Hi friends ,

I have download last lynettes on your site ....

To have more place on my hard Disk , I use a program "savetex" created by Paul Gausden ( Decapod ) . It compress all ace files in a folder in DXT1 format as TGATools .... and Route Riter. On all lynettes , I save 13Mo !!!!

I hope that creators try this little program to have lightless packages ....

It is on the site of decapod : http://www31.brinkster.com/decapod/
It is dated 2002 !!!!!

Regards

I agree that it's a nuisance, but I can achieve the same effect by using NTFS compression on my Train Simulator folder.
If a file is compressed surely it must be decompressed by MSTS when you try to access it, so the reduction in size may be detrimental to performance.

Yes it may take time, but all ACE are compressed, they gets extreemly large otherwise. However, the DXT compression is harder in the sense that it actually remove information.

In some textures the quality suffer and in textures width alpha channels the gray tone is changed to black/white only.

With other textures there is no visible difference.

But can you reccommend some ways to compress the files Freddy?

I don't see what's wrong with NTFS compression - it works fine for me (it does not remove any data like DXT, and it is applied to folders and all files within them, so it compresses .s files too).
One way to compress everything might be to make a batch file of some sort (using the command line makeace tool). But it would be easier to use Savetex, if that doesn't DXT everything.

Jens: I didn't meen that theres something wrong with the NFTS-way but I just want to know if Freddy has something better than that!

Hi ,

I use also NFTS with Xp , It does'nt make no nuisances to all my files ( 21000 engines and wagons and 140 routes !!!! ).

I have not see many differences between ACE files compressed DXT or not ....

In your routes or your rolling stock you have two formats and TGATools used DXT1 compression . So , why not ?

While using this method , I got much place on my hard disks ....

Try it .....

Regards

ardennes , french simmer
translator ( train Store ) , packages ( wagons ), coauthor of program CONVOI ( a consist builder , testing and reparing rolling stock and activities )... Site in french ( sorry :cry: )
but Program translated in english and deutch ...
http://perso.wana.../index.htm
http://perso.wana...train_sim/ other french site of my friend
coauthor french route "Vallée de la Meuse"

HI ? FRIENDS ?

I complete my explications over Savetex .... It compress ace files in DXT not in DXT1 . So transparent or translucid textures are not affected ( for cabview for exemple) . So , it causes any dommages at any files. MSTS use ACE files compressed with Savetex as any files uncompressed.

Try it , you got much place on your hard disk.....

Regards

Thanks to ardennes for bringing savetex up, it looks like a good and easy-to-use tool. It can compress all textures on af Route or Trainset, thus saving a lot of space in general. But it can (should) also be used as a design tool to keep the size down even before delivering the stuff, thus saving up/download time and server space as well.

I used the following files created with TGA2Tool standart compression: PU.ACE 273.422 bytes (no trans) and UNDERVOGN.ACE 125.553 bytes (transparent). Then I compressed PU with TGA2Tool using DXT, saved as PU1.ACE 175.063 bytes, 98 kb saved, with no noticeable difference.

Running savetex on these three files resultet in: PU.ACE and UNDERVOGN.ACE was unchanged, but PU1.ACE compressed further to 70.101 bytes a very significant saving, there is a small difference when looking at the image, but it is not visible in MSTS.

That UNDERVOGN is untouched may be on purpose. (as you mentioned) Savetex skip this file because of the 8 bit alpha channel.

But I do not understand why the 273 Kbyte PU.ACE is not beeing compressed by Savetex. (I got the ShapeViewer 1.4.155 and DirectX 9) Any Ideas

In any case, Decapod made another great program, as long as there is no transparency to worry about and the quality does not suffer, it is a good idea to compress as much as possible.
From 273 to 70 Kbytes on a single 512x512 texture is a lot
Its true that it takes time to unpack, but it also takes time to read large files.

Nope, the optimal solution for high quality content would be a native lossless format IMHO. Lossy belongs to the past, or web usage where bandwidth is a factor...


Nonsense! DXT(all versions) is the native Direct3D formats, there a hell lot of graphics adaptors out there with native hardware D3D support, which means that you can load the compressed DXT files directly to the adaptor..