CFS 2 Prop Graphics in Win 7 SP1

[phrog_phixer]

CFS 2 on my Windows 7 SP1 machine produces very mediocre propeller graphics in-game. Game settings are 1920X1080X32 (same as desktop) with Trilinear Filtering; the attached “settings” pic shows the other graphics
My dilemma is this…I have tried various alphas, .bmp formats and pixel sizes using MW’s DXTBmp to produce a satisfactory prop effect to no avail. I have attached pics of the STOCK prop (barely acceptable) and Ghostpony’s alternate installed (totally unacceptable), so you can have an idea of what I mean.
Again, I have tried other prop add-ons (including kelticheart’s) and attempted to further blur the alphas with no luck…any ideas?

 

[Allen]

Looks fine to me. You may be asking too much of CFS2.

 

[Blood_Hawk23]

This would be one for Kelti. But I would have to agree with Allen. Although, have you tried any of the OH aircraft with Kelti's prop enhancements? Might be a place to start.

 

[Allen]

The one thing to try is to make a larger prop disc texture. The stock and OH uses prop disc textures that are 256x256. Going to 512x512 may let you have more detail with the alpha.

 

[UncleTgt]

Agree with Allen. You are looking for something the CFS 2 graphic engine can't give you.

Most prop bitmaps are 444-4 format, meaning they have 4 levels of transparency (alpha). DXT3 format has 4 bits for transparency, in theory giving 16 levels, so it should appear more graduated than 444-4, but in my experience this doesn't seem to be the case.
Similarly, I have also tried using 888-8 format - I think this is the only 32 bit format bitmap that CFS2 can display (all others are 16 bit), but must admit I don't see any real improvement over 444-4. And the much larger file sixe (= loading/rendering time) can be a real drag in a multi-aircraft furball.

For prop bitmaps I've taken to altering the aircraft.cfg to make them spin faster - that way you don't notice the banding between levels of alpha so much.

For example:

[fltsim.0]
title=AW Whitley MkV 102 Sqn Bomber Command
sim=WhitleyV
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=DYN
kb_checklists=whitley_check
prop_anim_ratio=1.02 <---- add this line & play with the ratio until you get the appearance that seems right for you


This wiki page about DXT formats might be useful http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Texture_formats_overview

See what it says DXT5 (only useful in FSX), "This makes the format especially suited for soft gradients and other textures where the alpha areas vary less wildly"
Versus DXT3 "Four-bit explicit alpha allows for sixteen distinct alpha values, making it good for textures with sharply contrasting translucent/opaque areas"

 

[phrog_phixer]

Thanks all for your help...I will fiddle with the animation ratios and agree it is important to remember that CFS 2 is 13+ year old tech.... Still the graphics quality on my PC is astounding compared to what I remember and this time I am using a much more organized approach when building installs .

 

[Allen]

Some props...

View attachment 24686View attachment 24687

 

[kelticheart]

This would be one for Kelti. .....

Other than Kelti still doesn't run CFS2 on a Win7, or later, platform.

Thanks for your faith in me, Blood_Hawk, but I run CFS2 in XP Pro SP3, I couldn't really be of any help since I do not know how our senior sim behaves with Win7.

On the other hand I fully agree with UncleTgt when he says that a larger size prop texture would affect animation rate negatively.

I had started tinkering with some 512 x 512 textures a while ago, both because some models were born with them and because I was attracted by the finer texturing appearing on the screen.

A part than, for my Jurassic painting skills, it is waaay more difficult texturing a blurred disc in that doubled size and it takes three times as long to complete it, I did notice a substantial drop in fps when I placed several planes equipped with 512 x 512 prop textures in the sky.

That marked the end of my experiments with 512 x 512 prop textures.

Sometimes we are all a tad too picky as to what we would like to see on screen, forgetting the basic point that we won't linger noticing those details when our AI opponent will be "turkey-shooting" our rear end off!

Better leave such detailing to easygoing civilian simulators.....

Cheers!
KH