Flickering Texture

[Novatar]

Hi
I have designed a scenery and have had feedback from a couple of beta testers about a certain texture, (api macro), which flickers constantly. This does not happen on my computer. The difference being their machines are much faster (AMD 1900 with Geforce video cards and mine is a PIII 650 with a Matrox card). I would like to know if someone knows what the problem might be and how to fix if possible.
I designed the macro using FSDS, using the disk selection and applying a texture. I then applied it using Airport for Windows and set the elevation of the texure to various heights (0 ft to +1 ft above ground). Flickering occurs regardless of elevation.
Can anyone help here please?
Novastar
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3ca8e22350383eef.jpg

[GerrishGray]

Hi there

In the absence of any other information, I assume that you are talking about FS2002? There could be several reasons for the reported problem, but one of the most likely could be the format used for the bitmap texture. Do you know which format the bitmap is in? FS2002 is not overly fond of some of the older bitmap formats. The 8-bit 256 colour paletised format widely used in FS2000 is particulary problematical - FS2002 struggles with the display of the palette colours and, especially, with the alpha transparency channel, if used. This can cause the flickering you describe in FS2002.

I would suggest that you get Martin Wright's free DXTBmp and Show tools from his web site at http://fly.to/mwgfx. These will enable you to convert bitmaps to the new 'DXT' formats preferred by FS2002, and view the converted versions (normal graphics editors/viewers don't display them correctly). Martin's excellent documentation will also explain the ins-and-outs of the different bitmap formats available.

Hope this helps
Gerrish
gerrish.gray@wimborne-dorset.fsnet.co.uk

[shaka]

I haven't had any problems with the 8-bit format as described above. Most of the flickering I've seen has been due to the Zbias option. For some reason, FS2K2 is more sensitive to this than FS2K was. You can change the XBias in the "part properties" box in FSDS. Usually if I change it to 2, my object stops flickering. I wouldn't set it much higher than that though.

Like Gerrish said, without more information, we can't say for sure what is causing this. However, the fact that it appears on other peoples systems not yours makes me wonder if it's very noticable in the first place. Some feedback I got from people who used my scenery was negative to the point of being unusually picky about things - placement, orientation, clor, etc.

- Martin

[Novatar]

Thanks for the replies Gerrish and Martin.
The textures are for FS2002. I checked their properties and they were 8bit/256. I took your suggestion Gerrish and got Martin Wright's DXTBmp and show tools (excellent programs). I changed the textures to 16 Bit extended then I started getting the flickering .. arrrghh. However the good news is I changed the Z bias to 2 and everthing is fine again on my computer. Have sent the revisions to the guys beta testing to see if the flickering is gone. Fingers crossed :-)
Vern
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3cab6dd3288325ce.jpg

[Novatar]

Thank you Gerrish and Martin. Problem solved and one for the "knowledge network':-).
Setting the Z-bias to 2 seemed to do the trick.

Novastar

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3ca8e22350383eef.jpg