Water Textures mismatched with default water on Tongas JFords for everyone?

[caseyfallen]

Hello Gang,

So I got Tongas JFords! Amazing in everyway. But I found a very strange issue with the water textures. The line where the textured water and the default water is very visible. I was wondering if any of you have this issue? I also was hoping maybe you all had a suggestion to make it go away?

Thanks

[spud]

Casey,
Tongass is a rather large area so could you post a screenshot with coordinates of the location your talking about.   That way we can have a look in our FSX and see if it is present and perhaps offer advice on what or if anything can be done.  Remember that Tongass Fjords X is not an ORBX product and fewer people probably have the software so it could be awhile before info can be offered.
 

[ualani]

OK, this may sound strange, but I had the same issues with ORBX,  noticing it for the first first when flying out of Misty's place, bearing to the right and going out towards the set of islands just off of the point of land in the bay. The textured water looked like a big square (a tile) inside of the default FSX water, just like you describe (I think.) Also, when zooming way out in a top down view, my terrain textures looked strange from a high altitude, and in other areas the default terrain looked out of place - like the tiles were rendering incorrectly - whether on the ground or at altitude. I spent about a week tearing my hair out trying to figure out the problem. An FSX repair didn't solve the problem nor did copying all of my FSX default scenery files and textures from a backup copy help. Then it occurred to me (2X4 to the head moment) that the problem started after installing AddonConvertor X - before that everything was beautiful! I disabled it in my dll.xml file and the problems went away. Why? I have no idea, because AddonConverter supposedly just manipulates object textures and FS9 scenery files to make them FSX and DX10 compatible. So, do you use AddonConvertorX by any chance? Like Spud said, post a screenshot and I'll com[pare your problem with the one I had.

[spud]

Just a guess but are you using DX10 Casey?  I believe Ualani does and that "could be a common thread" here.  This will be a user tip anomaly solution because RTMM does not have knowledge of Tongass X support issues.  If users can not pin point a solution FSAddon should be consulted.  The software was developed by Holger Sandmann and Bill Womack and I know they can pinpoint the solution for sure.
 

[ualani]

It DEFINITELY isn't a DX10 issue. Like I said, after disabling AddonConvertor the problem went away and DX10 shines like a gleaming star in the heavens - like before AddonConverter was installed -  ORBX and Tongass included.

[spud]

ualani,
Casey's problem, he says that there is a big difference in the appearance of the water at the boundary of Tongass Fjords and default scenery didn't mention a 'box' as you saw.
Probably isn't a DX10 problem per se but there could be a possibility that the Addon Convertor will cause your problem with DX10 enabled.  Did you try the water textures with DX9 and Addon Convertor both working?  Trying to hit all the bases because while major strides have been made in DX10 compatibility it still remains a "preview mode" that Aces/M$ never finished so strange things could still occur.  Not sure why you would need to use the AddonConverter as FS9 scenery is compatible with FSX but if there is no alpha channel in FS9 DXT3 or DXT5 files problems can result.  There is a program to convert these textures to have an alpha channel.
Here is the readme from the program:

"DxtFixerX for FS9 and FSX - neumanix 2012
-----------------------------------------

This tool fixes the stutters in FS9/FSX caused by dxt3 and dxt5 textures without an active alpha channel.

To just search for bad files without making any changes, check the box that says "Just report bad files".
To fix all faulty files, just leave the box unchecked.

Then click the "Select root folder" button to tell the program from where to start the search.
It will search all the subfolders from there on.
If you select your FS9/FSX root folder, then all your textures will be searched.

After the search is done, the program closes automatically.

Now go read the "log.txt" file that was generated. It contains a report of the faulty files that were found/fixed.

It's perfectly safe to use, as only dxt3 and dxt5 compressed bitmaps will be searched and modified. And they should ALWAYS
have an alpha channel, so you can't do anything to mess up your sim.

Enjoy!

Regards,
Peter Nyman (neumanix)
neumanix@gmail.com"

Might want to try it.

 

[ualani]

OK, I guess I misunderstood that the problem is at the boundary line. We still need a screenshot to see exactly what the problem is.

