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Mass Texture Editor Questions

tgibson

tgibson

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Hi,

I have two things I've experienced in the Mass Texture Editor (MTE).

1. If I have a BMP file that needs to have it's name changed to something logical, I have tried changing the name of the texture but leaving the two checkboxes unchecked. I do not get a copy of the texture with the new name in the folder specified, but my material references have been changed to the new name of the now non-existent texture. I did get a new file copied into the folder when I converted a texture from JPG to BMP.

2. How do I tell what format the BMP files exported from Sketchup are in? If I have the choice to convert them to "BMP" (which I assume is 8 bit/256 color BMP format?) or "DXTBMP" (which I assume is DXT1 format?), then I need to know what their current format is to be able to make a choice to convert them to the other format.

Am I doing something wrong or missing something?

Thanks,
 
One more thing.

When I converted the Spanish Tile Roof JPG texture (exported from Sketchup) to a 256 x 128 BMP file using the Mass Texture Editor, it no longer will show up in the Material Editor or on the model. I can open it in PSP and it looks fine, but it won't show up in MCX.

You can see in this image it shows as invalid in the Material Editor:

mte_error.jpg


Hope this helps,
 
Hi Tom,

tgibson said:
1. If I have a BMP file that needs to have it's name changed to something logical, I have tried changing the name of the texture but leaving the two checkboxes unchecked. I do not get a copy of the texture with the new name in the folder specified, but my material references have been changed to the new name of the now non-existent texture. I did get a new file copied into the folder when I converted a texture from JPG to BMP.
Click to expand...

That is as designed at the moment. Maybe not the most logical :).

You would have to select convert as well to have it saved on disk with the new name as well. You could convert to the same format it is already of course.

tgibson said:
2. How do I tell what format the BMP files exported from Sketchup are in? If I have the choice to convert them to "BMP" (which I assume is 8 bit/256 color BMP format?) or "DXTBMP" (which I assume is DXT1 format?), then I need to know what their current format is to be able to make a choice to convert them to the other format.
Click to expand...

I think for SketchUp it depends on what you load it in, but most of the time it will be a normal BMP file. I am not even sure if SketchUp can understand the DXT BMP files that FS2004 normally uses.

When you select BMP as export format you get 32 bit BMP files. If you select DXTBMP you get DXT3 files textures with an alpha channel and DXT1 for all others. It is advised to use DXTBMP for FS, since that also includes mipmaps. The normal BMP format is more added if you want to export to other tools.

tgibson said:
When I converted the Spanish Tile Roof JPG texture (exported from Sketchup) to a 256 x 128 BMP file using the Mass Texture Editor, it no longer will show up in the Material Editor or on the model. I can open it in PSP and it looks fine, but it won't show up in MCX.
Click to expand...

Could it be that the texture folder you exported to is not on the texture search path? In that case the new texture would not be found afterwards.
 
Hi Arno,

When Sketchup exported the .DAE file it created a folder alongside the .DAE file with the same name, containing the exported textures. I placed the converted textures into the very same folder. You made an MCX update that automatically read from that folder without placing it on the texture search path. I assumed that this would continue using the converted textures. Due to the problem getting a renamed copy of the BMP file, I renamed a copy of the BMP file myself in that same folder (to KBUR_Terminal.bmp), and MCX is reading that texture just fine.

I often use 8 bit BMP textures for my scenery. I checked, and Sketchup still exports it as an 8 bit BMP texture. All I want the Mass Texture Editor to do is rename a copy of that texture and place that name into the materials. If I can't do that, then I'll either end up with DXT1 or 32 bit BMP's, something I don't necessarily want.

So if I only rename a texture but not check a box can I get MCX to rename a copy of the texture but leave it alone? Or add a Rename check box so I can check that to trigger the conversion process? Even better, when you start typing in the Name box it gets checked automatically (but then you don't really need the box). :)

Thanks,
 
Hi,

tgibson said:
When Sketchup exported the .DAE file it created a folder alongside the .DAE file with the same name, containing the exported textures. I placed the converted textures into the very same folder. You made an MCX update that automatically read from that folder without placing it on the texture search path. I assumed that this would continue using the converted textures. Due to the problem getting a renamed copy of the BMP file, I renamed a copy of the BMP file myself in that same folder (to KBUR_Terminal.bmp), and MCX is reading that texture just fine.
Click to expand...

Yes, I that case it should work I would say. I'll try to test it here to see if there is anything wrong.

tgibson said:
I often use 8 bit BMP textures for my scenery. I checked, and Sketchup still exports it as an 8 bit BMP texture. All I want the Mass Texture Editor to do is rename a copy of that texture and place that name into the materials. If I can't do that, then I'll either end up with DXT1 or 32 bit BMP's, something I don't necessarily want.
Click to expand...

If the files are already on the disk you can use the match button to match the right textures with the materials.

I would advice you to use DXT BMP files though. They give you 16 bit colour, so better looking textures and they are smaller and better for the performance.
 
Hi,

OK, I'll just copy the file manually when I want to stick with 8 bit textures. I find them easier to create and just as good as DXT regarding appearance and frame rate.

That will be annoying having to add these folders to the texture search path every time I convert some textures for a new building. I wish it could retain the automatic search for textures in the adjoining folder, as it does upon Import. But I'll manage. :)

Thanks,
 
Hi,

tgibson said:
That will be annoying having to add these folders to the texture search path every time I convert some textures for a new building. I wish it could retain the automatic search for textures in the adjoining folder, as it does upon Import. But I'll manage. :)
Click to expand...

I'll check, it should work if you put them in the same folder.
 
Hi,

It didn't work with the old version, but the latest version seems to be displaying them fine. I'll let you know if it happens again.

Another question - I notice that when you convert files to DXTMP format, the extension used is .dxtbmp. Is this read OK by the FS and DXTBmp programs?

Thanks,
 
Hi Tom,

The files should be created with the BMP extension on disk. I only used DXTBMP in the tool to indicate the difference with normal BMP files. Do you see them with that extension on your disk? I'll have to check this.
 
Hi Tom,

That was a bug indeed. I found the cause, so it will be fixed in the development release of tomorrow.
 
Thanks for finding it :).
 
Hi,

I found one more thing. When I resize a texture from 256 x 163 to 256 x 128 (along with renaming it and converting it to DXTBMP format), the Match button no longer finds it when I reload my COLLADA file into MCX (after restarting MCX). It finds the file I didn't resize just fine.

Perhaps nothing you can do (since it is after all a different texture now), but I thought I would let you know. Typing in the new name and pressing Update works fine.

Hope this helps,
 
Hi Tom,

That is indeed as designed at the moment. When comparing two textures a different size will result in the function saying they are not the same. But if you have suggestions on how this would work better I would be happy to consider. i am not sure yet how I can make these functions most user friendly :D.
 
Hi,

I've tried to think about different ways of comparing resized textures (i.e. read the first row (or column) of pixels and compare those), but even those will not necessarily be the same, depending on the resizing protocol. That would be my only suggestion.

I can't think of anything else...

But thanks for making it as automatic as possible though. :)
 
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