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Guest 727Fan

What Causes Sudden Loss of Texture Quality?

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Guest 727Fan

I've noticed over the past week a problem with all textures suddenly losing clarity. My sliders were not altered. I haven't added any huge frame rate eating models lately. Ans while the clarity loss first appeared at KMIA (attributed to maybe a high concentration of aircraft) it also recently happened at SVMI and at MPTO (less aircraft concentrations).TTools also began failing to recompile. I'd check times after a recompile and notice the times set to 00:00:00 hadn't been calculated.I have a decent system; P4A 2.0Gig, Ti200 GeForce 3, 512 DDR Ram, Intel board, Win XP Home.This doesn't happen all the time. I began using the latest TTools and haven't seen the problem since then. HHmmmm.Anybody know what happens when a CPU or a Videocard starts going bad, or perhaps a failing cooling fan? I've noticed occasional strange sounds from the guts of the box lately, so I'm thinking cooling fan problems.Any help or direction would be really appreciated.ThanksRick

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Guest

Rick,I got pretty much the same system and have the same exact card. I fly quite often to and from MPTO. I experience the same problems not only at MPTO but everywhere. I had seen a few posts regarding the FS2002 config adjustmeny which I have tried and still get the same result commonly referred to as "blurries". I just wanted to reassure you that its not the card or the fans. Later,Mike

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Guest 727Fan

Thanks for the reply, Mike!I posted another note regarding the "blurries." At least I know my hardware is OK. This "blury" phenomenon is maddening. There was a lot of discussion around this many months back, but I didn't have the problem then.I'm considering an uninstall-install procedure next. Thankfully I've backed up the traffic .bgl and aircraft files so my year's work in TTools won't be lost. But what a hassle!!Maybe someone with more experience can offer some advice. "Blurries" really do ruin the sim.Rick

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Guest

Have you upgraded video drivers? Be sure to check Desktop Properties>Advanced>Graphics Card AA and Ansio settings which sometimes reset and directly affect texture quality.Other than that, try lowering your Target FPS slider.

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Guest

Yes, most if not all problems with texture rendering are indeed caused by one of the above (bad drivers or driver config or too-high graphics settings inside FS).

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Guest 727Fan

Thanks for the feedback, folks!But it's strange. I haven't touched any setting slider in months. And the sliders are set to max, or near max. My box has handled these rigorous settings well. 25fps, everywhere but the busiest airports. Maybe I'm wearing out the system.I haven't added any self-installing additions. Only download and install aircraft and minimal texture enhancements (trees and default buildings). I have NOT been tinkering with video drivers. This was a sudden degradation. And it doesn't happen all the time. HHmmmm.Heck, maybe it's a virus. Is there some master config. setting in WinXP or the sim that would be vulnerable? Anybody remember who the person was that had the long thread here about the "blurries?" As I recall, it was driving him crazy too.Would re-installing the video drivers that came with the card help?(GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB) I'm not a computer ace either.Thanks all,Rick

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Guest JamesJ

Have you tried a new FSconfig file? Open Fs2002 folder, find the config file, drag and drop it to the desktop, or rename it to old or something. Then start fs2002, which will generate a new one automatically. You will have to reset everything but if that doesn't sovee your problem simply go back to the old one..JamesJ

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Guest RonB49

Hi Rick,You say, "My box has handled these rigorous settings well. 25fps, everywhere but the busiest airports." Does this mean that you have your frame rate limiter set to 25 FPS? If that is true, or if it is set higher than 25 FPS, try setting it lower; say 18 FPS.If that solves the blurry problem, then you know where to start to troubleshoot your problem (find out what's eating your frames). If it does not help, then its easy to set it back to the higher rate. R-

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One response I haven't seen:Aircraft..... An aircraft is "fighting" for 3d card texture space and cpu cycles just like the ground textures. The greater the texture load and/or poly count of the aircraft, the more prone the ground textures will be for blurring. Some aircraft (like Ariane's 737) yield sharper ground textures on average than others (like Simubuild's A340). If you have an aircraft that uses 64 megs of textures vs. 5 megs, or an aircraft with twice the poly count of your typical aircraft, blurring will be more likely.Just for the fun of it, try flying around a known route with various aircraft--starting with the most complex, then working your way down to the least. Compare blurriness in the various views (Cockpit, V/C and Spot). I've learned over time which aircraft offer the best performance. I've also gone as far as resampling textures to a smaller byte count using DXTBMP. I first did this when the Flight1 421 gave my system a hit. I reduced the texture size by about 4 to 1, resampling all the textures other than the prop. FPS improved, and so did ground clarity.-John

