 For the FIRST time in Flight Simulator History : Ultra High Definition Textures for your favorite 'tubeliner'. For years now, we were limited to how much detail we could add, by Microsoft Flight Simulator. Now, with perhaps a little bit of pride (if you can't be proud of what you do, you might as well find another profession right?), we present to you, something that hasn't been done, or tried before : Ultra High Definition Textures. Textures that will set a new standard, a higher standard, one that will change the look, beauty and appearance of aircraft textures....
What are HDT and UHDT?
HDT stands for High Definition Textures and UHDT for Ultra High Definition Textures. The difference between these two is the pixels per meter ratio. Where most payware (and freeware) developers issue paintkits that average between 40 and 60 pixels per meter, we build taylor made kits sporting between 101 and 200 pixels per meter (HDT) and 201 and upwards pixels per meter (UHDT), doubling or sometimes even quadrupling the ratio and with that : the level of detail. Basically it is creating aircraft textures that are high in detail, high in quality, but without needing a NASA issued mainframe to run them.
How does it work?
Simply said, we build new kits, but not only for the diffuse maps, but also for the specular and normal mapping. By doing this, we can make a rivet actually look like a rivet and not like a mid sized apple. A HDT or UHDT specular map opens up the oppertunity to give a rivet a certain amount of reflectivity, the surrounding chipped of paint a different amount and the paintjob yet a different amount, boosting the depth and realness of our textures. The same applies for the normal (or bump) mapping. Both techniques, being dynamic already lifted textures to a higher level, but with our HDT and UHDT versions, we -believe- set a new standard.
Examples
In the following screenshots, we compared the normal kits to the (work in progress) UHDT kit of the Flight1/Coolsky Super80 and the HDT kit of the PMDG 747. Coolsky mapped their kit on a solid 60 px/m, which is pretty good for such a small plane. PMDG mapped theirs on a mere 40 px/m. Our UHDT kits put the Coolsky bird at 240 px/m(!!) and PMDG's Queen at 190 px/m. (Screenshots without our UHDT logo are shots from the STOCK textures, all screenshots are -early- work in progress)
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We try to maintain a healthy balance between (trying to) getting filfthy rich and giving out stuff for free. At the moment, only the Coolsky Super 80 is payware, the rest of the projects are still undecided. No matter what happens, every single HDT/UHDT project WILL see some freeware liveries.
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 At the moment we are working on an UHDT kit for the Coolsky Super80Pro, a HDT kit for the PMDG 747 and an UHDT kit for the Level-D 767. Kits for freeware developers will follow shortly after. To check and discuss the progress, go to our forum. |
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 Providing the entire community with HDT and UHDT liveries within a reasonable amount of time, with the handfull of Texture Artist and painters we have in our ranks is an unachievable goal. So we will release our kits, but there are a few rules to the usage. If you are a 3rd party painter, and interested : Read on....
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Apply
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 We tested UHDT on systems ranging from a single core Pentium IV to a Quadcore Q9300, from 1GB on a XP 32 bit system to a 8GB, 64bit VISTA rig and from a GF7600 to a HD4870. Verdict is : No loss of frames whatsoever. The only ones that should worry are the Texture Artists and painters that have to work with 500+MB UHDT kits. |
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