JustFlight P-38 missing gauges & textures, scenery blurries

S

SSI01

Charter Member
JustFlight P-38 missing gauges & textures, scenery blurries

Just solved one problem with your assistance and now have another. Finding all sorts of interesting things now that I've got the time to do so!

I can crank my JustFlight P-38/F-4 from a cold start fine, no problems. Problems begin to occur after power is applied and I change to an exterior view, then back to an interior. I now have translucent propeller disks, plus missing gauges (but not the panel - it's still there); in addition, the landing gear is greyed out. Once in the air, the scenery below the aircraft gets into massive blurries at about 7-8000 feet. I've seen posts about this before, but can't recall the fixes for the problems presented there. What concerns me is this is the same sort of problem I had before that got progressively worse until I finally had to uninstall/reinstall the sim. Sure don't want to do that again.

This aircraft can only be flown from the VC panel. I can do that, although I'm no fan of them and prefer the 2D panel. I'm wondering if part of the problem is the detail presented by the VC panel in conjunction with the sound, which may be overloading the video card.
 
OK, I've had a read here and want to go through the steps as outlined in the thread you refer to. My first and most obvious question - how does one go about converting the texture files from extended 32 bit to DXT3 format?

Boy, am I glad to see it's the bird and not my machine.
 
SSI01 said:
OK, I've had a read here and want to go through the steps as outlined in the thread you refer to. My first and most obvious question - how does one go about converting the texture files from extended 32 bit to DXT3 format?

Boy, am I glad to see it's the bird and not my machine.
Click to expand...

You can do individual textures with a program called DXTBMP, a wonderful piece of work & an invaluable tool developed by the great (in my opinion) Martin Wright.

http://www.btinternet.com/~mnwright/programs/dxtbmp.htm

People who are a lot more clued in than me may be able to suggest a way to do batches of textures, rather than one at a time, using Imagetool; I've never totally got my head around the parameters (never looked in detail to be honest), but it is probably the way to go.
 
Just downloaded the program, and will give it a quick review before a med appt shortly after 1. After I'm back we'll dive in.
 
bmp2dxt3 might be the one mentioned here. You can do any number of files at a time but be careful not to mix them up. I tried this tool on a scenery file or two and am pretty sure I fouled things up so I had to reinstall FS. Otherwise I used it for cloud files until HDE came out. Haven't done anything with it since.
 
I'm back from the MRI and an inspection of a visiting C-47 here at McKinnon APT, so ready to take a look at this program. I may have to impose on you folks for a little explanation of this thing. What I'm going to do is make a copy of the original texture for the JF Lockheed F-4, and use that to experiment with, running the texture through the tool and trying to see what the tool does to them. I confess to seeing this program oncee before for another reason, and being overwhelmed by it. Wish the instructions read "Take each bmp from your offending texture, and put it on this screen - push this button - take rehabbed bmp off screen and put it back in texture folder - do the same with the next bmp until they are all processed." I'll see what I can learn.
 
Converting textures to dxt3

Much more straightforward is to use Microsoft's own 'ImageTool' (.exe file, you should be able to locate a copy
on t'web if you didn't install it with Fs2004).

Modus Operandii:

1) Put it (ImageTool) in its own folder outside of fs9/2004
folders;
2) Drop in same folder with ImageTool the texture coverter.tx file below
3) Rename texture converter.txt to texture converter.bat
4) Copy the complete texture folder you wish to convert from appropriate fs9/2004 aircraft, as a folder, and paste into folder with image tool;
(In screenshot below its named texture.ABCDXXX, name is irrelevant just want to show you folder structure!!)
5) Run texture converter.bat; a DOS window will open, as shown in screenshot, select the required option, (press key 1,2 or 3) and all textures within texture.ABCDXXX (<-- NAME IRRELEVANT!!) folder will be convertd in one easy step.
6) Once imagetool has finished processing, simply cut/paste complete texture folder back into the appropriate fs9/2004 aeroplane folder.
7) Using this method you can process multiple texture folders all in one go.


Hope this helps

ttfn

Pete

Ps. I didn't 'write' the batch file, it has been around the web for a while and has been used with modification
by several other chaps whom are cleverer than me; including D Maltby esq. who adapted it for his particular models.







View attachment 51658
 
if it's of use i have the batch converters all packaged up if you want me to upload... ask AndyG how handy the PSD>32-bit was :icon_lol:

basically (it is) the same, you drag and drop imagetool and the batch converter into the texture folder, run the bat and voila... textures converted...
 
