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Blurry (unreal) horizon effect

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New this forum so will keep it short...Can you help,Installed FS2002 on a 1.8 Ghz Intel, 512 Mb ram Win XP machine. With a Nvidia TNT 64 video card.Problems1. Terrible frame rates!! Stuttering performance from spot plane view. 6-7 frames per second in detailed airports. Would have thought with the above system could have achieved much better or am I unrealistic. What can I do?2. When flying notice that the horizon is blurred. The space around the plane is fine but the distant horizon is blurred. Very unrealistic. Can you help?Would be grateful for any advice - Just got back into FS again after 3 year absence so feel a bit out of the loop....Thanks,

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Guest

You need a video card that was made in this century.

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Guest

Thats what you get from being out of the loop for 3 years:-)

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Guest JeanLuc_

For the blurries, this would most likely be induced by your mipmap settings on. It is recommended (with a graphic card at least of the GeForce2 generation) to disable MipMapping and Enable AntiAliasing. This with a visibility setting in the weather of no more than 30nm gives impressive results compared to the default FS2002 settings at install.Hope it helps!

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Guest

hmm, I have a GF2. When I turn mipmapping off the textures become so blocky it looks like FS95 or worse.

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Can you post a screenshot showing the effect around the horizon? As for the frame rates.... Here's a bottleneck checklist... Try each option in turn, in a major city (ORD or NYC) and a smaller city, such as Lincoln, NE.... Note that fps around the "gated" airports (LAX, LAS, ATL, ORD, etc....) is much worse than fps away from the gated airports.1) Disable AI.2) Reduce or eliminate Autogen3) Turn off shadows4) Turn off water detail/effects5) Use a lower screen resolution (I run 800x600x32 to appease my P3/800)Max all other settingsIgnore the advice regarding turning off mipmapping. While a few prefer this setting, that by no means agrees with most on the forum. Your screenshot may reveal an anomaly in your display, or something that's just part of having an older card. Leaving mipmapping off only works if you cut visibility way back--30nm as suggested in the one post may be too extreme if you prefer flight in the flight levels (in the desert SW where I live, flight level visibility regularly exceeds 125 miles).Don't expect crystal clear textures on the horizon... Once again using the desert SW as an example, I can often see past Flagstaff upon reaching FL190 or so on a "real-life" trip out of Sky Harbor, but the ground gradually blurs as you look to the horizon. That's what you should see, even at 5000 ft, as you are looking through more of the atmosphere than you do when looking down at a 45 or 50 degree angle. If the card doesn't create this effect well, then that's a more serious issue. It's one of the things mipmapping is supposed to help.If you search under my screenname on the screenshots forum (JohnCI), you should see at least one recent shot. I have a GeF/2 Ti....Hope this is of some help!-John

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HiDon't be too disillusioned, but I have the same system as yours and yes, with detailed airports and a texture-laden 'plane, you're going to find your FPS dropping below ten. Surprised me too. I'm talking about having slider options pretty well maxed, mind you ... you can gain FPS back by lowering your settings, but then you lose the detail.You'll find people getting pretty poetic about having to have the latest video card around here, but you don't have to spend a fortune to get good results in FS2K2. Yours ain't state-of-the-art, for sure, and you might consider bunging in a GeForce 2 at least: they're pretty good for FS2K2 and cheap now. Your horizon blurriness may be caused by not having "extended textures" enabled ... but again, that's a trade off on FPS. Horses for courses.There's lots of advice around on how to get the best performance you can out of FS2K2 ... but probably the simplest way to have more flying fun is not to be ashamed to fly the default aircraft out of default airports now and again. Then, you'll have fun.Good luck and welcome back!Mark "Dark Moment" BeaumontP.S. Horizons again ... for me, FS2K2 is much more realistic with, say, a 60 mile viz max. Not only will this give you better FPS, but the haziness is visually much more typical of what you really see out there, most days ... for me, it makes our sim much more realistic than ice-clear scenarios. Just my view, of course.http://www.swiremariners.com/cxkaitak.htmlhttp://www.swiremariners.com/reds.htmlhttp://www.swiremariners.com/cxkaitakv3.jpg

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Guest JeanLuc_

I've tested this on a GeForce2 MX 200. I get "blocky" textures when turning off bilinear or trilinear filtering for sure. I've forgotten to add to keep these (I use trilinear) on. Anyhow, I suspect each one's system might give different results, and that I've been lucky with the settings described above!Here are some details, it's up to you then to decide what would be best to your system:system:P4 1300 384MB RAMBUS @ 800Mhz + GeForce2 MX200 32MB OC @ 220/200 (regular 200/183)scenery settings:textures quality 100%Terrain Mesh 60%texture size 100%autogen 100%scenery complexity 100%effects detail 100%maximum vis 60nmwater effects nonecloud density 50ground scenery shadow + dawn/dusk smoothing + extended terrain textures + terrain detail textures all set to ONAircraft settings: aircraft texture size Highvirtual cockpit gauge quality 100%reflections + shadows + landing lights + resize panel all set to ONHardware:target FR 161024x768x32Hardware lights 8T&L + ANTI-ALIASING set to onTrilinear filtering set to onfs2002.cfg:TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=8.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=1.500000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4=========================================================here are the pics:1) as described in the settings above + unlimited vis2) the same with 30nm visibility3) 30nm visibility and MIPMAPPING turned ONNB: because of the 700pix I've cropped instead of reduced the size from a full 1024x768 screen shot to keep the bitmaps as what I see when flying. I get my 16FPS constantly instead when approaching dense airports such as KORD where FPS drops to 11 in general on final.

