NEW ATI card tool

[W2DR 1,863]

Hmmmm..well, I missed it there too Chuck. I think I'll try another post there and see if we can get some attention. This is a God-send to ATI users. The shimmering has been a problem since day one and now that there's a fix available I can't believe that no one is interested.Doug

[B777ER 2,508]

I assume we are using the Direct3D file and also, what settings should we use on the following ini file:ForceAlphaToCoverage = 1// 0 = Don't force any FSAA mode, any other number indicates number of samplesForceMSAAMode = 0// 0 = Don't force resolution. If both are set, the indicated resolution will be enforced.ForceWidth = 0ForceHeight = 0Do I leave as is or change it? I have a 9800Pro card (128MB).

[Guest Adeym]

>Nice find Shep looking at the screenshots, however it won't>work here :-(>>Athlon 2500+, Radeon 9800Pro (128MB) 1GB RAM.>>When I start FS9 I get 'Insufficient memeory to run hardware>acceleration, using software acceleration'. Then the FS9 'send>msg' box and FS9 will not run.>>I am using Omegadriver 2.6.61, maybe that is causing the>problem. Anyone else able to run this tweak with Omega's>drivers on the 9800Pro?>Yep I'm using Omegadrivers 2.6.05a here and its working fine :)[image]http://members.lycos.co.uk/electronicplayground/forum/files/700easydriver.jpg[/image]

[Guest crabster]

>I assume we are using the Direct3D file and also, what>settings should we use on the following ini file:>>ForceAlphaToCoverage = 1>// 0 = Don't force any FSAA mode, any other number indicates>number of samples>ForceMSAAMode = 0>>// 0 = Don't force resolution. If both are set, the indicated>resolution will be enforced.>ForceWidth = 0>ForceHeight = 0>>Do I leave as is or change it? I have a 9800Pro card (128MB).What I use is:41280960The guy who invented this fix (Humus) is a genious!!!

[Vulcan 14]

FS9 error shows raphook.dll as the offending module.Ah well, back to how it was.

[Krister 51]

No go for me either! I've tried Catalyst 5.8 and an Omega driver (2653 whichever version that is). I don't get any error message - FS9 simply won't start up. Taskmanager tells me that 5 MB is allocated fo FS9.exe for perhaps a second, but then it just disappears.Really sad because the shimmering is driving me crazy, but I'm happy for you that it works for! :)

[Guest]

I'm a hardware guy...but someone needs (please help) to explain how to do this modification within FS9. I've tried several configurations and no improvement from the shimmering in some difficult scenery like Simflyers KPHX/KLAS and Overland's Japanese Airports Series...

[jdk2 1]

Assuming you have downloaded DXOverride.zip file from rage3D, unzip the three files contained in that zip. Then just copy/paste d3d9.dll and d3d9.ini to the same folder your FS9.exe is located. Start FS9 and the effect will be instantaneous.NOTE: there are two separate files on rage3D, one for DirectX and one for OpenGL. Obviously, we can only use the DirectX file for FS9.

[jdk2 1]

Oh, and to Shep....where are my manners? Thanks for the tip. Works like a charm.

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

Thanks for passing along the tip. I'm currently testing it out. FS9 does load. However, I'm still not sure what type of results I'm getting.A question though. I thought the deal with ATI cards and FS9 was that ATI cards didn't anti-alias clouds (or more precisely the alpha channels associated with the clouds)? So while you do get shimmering from the autogen scenery with ATI cards, you also don't suffer a framerate penalty from anti-aliasing clouds, which many consider a waste of resources.

[Guest PaulL01]

Could never stand the shimmering problem of the ATI cards/drivers, even the old GF2 could AA alpha, so it just seemed so stupid that ATI didnt enable this feature.This is a "god send" for not only ATI owners but also for others that including myself that were torn between the fact that certain cards (ATI) could do this well (AA -etc), while others cards (NV)did that well (alph -AA) etc... this would have been really usfull for so many back in NV's FX days as those cards were under performers compared to their ATI counter-parts.It has been more than four years ago this problem was published and posted right here at Avsim that ATI cards had the ability to do AAing of alphas in hardware but the programers left it out of the drivers for a number of stupid (sorry) reasons including performance. It seems silly that even till now it is not available as an option in the drivers (it should have been and should be now at least an option for the user to choose) perhaps they will finally wake up!>No drop of fps in FS9 and the improvement in Autogen display>is staggering - no more shimmer!>>ShepDon't kid yourself ... :)Actualy under testing (bench-marking)just as in the NV cards, AAing of Alpha and you will loose frames, just a simple scene in FS with a few repeated autogen trees textures will be only slite hit, however the larger hit will come into play in many ways as FS uses many many alpha textures, clouds, panel parts, aircraft model, scenery objects, FX etc. it will add up, however with the better cards there is still enough filtering power to deliver decent playable frames.NV continues to improve their abilities and options with AAing alpha especialy with the 7800 series cards.It is all good!

