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Mass Texture Editor

R

richard64

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454
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wales
I think I have been doing this bit wrong.

I have followed the instructions but suspect I have misread the bit about the red triangle and resizing.

Almost every model I have opened via the MTE have shown the red triangle but I have been resizing those textures that do NOT have a tick.

Now I think this is wrong and should have been resizing those textures WITH a tick.


Could someone please go through this business of resizing textures again for me.

I am getting a number of models with "flickering" textures which a bit annoying.

Regards

Richard.
 
Hi Richard,

I am not sure what you mean with "the red triangle". The procedure for the mass texture editor is as follows.

When you open it you get an overview of all textures in the model. Those are not in the expected format or size for FS will automatically check the option to convert to another format or to resize checked. You can also check these options for other textures if you want.

Once you press convert all the textures that need to be changed are processed, the new textures are created in the folder that you indicated.
 
Hi Arno, well in the instructions in the "Getting Started with Skectchup" sticky there is a tutorial and there is a section on the MTE (15).

It talks about a red triangle with an exclamation mark point inside it at the lower left of the MCX screen.

It then goes on about the Error Log and textures not being a power of 2 as required by FS.

And this is where I am confused as to what should be changed if anything.
 
richard64 said:
Hi Arno, well in the instructions in the "Getting Started with Skectchup" sticky there is a tutorial and there is a section on the MTE (15).

It talks about a red triangle with an exclamation mark point inside it at the lower left of the MCX screen.

It then goes on about the Error Log and textures not being a power of 2 as required by FS.

And this is where I am confused as to what should be changed if anything.
Click to expand...

Hello Richard...

The one(s) with the red triangle within the event log are the one(s) that MCX is warning you about the power of 2 or/isn't the right format that FSX can read in that particular texture... thoses are the ones that need to be changed within the MTE.

MTE will suggest different sizes (such as 256 x 256, 128 x 128, or 64 x 64 etc) and you will also need to choose which format also.

So the textures that need to be converted will have a check mark next to the resize box and a check mark next to convert box. What part are you having confusion with?

Maybe we can start from there?
 
Hi Doug, I have (hopefully) included a photo with this reply.

It shows the result of opening the MTE of this object.

Now the Event Log says that textures 1 and 2 are not of a power of 2 as required by FS.

Now first of all I have been converting ALL my textures to DDS format.

But I have been putting a tick in the boxes where there isn't one and using the drop down box putting in a larger size and this is where I think I have been going wrong.
 

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richard64 said:
Hi Doug, I have (hopefully) included a photo with this reply.

It shows the result of opening the MTE of this object.

Now the Event Log says that textures 1 and 2 are not of a power of 2 as required by FS.

Now first of all I have been converting ALL my textures to DDS format.

But I have been putting a tick in the boxes where there isn't one and using the drop down box putting in a larger size and this is where I think I have been going wrong.
Click to expand...

Hello Richard....

Actually putting ticks in the boxes where there wasn't any before shouldn't cause any problems really... it would just rewrite it to the size and format used (in your case a .dds file).

I'm supposing that the problem your having is the fact that your textures aren't coming up correctly? From the picture, thats what it appears to be. If so... it appears that MCX isn't looking in the directory in which the newly created textures are located.
 
Hi Doug, well the models appear ok in FSX and the textures OK.

It's just that some of the textures are flickering and I began to wonder if I was editing them correctly in the MTE.

That's when I reread the tutorial and realised that I wasn't changing those that the log said weren't to the power of 2 etc.
 
richard64 said:
Hi Doug, well the models appear ok in FSX and the textures OK.

It's just that some of the textures are flickering and I began to wonder if I was editing them correctly in the MTE.

That's when I reread the tutorial and realised that I wasn't changing those that the log said weren't to the power of 2 etc.
Click to expand...

Hello Richard...