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Guest 727Fan

FPS limiter is set at 25fps. I have noticed over the past month or so that as I pan the airport and view AI aircraft at the gates, it takes my computer a bit longer time to "paint" the aircraft. I've been adding AFCAD files and adding more traffic too. Perhaps this is what causes the texures to blur. And like I said before, the texture crash is so severe, it looks like I'm trying to use an old 386 machine. You know, just color blobs.AI aircraft used are PAI, FSP, Aardvark, and Defaults, Mike Stone, and a few Posky B767A330.OK. I hope this thread continues to receive input. I'll try some of the things you all have suggested. I just find it hard to believe at times that my system suddenly has lost the ability to do what it used to do with no problems.Thanks everyone!!Rick

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Guest cw1011

The other question is how much AI have you added? A lot of AI is a real performance killer.

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Guest 727Fan

OK, let me explain in more detail what happens. I'll work on posting a screen shot too. (never did this before but I'll try)I set up a flight from, say SKBO Bogota, to SKCL Cali. Leave Cali in Rick Sasala's Gulfstream or Lear 45. I scan the airport grounds and see 7 AI AC at gates or GA parking. Taxi out to active, scanning the view, all textures are clear and detailed. Fly out and reach 20,000 on course. Ground textures are clear and crisp, as is my aircraft all the way to final at Cali.Immediatly after touchdown, the crisp runway textures disolve into a blurred gray mass. Aircraft at the gates, except for some PAI and FSP aircraft sometimes, become white with what seems like water colors that disolved in the rain. Terminal and ground textures have become simply gray or browngreen color blobs with no detail. Frame rates haven't changed.So I go to the display settings and move a sliders back for less detail. The sim resets texture and AI and I'm back in the sim. Textures are back to reasonable. But as soon as I pan over to see the terminal, the texture detail drops out again. I leave the sim and back-out to the "select aircraft" screen. The aircraft I chose to fly that's displayed and rotating is also blurred, as are all the others in the aircraft folder. I select another aircraft, default B737. It displays in the rotating mode as clear again. Go back to sim, and everything's clear again until I start to pan around.I've added about 700 new flights. More AI traffic used to just hit frame rates somewhat at high density airports. Never a texture loss.Hope this helps describe the scenario. I'll try to post a screen shot later tonight. Maybe I lost some of my RAM in my video card.ThanksRick

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What happens if you pan around, but then "stabilize" the view by keeping the view fixed for a moment? Do the textures "sharpen" again? I always get some blurring when I pan for a second or two.Loss of vid card memory is possible, but I think it would manifest itself in more extreme ways--random lockups, etc....Since the onset of this is sudden, have you done a thorough scan of your system? For Spyware, using something like Adaware or Spybot? And for viruses/trojans, using the most recent sig update you can find? You mentioned End-it-all, but what's showing in your system tray? I just fly with the volume control...Have you made any changes just before this happened--software installs, BIOS changes, FS add-ons? AI updates?If you kill the AI and kill the Autogen, how does that influence the problem?I went from the opposite--when I first installed 2k2, any flight would deteriorate into a blurred mess, especially over mountain terrain. Now, I just get random blurring the way one might see in the real world--a blur for a moment, then sharpness again as long as I don't switch views before the view stabilizes. A combo of fps lock (25), and a reduction of my AI and Autogen levels (I really think AI introduces a random element in all of this) seemed to help the most. My cpu--a snail--a P3/800. My vid card--nothing special--a GeF/2 TI.... My average fps--25 in V/C view, in areas without a lot of AI traffic. I've been very pleased with my results, so I suspect your problem must be serious (but fixable).The best way to post a screenshot, btw:-Press printscreen during the flight.-Paste the shot into your favorite .jpg editor-Set .jpg compression to about medium-Crop (don't shrink) the shot to 700x525. When cropping, try to capture the portion of the shot which best defines the subject (in your case, the blurring)I've been able to keep most of my screenshots under 60K this way.

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Guest 727Fan

Thanks everybody. I'll do these things you all suggest and report back in a day or two.One thing I just realized is I did my first disk de-frag about 2 weeks ago. Before that, the sim ran fine. I had read a posting here from someone who did a disk de-frag and also had some problems with the sim.Ok, please standby. I'll check this stuff out and get back to you all.And THANKS very much. I'd be lost without everyone's help.Rick

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