When I take off in spot mode, I notice that the ground textures are visibly refreshing as I move. Maybe I'm being picky but they seem to be a bit slow. Just got a new video card and have been tweaking a bit, here and there. Does anyone know of a setting that is specific to this area?

System is:
W98SE
Athlon 1.4
Asus A7M266/512 pc2100
GeForce4 TI4600 128M

Thanx,

Vic Baron

• RE: Graphic settings,TD, 21:24z, 09-01-02
  • RE: Graphic settings,Snave, 10:14z, 09-02-02
    • RE: Graphic settings,vgbaron, 17:44z, 09-02-02
    • RE: Graphic settings,PeteDowson, 00:23z, 09-03-02
    • RE: Graphic settings,PaulCroft, 10:37z, 09-03-02
      • Sometimes it's the simple things...,Snave, 11:01z, 09-03-02
        • RE: Sometimes it's the simple things...,PeteDowson, 00:02z, 09-04-02
        • RE: Sometimes it's the simple things...,PaulCroft, 08:13z, 09-05-02
  • RE: Graphic settings,vgbaron, 17:44z, 09-02-02
    • RE: Graphic settings,Snave, 19:13z, 09-02-02
• RE: Graphic settings,Emile, 11:42z, 09-03-02
  • RE: Graphic settings,vgbaron, 17:02z, 09-03-02

When I take off in spot mode, I notice that the ground textures are visibly refreshing as I move.

Okay Vic... get back in the airplane. Even the wingwalkers in the 1920s aerial shows waited until they were airborne before climbing out on the wings. Riding outside the cockpit during takeoff is just asking for trouble.

Too, I am sure that they will visibly-refresh in the cockpit too. After all, you are not staying in one place on takeoff. As you move, you cover new ground, either in the sim or real life, and that requires new textures. Just as no two snow flakes are identical, (although I doubt there can be that many variations...), so do pixels change as you change position. Just roll with the flow.

The eyes do, the world really isn't more than 16 colours and 8 bit resolution. The brain just fills in the rest using the imagination...

"TD - Virtual FAA investigators are on line 2, AGAIN!!!"

You could try disabling AGP Texture Acceleration from within dxdiag. That has helped on some mobo's.

Or else just zoom out some more, then you can't see it..!

BTW the same trick works within the cockpit environment. Want bluer sky with the default 2d cockpits? Zoom the outside view to 0.50. Presto!
Want a smoother scrolling banked turn..? Zoom the outside view to 0.50. Smooooooth.

Conversely, want a better, more realistic landing view on final approach..? Zoom to 2.00x. ScaryReal.

So here's what I do:
Takeoff at 1x zoom, per normal. When retracting flaps at about 1,000 AGL, hit F5 for the flaps as normal, backspace to restore zoom focus, `-` (minus) key to set 0.50 zoom.
Fly like that, remembering to alter it back if it gets re-set by changing views or whatever.

When setting approach configuration (first stage flaps, power reduction or circuit height) I let the zoom return to 1.0x and leave it there (it's the default, so it stays there to avoid confusing the `picture` when switching views.

As the aircraft goes to Finals, at full flap I zoom to 2x and leave it there until rollout.

To my feeble mind, the actual `realistic` settings would be closer to 0.68 than 0.50, 1.75 than 2x, but I have yet to find a way to set those with single key presses and I can't be doing with all that faffing with Shift+plusses and minusses when I'm busy..!

Pete, is that perhaps something that FSUIPC could hotkey, zoom presets..?

Another related tip is to turn DOWN the texture detail when you turn UP the autogen or scenery settings. It not only slows the texture re-writes, it also helps to preserve your focus on the 3d buildings and trees, rather than the 2d ground txture. Try it, it appears more realistic and believable!

Simon Evans

Simon -

Duh! Senior moment. You posted a similar response to someone at FlightSim. Must not have permeated to the brain cells. I recall thinking I should give those a try - I now will act upon that thought.

Sorry to make you relive that moment<g> but now we have the response in OUR archives.

Thank you,

Vic

Of All the Things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!

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Hi again Simon,

> To my feeble mind, the actual `realistic` settings would be closer to
> 0.68 than 0.50, 1.75 than 2x, but I have yet to find a way to set those
> with single key presses and I can't be doing with all that faffing with
> Shift+plusses and minusses when I'm busy..!
>
> Pete, is that perhaps something that FSUIPC could hotkey, zoom
> presets..?

Well, there's not such a demand. but you could program your "faffy keypresses" with any spare joystick buttons you have. Also check the controls in the drop down list on FSUIPC's Buttons page. For FS2002 there are "view1 zoom set" and "view2 zoom set". I'm not sure what parameters they take, but start by trying 256 x zoom, so 448 for 1.75 and 174 for 0.68 (internally 256 represents 1.00).

