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A-10 textures all black at KDMA

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hendrik3571
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A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by hendrik3571 »

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and thanks for allowing me to post an issue here. I downloaded and installed the zip below. All works well except most of the textures for the A_10s are black but as I fly away into the distance some of them turn to a grey color (which I suspect is the color they should be) but the majority stay black. I installed them into the airplane folder in FSX. I also placed the following two textures ( JYAI_A-10 Loadout Grey.dds and JYAI_A-10 Loadout Green.dds) into the FSX main texture folder. MY operating system is Windows 7.

BNYUY_Davis_Monthan_FSX_P3dv4.zip
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Firebird
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by Firebird »

You say most of them are black. I would expect all of them to be black if there was a texture issue. Can you confirm that some of the A-10s are OK?

Also can you confirm that you are using the FSX models and not the FS9 ones.
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hendrik3571
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by hendrik3571 »

Hi, Yes I have about 4 planes that are ok and the C-130s have no texture problems as well. And the download package said it was for FSX so I am assuming I have the models. Another thing I noticed is that as I fly away from KDMA the AI planes on the ground disappear until I come close to the airport again. I try to be careful not to mix FS9 files with FSX.

JYAI Black Hawk Family Flight Models Version 1.0 by Michael MacIntyre - 06/05/2015
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by Firebird »

OK so If I have this correct. The C-130s are fine but the A-10s are black.

The disappearing things is because the aircraft are made with LODs, levels of detail, and so the further you are away you are less likely to see anything and will disappear at a distance. Some scenery producers use the same technique.

Now the texture types of the two aircraft are different. The C-130s are DXT3 Bmps whilst the A-10s are DXT5 dds.

Two things that I can think of that might affect this are that the Texture_Max_load parm in your fsx.cfg should be set to 2048, the max size textures it can load. plus you don't say whether you has DX10 preview mode on or not. Try setting it to the alternative.
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by hendrik3571 »

I am trying to post to your reply to my question but have had an IP address issue si I couldnt get through.
hendrik3571
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by hendrik3571 »

It seems the IP problem I was having has been resolved so let me get back to trying to update you on the textures not showing at KDMA.

I do have DX10 and when I tried it the textures did show up however my screen resolution seemed to has changed as everything became bigger and the ani-aliasing was effected (made everything quit shimmery and my frame rates did take a hit. Also I did change the Texture_Max_load parm to the number you posted, the fsx assigned number was 512 and I had to change that every time I started FSX. Changing the Texture_Max_load parm didn't seem to make that much of a differece.
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by Firebird »

I didn't expect it would in this case, but it will prevent issues with textures that are 2048x2048, of which quite a few are being done for FSX.

OK. So if the usual suspect, DX10, does not fix it no matter what your settings is then it is difficult to say. I do know that aircraft appear black if they are not textured so either the texture names have been amended, or in the aircraft.cfg file, or you haven't put the global textures in the textures folder or that bmp textures are being applied to models that expect dds textures, and vice versa.

I am not an fsx user so I can't come up with anything more than I have leaned over the years.

However, as an ultimate test I installed FSX for a test. I then installed the package, as it is. Went and looked at KDMA and both A-10s and C-130s were fine. This was with a default installation out of the box for fsx. DX10 off and everything. Therefore either you have a specific fsx.cfg setting that is screwing it up or your graphics driver or graphics card does not like dds dxt5 textures.

I do remember that when one of our developers got a new laptop he got black textures in as his graphics chip couldn't cope with all fs textures. Are you trying to run this on a laptop?

You see the key thing here is that nobody else has reported a problem so it is an issue with your current setup.

The last option to try is to rename your fsx.cfg and let it rebuild it. You can then copy the joystick settings across to the new one.
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by John Young »

Steve, the clue might be in "most of the textures for the A_10s are black" (first post).

I encounter that problem occasionally when I'm designing and I've put something stupid in one of the aircraft texture folders instead of the correct texture. The sim loads the textures correctly until it reaches that folder and then the textures in it and the remaining textures, appear black.

It would be worth checking every texture folder, or failing that, re-installing the A-10 textures from scratch.

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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by Firebird »

I haven't heard that before but that does make sense.

However my testing with a clean fsx showed all schemes OK.
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by hendrik3571 »

Hi and thank you for all the consideration and advice. I'm not sure what has made a difference but now all the textures are showing as they should. I went back to DX9 and left the Texture_Max_Load at the fsx setting (512). So everything is as it was when I installed the package when I had the black texture issue but now the proper textures are showing on all aircraft.
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by Firebird »

I am glad that you fixed it but what I don't is why that Texture_Max_Load should work.
The A-10 textures are 1024x1024 so they should not load with the setting at 512. The FSX default is 1024.
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by John Young »

If I remember rightly Steve, we had this problem when designing ACG scenery. As you say, the default FSX Texture_Max_Load setting is 1024 pixels. We were using 2048 textures on some of the structures, having set the Texture_Max_Load to that value.

However, if any adjustment is made to any of the display settings after that, the Max Load setting automatically reverts to 1024. It's possible in this case that the value was set to 512 initially, which wouldn't show the A-10 textures. If the display settings were then subsequently changed for any reason, the Max Load setting would flip to the default 1024 and the A-10's would show properly.

I wonder if this is what has happened?

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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by Firebird »

It sounds plausible. I did read that anything over 1024 was reset when a change was made.

*EDIT*
I just discovered something weird. Checked my fsx.cfg and the size is 4096 and the slider is full right in the game. It maybe that the Steam Edition has a different default.
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Re: A-10 textures all black at KDMA

Post by gavinc »

Firebird wrote: 20 Sep 2020, 06:10 It sounds plausible. I did read that anything over 1024 was reset when a change was made.

*EDIT*
I just discovered something weird. Checked my fsx.cfg and the size is 4096 and the slider is full right in the game. It maybe that the Steam Edition has a different default.
Correct, the defaut texture size in FSX-SE is 4096. The default in "regular" FSX is 1024 and if you change it then Microsoft in its infinite wisdom will reset it to 1024 if you make any configuration changes at all (sound, AI etc).
Gaviin
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