A huge increase in frame rate??

[D-Scythe]

I'm doing some tests with Bright and the CDDS files right now. Preliminary results obtained by simply flying over cities indicate that stutter is reduced nicely. I'll try to convert an entire CDDS file with Bright textures and post my results in a week or two, and if the tests actually prove to be successful, I'll post it for download.

[SimFreak]

I’m game…. Only if I can automate this process.

[Mizzy]

I'm doing some tests with Bright and the CDDS files right now. Preliminary results obtained by simply flying over cities indicate that stutter is reduced nicely. I'll try to convert an entire CDDS file with Bright textures and post my results in a week or two, and if the tests actually prove to be successful, I'll post it for download.

 

That's great news.

 

Mizzy

[BBushe]

mizzy,

 

I liked the weathered skin, you should defintiely post it somewhere.

[Mizzy]

By way of a test that won't prove it's working, but should show if it's not. - if you zoom in on a 256 colour skin till basically there's only skin in frame & get the FPS, then change the setting in graphics from 16 to 32 or 32 to 16 & get the same view again. If there's any FPS change, the game is forcing the colours to the set bit-rate.

 

You are forgetting that the file size for loading is only a third of its normal load without any down sizing methods needed (such as the overcast cloud mod) therefore the graphic has less load on your card and ram! ;)

 

This is the benefit and the point!

 

Mizzy

[Mizzy]

mizzy,

 

I liked the weathered skin, you should defintiely post it somewhere.

 

I will definately do that as I like a bit of character to aeoplanes :)

 

Mizzy

[Weta43]

Mizzy wrote: "therefore the graphic has less load on your card and ram! This is the benefit and the point!"

Hi - my thoughts:

The file opened from the HDD will be smaller - yes, so less "lag" loading files not accessed for a while, and this might be more pronounced when the CPU is getting pushed anyway - over cities etc., but at some stage either before or during the processing of the image by your video card the information regarding colours is set back to either 16 or 32 bit - so what runs through the videocard is output at 16 or 32 bit - depending on your graphics setting - so the workload on the graphics processor & the data going through the card's ram is the same as if the original file were installed.

[Prophet_169th]

Can this be done to building textures and such?

 

What can this be used on?

 

And when someone gets some good testing done, can we get a tutorial?

[Gryzor]

Mizzy wrote: "therefore the graphic has less load on your card and ram! This is the benefit and the point!"

Hi - my thoughts:

The file opened from the HDD will be smaller - yes, so less "lag" loading files not accessed for a while, and this might be more pronounced when the CPU is getting pushed anyway - over cities etc., but at some stage either before or during the processing of the image by your video card the information regarding colours is set back to either 16 or 32 bit - so what runs through the videocard is output at 16 or 32 bit - depending on your graphics setting - so the workload on the graphics processor & the data going through the card's ram is the same as if the original file were installed.

 

You are mistaken. The cpu´s or vpu dont have to "reconver" the palette of the file. It´s not the same thing, palette of a bmp that by default is 16 bit (65K) is converted to 8 bit (256), but it´s not the same thing, because 16 bit or 32 bit are the values of render by GPU in filtering (anisotropic filter), that´s is, the sensation is that the texture converted is the same that before, only because anisotropic filters that filter the texture.

[Gryzor]

well, i extracted all files from cdds archives in bmp.

 

Converted to 8 bit mean bright (option -rgb) for 256 colours

 

How I can add these new files to cdds archives??

 

any help would be appreciated

[Prophet_169th]

Using the CDDSBrowser tool, you just need to use the import function.

 

It only works by single texture, so is time consuming.

 

Currently, I have the WorldTextureBMP.cdds file converted. I am working on the WorldTextureBMP1.cdds, and I will probably finish all the cdds files in that folder and do the terrain files.

 

*** Interesting note; I extracted all the files and then converted with bright, I can see the large difference in file sizes when looking at the bmp files, yet when I import them all back into the cdds file, the cdds file size stays the same. Kinda odd, am I doing something wrong?

 

This seems like it may help in high unit mission. I have just a mission to test this with.

[Fjordmonkey]

I know I'll be following this thread with Argus-eyes. I do get a fair amount of stutter when flying (mostly like to keep it at tree-top level and damn fast), so this is highly interesting.

[Gryzor]

Using the CDDSBrowser tool, you just need to use the import function.

 

It only works by single texture, so is time consuming.

 

Currently, I have the WorldTextureBMP.cdds file converted. I am working on the WorldTextureBMP1.cdds, and I will probably finish all the cdds files in that folder and do the terrain files.

 

*** Interesting note; I extracted all the files and then converted with bright, I can see the large difference in file sizes when looking at the bmp files, yet when I import them all back into the cdds file, the cdds file size stays the same. Kinda odd, am I doing something wrong?