Cheers Pete, I've never really used Imagetool, but that is a really simple explanation. When I'm working with textures it is normally a new repaint, do DXTBMP is appropriate, rarely needed to do batch conversions; but that will be useful for doing the AI bits for the TSR2 project. Have one on me. :icon29:
 
Matt / Andy,

Yes IIRC there are plenty more options available using 'ImageTool'; I have a few stashed away on onother cd-rom somewhere..
if you have 'em, post 'em up in the tips/tweaks thread?
Makes Matt one of those
several other chaps whom are cleverer than me
Click to expand...
:salute:


I was told its best to run 'ImageTool' outside of FS9; because it can 'hunt' for textures if it doesn't find
them within its own directory; and there are some within Fs9 that you don't want converted to DXT3!!

ttfn

Pete
 
odd mine only goes rummaging in the folder it's in IIRC... i know the 'convert to 32bit' definately does, thats dow i get the textures rapidly converted ready to make a paintkit, no piddling about in DXTBMP :icon_lol:
 
ok just uploaded a .rar with imagetool and the batch converters in :salute:

if anyone can't open .rars PM your e-mail address and i'll get it right over to you :salute:
 
Motor, Andy & Matt - all msgs received, I will now give this a try and see how it goes. BTW, what should I be looking for after the conversion is done -
1)faster loading times with the aircraft overall;
2)faster loading times for the virtual cockpit;
3)aircraft keeping its textures after the engines are started;
4)ground sceneries beneath the aircraft at altitude remaining sharper;
5)or any combination of the above?
 
depends on the texture format, DXT3 is good for performance as it cuts some of the detail and therefore smaller texture filesizes, 32-bit is high-end (in FS9 terms), larger files, but without as much texture distortion, same goes for mip maps, with them it's a reduction in texture load and therefore increases performance and without them again... can take longer to load things (by comparison)
 
Matt Wynn said:
odd mine only goes rummaging in the folder it's in IIRC... i know the 'convert to 32bit' definately does, thats dow i get the textures rapidly converted ready to make a paintkit, no piddling about in DXTBMP :icon_lol:
Click to expand...

Y'know how it is.. probably goes waay back when tool was first developed and has stayed like an urban myth now that its'
matured. Old git that I am I'm still using version I got with Fs2002 SDK; and don't like to chance anything.

ttfn

Pete
 
Motormouse said:
Y'know how it is.. probably goes waay back when tool was first developed and has stayed like an urban myth now that its'
matured. Old git that I am I'm still using version I got with Fs2002 SDK; and don't like to chance anything.

ttfn

Pete
Click to expand...

yeah i've included the fs2004 one with the batch tools....
 
I found the ImageTool via a Bing search, and downloaded it. Opened it into a separate folder in "C" drive SEPARATE from FS9. I then put the texture converter.txt file in this folder, and renamed it to "texture converter.bat" IAW instructions. Next step was to put a copy of the texture of the F-4 into the "ImageTool" folder. I then double-clicked the "bat" file to start the process, and got a pop-up box displaying this information:


@ECHO off
cls
ECHO Convert textures to DXT3 format for this aircraft
ECHO -------------------------------------------------
ECHO.
ECHO Note - DXT3 is a 'lossy' compression format - some quality is traded for a
ECHO more efficient texture file.
ECHO Most textures convert very well, but some can become a bit blotchy or grainy.
ECHO Colours and shades can often be slightly altered in DXT3.
ECHO Once converted, top quality can't be regained by converting back to 32-bit.
ECHO Mip maps are lower resolution copies of the original texture. Some grapics
ECHO cards don't work well with them and some don't work well without them!
ECHO.
ECHO 1. Quit without converting anything
ECHO 2. Convert all textures to DXT3 (Mip Maps)
ECHO 3. Convert all textures to DXT3 (No Mip Maps)
ECHO.
set choice=
set /p choice=Enter 1, 2 or 3 :
if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1%
if '%choice%'=='2' goto DXT3M
if '%choice%'=='3' goto DXT3NM
goto end
:DXT3NM
IMAGETOOL -r -brief -DXT3 -detail -nomip -nowarning -e bmp *.bmp
goto end
:DXT3M
IMAGETOOL -r -brief -DXT3 -detail -nowarning -e bmp *.bmp
goto end
rem Run 'IMAGETOOL -?' to get a full list of the parameter options available
goto end
:end

What's the next step, folks - I never got a DOS dialog box, just the pop-up window w/this text.
 
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