Converting AI for FS9-Problems with Radoms and Antennas-Please help!

Well, something has obviously changed to change the program's behavior. There are two possibilities...

1/ Operator error - perhaps you are dragging a texture onto the program's shortcut rather than the folder that the texture is in! It wants a folder containing a texture, not just the texture. It does this so that it can also do bulk changes across multiple textures at the same time - navigating through all the layers of a nested folder structure.

2/ Operator/system error - If not the first answer, then perhaps what's happening, from your description, suggests that the templates/overlays for the various alpha channels are now missing from the folder where the program is. A folder might have been moved, renamed, or possibly deleted in the program's location. The program determines where it is in your folder structure and then accesses the data it needs relative to that starting point, so if the folder structure and contents remain the same, then the program will work in the same way every time.

Since it is a very simple program with a very simple installation process - designed to have minimal "moving parts" for anyone to adjust. This also means that parts cannot just be moved to some other place without moving everything along with it. The only thing that might need changing now and then is the need to possibly add a new set of masks for a new AI plane should one be created - probably by Ken Carson!

I would advise getting the zip file and unpacking it again into the folder where you have already put the original version that used to work, and then just attempting the conversions again. The folder full of templates simply masks out the FSX+ features in the alpha channel and leaves parts that FS9 still requires, intact. The program doesn't actively do anything to remove the antennae, it just leaves the domes etc as the repainter wanted them to be and masks out the parts of the alpha channel in the DDS that would otherwise give the AI an invisible fuselage, for example. It's comically simple as a concept. It flips the DDS, resizes it to 1024x, and then does that alpha channel thing before spitting out a BMP in 32-bit, 16-bit DXT3, or DXT1 without an alpha according to your folder names (you use the folder names to tell it what format you want at the end). Obviously you only get DXT1 if there are no alpha channel masks supplied.

If the templates are created for an aircraft including a lightmap mask, the program can also create a lightmap that matches the original's windows configurations etc., handy for BBJs. A while ago a bizjet emerged that needed this to be done for its antennae, and I think it was our very own Greg Peters that created the required masks before I was even aware there was a new set of masks needed, so if you can get your mind around the concept, it's very quick process to extend it as Greg proved - but that's all the changes that might be needed.

So, after all that, if the problem wasn't option 1 (not dragging the folder, just the texture) I recommend a simple "reinstallation" - get the zip of the program, extract it to wherever you want it to be on your disk, then create a shortcut on your desktop to the CMD file (right-drag the CMD file to the desktop and in the pop-up menu choose "create shortcut here"). After that you can convert again in any way you like.

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I generally have a desktop folder where I extract all texture zips (right drag, then "extract here") and then just drag that same folder to the converter shortcut, but I'm now confident enough in how it works that I install the DDS stuff directly into my aircraft folder structure and then just convert it in-situ before junking the DDS files (and often the lightmap as well).

Just remember to start a folder name with MIP if you want to output with MIPmaps, and start a folder name with 32bit if you want 32-bit textures. If you want 32-bit with MIPs you need to create one of the folders inside the other one. That's the only real clunky bit. If there are no texture masks for any particular aircraft (eg the TFS widebodies) then the textures will by default be DXT1 without alpha unless you ask for 32-bit. 32-bit is only really essential for complex logos or crests/coats-of-arms etc, or for liveries with very subtle gradations on them.

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My guess is that you might have forgotten to drag the folder and not the texture. Hopefully that's the case!

There was a definitive version uploaded to Flightsim that is available.

I decided that any kind of tutorial would probably not be worth the effort, since the operation is extremely simple and the setup likewise. So it was written out instead.

The short version is (for Windows 10)

1/ Download the zip file

2/ On your HDD right-drag the zip file to wherever you want the application to live (e.g. D:\Applications\DDS2BMP - make the folder in advance if you prefer (but unzipping also creates a folder) and when the context menu comes up, choose "Extract..."

3/ Look in the unzipped data for a file called DDS2BMP_210720.cmd - and right-drag that file to your desktop and when asked "create shortcuts here", choose that option to create a desktop shortcut.

You can also use DDS2BMP_Slim.cmd, which is slightly optimized, but they are basically the same thing and work exactly the same way.

That's the installation.

To demonstrate its use, get something like https://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=174992 which has 24 RYR repaints in it. Go to your download folder and right-drag the downloaded file to the desktop. Then the context menu comes up, once again choose "Extract..."

To convert all of the liveries in that folder, drag the folder onto the desktop shortcut. A black window comes up with some progress messages and, when that disappears, look in your folder and you will see BMP files sitting alongside the DDS ones.

You can now delete all the DDS files (and usually the lightmaps as well, for aircraft with a standard windows configuration, since they can all be served by a single lightmap saved in your default textures folder (the one right under the top folder for FS9)).

There are commented-out lines in the CMD file that can delete these for you. I commented them out for the release version because I really don't want people using a program that scans a folder structure and deletes files. I decided to play safe with other people's data. Just in case.

Hopefully you can see that installing it and running it are very simple.

Edit: Now change the name of the texture folder you created on the desktop so that its name begins with "MIP" - then drag it onto the shortcut again. Now the BMPs have MIPmaps. Now change the texture folder name to begin with "32bit" and not "MIP", and drag it onto the shortcut again, now all conversions are 32-bit. Now create a new folder on the desktop called MIP, and drag the "32bit..." folder into it. Then drag MIP onto the shortcut. Now the results are all 32-bit with MIPs.

Hi Ahmed - Glad you got it back to working. The way to get 32bit with mipmaps is detailed in the final paragraph of the post immediately above yours! It details the effects of using folder names.

When scanning a downloaded package of textures, the authors will often have a separate folder for MIPmap textures with a name that begins "MIP...", and I decided that the converter should recognize these from the folder name and convert them also with MIPs. Then I extended that to make 32-bit. So, try that folder naming trick.

Folder name hierarchy

32bit

|

MIPMAPS

|

<your texture folder> <--- everything in here gets converted to 32-bit with MIPMAPs due to the folder structure.

Not all textures really need to be 32-bit, as least as far as I'm concerned. It lifts the quality in general but often not to a sufficient degree to makes a huge difference to what you see, certainly for the 4x file size you have, and 5x with MIPs. It may make painted-on fuselage shading a little more subtle, but the choice is entirely personal. I only interact with the AI in a very cursory way, I don't really pay that much attention to how it looks up close and just want it broadly to look like the actual aircraft! So my system has a mix and I don't use MIPmaps and never have a problem. In fact the last blurry texture I saw (a week or two ago with a Embraer Legacy) was a texture with MIPs.