVP%*]

I need help again:

Just finished a small terminal in FSDS. Time to make the textures. I understand how to add the texture to the object. But this is dumb question to ask. How do you put more than one texture to a texture sheet. I read the article on draw- calling and trying to keep all your textures for the object on one sheet. I have made the textures in Photoshop but how do you put them together on the same sheet.

Thank you
John G

 

[art209]

I use PaintShop Pro, but in PhotoShop I suppose there is also an option to copy a portion of one file and paste it as a selection into another. If you have aready applied the textures to your object, this may not be an option.

Art

 

[KAVP%*]

Thank you
Art.

Yes I can copy and paste in PhotoShop. Does making smaller textures reduce stretching of the texture? Also what is the correct bit size to use in FSX?

Thanks
John

 

[MINOSI]

there is no "correct bit size", provided you follow a square format (...64x64 / 128*128 /
... / 2048*2048...) or "half-square" format (...64*32 / .... / 2048*1024)

Greatest the pixel number will be and better the texture will look... but harder will the graphical card work

(but why not many sheets??)

 

[n4gix]

All bitmaps in FSX must be sized by powers of two.
For example:

256x4
256x256
512x256
512x512
1024x512
1024x1024
2048x1024
2048x2048

or basically any combination of sizes up to 4096, provided each dimension is a power of two!

 

[n4gix]

(but why not many sheets??)

In FSX, every FSX Material definition used generates one drawcall to the video card. By default, every texture "sheet" equals one FSX Material...

Many drawcalls equals reduced performance!

Note that one drawcall is limited to ~64k vertices, which for a scenery object should never be a problem...

 

[MINOSI]

N4gix,

Thank you for the complement.

But.. Iconfess... I have not yet understood what a vertice is! (??)

 

[n4gix]

N4gix,

Thank you for the complement.

But.. Iconfess... I have not yet understood what a vertice is! (??)

A vertex is a single point in space that defines a coordinate position: x, y, and z.

The most basic object in 3D space is a triangle, which of course has 3 vertex points; ergo, vertices (the plural of vertex).

 

[MINOSI]

It goes without saying but it goes even better said !

(thank you)

 

[Contrail_CA]

Back to your original question- you may create a single sheet by
1) In photo editor, create a NEW blank file/page - say 1024x1024
2) go to a texture you need, and use the selection tool to outline, and copy.
3) go to NEW sheet and paste-
4) repeat with other testures and -
viola
multiple textures on one sheet-
Save in the right format and in stall into your FSDS texture folder (24bit)
Use that texture panel for FSDS object by applying by selection.
NOTE- you will not be able to apply multiple tiles useing that "Panel"

Good Luck-

Contrail

 

[KAVP%*]

Thank you everyone for the info.

I have another question. I made textures for my terminal. Used 6 textures on one sheet. The terminal is 30 feet high 125 feet wide 600 feet long. For the bottom part of the terminal I made a brickwall texture. When I applied it to the object the bricks were all stretched. Playing around I raised the tiles numbers. And it worked looks great. How do you decide the correct tile number? I had to keep changing the numbers and keep going back and forth. In FSDS you can see the display but its not the same in FSX. Is there a better why to decide how many tiles to use? And when do you use DXT1 or 3 or 5?

Thanks
John

 

[n4gix]

For FSX:

DXT1 - only if no Alpha channel, or only a single bit (black or white) Alpha channel

DXT3 - Never Too much degradation during compression occurs

DXT5 - only if an interpolated (levels of gray) Alpha channel is required

For FS9:

DXT1 - only if no Alpha channel, or only a single bit (black or white) Alpha channel

DXT3 - only if an interpolated (levels of gray) Alpha channel is required