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FSDS3 for FS X ?
- Thread starter Joe D
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I am unsure of FSDS3 being updated to work with FSX, but I'm pretty sure that Louis is working on a package that will allow export of FSX sim objects. Whether that will be an all new FSDS remains to be seen.
Best regards,
Owen
well...I know Gmax stuff will work,at least in the demo it does..Larry Hart made a building and textured it and put it in the Demo...so at least the GMax users will be happy about that at least....I use EZ Scenery to place my objects anyhow,so Im just hoping abacus will update EZ Scenery to work with FS X,Im sure they will...Im looking forward to seeing just whats in store for us with FS X....more good stuff to learn....just hate having to spend 300.00 or more each time on hardware upgrades when M$ releases a new version of FS though..lol
See Thru Textures
I tried my FSDS3 ship model "USS Conyngham DDG-17" in the Demo version of FSX. Everything worked, except most all the textures were semi-transparent. Like having 3-D vision, you can see inside everything. Hopefully that issue will be resolved in the full release of FSX.
I tried my FSDS3 ship model "USS Conyngham DDG-17" in the Demo version of FSX. Everything worked, except most all the textures were semi-transparent. Like having 3-D vision, you can see inside everything. Hopefully that issue will be resolved in the full release of FSX.
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Due to the backwards compatibility scenery made with FSDS3 should indeed still work in FsX (just like scenery made with the GMax using the Fs2004 MakeMDL).
But I don't know if FSDS will be updated for the new FsX MDL format (this is different again). It will probably require a different X file output, so that it works with the new SDK tools.
But I don't know if FSDS will be updated for the new FsX MDL format (this is different again). It will probably require a different X file output, so that it works with the new SDK tools.
Isnt there a new DXT format thats going to be featured with FS X?..i thought that I had read that somewheres...
also, will FS X work with Direct X 9 based cards on the 32bit install ?
Im still running a Nvidia FX5200 256mb AGP 8x card...it seemed like when I isntalled the demo,It screwed with my direct x and I went thru a lot of trouble shooting and reinstalled my video drivers and reinstalled direct x 9 and its pretty much fixed the problems...Im about to switch to a new hard drive and give FS9 a fresh install anyways..its wayyyyy over due for me.
also,I just wanted to let you guys know to tell your wives that piggly wiggly is now having a super sale on its meat..lol..see image below..lol..I had to make the pig...i forgot who made winn-dixie and albertsons and all that,but for some reason I got the urge to make a piggly wiggly..its still under construction in FSDS3 right now,so some of the stuff will be changed and fine tuned...
regards,
also, will FS X work with Direct X 9 based cards on the 32bit install ?
Im still running a Nvidia FX5200 256mb AGP 8x card...it seemed like when I isntalled the demo,It screwed with my direct x and I went thru a lot of trouble shooting and reinstalled my video drivers and reinstalled direct x 9 and its pretty much fixed the problems...Im about to switch to a new hard drive and give FS9 a fresh install anyways..its wayyyyy over due for me.
also,I just wanted to let you guys know to tell your wives that piggly wiggly is now having a super sale on its meat..lol..see image below..lol..I had to make the pig...i forgot who made winn-dixie and albertsons and all that,but for some reason I got the urge to make a piggly wiggly..its still under construction in FSDS3 right now,so some of the stuff will be changed and fine tuned...
regards,
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Is this true?
Last edited by a moderator:
I dunno...I thought I read somewheres about DXT5 textures somewhere,which will render the Gmax Image tool and the DXTBmp tool useless,unless new versions of each are released.
So much is about to happen,and not much information is being released for the painters and other developers.Maybe the new texture format ws just a roumer,who knows...Im not rushing to buy FS X anyways until I get a better PC than what I have now,Im barely able to run FS9 at medium settings anyhow.
So as long as DXT3 or 32bit textures can be used for aircraft repaints in FS X and for scenery textures,im not really concerned about a new texture format,I am anxious to see how the textures would look with a new compression format anyways,if you can get the 32bit look on a DXT5 format and have the file size cut down to about 1/2 of what it is now and still retain good image quality,it would indeed be a major texture breakthru...I relish the thought of textures being very good quality,but 1/2 the file size they are now,resulting in less space used on the hard drive.
BMP files regardless of what format take up a lot of space on hard drives,if this new BMP format cures that problem,i will be forever grateful,I still have a 20Gb and 80Gb hard drive IDE setup,so im compressed on both hard drives and about to have to start putting my saved files on CD's to free up space.
I hope someone will shed some light on this soon.
So much is about to happen,and not much information is being released for the painters and other developers.Maybe the new texture format ws just a roumer,who knows...Im not rushing to buy FS X anyways until I get a better PC than what I have now,Im barely able to run FS9 at medium settings anyhow.
So as long as DXT3 or 32bit textures can be used for aircraft repaints in FS X and for scenery textures,im not really concerned about a new texture format,I am anxious to see how the textures would look with a new compression format anyways,if you can get the 32bit look on a DXT5 format and have the file size cut down to about 1/2 of what it is now and still retain good image quality,it would indeed be a major texture breakthru...I relish the thought of textures being very good quality,but 1/2 the file size they are now,resulting in less space used on the hard drive.
BMP files regardless of what format take up a lot of space on hard drives,if this new BMP format cures that problem,i will be forever grateful,I still have a 20Gb and 80Gb hard drive IDE setup,so im compressed on both hard drives and about to have to start putting my saved files on CD's to free up space.
I hope someone will shed some light on this soon.
Joe,
Sorry to burst your bubble, but my advice (for me too) is to get the biggest SATA hard drive available and stand by for heavy rolls.