Not to get into an argument here, but tons of FS9 scenery is not compatible with FSX, therefore the need for AddonConverterX to make MOST of it so. From the developer'sdescription:

"Addon Converter X

Version 1.09
Addon Converter X is a plugin for FSX that makes many add-on aircraft and sceneries developed for FS2004 compatible with FSX SP2 and FSX Acceleration Pack."

My out of character tiles show in both DX9 and DX10 mode when AddonConverter is active, and don't when not. Maybe something else in combiination with ACX causes the problem.

I checked and then converted all of my textures with AlphaSearcher, DxtFixerX, and Convimx a long ago, soon after upgrading to DX10, so that can't be the problem. Been there, done that, fixed that. Works great.

Thanks anyway for your suggestions.

[caseyfallen]

You are 100 percent correct Ualani! I do use Add On Converter X and it is big squares in the water. As you know..us DX 10 users still have to convert textures for many freeware plane and scenery products. I will still post a picture. What exactly do I have to do to correct this Ualani?

[caseyfallen]

Note the texture line just at the tail of my aircraft. I will find these texture color differences anywhere that water textures have been added. Like around shallow water areas and rivers. Just puzzled as to why it is not blended.

[ualani]

OK, then my original assumption that your problem wasn't at the boundary line, as Spud stated, was correct. Whew, thought I was missing something in what you were describing!

For a little background, I had it with DX10 unticked with AddonConverterX (ACX for short) as well. I even renamed the DX10 shader cache and let it build a new one for running with DX9. Still no good in DX9 either. Maybe I missed something in the process. I don't know. Still had messed up tiles.

Then a week or so ago I discovered that I hadn't applied the DX10 water fix in Steve's version 3.2.2 shader release (in the Bonus folder). I ran the patch and my DX10 water and waves make the DX9 water look like cave drawings!

So... after reading about  your problem, I reactivated ACX and flew to an area that I had problems with in the past and noticed none. Hmmm....(scratching head.) I haven't had a chance to do a lengthy test yet, but I think the problem may have gone away. The only caveat is that I can't exactly be 1000% sure I had the problem 100% of the time when ACX was active, or was just random on and off thing.

My question for you then is, have you added the water patch from the bonus folder? If so, then my thinking about fixing the tiles issues is wrong and the water squares is a random thing for me with ACX active.

So to get to the meat and potatoes of how to deactivate ACX without deleting it is:

Navigate to your C:\Users\your name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX folder, the same folder that your FSX.cfg resides in.

Open your dll.xml file in notepad and find the lines that look like this:

<Name>AddonConverterX</Name>
    <Disabled>false</Disabled>

Change false to true and then save.

The bad part is of course that the advantages of ACX go away. (I hate the longer load times anyway.) However, I'm willing to put up with no ACX and therefore proper tile rendering and just wait for the upcoming DX10 fixer that will make ACX moot. All I can figure is that somehow between DX10 and ACX water blend masks are affected in some way. (It seems to be a texture blending problem to me.)

Like I said, it took me a LONG time to run this down and I couldn't find any references to it anywhere. Maybe I'll post something about it on the DX10 board at AvSim.

I'd be anxious to hear how you make out and compare notes with you. Let me know if you need further help.

Steve

PS I'd kill to have your system!

[caseyfallen]

Hi,

Thanks so much for the reply! This is really helpful information. I was hoping someone knew what I was talking about.

 I am now realizing that it had nothing to do with Tongas. As after I flew around, I was able to find this issue in other addon areas.

 I think you nailed it! It's IS a texture blending issue. I had not added the water texture fix from Steve. Funny, because I added everything he offered. Even the plane light fix. But skipped the water one because the watercolor never bothered me. Now, I am thinking it will be very important to fix this issue. I will apply it later this week and let you know if that fixes the issue. If so, awesome!  If not, I will try the ACX disable.

I do hope Steves new payware will make ACX unneeded. But even Steve said it will only work on some sceneries, not all. ACX really eats at our systems resources when we start converting a lot of stuff; even with the pre-load.  Sadly, I have a lot of cool freeware scenery and planes that depend on ACX.