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Guest

My setup is almost identical to yours (1.7g Intel with 512mb ram). The difference between us is graphics card. I'm using a GeForce4 Ti4400. I do not have problems with blurriness. With most (but not all) settings maxed, I get anywhere between 17 and 23 fps (I have them locked at 23) using FSGenesis' 75m US, Alaska & Yukon base terrain mesh and the Dreamfleet Archer. I do have Autogen maxed, Scenery Complexity at one step below max, water reflections and textures on, "Massive" airplane texture size (enables 1024x1024 textures on more than just planes), etc. So it sounds like you have a CPU and RAM enough for a decent job...just need to work on getting a better video card.--Tony

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Jeanluc--Good comparison shots...If you like flying with mipmapping off, I suggest you try this...you may like the results:Set the LOD (I use Rivatuner) to -.5 (This reduces the mipmapping, but doesn't eliminate it entirely)Enable anisotropic filtering.In FS, enable mipmapping, trilinear filtering and AA....By doing this, I get better clarity, but not to the point where it's unrealistic in the distance, which along with shimmering is the main reason people find they have to limit visibility with mipmapping off. I don't run with Autogen much, and I leave my mesh and cloud density maxed, but our other settings almost match. My target framerate is 25--causes a few more dynamic blurries vs. 16, but I like the smoothness, and with Autogen off (can't see it much in the flight levels anyway) my system can meet the 25 fps anyway.It's a pity the thread's author is burdened with the TNT 64... I don't believe it supports the anisotropic filtering, which has really made the visuals for 2k2 "jump out" with clarity...-John

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Guest JeanLuc_

Well John, here is the result!!from a "pictorial" standpoint, the difference is already noticeable (when the image is updtaded, no more shimmering in the distance - spacial alliases due to no mippaing setting) while still keeping the "sharpen" image produced before with no mipmapping. It also spectacularly eliminates almost totaly the shimmering on the autogen buildings and trees!!But the most important improvement to me, is that since it is using mipmaps, it takes less off the 32MB of the video card, hence I can reactivate the multitexturing and get the nifty added "noise pattern" added to the ground textures when being low enough. This provides a visual feedback for speed and details. All of this with no performance hit (no FPS drop compared to the previous settings I've described) It also (due to anisotropric mostly) gives a clear and bright night lighting, for which the roads are simply well drawn and visible to the distance!Thank you for the additional hint, I've found the suitspot on this system! (I used NVMax 4.0 for the tweaking)Here is a new shot with the same settings as my previous post, but unlimited vis and the settings described by John.

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Guest

All the advice is VERY welcome. Thank you to you all... I am going to try out the suggested options....if they don't work will have to bite the bullet and buy an up to date video card. Slowly catching up with the development of FS since Fs98. Really enjoy FS and the virtual flying experince it offers. But perfromance problems tend to sap enthusiasm, especially when you don't have the time/experience to sit down and figure them through. A quick example....was flying a route between Newark and LAX last night. I use World Airports. Flew the entire distance (some 5 hours real time!!!), was turning onto finals for ILS approach 24R at LAX, had flown a very good approach. 150ft altitiude a few seconds from touch down and the PC locked!!!! After 5 hours!!!! Probably because of the detailed LAX world Airports scenery being maxed out. Screamed, yelled hit the Monitor, probably startled my neighbours!:) But my own fault....stupid is stupid does!!!Thanks again!Nesthead

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"It's a pity the thread's author is burdened with the TNT 64... I don't believe it supports the anisotropic filtering, which has really made the visuals for 2k2 "jump out" with clarity..."Tnt 2 ultra 32meg support anisotropic filtering also T&L. I don't know his TNT 64, it should be since the older one support. Most of the time I get crisp terrain with driver 22.50 and my generic terrain texture.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFshttp://fsw.simflight.com/fsw.jpg


Kind Regards
Chris Willis

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Could you explain how to adjust the LOD to -0.5 using RivaTuner. I tried the program but can't enter a negative number.does it worth with the latest Detonator drivers??thanks.Matt

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Guest flightpro08

If you're going to buy a new video card, trying wating a few months a get a nVidia NV30 when they come out this fall/winter. The card is about double the specs of any GF4 Ti4600 and will be the most powerful all around card ever created.Ryan-Flightpro08 :-coolVATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Controller 1 (C-1)SAN TRACON Lead [link:www.taxiwaysigns.com]Taxiwaysigns.com Scenery Designer-----------------------------My "Home Made" System Specs:Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz ProcessorTurbo Gamer ATX Mid-Tower with 420W Power SupplyEPoX 4G4A Motherboard with Intel 845G ChipsetVisiontek XTASY GeForce4 128MB Ti4600 (Det 30.30 Drivers)512MB PC2100 DDR RAM40GB Matrox 7200RPM Hard DriveWindows XP Home Edition*No CPU or GPU Overclocking*3dMark2001SE Score: 10346

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