This is a new, revised version of my recently released railroad texture replacement file...I began to get feedback that some were having CTD's because of it, so I've created a new version with 9 levels of mipping & an alpha channel, same as the original. By the time I'd learned there was a problem for a number of folks & asked SurClaro.com to delete it completely from the library, almost 3,200 downloads had occured...I've not heard of anywhere near that many people having problems, so perhaps it worked for some & not others...
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These folders contain the original railroad bitmap (for backup) & two versions of the new revised one, both mipped to 9 levels but only one has an alpha channel, try them both, you may prefer one over the other, the alpha has a bit darker coloring. I've just completed flying the second leg of the default 'Panagra' flight using the alpha version, but I switched to the blue & white Cessna 172 after loading the flight...I practice real flight in one similar & I like it better than the Ford Tri-motor, which seems underpowered to me. As this flight is over 2 hours long & follows the railroad most of the way, I decided it would be a good test flight for the new bitmap...the only thing in the area (Brazil/Chile & the Andes mountains) that wasn't MS default was my railroad bitmap & FSGenesis's 76m terrain mesh (which is very nice, BTW), so if there had been a problem I could rule out things like landclass & addon stuff...but there wasn't a hitch...I flew with real weather, had a 35 mph crosswind for much of the flight, but fairly clear. I suggest this flight for you to test this file, for the same reasons I used it...unless you have other addon items in this part of the world...in that case, go test-fly this someplace that you don't have anything other than default items.
INSTALL:
The file goes in your fs9\scenery\world\texture folder...just copy/paste & overwrite the existing file...you can reverse the process with the enclosed original file if the new ones don't/won't work with your system.
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I'm running WindowsXP Pro...so make allowances accordingly for what you are using. Here are my system specs, just to let you know what these files have been run/tested on...
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OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
System Manufacturer VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model VT82C694X
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel ~1002 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG, 8/13/2003
SMBIOS Version 2.2
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\System32
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1)"
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 306.26 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.47 GB
Available Virtual Memory 2.14 GB
Page File Space 1.97 GB
I'd like to thank those of you who provided me with feedback on the problems you had...it was working for me, so I posted it; hopefully it will work for most, if not all; of you too, this time! Your system & hardware may be issues?
I'd also like to thank Martin Wright for steering me to BMP2000...a program that lets you mip w/alpha, 8-bit bitmaps. I never would have found that one on my own! You can get it and quite a few other specialty graphic tools & advice from his site, stop by & have a look & maybe even sign his guestbook:
http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/index.htm
& Thanks to 'rhumbaflappy' for pointing out to me that 8-bit mipped w/alpha was the format of the original bmp...the tools I was using only identified it as a single image w/no alpha channel.
Also thanks to Justin Tyme at FSGenesis...your terrain mesh made that 2-hour test flight very enjoyable as I was trying to coax that C172 over 12,500', in a strong crosswind; to clear the mountain pass! You can find his mesh here:
http://portal.fsgenesis.net/
Legal stuff...you know the drill by now...if it works for you, enjoy it...if not, toss it!