Thanks about my computer.  It was time for a new computer and because I use it to work, I really went all out. You are going to hate me...But I am actually about to up my memory/RAM to 24GB for my recording studio and add a second video card bridged to the one I got. Which will make it 4GB of video card. Plus, adding a few more high end cooling fans. I know the RAM will not make a difference with FSX as FSX will not use more than 6gb from what I have seen so far. But the video card bridge may bring it up another level, as it will assist CPU. It was really fun building this rig.

Your system does not sound too shabby either. With that much GHZ you probably have a super smooth sim! I have found that the GHZ and the hard drive speed are the two most important factors for FSX. If someone was to ask me what I thought helped out my FSX sim. I would for sure have to say the Solid State hard drive. It made the textures almost instant.

Thanks again! I will get back to you in a few days with what
I find.

[caseyfallen]

UPDATE: ISSUE SOLVED!

With the help of Ulani's suggestions, I was able to solve the issue of water textures showing very pronounced lines.

First, I tried Steve's update for the water shading. This turned out to be a awesome addition to my Sim world, but was not the fix to this issue.
(Note: The Steve fix makes the water colors very close to the DX9 coloring. It looks more natural. Highly suggested)

Next, I tried Ulani's suggestion to disable "Add On Converter X". This isolated the issue for me, as once "Add On Converter X" was Disabled, the issue disappeared.

Because I use Add On Converter X on a lot of Freeware scenery's and a few aircraft that I own, this was not a solution for me. So I dug a little further.

I found that if I unchecked: "Tongass_Fjords_Lower_Priority" and leave Tongass_Fjords_Higher_Priority checked, This not only fixes the issue but keeps the converter working in all other areas in Tongass Fjords. Not to mention the converter is still doing its job on my aircraft and other scenery's elsewhere.

I fixed this issue in another location where I use OZx Scenery for the OZx AU Complete + OZx NA Complete + OZx Libraries. The lines can be removed from the water surrounding the islands in the Australian region by unchecking all the "Scenery: FTXAUXX_CUSTOM" and "Scenery: FTXAUXX_SHORES" in the Add On Converter X Configurator. Once you have un-selected these areas, press start on the Pre-Processing and then press O.K. All the lines in the water areas will be gone.
(NOTE: Replace the XX with the scenery number. EXAMPLE: Scenery: FTXAU01_CUSTOM)

Thank you to everyone who participated in this thread.

[jsapair]

So, maybe ADX is not the 'fix' program? It won't just convert the planes, save them as such, and go into hibernation I take it, but runs and converts each time you run FSX, and runs all the time. Sounds to me like the fix is to get DX10-ready planes. Would you happen to know if it would be possible to re-texture these planes thru a 3rd party program and save them as such, permanently?

[caseyfallen]

Hi Jsapair,

The way the program works is that it lets you process the conversions before flying. So it is in a state of Hibernation while flying. When you set up ADX, it gives you a list of all your planes and scenery that you have installed on FSX. So you put a checkmark next to the stuff you need to be converted. So basically, any plane or scenery you see as invisible. This way the conversion is already done before even starting up the program. After you do the pre-process of the scenery you do not have to do it again, unless you change something or add something new.   

What happened to me was that I was converting something that did not need to be converted. All is perfect now that I unchecked the scenery that was not needing the conversion.

So to answer your question simply..this is the fix and works very efficiently.

But of course the best thing to do is just buy scenery and aircraft that are already DX10 compatible. But  a lot of scenery designers hide the fact that their product is not compatible. Beware Wilco products. Not only are those planes not DX10. But are almost unusable in my experience.

Plus, keep in mind that many freeware items that are really amazing will never be converted. So ADX is worth having just for those items alone.

[ualani]

Wow! That must have taken a lot of digging to figure that one out!  I'll have to give this a try, but I think I was getting squares in ORBX areas that were not checked in ADX for conversion. I hope I'm wrong. When I get a chance I'll take a look. I was also getting weird land texture issues in a totally unrelated area of Quebec with ADX. I have UTX Canada which may be related.

BTW, I think that when the new forum is up and running all posts made after the forum snapshot was taken before the upgrade process  are going to be lost, so I've made a copy of casyfallen's fix to repost it here if need be.