Flowing Terrain Pixels

[swisher7]

I just upgraded my hardware in the hopes of finally getting realistic scenery and flight experience in FS2004. I purchased a $4,000. system with the new Athlon 64 FX-53, 2-gigs of ram, ATI 9800 XT with 256 meg, 2X 160 gig harddrives, etc, etc.

It works great in LOMAC and everything else I've tried, but in FS2004 it sucks. The framerates are great and the flight model is smooth with no jerks or pauses, but the ground terrain pixels constantly move and flash as if the ground were flowing like water. Just sitting on the runway in San Diego with MegaScenery installed is just plain ugly.

Anyone got any ideas on how I might clean this mess up and get a nice solid terrain texture like "As real as it gets"?

Thanks for your help.

Bill

[PG_Raptor]

Nice system... I want...

 

As for the terrain, that is a problem with FS2004, not your system. I've got that too on my comparitavly sucky computer. Maybe they'll get a patch, but, knowing microsoft flight sims, probably not.

[swisher7]

Thanks Raptor, not the answer I wanted to hear, but then I guess I'm not surprised. MS flightsim has never featured the tightest code or best graphics. I was just dreaming of that ultimate flightsim experience. Maybe someday. . . .

[PG_Raptor]

Just to clarify, I only get this moving texture problem when I'm right near the ground, or better yet, on it. Same for you? or do you get it in the air too?

[Top_Gun]

Swisher, what are your texture settings at?

 

Also, can you post some screen shots? I have 1/2 the system you have and don't get those type of graphics with my ground.

 

[swisher7]

The flowing textures were most noticeable at low to moderate altitude over mostly flat terrain while banking the aircraft or on the ground but only when moving the aircraft. For some reason the mountain terrain didn't seem to flow like the more level areas. I've since experimented with the graphic settings and have come up with a fairly acceptable cure for the problem. The main problem seems to be the MIP Mapping Quality setting which I had set at the maximum value. When I reduced this to 4 most of the texture movement seemed to stop although the detail was also reduced. I can live with it though as it's much better than before.

I have installed MegaScenery Southern California, Extreme Landscapes and MyTraffic 2004.

Unfortunately a screen shot cannot capture the moving textures, but here are my settings:

 

Scenery:

Terrain Mesh Complexity = 100

Terrain Texture Size=High

Terrain Detail=Land & Water

Water Effects=Low

Dawn to Dusk=on

Extended Terrain Textures=on

Special Effects Detail=medium

Scenery Complexity=very dense

Autogen Density=normal

Add-on Dynamic Scenery=dense

Ground Scenery Casts Shadows=on

no sun glare

no lens flare

 

Hardware:

1024X768X32

Render to Texture=on

Transform & Lighting=on

Anti-aliasing=on

Bilinear Filtering

MIP Mapping Quality=4

Hardware Rendering Lights=4

Global Max Textures Size=Massive

 

Weather:

Sight=70mi

Cloud Draw=50mi

3-D Percentage=100

Detailed Clouds=on

Density=High

 

Aircraft:

Global Quality=High

Vertual Cockpit Gauges Quality=High

Reflections=on

Aircraft Casts Shadows=on

Landing Lights=on

 

Sound:

Quality=High

 

That's it. The flight charactoristics are smooth except for an occassional pause in dense scenery. No stuttering or slide show action and a consistant 30+ fpm.

Thanks all for your suggestions.