FS9 Only Douglas A20 Havoc Released

[Motormouse]

Silly question; are the texture mapping and names same for Fs9 as for FSX ?

If so a conversion of those FSX bare metal textures would be possible (using DXT.BMP and your favourite paint program)

ttfn

Pete

 

[Milton Shupe]

Silly question; are the texture mapping and names same for Fs9 as for FSX ?

If so a conversion of those FSX bare metal textures would be possible (using DXT.BMP and your favourite paint program)

ttfn

Pete

Well, not exactly.

Mapping and names are the same. However, material properties (for specular, reflections, glossiness) are different because the models are different in that regard.

Secondly, the bump and spec textures would need to be removed for FS9.

Thirdly, the DDS/DXT5 formatted textures would need to be converted to bmp. This can be done with DXTBmp.

So, FSX textures can be used but may require some tweaking, especially if bare metal.

 

[Motormouse]

Righto, thanks Milton, I'll have a crack at it and see what occurs.

I've converted a few FSX textures to FS9 now (for mine own use) so know the deal on alpha reflections and bump and spec maps.

ttfn

Pete

 

[Motormouse]

Seems to work Milton...

For your viewing... texture of Hard to Get for FSX by Jan Kees (available at Ozx) ; converted to Fs9 format, on the reflective model.
Not too bad for first pass.

The 'how to' : Using DXTBMP ; 1) take each external texture .dds ; export the alpha and save each alpha for later as bmp
2) Save the dds external texture as extended 32 bit 888 format

:Using your paint program 1) resize each 32 bit 888 bmp texture and its' associated alpha to Fs9 friendly image size 1024 x 1024

: Back to DXTBMP open each resized bmp file and import the alpha for it that you saved ; then FLIP image and alpha ; save ; and you're good to go.

As Milton says, you don't neeed (FS9 doesn't use) bump and spec etc so ok to delete them.


This one won't be uploaded before anyone asks, unless I can get permission to from original author.

ttfn

Pete

 

[nigel richards]

For your viewing... texture of Hard to Get for FSX by Jan Kees (available at Ozx) ; converted to Fs9 format, on the reflective model.
Not too bad for first pass.

The 'how to' : Using DXTBMP ; 1) take each external texture .dds ; export the alpha and save each alpha for later as bmp
2) Save the dds external texture as extended 32 bit 888 format

:Using your paint program 1) resize each 32 bit 888 bmp texture and its' associated alpha to Fs9 friendly image size 1024 x 1024

: Back to DXTBMP open each resized bmp file and import the alpha for it that you saved ; then FLIP image and alpha ; save ; and you're good to go.

As Milton says, you don't neeed (FS9 doesn't use) bump and spec etc so ok to delete them.


This one won't be uploaded before anyone asks, unless I can get permission to from original author.

ttfn

Pete

Stunning metalwork

 

[Mick]

... So, FSX textures can be used but may require some tweaking, especially if bare metal.

Some while back EMatheson released a little batch file that will make the conversion on all the texture files in a folder in one fell swoop. I don't recall whether it went into the library here, or was just attached to a forum post. On my rig it's called FSX to FS9 Texture Converter but I don't recall if that's the name he gave it or just what I called it.

I do those conversions manually because it's not difficult, not really very tedious, and I like to see exactly what I'm doing as I go along and be sure of what I wind up with. But if one were in a hurry or had a bunch of skins to convert at the same time, that batch file would save a lot of time.

 

[Milton Shupe]

For your viewing... texture of Hard to Get for FSX by Jan Kees (available at Ozx) ; converted to Fs9 format, on the reflective model.
Not too bad for first pass.

The 'how to' : Using DXTBMP ; 1) take each external texture .dds ; export the alpha and save each alpha for later as bmp
2) Save the dds external texture as extended 32 bit 888 format

:Using your paint program 1) resize each 32 bit 888 bmp texture and its' associated alpha to Fs9 friendly image size 1024 x 1024

: Back to DXTBMP open each resized bmp file and import the alpha for it that you saved ; then FLIP image and alpha ; save ; and you're good to go.

As Milton says, you don't neeed (FS9 doesn't use) bump and spec etc so ok to delete them.


This one won't be uploaded before anyone asks, unless I can get permission to from original author.

ttfn

Pete

Well done Sir!

One additional note: If the textures use NO alpha channel, you can safely use one of the compression formats that does not support alphas like DXT1 (No Alpha) for a tremendously smaller texture size.
I just did a couple FSX Only P-70 AI conversions and used 512 DXT1's on the exterior textures. 129K each for those exterior engines, wings, tails and fuselage textures. They still look great. That's the extreme downsize and not recommending it but as an example of what can be done with nice results.

 

[nigel richards]

Well done Sir!

One additional note: If the textures use NO alpha channel, you can safely use one of the compression formats that does not support alphas like DXT1 (No Alpha) for a tremendously smaller texture size.
I just did a couple FSX Only P-70 AI conversions and used 512 DXT1's on the exterior textures. 129K each for those exterior engines, wings, tails and fuselage textures. They still look great. That's the extreme downsize and not recommending it but as an example of what can be done with nice results.

Have been trying similar applications with DXT1 for static models, with remarkably good results.

Huge texture folder size savings - impressive FR gains on complicated multi-object scenes.