SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 12:15 am Post subject: Scenery not loading fully

Most of the time i've been seeing scenery blurry until i get under that spot, then it loads. The bad thing about this is that where the unloaded scenery is there are little black squares moving until the scenery loads. What could I do? Note: I can't take a pic because it happens to fast. Sad

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:02 am Post subject: how about...

How about telling us where you have your sliders set in your FS video settings.

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:36 am Post subject:

Scenery page: All maxed
Planes and Weather: High
Hardware
MIP map-8 Hardware-render lights 8 Global max texture: massive
screen- 1280x1024x32

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:45 pm Post subject:

What is your graphics card?

Also, this is NOT an unusual occurance. I have a system with all maxed out and can easily handle it. However, I get the same things you mention occasionally. For example, if I am in spot view, and I start to move around the aircraft with the camera, many times, I get the big black squares (scenery grids) in some places until that scenery can load. As you state yourself, only lasts a few seconds if that...so I don't bother with it. Just part of having this much data slamming into the computer all at once...

You could definately use a bit more ram, but curious as to the graphics card you have. FYI, you should try sliding your MIP level down to 4. I have done extensive testing to find the best settings for various systems and cards and set-ups (literally 100's of hours as Groundsquirrel can attest) and found that if you max that slider, usually you will suffer some odd effects.

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:28 pm Post subject:

Check this thread: http://forums.surclaro.com/ftopic5910.html

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:59 pm Post subject:

My system specs are located as my signature. I'm just seeing if there is a way to get rid of the black squares. I have great screen shots of planes and it sort of ruins them.

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:44 am Post subject:

MIP map 8?? I am running a 7800gt as well and it starts to twinkle at 4. No twinkle at all at 3 but blurry. 8.....no way for me..5 or 6 would be nice though.

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:15 am Post subject:

I have a dual processor 3.2ghz MT with 4 gigs of ram and Radeon 9800 with 256m ram.

I can't put my mips over 4. 5-8 flicker something aweful. 4 is great and looks very nice. I have tweaked my card for flight sim and have also overclocked it..

Your system, I am sorry to say, doesn't come close to what I am using currently, and if I can't run over 4 mips, you surely should NOT be. Cut them down to 3 or 4, and check on your graphic cards settings.. NOT the ones in FS...

Check your cards Anisotropic level. I have mine at 16x. The higher you have it set, the better your 3d effect in the distance will be. Yours may need to be tweaked a bit.

After all that, I would upgrade your card, and definately your system RAM.

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:15 pm Post subject:

Hate to tell ya FSDU but his card is almost top of the line...lol. Not too many models above that one to upgrade to without spending 4 figures to do it. And the 7800's can run higher mips compared to the older models without a hit in detail or sparkles. But good tip on the anisotropic filtering...should be max and I think the 7800 goes up to 32x right guys? I could be wrong about that one though.

Try some scenery config edits as posted in our Optimal configs forum. I think some of the guys (Ardie,Richy?) have some pretty sweet tweaks that get the scenery to load up real nice. Also make sure your AGP Aperture setting in your bios is no more than 256.

Exx

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:10 pm Post subject:

Hey Exx....

I will claim ignorance on that card...I won't/don't use those cards...ATI only (course, they are making me mad refusing to include the newest tech on their cards and then telling their partner companies that they can't activate the new tech in their games if they want to keep ATI...what's up with that!!!???) but I will say I was mainly referring to his computer memory. I can barely run apps I use every day with under 1 gig... Because of flight sim, photoshop, and a few others, I couldn't imagine being under 2... And regardless of what is onboard on the graphics card, the core system memory has a HUGE affect on flight sim performance. Weakest link and all that good stuff.

Oh, I found this over on AVSIM... This helped me get even better scenery performance than I already did... I hope it helps some here:

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=177&topic_id=834&mesg_id=834&page=

If you back out of that topic, the main board area there (tips and tricks) has info on all sorts of tweaks and fixes. Also, apparently nVidea has a major problem with their current drivers. Big link about it there.

The tweaks in the posts I give the link for will work no matter what card you use.. Funny, many of the people there are dumping their nvidea cards for ATI and it is fixing MOST of their problems with flight sim.

Hope those will help out....

- Greg

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:52 pm Post subject:

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 6:26 pm Post subject:

Well thanks for all your help. It is not really happening any more.

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 2:03 am Post subject:

To add to Greg's post...he is right. The newer ATi cards seem to handle FS a lot better than the newer Nvidia series. Why? Tons of reasons but mainly due to Nvidia's rendering architecture. ATi seems to have that part of it down all the way from the 7000 series to current. Not to say one is the best or the other is inferior, but man it sure does help when you get firsthand knowledge of user experience when shopping for PC parts. Forums are a great asset in this regard. Thanks for the info Richy...

121a...what did you do (if anything) to fix the problem?

Exx

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 7:33 am Post subject:

WOW, thanks Exx Razz

On the settings issue, on my 6600GT, I have my bios set at 128 AGP. Otherwise, I have everything else maxxed on the card. A/A and A/F is maxxed on the card only, not thru FS9/FS2004. I also have my LOD clamped. Refresh rates are at 75 HZ, with a display setting at 1600x1200x32 on the monitor, and 1024x768x32 on the game.

For the card he has, I am really surprised he is having problems with scenery. I have never had black blocks show up, ever.

Is there any way of getting a pic of it. Even if you have to go through instant replay, that could help alot. And yes, it does make a difference in what view you are in when it shows up.

Ardie

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:45 am Post subject:

I just checked on mine, and I was mistaken. However, I think the phenomena is the same thing. My blocks are not black..they are white. It is simply where a scenery block has not come in as quick as you viewed it.

I tried capturing with a movie in fs... not happening... when you replay, the scenery has already loaded. Just like AI doesn't work in replay (a real bummer when you have a great close encounter or interesting aircraft/aircraft crash...)

However, you may/should be able to do it using fraps movie, then taking out the frame that has it. I tried, and of course, I now can't make it happen to save my life. Yesterday, it happend all through a flight. LOL

- Greg