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"Compression for ACE files now available"

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jim_henry (13 posts)
Sep-28-01, 12:43 PM (EST) "Compression for ACE files now available" Route developers should (must!) go to http://fly.to/mwgfx and check out the freeware utilities being created by Martin Wright. Martin has only been involved with MSTS for a very short time but he has extensive experience with FlightSim. He has figured out most of the ACE format including COMPRESSION! Here is what he is saying about route compression:Most of the Route textures are actually in ACE-DXT format.
This is a much higher level of compression than normal ACE compression as it changes the image format to DirectX 16 bit.
Typically an uncompressed ACE of 512x512 will be over 1 meg, even compressed (depending on the complexity of the image data) you will be lucky to get it down to half a meg. In DXT format it will be 171k every time. 256x256 (like the Terrain textures) will be only 43k in DXT format.The combat flight simulator program DXTBmp from the same site will import TGA files and has new Export options of ACE DXT. This is largely untested. The created files look and read like the original ACE DXT textures but I haven`t tested them in TrainSim itself to see if there is something I have missed (so back up the original texture before experimenting...)Martin is now providing 3 utilities, one to extract Targa from ACE, and a pair of command line utilities to compress and decompress ACE files. He seems very receptive to feedback so all the route designers should give these utilities a try and let Martin know whether or not there are problems with the programs. Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Compression for ACE files now a... MartinW Sep-28-01 1 RE: Compression for ACE files now a... 3DRailHound Sep-28-01 2 RE: Compression for ACE files now a... Xacto Sep-28-01 3 RE: Compression for ACE files now a... MartinW Sep-29-01 4 RE: Compression for ACE files now a... MartinW Sep-29-01 5

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MartinW (23 posts)
Sep-28-01, 06:12 PM (EST) 1. "RE: Compression for ACE files now available" And before anyone else points it out.......;^)Somehow the AceComp.exe in the compression pack got switched for a development version that doesn`t actually write the final file (just an empty 0 byte file)The corrected version is up there now but I would always recommending backing up any original texture before doing any Editing/converting/compressing etc (as a general rule anyway....but especially when using experimental or beta software. Most bugs get discovered by the users rather than the designer) Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
3DRailHound (29 posts)
Sep-28-01, 07:06 PM (EST) 2. "RE: Compression for ACE files now available" Hi Martin,Thank you for your efforts on this problem, this tool is badly needed by many of us.I gave it a spin on a 512x512 ace file, it did compress it in half, however, when I went to look at it in a route, the game would not open the file. Btw, this ace was originaly a 24 bit bmp.I'll keep playing with it, I'll try a tga file next.Again, thank you for your efforts.Brad Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Xacto (473 posts)
Sep-28-01, 07:08 PM (EST) 3. "RE: Compression for ACE files now available" I tried the new AceComp on one of the textures on my locomotive. It reduced the original 1029k ace to 711k. Unfortunately, I get an "unable to open con06.ace" when I try to use the loco in the sim. The texture was originally a bmp and I used this command in a batch file:AceComp con06.aceIs there anything I missed or should be doing besides this? I really appreciate the effort that you are making to provide new utilities for the Sim, and I hope that the high compression as used by Kuju can eventually be figured out.Thanks,Cliff Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
MartinW (23 posts)
Sep-29-01, 08:00 AM (EST) 4. "RE: Compression for ACE files now available" Difficult to work out the post times here but another updated version (the 4th I think)was posted about 03:00 GMT so it may be working now.Long story....I had a fully working version but forgot to save the updated source. When I reloaded for some minor changes I didn`t realise it was actually an older version with no proper save routine. Since then I have been rebuilding it from memory (and getting everything wrong ;^) Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
MartinW (23 posts)
Sep-29-01, 08:05 AM (EST) 5. "RE: Compression for ACE files now available" For the "Kuju High Compression" (actually DirectX DXT) try the DXTBmp program and the new Export->ACE DXT option.This will create the 171k (512x512) or 43k (256x256) textures used in the routes.
I don`t think that TS supports non-square textures so stick to the standard 512x512, 256x256, 128x128..... sizesNo guarantee that the textures will work but theoretically they should.... Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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