FS9 Scenery help please

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Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 113

Now I know that there are hundreds, if not thousands of you out there who can answer this question for me.

How can I adjust the settings in FS9 to lessen the 'shimmer' in middle and long distance views where it seems I've got everything on the move?

I'm sure there's a way to smooth, or at least quieten it that I've read somewhere but I've forgotten how to do it, and since re-installing FS9, which I still use quite a bit despite FSX, the shimmers and shakes, to coin a phrase, are getting on my nerves!

John Y

Original post

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 2,623

John try switching on anti-aliasing within flight sim, but you may want to check that your graphics card settings are set to "application controlled" for the antialiasing.
Also try switching on anistropic filtering to 4x or 8x, if it's application controlled then see if you can adjust this within flightsim

Dean

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 113

Shimmer in FS9

Hi Steve

Thanks for this.

I've already got the anti aliasing application controlled and switched on in the simulator but I'll try the anistropic filtering and will let you know the results.

No cricket in this weather for you mate. Got a job yet?

John Y

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 2,623

Hi John

It's Dean not Steve ;)

Give it a go mate and see how you go, also have you got the latest graphics drivers? what is your flight sim screen resolution set to? and what is your scenery density etc set to?

No mate no cricket as yet, should be ok for tomorrow though.

As for the job, I am flight instructing full time, and I had an interview with a major UK carrier on Monday this week, all went well, I am just waiting for the call for a sim check & job offer.

Speak soon

Dean

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 113

Shimmer in FS9

Hi Steve

I've now tried Anistropic filtering with application controlled, off, 2x and 4x and with aliasing on and off in the simulator. The only difference being that
4x makes it noticeably worse and with antialiasing on, the flight itself seems jerky but with it off, its nice and smooth.

Do you think I should ease back on some of the other settings a little which I tend to have to the far right? If you think this will help, what ones would you think will have the greater effect on controlling the shimmer?

John Y

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 113

Hi Dean

We seem to have crossed messages.

Sorry about my mix-up with your name. Blame it on an old man's approaching senility!

I thought I had the latest drivers on my graphics card which I had put in only a few months ago after I got FSX but I can check that easily enough. I should also explain I don't get this phenomenon on FSX.

I've got some photography to do tomorrow for my golf club's 125th. Anniversary celebration (its been going on all the week) so I think I had better get ready for that now and then if the rain keeps away I'm off out for a game myself this afternoon.

I'll let you know about the drivers.

Glad to hear you're working.

Best wishes

John Y

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 113

FS9 Shimmer

Hi Dean

I've got the details you asked for now.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 Gt.0 graphics card and am assured by the people who installed it the drivers are up to date. The target frame rate is set at 30.

Screen res on both the computer screen and in the simulator is 1280 x 1024.

Settings are: Scenery density, Complexity very dense, Autogen very dense, add on density very dense, Terrain mesh 75,Terrain texture high,Terrain detail land & water far right,water effects low, Special effects high.

The following are all ticked: reflections,aircraft casts shadows,landing lights, ground scenery casts shadows.

Weather: Clouds are set as follows; Sight distance 90, draw distance 60, Detailed clouds, 3D% 50 and coverage density 50.

The following are ticked: Render to texture,Transform & lighting, Antialiasing.

The filtration is set to 'trilinear', MIP quality 7, Hardware lights 7 and Global max texture high.

Now, please Dean, what settings can I adjust to get rid of the shimmer?

Best wishes

John Y

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 2,623

Hi John

I have a slightly worse GFX card than you, I have a GeForce 6600GT, these are my settings.

Scenery

Terrain Mesh Complexity - 65
Terrain texture size - Medium
Terrain Detail - Land Only
Water effects - High

Dawn/Dusk Texture Blending - ticked
Extended Terrain Textures - ticked

Special effects detail - High
Scenery complexity - Dense
Autogen Density - Normal
Add-on dynamic scenery - ticked & set dense
Ground scenery cast shadows - ticked
Sun glare - ticked
Lense flare - ticked

Aircraft Tab

Global aircraft quality - high
Virtual cockpit gauge quality - High
Reflections - ticked
Aircraft casts shadows - ticked
Landing Lights - ticked

Weather tab

Sight Distance slider - fully to the right
Cloud draw distance slider - fully to the right
3-D cloud percentage slider - fully to the right

Cloud detail - Detailed Clouds
Cloud coverage density slider - fully to the right

Hardware Tab

Target Framerate - 20
Display resolution - 1280x1024x32

Hardware rendering options
Render to texture - ticked
Transform & lighting - ticked
Anti-Aliasing - ticked

Filtering - Bilinear
Mip Mapping quality - 5
Hardware rendered lights - 8

Global max texture size - massive (slider to the right)

John

It could be your trilinear settings, try bilinear, also Mip mapping, set it to 5.
Try these and see how you go, report back if you have an improvement, in the meantime double check that you actually have got the latest drivers installed

Dean

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 113

FS 9 shimmer

Hi Dean

Ok, I have now adjusted my settings to exactly replicate yours and I must admit there is a distinct improvement. I've also checked again and the drivers on my graphics card are up to date.

However, there is still some movement there and it's quite tiring to the eye's when flying for any length of time apart from the fact that the middle distance and longer distance scenery is difficult to make out. I'm talking about maybe 15 to 20 miles.

I'm sure that if I move the bars further to the left I could probably remove the shimmer altogether, but why do that? I can use FSX if I want that!

So all this is leading up to my telling you I've now placed an order to upgrade to an 8800 GTS 320MB card and while they're at it increase my system memory from 2GB to 3.

This is not terribly expensive, about £273, and there is also a benefit for me in doing this for my photography. The present card is better than I've ever had but the new one will offer me an even greater degree of control for calibrating the screen to the printer.

Trying to get a perfect match between print and screen is, I suppose, the Utopia for all photographers. With small prints the differences are hardly noticeable but I do quite a lot of big stuff. To give you an idea, the largest print I've produced so far was a panoramic 4' long! But I also produce quite a lot of 12" x 16" prints. Sorry about the old money - that's super A3 size or thereabouts. And the bigger the picture, the greater the differences appear to be, so judgement and experience play a large part. What I'm trying to do is to take the guesswork out of it and reduce the wastage which can be quite costly in materials.

It may be a couple of weeks or so before I can get the new stuff installed but I'll let you know how I've got on, by which time you'll no doubt have some news for me about your job application to become a transport pilot.

Best wishes

John Y

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 113

Hi Dean

I've got the new graphics card installed but unfortunately it turned out that my basic computer could not take the increased system memory without a great deal of money being spent to update it so I'm left with the existing 2GB. Instead I had an extra 250GB hard disc installed and increased the power supply.

I have now transferred my huge photographic folder from the 120GB 'D' disc to the new one so 'D' is now dedicated entirely to the Flight Simulators.

The new graphics card has improved the photographic quality and needed only minimal adjustment to calibrate to my printer. Since I've been doing a lot of photography lately, mainly at the various activities at the golf club, it's already proved it's worth.

However, it's also dramatically improved FS9 - Not a shimmer anywhere now which has improved my eye strain no end. I've also moved the scenery sliders a little further to the right and that's fine.

The FSX sliders have been moved to very slightly higher settings but, of course, are still more to the left that right but that's fine too.

So, for the time being everything in my garden is lovely, and my thanks go to you Dean for your helpful advice as always.

Keep in touch.

Best wishes,

John Y