You have to edit your viewport settings. Customize-->Preferences-->Viewports (Tab)--> At the bottom click on configure driver. Check "Match Bitmap as close as possible". Enter Material Editor, go to the bitmap level and click on reload. You should see a significant improvement! I also crank up the Illumination to 100% to see the ref. textures better. There is a tutorial on blue print setup which is quite useful check the below link:

Blue print set up - Tutorial for beginners

Cheers!