resizing/reformating autogen textures to improve fps

[alexzar14]

is it possible to alter autogen, water and etc. textures and/or save it under other more efficient formats to improve fps?

a guy in a screenshot forum tried altering some textures in the beta, he claims it does give a boost in fps...

so you guys who have FSX copies and have experinece in editing, could try something out of it and then release instructions to others: what to do and how to do it, or even release altered packs on flightsim/avsim libraries...

[bricktop2982]

I believe he used a program to change them over to either .bmp or dxt1 files. I however have no experience in this so maybe someone else can chime in

[yv35p]

http://www.fs2004.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91137

This person is using a different method than the one i used..It seems way easier though!..I didnt know this program DDS Converter (i used DXTbmp)...anyways is very well explained, remember to back up first and hope this helps...

[alexzar14]

hi Carlos! thanks for that.
What is (typically) the size of such DDS texture in FSX?
Textures in "scenery/world/textures" of FS9 are 40kb.

[yv35p]

Hey Alex

Well, for example the "acacia tree.dds" is 140KB but other objects like "small boat specular" is 1 MB...so whats this specular thing??...is the same with other objects finishing in "bump"..are very large files...And they are all over the main texture folder too...I'll wait until i have the retail version as i was doing tests right now and the demo time expired so no point in continuing..Im pretty sure the textures can be resized to improve performance, just like i did with 32 bit aircraft textures, easily 4 times smaller using DXT3 and slightly downgraded visuals..

See you my friend, take care

[n4gix]

Here's an even better 'fix' for the tree problem, that doesn't require any work at all:

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=121&topic_id=354861&mesg_id=354861&page=

"For this one I left in the wide variety of tree heights, which I think would all use same model and texture so shouldn't be a big drain. I also left in the top two or three varieties for each tree definition, instead of just one. Also, the bushes have been removed in situations where there are bushes and trees together. But there should still be bushes when they are alone without trees."

For those who don't "go there," here are the two files.

First backup AutogenDescriptions.spb located in your FSX\Autogen folder. Then unzip the file "114819.zip" attached to this post in it's place.

Then, backup and replace Materials.spb and RoofDescription.sbp with the ones in the 114820.zip file. This will decrease the variety of roofs that show on autogen buildings.

Replacing all three files has enabled me to crank up autogen to "NORMAL" and go from only a solid 20fps to 30+fps!!! ;)

Also, Jean-Luc (RXP) has a number of interesting things that he suggests doing that will (in most cases) provide even more 'boost' without sacrifing all of the neat features...

[alexzar14]

thanks. It doesn't work with the demo, I will try it with retailed FSX when I have it.

[yv35p]

Hi Bill how've you been? :D

Thanks for this! Really, switching textures is a lot of work and im not even sure if its worth it...Impressive the gain in performance you are reporting, will try it asap! :D

Have a nice day

[garpower]

This is the 'mother of all FSX tweaks', so far. Along with adding the line FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.33 and changing the TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT value to 80 (up from default 10) the performance gains is 100% - 150% (mind you, from a very crappy unflyable low). Now I am able to fly quite smoothly from Montego Bay to all my other Jamaican airports and airstrips, with brilliant textures (land, sea and air/clouds).

Thanks to all the dedicated folks (geniuses in thier own right) who are working tirelessly for the entire flight sim community. I am confident that by the 17th Europe and Asia will be able to enjoy FSX, almost out of the box........there is method in M$ madness.


Reggae Simmer......getting back my voice.



PS: Kim Jong ILL (and his new bride Menta Li Ill - stolen from Dave Letterman) was so frustrated with the poor performance he yelled and poohped, resulting in siemic reaction, which the US thought was a nuclear bomb test)......blame Bill G and ACE.

[n4gix]

>Hi Bill how've you been? :D
>
>Thanks for this! Really, switching textures is a lot of work
>and im not even sure if its worth it...Impressive the gain in
>performance you are reporting, will try it asap! :D
>
>Have a nice day

Thanks, Carlos... Keeping busy getting all the ESDG products up to FSX specs... ;)

I was very happy to find this from Matt, since it was a major PITA to test stuff in FSX for any length of time...

[yv35p]

<<<Keeping busy getting all the ESDG products up to FSX specs>>> Way to go!

I already did a test using the files you kindly provided, it makes a huge difference thanks again Bill :D

Take Care

[alexzar14]

Carlos, dod you install those files into FSX demo-1? It doesn't work with my demo, demo crashes.

Also, I've heard of another fix: there have been reports of improved fps if the light bloom is sellected off in FSX...
Han you guys try it and see if it is true or not?

[yv35p]

Yes Alex, it works in Demo version 2...Regarding light bloom, man that effect just kills my framerates so yeah, is turned off...I will email you my settings so you can have a reference