Terry,With a processor of that power you should be able to run with 60M cloud distance, 150m visibility abd 100% detail. I can with a P4 3.0 800FSB, 1Gb PC3200 and Radeon 9800 Pro running Omega Catalyst 4.1 drivers. Having said that I run with a minimal panel as I use Project Magenta on a networked PC. I lock the frame rate to 25fps and it stays there for most of the time except in dense airports with Ultimate Traffic at 100%.But, getting back to the display problem it must be in your card settings. Here's mine...1280*960*32-bit colour in Windowed mode.2X AA, 8X AF.Texture Preference 2nd notch from left, same for MipMap detail level.Wait for vertical Sync - Always Off.SmartShader effects - no effects.In FS9 - Options/Settings/Display/Hardware I have Render to Texture off; T&L on; AA off. Filtering - TriLinear; Mip Mapping 4; Hardware rendered lights 6.Increasing AF will sharpen distant objects. Mip Mapping sharpens close object but if set too high will make then shimmer as you describe. You might want to reduce your MipMapping setting.Cheers,

Terry,I've examined those two images as closely as I can and cannot see any major differences in them. How are you switching to Full-screen mode? ALT+ENTER is how it's done (sorry if you already knew that).What resolution are you running in 1) Windows and 2) full-screen FS2004? I can see no serious distortion in the panel on either shot.Cheers,

Ray,I run similar settings to you but set the AA to 6 and AF to 2 (lowest setting possible). Running it any higher is too much of a performance hit plus I see no positive gain in video quality. I run with the default MIP setting of 4 and the lights at 6. Lower the MIP and the textures are much worse and above 4 and again performance hit. No smart shading and vert sync is direct by the program. T&L is on and AA is off in the program. Trilinear is the sample. 4.2 ATI cat drivers. It does not matter if I set the frames at 25, 28, 30 or unlimited; I still get a slight pause when ATC speaks, or viewing the jet from the tower view. Also when making rapid turn. I have the full program loaded on a 120 GB high perf HD (7500 rpm) and I rarely see much HD activity.I tried running in the Window mode and after turning off the menu bars and or hiding them; my pauses were even more pronounced. Yes my frames per second were getting up to around 150 FPS and I could see 60 FPS while land here in ABQ. Still I did not have smoothness and or a good quality image. Even when I locked the rates back to 25 fps. Also when I forced the program into the window mode, I was fored to move my desktop resolution from 800 x 600 to 1280 x 960 in order to get the same resolution in the FS2004 program. I have lots of trouble trying to read the web browser at that high of setting with only one good eye.I still think it is a MS programming problem that causes much of these pauses and shimmering of the video. If I would fly the Cub or 172, these problems take longer to surface since those aircraft do not fly very fast. I do not think that MS has written the code to optimize faster aircraft performance.Terry

Ray,Those two images are not the best when I had to reduce the size several times so they would fit on the web page.Yes I have always used the Alt/enter for the full screen mode.My desktop windows is run at 800 x 600 due to being blind in one eye and less than perfect vision in the other. I run 1280 x 960 inside FS2004 and any smaller resolution and I cannot read the menus.Terry

Terry,Thank you for both your replies. One thing in them caught my eye...800 x 600 due to being blind in one eye and less than perfect vision in the other. I run 1280 x 960 inside FS2004 and any smaller resolution and I cannot read the menus.>>It sounds as though you're running FS at a higher resolution in full-screen mode than your Windows resolution. I wonder if this is causing the problem? I remember this being an issue with previous versions of FS. I believe that whatever resolution you choose in full-screen mode you must be running that resolution or higher in Windows. So, for example, if you want to run FS at 1280*960 in f/s mode you must be running Windows at 1280*960 or higher for it to work properly.My flying PC has been shut down for the night but I'll try this theory tomorrow and see how things pan out by varying the Windows resolution.In all other respects we seem to have similar settings for AA and AF.BTW, you can adjust text sizes etc. in Windows to compensate for higher resolutions. Right-click the desktop and choose Properties / Appearance then Advanced.Cheers,

Terry,I couldn't wait until tomorrow so I tried changing my windows resolution to 800*600 and my FS9 f/s resolution to 1280*960. Whatever problems may have existed before have been resolved by MS and there are no problems running at a higher res in FS than windows.But, I misread your AA and AF settings. AA shouldn't really be needed at 1280*960 and is causing a big performance hit. My FR dropped to 10 from 14 by increasing AA from 2X to 6X. OTOH, increasing AF doesn't really impact on FR much at all.You might want to play around with those settings and see if things improve. I'm running a Western Digital Raptor 36Gb 10,000rpm drive but I don't think that could account for the difference in smoothness. What panel are you using?Time for bed!

