Simviation Forum - shimmer in fs9

Apr 30^th, 2010 at 12:28pm

DenisH Offline
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I searched the forum for this topic without success so pardon if you have heard it all before. I am getting a lot more "shimmer" in my FS9 program than I have been. Mainly off airports and buildings but also from my aircraft when sitting on an apron. I recently added Real Environment X enhancement program and I am wondering if this may be the cause. Has anyone had the same problem or a solution to mine? Is it in the settings? Thanks.

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Reply #1 - Apr 30^th, 2010 at 12:52pm

Travis Offline
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Have no idea what this "shimmer" is or what it looks like. If you could post a screenshot, it might help. Upload by clicking on the link directly below the Simviation banner at the top of this page. Follow the guidelines! Wink

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Reply #2 - Apr 30^th, 2010 at 2:26pm

tgibson Offline
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"Shimmer" is the rippling and sparkling you see when you set your mipmapping to low.

Might you have set your MipMaps value in FS too high or low? As I remember 4 is a good setting.

Hope this helps,

---
Tom Gibson
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http://www.calclassic.com

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Reply #3 - Apr 30^th, 2010 at 4:34pm

Sovien Offline
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I believe tg is on the mark.

DenisH, refer to this post from NickN regarding tweaking FS9, specifically up at the top of his post in the section where he lists hardware settings and mipmapping settings for ATI and nVidia video cards. http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1211055375/0#7

I run an nVidia 8800 and when I first tried setting my mipmap to 8 it produced the nasty shimmer effect. I reduced to 4 per Nick's suggestion and *poof* no more shimmers.

I'm not sure what video card you're using, but if your running on nVidia use nhancer for video card settings management.

I'm use the REX for FS9 now as well, and I have not experienced the shimmering so I'm sure REX is not your problem, it's probably in your video card settings.

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Reply #4 - May 1^st, 2010 at 8:18am

DenisH Offline
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Many thanks for these tips.

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Reply #5 - May 5^th, 2010 at 3:25am

FridayChild Offline
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I have recently acquired a totally different card (an old NVidia before, a brand new ATI now) and the shimmering problem has not changed.
Like before, the tiny objects like poles and dotted lines have this shimmering effect no matter how I configure the options.

EDIT: it's mostly the runway and taxiway lines that drive me crazy. Rather than shimmering, those little buggers seem to *move* or *crawl* along!
When I'm airborne over an airport, OK it's like the runway lines are floating above the ground and twinkling; but when I'm on the runway, it's like those Christmas lights which illuminate in sequence, those white dots are supposed to stand still and instead they shift place!
I'm convinced it's not really a gfx card issue (two different cards, all possible settings, no difference) but perhaps a texture issue.
So..... can one of you guys who don't get shimmering recommend me a set of airport/runway textures which are known to be not affected by this mip map problem?

« Last Edit: May 8^th, 2010 at 3:49am by FridayChild »

Founder of A.A.A.A.A.A.A. (Aircraft Amateurs' Association Against Absurd Aviation Acronyms) My system specifications: FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2004 - AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU - 3 GB PC-3200 DDR400 dual channel RAM - 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm SATA-II hard disk - Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 1 GB PCI-E graphic card - Logitech Wingman Force 3D joystick + Logitech Formula Force pedals My FS whereabouts: low and slow, small single engine prop GA, Italy airfields.

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Reply #6 - May 8^th, 2010 at 12:59pm

Rocket_Bird Offline
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Have you ever changed your airport/runway textures before? And have you updated your ATI drivers to the latest catalyst drivers? I run a 5xxx series ati card myself, and I don't seem to get this issue. I do try to max out most of my settings, mip map included...

I'd probably try running either Airport Environment 7, or Real Environment Pro textures to see if it fixes anything. They are both freeware and I've used each years at a time.

Cheers,
RB

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Reply #7 - May 8^th, 2010 at 6:38pm

FridayChild Offline
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I've changed the textures before, but I'd made a backup of the original textures and I restored them: same issue.
I am using the latest drivers.
Now I have installed the ATI Tray Tools which allow to set more parameters than the Catalyst Control Center. I'll experiment a bit, but I'm not confident I'll solve this Sad

Founder of A.A.A.A.A.A.A. (Aircraft Amateurs' Association Against Absurd Aviation Acronyms) My system specifications: FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2004 - AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU - 3 GB PC-3200 DDR400 dual channel RAM - 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm SATA-II hard disk - Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 1 GB PCI-E graphic card - Logitech Wingman Force 3D joystick + Logitech Formula Force pedals My FS whereabouts: low and slow, small single engine prop GA, Italy airfields.

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Reply #8 - May 8^th, 2010 at 9:04pm

Rocket_Bird Offline
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Did you always have this problem? Even with your video card?

Just as a blind shot, I would also try deleting your fs9.cfg file and letting FS9 generate a new one to reset your settings; see if that does anything.

fs9.cfg is a hidden file, and you will need to go into folder options in your control panel, and selecting "show hidden files, folders, and drives" under the view tab. For Win7/Vista, the file is located in C:\Users\YOUR NAME\App Data\Roaming\Microsoft\FS9. For XP, it is under C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9\

Its a blind shot as I said, but had I the same issue, I'd try it just to be sure the issue isn't in the cfg file.

Cheers,
RB

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Reply #9 - May 9^th, 2010 at 3:31am

garryrussell Offline
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I get this issue now but didn't with my previous monitors

Nothing has been changed except a new monitor.

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Reply #10 - May 9^th, 2010 at 4:30am

FridayChild Offline
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garryrussell: in your case maybe you need to forcibly enable vertical sync in the video driver properties.
As for me, I did get this issue with the previous video card, though I'm not sure it was this evident; anyway I'd always blamed the video card so it was a bad surprise when I discovered that this wasn't the case. I will also try to delete the fs9.cfg file.
Does anyone know the exact names of the files responsible for the runway lines and the taxiway lines?

Founder of A.A.A.A.A.A.A. (Aircraft Amateurs' Association Against Absurd Aviation Acronyms) My system specifications: FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2004 - AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU - 3 GB PC-3200 DDR400 dual channel RAM - 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm SATA-II hard disk - Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 1 GB PCI-E graphic card - Logitech Wingman Force 3D joystick + Logitech Formula Force pedals My FS whereabouts: low and slow, small single engine prop GA, Italy airfields.

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Reply #11 - May 9^th, 2010 at 12:43pm

Rocket_Bird Offline
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I'm curious as to whether playing around with the refresh rates on your monitor or even the resolution in your sim (setting it to your native resolution) might get rid of the problem. Again, I don't have this problem myself, so I don't know, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Cheers,
RB

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Reply #12 - May 9^th, 2010 at 2:20pm

FridayChild Offline
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Rocket_Bird, you are on a positive streak Wink

After installing the Airport Environment Upgrade 7 (+ incremental upgrade 8) textures, so far it seems that the shimmering problem is cured for all the default airports and in general for airports which make use of these textures. I still get shimmering with some other objects; for example, the wonderful ISD scenery of Verona (Italy) still shows shimmering in the airport buildings windows textures.
Anyway, it seems confirmed that it's a texture related problem, some texture sets shimmer and some don't.

Founder of A.A.A.A.A.A.A. (Aircraft Amateurs' Association Against Absurd Aviation Acronyms) My system specifications: FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2004 - AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU - 3 GB PC-3200 DDR400 dual channel RAM - 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm SATA-II hard disk - Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 1 GB PCI-E graphic card - Logitech Wingman Force 3D joystick + Logitech Formula Force pedals My FS whereabouts: low and slow, small single engine prop GA, Italy airfields.

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