Here's why: DXT5 is not new to graphics, it's only new to Flight Sim. It's a compression type that is used quite frequently in DirectX applications. DXT5 supports a four bit Alpha Channel; the first three bits for the alpha image and one bit for interpolation to tell the engine how to transition to the next shade...smoothly or sharply.
The actual texture format is .dds this comes straight from the Microsoft DirectX SDK. As Flight Sim transitions to more game based, it is natural for the developers to incorporate game style textures. also easier when the directX boards start coming out to use their capability.
The real bad news follows: For a standard building instead of having one texture, you may end up having four. For a single 256 by 256 portion of a building texture, you'll see the following files: (this is from the demo)
File: air_tb5_6.dds 47.2K DXT1 the base texture; daytime view 256x256
File: air_tb5_6_bump.dds 64K DXT5 bump map for the base texture 256x256
File: air_tb5_6_lm.dds 47.2k DXT1 the base texture; night view
File: air_tb5_6_Specular 85.4k DXT5 reflection map; so this one has shiny windows, and a shiny metal door.
So this portion of the building just cost us 234.8K just for storage. The bump map makes the texture 3D, the lighter the shade, the closer it appears, the darker the shade, the further away it appears. The reflectivity map seems to indicate the amount of shine based on shade...darker is unreflective lighter is reflective. Who wants to bet that this layer also has a lot to do with transparency?
At any rate, so far that's my data dump on FSX's textures. I'm learning along with everyone else.
Jim
Sorry to burst your bubble, but my advice (for me too) is to get the biggest SATA hard drive available and stand by for heavy rolls.
Here's why: DXT5 is not new to graphics, it's only new to Flight Sim. It's a compression type that is used quite frequently in DirectX applications. DXT5 supports a four bit Alpha Channel; the first three bits for the alpha image and one bit for interpolation to tell the engine how to transition to the next shade...smoothly or sharply.
The actual texture format is .dds this comes straight from the Microsoft DirectX SDK. As Flight Sim transitions to more game based, it is natural for the developers to incorporate game style textures. also easier when the directX boards start coming out to use their capability.
The real bad news follows: For a standard building instead of having one texture, you may end up having four. For a single 256 by 256 portion of a building texture, you'll see the following files: (this is from the demo)
File: air_tb5_6.dds 47.2K DXT1 the base texture; daytime view 256x256
File: air_tb5_6_bump.dds 64K DXT5 bump map for the base texture 256x256
File: air_tb5_6_lm.dds 47.2k DXT1 the base texture; night view
File: air_tb5_6_Specular 85.4k DXT5 reflection map; so this one has shiny windows, and a shiny metal door.
So this portion of the building just cost us 234.8K just for storage. The bump map makes the texture 3D, the lighter the shade, the closer it appears, the darker the shade, the further away it appears. The reflectivity map seems to indicate the amount of shine based on shade...darker is unreflective lighter is reflective. Who wants to bet that this layer also has a lot to do with transparency?
At any rate, so far that's my data dump on FSX's textures. I'm learning along with everyone else.
Jim
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The Fs2004 version of ImageTool already supports DXT5 textures, so I would not panic here. Also for most projects the DXT1 and DXT3 formats should be enough, if I remmeber correct the DXT5 format has the advantage of even more bits in the alpha channel.
For what it may be worth, I'm passing this info along.
This tool, dds_converter_v21.exe, seams to do the job. Haven't tried it yet.
You can get it here along with some other utilities :
http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/files/Elite_Force_2/Utilities/Graphics_Tools;2291
And here you can have comments of someone that actualy used it. Go 10-12 messages down the lane for the comments.
http://www.fs2004.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=90965
Hope it helps,
Hugo
This tool, dds_converter_v21.exe, seams to do the job. Haven't tried it yet.
You can get it here along with some other utilities :
http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/files/Elite_Force_2/Utilities/Graphics_Tools;2291
And here you can have comments of someone that actualy used it. Go 10-12 messages down the lane for the comments.
http://www.fs2004.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=90965
Hope it helps,
Hugo
spotlope
FSDevConf team
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I think it's important to point out that you are not required to use the bump, reflective, environment or specular maps in your models for FSX. They're purely options, and can be indicated or not, depending on what level of detail you want. I don't want anyone to get the idea that it'll be mandatory to use 4 or 5x as many textures as you did before.
Heavens no. I think we all understand that the bumps and specular layers are optional, but they certainly add to the tools available for making scenery objects more realistic. Think about roof coaming for flat roofed structures, or louvers for vehicle radiators, or the shiny on your new car or making the windows actually look like windows. The additional layers add realism that wasn't previously there. I will probably use them sparingly for a while just in small experimental objects until the faster processors and video cards catch up. No use ticking folks off because your scenery is a frame rate hog. No future in it.
Jim
Jim
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tgibson
Resource contributor
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Hi,
We'd have to know the details of your bitmaps (color key transparency, alpha channels, exact format, etc.) before giving you any relevant information. I can say that my color key transparent signs at night are not displaying properly, and display with a black border during the day. If I disable the new Shaders in FSX all of it now displays properly (along with untextured surfaces).
Hope this helps,
We'd have to know the details of your bitmaps (color key transparency, alpha channels, exact format, etc.) before giving you any relevant information. I can say that my color key transparent signs at night are not displaying properly, and display with a black border during the day. If I disable the new Shaders in FSX all of it now displays properly (along with untextured surfaces).
Hope this helps,
The FSDS for FSX beta is now in testing and is working with the new code format. The new format will probably take some time to get used to though ..Animations are way smoother and are unlimited..(I think) I do know they go past the 1024..Other great things are the attached parts..Platforms can now be animated..or attached and used as landing decks on ships/carriers for moving..Of course all these extras are hand tested for now and must be added via command prompt..