Thanks Ray for taking the time to research the problem.I will play around a bit with the AA and AF settings.Even runing the 1280 x 960 in FS2004, I see still some sig zag lines on all of the default aircraft panels.(glare sheild) The runway edges are nice and straight as are most of the aircraft skin textures. It is that swimming/shimering effect as you move past objects such as the construction crane that "never" has existed here in KABQ, the radio tower next to it, and or the tops and sides of the airport direction signage. I guess it is too many edges for the system to handle while in motion. It tends to slow down a bit when you are stopped and ae looking lat those objects.Terry

Hello,Windowed mode still produces the dodgy blurry panels and gauges.I don't like using AF as I get blurred text like the "Press period (.) to release parking breaks" and my FPS counter.I am not in 1280 x 960 both in windows and FS. In FS I no longer get blurred panels or gauges which is great, but in windows I have to squint for some things I'm looking at.Anyway to enlarge the stuff in windows whilst keeping the same resolution in both?Is it also a good idea to turn Anti Aliasing off now I am at such a high resolution?Regards,Alexander Martin.

Hi Terry,I think a lot of what you're referring to is quite subjective. I personally have no problem with jagged edges on scenery and other objects. Running at 1280*960 is high enough to minimise the effect of jaggies for me at least.If all else fails then try the Omega Catalyst 4.1 drivers which are noted for their quality. The shimmering you refer to can be changed with the Mip Mapping slider in FS2004.Cheers,

Alexander,<>I don't understand what you mean. Can you elaborate please?<>What do you mean by "stuff"? If you're referring to font sizes those can be adjusted by right-clicking the desktop, choose properties and then choose Appearance / Advanced. Each component of the windows interface can be adjusted such as the font size in Windows Explorer.<Well, if you're running FS at 1280*960 then many would consider that you don't need AA on which will affect performance quite badly. Whether it suits you only you can say. Turn it down to 2X and see if you can live with the display.Personally, I would say that if you're running at 1280*960 or higher you don't really need AA but there will be someone out there who will prove me wrong!Cheers,

Hello,<>In windows everything was smaller, icons and stuff but now made them bigger and it's all fine.As for the AA, I am going to try to force it on 4X, it is on 6x right now. I don't think I need anymore than 2x but we will see what it is like on 4x first.Or maybe let the application control it. Whatever happens, I certainly am happy with 1280 x 960.Regards,Alexander Martin.

Alexander,Progress! Great :-) What ever you do don't let the application control AA. It cannot be fine-tuned as it can using the ATI Control panel. Remember, the higher you set AA the more it will reduce your frame rates.Cheers,

Ray,Still have the shimmering lines but think I have stumbled on a fix for some of the very slight pauses in the video. For some reason I turned off the Fast Writes even though my 865P chipset 800 MHz FSB 2.8 GHz HT is suppose to run great with the 9800 Pro card. For the time being, the video seems to be noticeably smoother and the frame rate does not jump around as much.From what you said in an earlier post, the shimmering is controlled by the increasing MIP setting? Terry

Mornin' Terry :-)If you're running the Omega Catalyst 4.2 drivers the author has disabled the Fast Write option but I have the 4.1 drivers where it is enabled and don't seen unduly prone to stutters etc. I think it's impossible to be entirely stutter free but each version of FS has taken huge leaps in minimising these from their first appearance in FS95 (the first Windows version).I lock my frame rate to 25 which gives the system time to load scenery. If you keep the frame rate unlimited there are few spare cycles to do this so stuttering will me more prevalent.It's good news that you're getting an improved performance with fast Writes off. In an earlier message you mentioned a pause when ATC speaks. Do you have on-board sound by any chance? That takes cycles away from FS. A separate sound card is always better in that respect.<>Yes, it has a profound effect. Try changing the value from min to max and observe the difference. A value of 4 seems to be best. This is changed in FS2004 of course - not in any external program.Sounds like we're getting there :-)Cheers,

Good Morning Ray,At least it is here in ABQ. No I am running the ATI 4.2s. I have not got brave enough to try the Omega drivers. Do they have a similar control panel and set up proceedures as the ATIs do? I will not get a system lock up or anything like that will I? I use the on board audio on the ASUS P4P800 motherboard. I do not really care for playing loud music on the computer so really do not think I need addtional sound card. In fact I will turn off the sound while enroute on long trips.Last night, I flew the default 747 from some place in Libia to Sapporo Japan locked at 30 fps and at 16 x speed (over 5000 NM)with hardly a studder and the video was fluid on approach.Terry