Regards,

Pete

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Hi Simon

>> To my feeble mind, the actual `realistic` settings would be closer to 0.68 than 0.50, 1.75 than 2x, but I have yet to find a way to set those with single key presses and I can't be doing with all that faffing with Shift+plusses and minusses when I'm busy..! <<

FWIW, and far be it from me to teach you, or anyone else for that matter, to suck eggs, I, too, like to fly with a different forward zoom setting from the standard. To lock the straight ahead to what I want as my default, e.g. 0.68, before take off I set it using Shift+minus (can't get round this bit) then, immediately after setting this, choose any other outside view, e.g. forward and left, using the numpad.

Having done this, regardless of where I'm looking, or what zoom setting I'm currently using, hitting the space bar returns me to a forward view with the pre-chosen zoom setting.

I don't know any way to pre-set the zoom factor so that a straight + or - goes to anything other than the defaults but at least I can return to my straight ahead at my preferred zoom setting with a minimum of fuss.

I don't tend to change the zoom setting much in flight but, if I did, I'd use FSUIPC to assign two of the switches on my CH Pro yoke to zoom in and out.

Paul Croft
10 miles SE of Heathrow (EGLL)

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Pete, you're a genius (or I'm a simpleton)..!

I'd been messing with the button settings within FSUIPC to try and achieve that result but had scrolled straight past `View 1 zoom set` heading for `Zoom xx` - and the parameters aren't recognised there. It was all or nothing, 0.50 or 2.00 which was no advance. It wasn't until you mentioned it that I found the correct entry to change!

I used `view 1 zoom set` to configure the zoom on a rocker switch on my CH Products USB yoke, so I now FINALLY have what I wanted - click the left rocker get 0.68, click the right get 1.75... it's so simple!

The parameter 1x default is actually 64, by the way, so you can create any multiple you like to get the zoom factor desired - 44 gets you 0.68 zoom...

Paul, hope this helps you too.

Simon Evans

Hi Simon,

> The parameter 1x default is actually 64, by the way, so you can create
> any multiple you like to get the zoom factor desired - 44 gets you 0.68
> zoom...

Ah, yes, sorry! I was mixing it up with the Simulation Speed. 256 is for x1 (i.e. normal).

Regards,

Pete

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Hi Simon

>> Paul, hope this helps you too. <<

Your points duly noted. I'll have me a twiddle with the buttons soon <g>

Paul Croft
10 miles SE of Heathrow (EGLL)

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>
> Okay Vic... get back in the airplane. Even the wingwalkers in the 1920s
> aerial shows waited until they were airborne before climbing out on the
> wings. Riding outside the cockpit during takeoff is just asking for
> trouble.

Aw shucks! Sometimes it's just fun to watch the airplane fly rather than watch all those gauges<G>.

Vic

Of All the Things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!

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The other thing worth trying in spot view is to alter the viewing distance of the aircraft from the menu - as opposed to just zooming the view from the `-` and `+` keys. FS by default seems to like us to have to zoom to 2.0x to get a nice close look at our aircraft, but you can alter that provisional spot view distance to anything your like - I usually take mine double the distance away. Get's a better perspective effect when you zoom in to 4.0x instead of 2.0x for the same view of your plane.

But what does this (or my previous answer) have to do with your original question you must all be wondering..?

Ah, well, FS2002 uses layered mipmapping to create the distance effect - and to preserve frame rates. As `objects` (and that includes textures) are moved further away they reduce the mipmap or layer of the texture - in other words things get more indistinct as distance increases (as it should be).

Now, your texture re-writes may simply be an effect of seeing the texture field crossing the boundaries of the mipmaps and making some otherwise inconsequential changes, like altering by 70 feet the spot view distance, can have interesting side effects...

Simon Evans

Hello Vic,
I did find a topic on AVSIM

http://ftp.avsim.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=280&forum=DCForumID8

this discusses the generation of the ground textures
I hope it will help, any way I have modified my FS2002.cfg :

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=2.500000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1
With following:
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=7.500000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4

and this gives (acceptable) improved results for me
Regards
Emile
EBBR

Emile -

Thank you for the info. I'll double check my cfg settings - I *had* changed them a while back but don't recall if I *refreshed* the cfg file lately. Might have reset them inadvertently.

Thanx,

Vic

> http://ftp.avsim.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=280&forum=DCForumID8
>
> this discusses the generation of the ground textures
> I hope it will help, any way I have modified my FS2002.cfg :
>
> TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=2.500000
> TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.000000
> TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1
> With following:
> TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=7.500000
> TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.000000
> TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4
>
> and this gives (acceptable) improved results for me
> Regards
> Emile
> EBBR

Of all the things I've lost - I miss my mind the most

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