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Aircraft Texture Tip


DominicS

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Hello fellow X-Plane flyers,

 

I thought I'd share this little tip with you (apologies to those who are already aware of it).

 

Due to the numerous add-ons installed on my X-Plane installation and also the limitations set by my VRAM, I have had to drop my main X-Plane texture resolution down from 'Very High' to 'High'. The upshot of this change, is that frame-rates have greatly improved and object detail and draw distance is almost doubled. However, texture resolution, especially in aircraft with low default textures (1024x1024) suffer considerably. Aircraft with higher default resolutions, or with HD textures such as those from Carenado and Alabeo maintain their quality...to a degree.

 

What I have recently found out though, is that it is possible, via Plane-Maker, to set parts of your aircraft to its maximum resolution. This means that your aircraft is not affected when the main X-Plane texture resolution is lowered (pretty good huh:D

 

To do this, you first have to first open up Plane-Maker and then load your desired aircraft (acf file).

 

From here, select the 'Standard' option in the main menu and then the 'Misc objects' option in the drop down menu.

 

11.jpg

 

This will then display the following page:

 

12.jpg

 

As you can see from the picture above, there are numerous options called 'hi-res', which in this case I have selected (now green). What this option does is to boost the texture resolution of an object to its maximum possible resolution. It's up to you how many you select, as each one will affect the amount of VRAM used.

 

When you have finished selecting the desired objects, simply save your aircraft and then load it up in X-Plane to see the difference.

 

DC3_3.jpeg

 

To give you an example, above is Heinz's default DC-3 cockpit with no changes made and with X-Plane's default texture resolution set to high. As you can see, the text, due to X-Plane's relatively low default texture, is blurry and hard to read.

 

DC3_4.jpeg

 

However, when we use Plane-Maker to alter the parameters, the text maintains its clarity and is easy to read.

 

5.jpeg

 

The image above shows the exterior with no changes made and with X-Plane's default texture resolution set to high.

 

6.jpeg

 

And now with the changes made. Quite a difference, especially in regards to the decals.

 

Of course, your milage will vary depending on the aircraft selected, but I hope this has been of some help to you.

 

Happy flying:D

 

Regards

 

Dominic

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