:ices_rofl^^^

I don't know if this has any truth to it. I mentioned to a IT guru friend of mine that I (also) got better or same FPS when installing higher resolution textures.

I would have imagined myself that less FPS with higher resolution would be as expected, but instead I either got 1 or two better FPS or the same.

His spin on it was : the game does not have to do as much scaling up of the new textures as is needed with default low res textures. Its like your running in the graphics native state.

I myself have no-idea. I'm quite flabbergasted as to how LFS runs at the same FPS when I alternatively mess around with Higher Detailed Textures option in Graphics Menu and still get the same FPS no matter which I choose. I usually try and test stuff like this where I see approx. 45 FPS so that I can actally see any of the differences my changes make.

My guess, is that your computer/gfx card, depending on their capabilities, will handle things well until you begin to overstep the limitations of the components. A gfx card with 256 megs of memory should be able to handle 80mg of textures without any problems, say. I don't want to sound here like I know what I'm talking about, because I don't, but anyway that's my guess. My style is just to experiment, and I've been really happy with the way LFS has responded to higher res textures, if only on my computer. I haven't heard many reports from others who are having problems (faint slowdowns for a few people) and it's strange to hear that performance has actually increased! I know that some games work better for me in 1280 x 1024 than 1024 x 768, I think that's the graphics card prefering to operate at that higher res, but maybe it's also the monitor. Maybe it's also the game. Too many variables to know for sure.

Maybe you just make great textures and the CPU/GPU laps it all up... yummy

Ok, everything should be fixed now- we've updated to ver 2.01. (See top post)

I just want to say THANK YOU for this and the other textures You made ! Brilliant work !

Thanks MataGyula, it's been great fun working on Westhill, now that Unseen's onboard as well - no more one-man band. That should mean that it'll be a bit faster getting the other tracks done, (and track objects) and SO and Fern Bay are the most complicated in terms of textures, so it's a relief as well, having that extra help. Enjoy high-res Westhill!

Speaking of Fern Bay...As good as it looks it's now starting to look a little poor compared to the rest of the tracks due to your great work.
On your main Hi Res Texture thread there is no mention of Fern Bay. Do i gather from your post above that you are going to be working on it now?

Ohh....nice job on Westhill btw..looking good Thanks.

holey wowza, the curbs amazed me along with everything else..

wow good job mate

brilliant work mate as always

Nice! Much better than the first release. When you start work on FE, do you think you could make the grass properly green? I never liked the general colour of LFS grass, it's too yellowy and if any track should have fresh looking grass, that'd be FE.

I'll have a look at the Fern Bay grass - until now I've really strived to match the colours of the higher res grasses with those of the originals. That way, people don't say 'the colour of the grass is off', and it helps the track stay familiar to people. You can change the grass colour ever so slightly and it will almost look like a totally different track, such is the power of grass! For the most part (but not always), I'm using just a couple of files to do all of the grass, matching the colours, and adding gravel edges and things when appropriate. Maybe sometime down the road I will start to add original elements to the grass for each track - like I did with the white flowers at Kyoto. One thing - I really want to give Fern Bay a new sand texture, I won't just be copying the same one over like I have with the other tracks (from memory, I think it's whiter and finer than at the other tracks).

Don't know when I'll start on Fern Bay- Unseen is already hard at work on AutoX, so that's good. My project of the moment is looking at getting some higher res trees into LFS, but that means brushing up on alpha masking.. A higher-res tree pack would be a really nice addition IMO...

Quote from Electrik Kar :

...such is the power of grass!

:detective:hippy::banana_ra

Great work with the new textures too!

Higher-res trees :O /me likes :d

nice work! but one question: how did you do that with those ad banners and ads and those mipmap levels???
do i have to make one exact size texture f.e. 1024x1024 and the plugin calculates the mips automatically? or do i have to make them for myself? and what are the exact dimensions?
i want to make some new ads/textures for south city because i don't really like them.

i attached some example file...
(CTY_logos2.dds) why are there no mipmaps? and can i just change the size to make 1024x1024 (2048x2048) without complications?

and why do some files have those mips and some not?!

When you save a dds file, you'll have the option whether you would like to generate the mip maps- It does it all for you. Also, when you open a dds, you'll have the option whether to show the mip maps or not. Screen below, hope this helps...

Quote :

can i just change the size to make 1024x1024 (2048x2048) without complications?

Yes. But this just gives you more pixels to work with. Scaling up an image won't make it look higher res.

alright i will make some new ads out of .eps vector logo graphics so i think there will be no resolution problem.
i wonder if lfs can handle its positions because 16 ads on 256x256 for example do have other pixel positions than 16 ads on 1024x1024?

can i use the photoshop .dds plugin or did you do everything with this nvidia tool?
so if i understand it correctly there is no need to think about mipmaps, i just make some if the file has some? or do i have to edit the smaller "copies" too? or just editing the first biggest part standalone in one instance and then save it in mipmaps?

Sorry, but I don't understand your first part- too early in the morning here for me. Well, not early in the morning, but I did just get up!

I use Nvidia's dds tool, and I don't worry about the mipmaps- I just let the tool generate them (I've assumed so far that all the textures require mipmaps, but maybe this is wrong).

in my attachement in the first post there are no mipmaps if i open them in photoshop. it seems only that the gravel textures have mipmaps... (also opened in photoshop)

my first part:

if textures are originally in 256x256 size and contains f.e. 4 squarish ads, with the sizes 128x128... just imagine 4 tiles with that size...
my question is if i could upsize it simply so that lfs can recognize them as 4 x 512x512 textures in a 1024x1024 .dds (instead of 4x128x128 in a 256x256 .dds)
but i just give it a try...

edit: uhm there are pretty much settings in those .dds plugin, did you let them all default? and under what format do you save them?

yeah, if LFS cuts the image into 4 equal squares at a lower res, then it will still cut the image into 4 squares at the higher res- is that what you mean? Keep in mind that with most of the textures, it's usually a little bit more complicated than that. You'll have to go ingame and see how things are lining up, as the mapping can sometimes get a little messy in parts. Good luck!

yes thats exactly what i meant! i thought i could use fixed sizes 128x128 and up by factor 2.... so i could save time.. but that doesn't seem so.

second thing... what format do you save them?? see attachement for self explanatory

sry for another "dumb" question... but how can i view the whole track without driving over it? i know there are some programs with which they make "tv shows" and so on but i don't know them?! would save me time...

I always save in DXT1 format, with no alpha (if the texture doesn't require one, that is). This gives me the best compression, and since I want people to get good performance and not have to worry about large file sizes, DXT1 sounds the most reasonable choice here. I haven't actually experimented much with the other formats, but you could also try DXT3 or DXT5.

A good way to get around the track without having to drive around is to press shift - U, then tab, and that allows you to speed around and check things out. Just press tab again when you're at the spot you want to be, and the camera will come down to road level.

ah the autocross editor! dang me i didn't realize that