Hi all. I'm just wondering what people's opinions are overall of the different formats of DDS textures - I've downloaded planes with all different types.

Personally, I prefer DDS 888-8 as their crisper than the others and there's no compression.

What are the benefits of DXT3 or DXT5? Is it worth them getting all wonky in the compression?

I don't see any reason to use them, I'm wondering if I'm missing something... :-/


Opinions?

I don't know about DDS but the following is what I find with BMP and in theory it should apply

The DXT compression gives a much smaller files, DXT3 is a quarter of the size.

This makes drawing faster and increases FPS, or so it is supposed to.

I have done experiments and I can't see an FPS difference so maybe not an issue on more modern systems.  I always use 32 888-8 due to the higher quality on the external airframe maps.

So say there is no real visual difference but if you have fine detail or gradient tints there can be a very marked detail loss with DXT compression.

Agreed. Same on my end with the DXT3 not loading any quicker, and 888-8 just plain looking better... perhaps on my old comp it would have made a difference. I used to notice a difference between DDS and BMP on the old machine though.

DDS loading quicker every time. Maybe my imagination?

Backward compatibility aside...I don't understand why more people don't use DDS in general for fsx.