Software Surface texture "transitions"

[EnDSchultz]

So I've noticed this mostly on Earth and Mars. The high quality textures for short distances and lower quality stand-ins for longer distances don't quite match and so in the distance there are these somewhat annoying blocks where lower quality meets high quality. Is there a way to increase the distance at which max quality textures show so you don't see this in low orbit or is this hardcoded?

That's the gorgeous dark underbelly of the XR2 ISA skin, by the way.

 

[orb]

What high-resolution textures are you using? Are they from some add-on, or official?

 

[EnDSchultz]

I'm frankly not sure. They're probably addon...

 

[orb]

If they're from an add-on, you need corresponding low resolution textures for them. They might be in a separate download.

 

[EnDSchultz]

So, if I understand you correctly, the problem is that I need to download and install corresponding lower level textures? IE, level 8, 9, etc?

 

[orb]

No. Only level 8 textures. Level 9 belong to high-resolution ones, and are included with them.

Planet textures are divided into low resolution (1-8 level) that are in one (.tex) file and high resolution (9-14 tiles) that are in another (_tile.tex) file. If you have one of them from another set, there will be seams when transiting from low to high and vice versa.

 

[EnDSchultz]

Okay, thanks for clearing up how the texture system works. A bit of digging turned up some extraneous texture files. Deleted all Earth-related texture files and started from scratch, and now the LandSAT level 8 and level 10 earth textures seem to match. Out of curiosity, what do think are some of the best texture sets available for Earth, the moon, and Mars?

I tried out the level 11-14 textures found here, but they seem pretty patchy so I reverted.

 

[orb]

My own preference for Orbiter 2010 is the official Level 11+14 for Earth, official level 11 Mars textures, and my Level 10 Moon textures. However, if I don't care about seams on the Moon's surface, I use official level 11 Moon textures. They are the highest resolution textures available for Orbiter at the moment. If you want to try my Moon textures click on "orb's add-ons" link below my nick, or the link to my add-ons in my signature.