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X-Plane Textures

lionheart

lionheart

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So, from what I find in XP, one uses PNG formats for textures.

I wonder what, or if, they have for size requirements? For instance, in FS, it must be 1024, 2048, 4096, etc. It would be interesting to find out.


I wonder if PNG's can have a Alpha layer?


Bill
 
Hi Bill,

Yes, PNG textures can also have an alpha channel. For example SketchUp uses this format for transparent textures as well.

I would have to check the X-Plane docs again, but if I remember correctly they also require a size that us a power of two.
 
Thanks Arno,

That is good to know.

Then I imagine that they have a limitation on texture sizes.



Bill
 
Just learned from Austin the other day that XP10 will have a launch time locked texture limit of 2048 pixels. He says he can up that at any time in the future with XP updates but that for now, 2048 is the max in XP.
 
2048x2048 is not too bad I would say, for many objects that should be fine. Or is it common to use bigger textures on aircraft nowadays?
 
Arno,

The big guys like Iris and MilViz are now commonly launching 4096 textures. A few others have done this and now it is becoming common.

Thats what I told Austin. I said, FS2004 was launched with 1024 as max texture sizes and in a couple of years, common computers were able to handle much larger textures. 2048 is already going out the door with 4096 becoming 'common' for 'new' releases.


But.. nobody listens to a guy with gigantic, silver, brittlized, humoungous, wavy eyebrows. They must think.. that.. I am silly. (snif.... )
 
Another reason for using the larger textures is to include more texture information in one texture, allowing for a reduction in the number of draw calls required to render the object, maybe that isn't the same performance issue on OpenGL?
 
Hi Tim,

But that is fixed in X-Plane already, each object is only allowed one texture (at least for scenery, but I think it also applies for aircraft).
 
The 1 diffuse texture limit applies to any OBJ file in XP - but aircraft can be made up of a combination of OBJ files. An OBJ is equivalent to a draw call.
 
Hi Paul,

Would that approach of multiple OBJ files also be acceptable for scenery or only for aircraft?

One OBJ file is not necessary a drawcall btw, because inside one OBJ you can still have different material settings (diffuse colour, specular colour, double sided, etc) even though there is one texture. So one OBJ can have more than one drawcall.
 
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