 

This seems like it may help in high unit mission. I have just a mission to test this with.

 

In order to test, I put ALL bmp´s textures from each BMP cdds into TEMPTEXTURES folder. Load is much less stuttering than before at high resulotions setting, with minimal loss of quality (much better than in medium settings); Furthermor, the fps gain 1 or 2, by the stuttering is a lot lesser than before, specially when the scratched ground units that destroys are loaded (and in cities too). I believe that cdds would not be the same size as original.

[D-Scythe]

Didn't notice any FPS increase...I imagine converting with bright will just make it easier on the RAM.

 

Shotty on landtexturesBMP.cdds!

[Gryzor]

fps gain is minimal (1-2) but stuttering is reduced a lot, specially over cities, stuttering reduction is awesome. The textures are a lot better than in medium texture selection.

 

I have all cdds containing bms´s converted, now i have to put in dds format (I believe then fps would be better, now textures are loaded from temptextures folder in bmp´s format);

 

I don´t have any place to put these bmp´s converted in a web site. any suggestion?

[Guest ruggbutt]

fps gain is minimal (1-2) but stuttering is reduced a lot, specially over cities, stuttering reduction is awesome. The textures are a lot better than in medium texture selection.

 

I have all cdds containing bms´s converted, now i have to put in dds format (I believe then fps would be better, now textures are loaded from temptextures folder in bmp´s format);

 

I don´t have any place to put these bmp´s converted in a web site. any suggestion?

How big are the files? I can host 'em till 60gigs of bandwith is gone. :D

[Gryzor]

How big are the files? I can host 'em till 60gigs of bandwith is gone. :D

 

about 300 MB +/-, these are in bmp format (256 colours), sorted by equal order in directories whose names match files extracted from cdds bmp´s archives

[Mizzy]

How big are the files? I can host 'em till 60gigs of bandwith is gone. :D

 

fps gain or not, converting files with Bright is making a wonderfull improvement to my old computer and graphics card.

 

Can someone get the converted files up for download so others can try that are too lazy to do it themselves :D

 

Any new skins I use are instantly converted now. Btw Bright can be used with tga files but I don't know how to convert these, anyone got the answer?

 

Mizzy.

[Gryzor]

fps gain or not, converting files with Bright is making a wonderfull improvement to my old computer and graphics card.

 

Can someone get the converted files up for download so others can try that are too lazy to do it themselves :D

 

Any new skins I use are instantly converted now. Btw Bright can be used with tga files but I don't know how to convert these, anyone got the answer?

 

Mizzy.

 

TGA files can be converted too, i tried that. The problem is that bright, with tga format, eliminates alpha channel for tga textures making (for example) trees look like square boxes.

 

I can put the file in the mule, so you can download. I don´t know if it´s allowed to mod the textures and distribute without permision.

[Guest ruggbutt]

Yeah, better ask permission first. ED has been pretty good to us.

[Gryzor]

Yes, I think that too.

 

If all textures where converted from 16 bit to 256 colours palette, quality image reduction is only a bit less that in max texture setting, but stuttering reduction is awesome. Quality of textures when anisotropic filter is applied even is imperceptible, and a lot better that in medium texture setting.

 

Any word from any developer, please? This can made game more optimized, leaving a free space for the extra requirements that incoming expansion (blackshark) is coming.

 

I repeat, the gain in stuttering reduction is awesome.

 

I have to test if once converted to cdds the gain (I believe...) would be better even, now textures are loaded directly in BMP´s 256 colours.

[D-Scythe]

about 300 MB +/-, these are in bmp format (256 colours), sorted by equal order in directories whose names match files extracted from cdds bmp´s archives

 

300 MB? Why don't re-compress the BMPs back into CDDS files before offering them for d/load? I got mine down from 21 MB (after Bright) to 9.6 MB by doing this.

[Gryzor]

300 MB? Why don't re-compress the BMPs back into CDDS files before offering them for d/load? I got mine down from 21 MB (after Bright) to 9.6 MB by doing this.

 

I will do, but i need to reconver to dds into cdds manually and there are about 1400 bms´s 256colurs files, and..... uffff, for today the "extraction" process from cdds is sufficient, and the testing stage of these bmp´s too, , hehe, i´m soo tired now...

[Gryzor]

300 MB? Why don't re-compress the BMPs back into CDDS files before offering them for d/load? I got mine down from 21 MB (after Bright) to 9.6 MB by doing this.

 

How i can recompress to cdds files? with cdds browser? what is the best version to do that?

 

I will make some coffe tonight, hehe :icon_wink

[Yellonet]

Isn't there a program that can extract all files at once?

It's literally thousands of textures... and it would be a huge amount of work to extract them one by one...

All the cdds' weighs in on 858 MB.