Ahhh ok.... Sorry about not noticing the flickering before,... is the whole Texture flickering or just parts of? Again,... enlarging the texture might help that (at least some)... But what might help more is the number of Mips within the .dds file.

Ok... I know this sounds complicated but MIPS are used within a dds file and what they do/are: They are multiple sizes of a texture; from the default size - downward. In fact, each size downward is approximately 50 % less than the previous. I don't know this for sure but... you might be able to increase the Mips used by converting them within another editor... Like dxtex.exe which is from the SDK of DirectX... unfortunately you can't obtain this file separately... and the SDK for DirectX is large.

If you like,... send the textures to me and I'll see if I can increase the Mips for you. If you do want me to try... send me a private message with your email and I'll reply back with mine.

There might be other techniques out there that could help... in the flickering,... If there is a will, there is a way in most cases:)
 
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Doug I am most grateful for your kind offer.

However the models I am making are very basic. This is not an exercise in detailed modelling and they are really only for overall effect.

There will be somewhere between 700 and 800 models in all so would for you be as big an exercise as it is for me in the first place.

The flickering is annoying more than a real concern.

The attached picture shows a model as displayed in MCX and this is one that I know does flicker.
 

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Nice,... I wonder if its the horizontal lines on the texture making it flicker... I have the same problem on one of my models... and enlarging the texture some does help.

I'm glad I could help!
 
That is a moire-pattern caused by the vertical lines. While there are tons of techniques for removing/reducing moire from scanned images and photos, there aren't many that talk about it the other way around...

...i.e. how to work with an image that generates moire when being rendered by a game engine!

Two methods I've used with some success are these:

1. reduce the contrast between the light and dark areas

2. apply a slight gaussian blur to the pattern to break up the sharp vertical or horizontal gradient between the light and dark areas.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshop/ht/apsremovemoire.htm
 
Thanks guys.

I should perhaps have mentioned that I am using the default textures in Sketchup.

Bill I have to confess I don't have a clue what you are talking about, but grateful for your input.

Regards

Richard.
 
If you have Photoshop (or GIMP for that matter), use the Filters to add a gaussian blurr to the parts of the textures that have the vertical sections (corroguated aluminum siding).

What this filter does is very slightly blur the borders of the light and dark sections to eliminate the sharp line and "break up the pixels" a bit.

An alternate is to use the motion blurr filter. Here is a Wiki entry that shows the beginning and end results for gradient texture. You can clearly see that the sharp divisions between the lighter/darker portions have been blended:

http://forums.flightsim.com/fswiki/index.php/Graphics:_Removing_Gradient_Banding
 
I have successfully removed all shimmering from one of my objects.

However in the process I have lost all the textures.

I have run it through MCX and Library Creator and it is back to normal, whereby the textures show but there is that awful shimmering.
 
I am getting this message from gimp when saving

DDS: It appears your image may be a volume map, but not all layers are the same size, thus a volume map cannot be written.

I think I am in dire need of some direction?

Regards

Richard
 
Hi,

When you convert the object again with ModelConverterX and use the mass texture editor any changes you have made the texture file will be overwritten. So that might explain what is going wrong.

I am not familiar with the error message you have, but your texture should not be a volume map. Just saving it as DDS should be enough.
 
My apologies Arno, I have mislead you.

I made the blur changes with gimp and added these to my active folder.

However because there was no difference and to revert them back to what they were originally I re ran them through MCX.

What I don't understand is that most of my objects the textures are rock steady, yet some are waving about like I don't know what.

I am currently going back through all my work to identify all those with shimmering and will do them all again from scratch.

Regards

Richard
 
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Well it seems, as Bill indicated it is the use of vertical sheeting that is causing the shimmering and I have not been able to cure it with Gaussian Blur.

However by replacing the vertical sheeting with horizontal cladding the objects look fine.

The default horizontal cladding is somewhat limited but as the objects are for effect rather than the main subject then it should be OK.

Regards

Richard.
 
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