[Guest Shep]

PaulAppreciate your very informative feedback. I have read a benchmark of yours and it's very thorough. It's a pity you don't use an ATI card to test the tool for us.I tried a very quick comparison test and although you are perfectly right in what you say about a small hit on fps, I certainly did not find it obvious with my system* and I'm happy to lose a frame or two for the total eradication of Autogen shimmer. I posted a couple of shots on my web site to show the small hit using VC but no hit on spot view. The test was done using the VFR Photographic Scenery for UK and Visual Flight London Scenery. http://www.visualflight.co.uk/photoscenery/ The VF London did have, in addition, a considerable amount of purpose-placed Autogen. I was using the great Falcon 50 for FS2004 http://www.francevfr.com/ in full mode version and that A/C was the hardest on fps that I have to test with. Test http://www.raysheppard.dsl.pipex.com/ATItest/index.htmMy set-upDynamicWeather=0LOADWEATHER=1MAX_UNLIMITED_VIS=21560CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=43D_CLOUD_PERCENT=100DETAILED_CLOUDS=1CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=8DownloadWindsAloft=1DisableTurbulence=0CloudsImpostorRingRadius=64000.000000AUTO_LOD=0DETAIL_TEXTURE=2WATER_EFFECTS=0TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_MAP=1TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS=1EFFECTS_QUALITY=1GROUND_SHADOWS=0SMOOTH_VIEW=1IMAGE_SMOOTHING=1TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=512COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=0LANDING_LIGHTS=0IMAGE_QUALITY=0TEXTURE_BLDG=1TEXTURE_GND=1TEXTURE_WATER=1AIRCRAFT_TEXTURE=1SEE_SELF=1TEXTURE_QUALITY=3LOD_TARGET_FPS=16NUM_LIGHTS=6[DISPLAY.Device.RADEON X800 PRO.0]Mode=1600x1200x32RenderToTexture=0[DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.5 //scales edge, center,end,touchdown,runways RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.5 // scales VASI lights)RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.5 // scales approach light bars RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=0.5 //scales RAILs and ODALs)[TERRAIN]TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=95.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=0TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=15.800000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.800000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1442456[sCENERY]IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=5DYNAMIC_SCENERY=0DYN_SCN_DENSITY=0DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1SUNGLARE=0LENSFLARE=0ShowTriggers=0*AMD3200@3300, A7v880, 1gig TwinMos D/C, Raptor 74gig, ATI X800Pro, WinXPsp2Shep

[Guest Keith Sebastian]

>Nice find Shep looking at the screenshots, however it won't>work here :-(>>Athlon 2500+, Radeon 9800Pro (128MB) 1GB RAM.>>When I start FS9 I get 'Insufficient memeory to run hardware>acceleration, using software acceleration'. Then the FS9 'send>msg' box and FS9 will not run.>>I am using Omegadriver 2.6.61, maybe that is causing the>problem. Anyone else able to run this tweak with Omega's>drivers on the 9800Pro?>I get the same mssg with Omega 2.6.53. Will uninstall, clean up and install the latest default Catalyst and see how it goes.Keith

[Guest Keith Sebastian]

It works. Thanks to all involved (Humus the coder and Shep the messenger ;-))If you are getting this error mssg. - 'Insufficient memeory to run hardware acceleration, using software acceleration' using 9800Pro with Omega drivers, then try this.1 Uninstall Omega Drivers2 Reboot in safe mode and use Driver Cleaner3 If ATI Tray tools is still present in your c:program filesradeon omega... delete it manually.4 Remove ATI Tray tools entry from startup (MSCONFIG)5 Install ATI Catalyst (plain control panel, no CC) and set your AA, AF.6 Unzip DXOverride folder into FS Main folder.Although I was a bit skeptical, I can see that tree shimmer is gone. Absolutely no more shimmering trees, nada, zilch. However wavy ground shimmer patterns and slight moire shimmer on buildings is still there. But this maybe due to my low 1024x768 (my crappy monitor won't go up) and 4X AA with 2X AF settings.Next I will try installing ATI Tray tools manually. I need it for auto application based overclocking.Keith

[Guest camilo]

A friend has a MSI 9800 PRO 128MB card, the tweak is not working for him.He gets an error message when starting FS9: "FS cannot run because the version of MS DX installed on your computer is incompatible. Please reinstall DX9.0 by running FS setup." He reinstalled Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Catalyst 5.8 drivers and FS9 and he stills get the error.Any help will be appreciated.