VERY annoying blurred texture on building...HELP!!!

[Bushi]

Okay... THIS right here has been an issue with my FS9 for as long as I can remember. I've lived with it.. annoying as it is... and tried to find the errant file and do something about it many times in the past, but with no success.

But tonight, while saving a flight with my constellation at Burbank airport.. and looking out my windshield and seeing this.. I'm finally asking for some help.

As far as I know EVERY other texture painted on every other building is nice and crisp.. but this one file.. no matter what I've done in my settings.. looks like this...
A BLURRY MESS!!!

Can anyone help me? Point me in the direction of the location of the actual texture file so that I might be able to fix.. or fully repaint it??

or send it to me if it's something that has somehow gone bye bye from my FS folder..

Soooo Annoying having to look at this at almost every airport..

thanks
Dave

 

[Bushi]

well..... I found it

and nothing I can do in photoshop or with the converter is fixing it.

oh well..

file name is sky_w_white1 located in the main texture folder.

 

[Milton Shupe]

Mips maybe?

Small Size?

 

[huub vink]

I agree with Milton, this could be that the specific texture has "mipmaps" included. Before you put any effort in it you could also zoom in at the texture and see whether it gets sharper. When it doesn't it is more logical that the blurries are caused by size.

When its size you either have to create a new texture, or find one in a back-up. I can't remember whether there is a back-up at one the FS2004 install CDs.

Cheers,
Huub

 

[Bushi]

yes, it IS a rather tiny file (64X64 pixels) and all efforts by me to sharpen it up have failed.

And my mipmaps are set to 6, and changing this in the hardware menu has done nothing, nor can I clean it up in DXT bmp converter.

Is anyone else having this issue with this file?

my hardware settings...

 

[huub vink]

Could you enlarge it to 128x128 and redraw it? It will have a minor effect on frame rates, but I think most machines will be able to handle it.

And to answer your question; yes, most default scenery building textures are not really crisp in FS9.

Cheers,
Huub

 

[Blackbird686]

I have found from experience that in rare cases, an alpha channel, or lack there of, in aircraft textures of a specific layout can cause "the blurries" on ground textures. Milton is right in his assumption about Mips. In some cases, re-saving the offending texture using Martin Wright's DXTbmp without mips has cured the problem. Since the offending texture is such a small size, I wouldn't rule out giving that a try. I have only done this with aircraft textures, never ground or water textures.
It just depends on how the texture is laid out... and since my knowledge is limited on this subject, I won't take it any further.

BB686

 

[Mick]

First, don't remove mipmaps in your settings, remove them in the individual file. A setting of six might be OK for a general setting but what you need here is no mips at all, zero, nothing more. Just open the file in DXTbmp, make sure the mipmaps box is not checked, and save the file.

That should do it, but if not, try saving it in high resolution format, extended 32-bit 888-8. That would normally be excessive for texture files, but it's not a problem for just one file.

If that doesn't work I'd be flabbergasted, but you might then make it bigger. Before you go to the trouble of trying to redraw it, first try loading it in a good image program and save it at 200% size (or bigger if necessary. But I don't think you'll get to that step.

Good luck!

 

[stoney]

I've got the same issue Bush,i but I couldn't find the texture causing the problem. I'm going to try some of the suggestions found here and see if they might work. Like you, I was just living with it.

 

[Motormouse]

Try DXT fixer, from Avsim library. Point it at your fs9 folder and it will do the rest
The blurriness is because the file header includes a setting for either a non existent alpha, or vice versa.
Dxt fixer, well, fixes that.

Ttfn

Pete

 

[Sascha66]

Try DXT fixer, from Avsim library. Point it at your fs9 folder and it will do the rest
The blurriness is because the file header includes a setting for either a non existent alpha, or vice versa.
Dxt fixer, well, fixes that.

Ttfn

Pete

Send me a PM, please!

 

[huub vink]

When you have problems to find the program mentioned by Pete at Avsim, the full file name is: dxtfixerx_v2.2.zip

Cheers,
Huub

 

[Mick]

Try DXT fixer, from Avsim library. Point it at your fs9 folder and it will do the rest
The blurriness is because the file header includes a setting for either a non existent alpha, or vice versa.
Dxt fixer, well, fixes that.
Ttfn
Pete

Now there's a little utility worth having in the toolbox!

Thanks for the HU!

 

[Milton Shupe]

Try DXT fixer, from Avsim library. Point it at your fs9 folder and it will do the rest
The blurriness is because the file header includes a setting for either a non existent alpha, or vice versa.
Dxt fixer, well, fixes that.

Ttfn

Pete

Pete, you are probably correct on this reasoning; I had forgotten about that but now remember it well. Thanks

 

[Bushi]

rather than thanks everyone in individual posts...

THANK YOU to all of you guys for the suggestions and advice!

Every single bit was helpful and led me to decide what the best course of action was, and in the end, I decided to enlarge it.. ended up having to go to 256 to get something I wanted, and then after doing the 32 bit 888-8 that I always use for my aircraft repaints, managed to back in down to DXT 3.. (DXT 1 was just horrid!!)

But the file itself was still far too blurry, so redrew the building material texture. A nice 'stucco' in light gray, then merely found some windows in the "generic Airport buildings' file which I copied and pasted and pasted.. and pasted.. an... yeah.. lol.. THEN since things were looking up.. decided to give the building DOORS.. and again.. from the same file.. and added hand drawn window frames in aluminium, with a light shadow along the bottom edge.


Is it perfect? Well...no.. its a building in FS9.... but at least now, I don't get a headache looking at that godawful blurry building out my windscreen!!


Thanks again to everyone, and for the tip on that little DXT fixer tool! One more tool in the box!

here is a quick screengrab of my NEW building..

oh, and ps.. the filename seems to indicate it is used primarily on skyscrapers.. so.. I'll keep my eye out next time I'm over a large metropolis.. to see what buildings I've mucked up!!

 

[Sascha66]

Looks good!

 

[huub vink]

Like you already said, its a still a FS2004 building, but it looks much better than it did

Cheers,
Huub

 

[Mick]

Excellent! Looks great!