Optimal FS9.CFG Settings.

[Guest 22L_Approach]

Hello, I have a few questions that I hope a few of you would be so kind enough as to asnwer them for me.After getting back into Flight Simulator after a long break, I am trying to tweak the simulation and get everything where I want it before I go putting on my many addons.Currently I am working on adjusting my ground textuers to get them to a point that I feel comfortable with. My current FS9.CFG Terrain settings are as follows. TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.50000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1242456My question is, are these optimal for reducing the ammount of blurries a short distance away from my aircraft.My goal here is to get the terrain in the distance looking fairly decent, so as it does not appear that i'm flying over a ugly looking world. I also notice alot of users stating that using a smaller distance then something such as unlimted will help mask this, and also give a more realistic effect. I use real-world weather, so changing the vis down to about 20/40 miles before each flight is not a option. I have heard that there is a setting I can change in the FS9.CFG that will allow me to limit the vis, while still being able to use real world weather. Would anyone happen to remember what that setting would be and what value I would switch it to?I have also attached two screenshots to give you a better understanding of how my terrain currently looks.Thank you very much for your time. :)

[Paul J 349]

Hi 22: It would be good to have a real name to reply to!!Here's my cfg, if it will help:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/172567.txt. . and these are all Seattle, 100% everything, GE Pro, FSG mesh & LC, UT_USA, ASv6, FE, UTraffic, FlyTampa KSEA; locked at 25. 1680 x 1050 x 16bit. http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/172564.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/172565.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/172566.jpgCheers,

[Guest TomOOO]

HiFirst, TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4or maybe 5 depending on the power of you GUI, whether it is PCI-eor not. Second - depending on your GPUIncreasing the AF will sharpen and focus distant textures. You willneed to progressively increase AF setting on your graphics card untilthe fps suddenly starts to fall (as now the CPU is waiting for theGPU). The use of graphics card AF or the setting within FS dependson nvida or ATI graphics card. If you can use x4 or better for AF youwill then be able to increase MIPS to 5 or 6. This changes how the distance textures are displayed - reduced forms. If you setMIPS too high in FS then you will see shimmer. The next problem when you have optimised this is the blurries -reduce TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS a little if you are finding blurries.You can also increase fiber fraction to help with this. This comesdown to the FSB speed and GPU interface (PC-express or not). You will have to find a level of compromise - the greater the area ofsharp textures the more data is moved around on your computer. Themore you push the data if gives up and you start to get blurries.All comes down to the power of your system. You will see thelast reply is a very powerful system.Hope this helps.Tom

[Paul J 349]

Yup; Tom's right. I don't think there's a quick answer to most of the graphics questions here: much depends on your hardware: nVidia or ATI; AMD or Intel; 2 gig or 1 gig; There's even a gain by using 16-bit graphics instead of 32-bit. A lot of my tweaks are gleaned from trying all the many, many suggestions here in this forum, particularly the older posts, because higher frame rates were so much harder to get "back then". One such post comes to mind, and that's Koorby's tweaks. Just do a search.Here's my own compilation, and I also found Koorby's and "another", so here's they are:Hope this helps some more. Just be patient; life is good!:-)Cheers,

[Guest 22L_Approach]

Thank you all very much for the replies. I will take a look at everything and see what these tweaks do for me.Thanks again.RegardsSteve :)

[Dirk98 354]

Paul and Tom, thanks for sharing your settings, very helpful, will need to try them.My only problem is that I still get blocks of textures on the ground occasionally, when I turn my TrackIR-ed head. :)Do you still see them occasionally when pocking out from VC?My specs are: Core2Extr 6800, GF7900GTX, 2Gb RAM + lots of input devices and TrackIR.

[Dirk98 354]

I see a huge discrepancy in the suggested setting of:QUOTE:TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4or maybe 5 depending on the power of you GUI, whether it is PCI-eor not. UNQUOTE.and "TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=232" in Paul's config. Can anyone comment on this particular setting, please.

[Paul J 349]

Good question: The "4" came from one of Holger's dissertations on the cfg file (below), and my current "232" came from someone else's suggestion. It works: don't know why, and now reading his explanation maybe I'll try "4" again! Isn't this just SO MUCH FUN!!! *:-* :-lol:-lolTERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4* range from 0 to 8* is tied to TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS and defines the max. mip level to be used for the outer ring(s), that is the sharpness of the outer ring textures* I never noticed much difference between 0 and 4; no changes at all when >4*EDIT*Here's the page - it's also a post similar to this one.http://portal.fsgenesis.net/index.php?name...&t=1851&start=0Yet another, with my "232" mentioned, too:http://forums.flightsim.com/dc/dcboard.php...&topic_id=13574Cheers,

[normada 0]

>Paul and Tom, thanks for sharing your settings, very helpful,>will need to try them.>>My only problem is that I still get blocks of textures on the>ground occasionally, when I turn my TrackIR-ed head. :)>>Do you still see them occasionally when pocking out from VC?>>My specs are: Core2Extr 6800, GF7900GTX, 2Gb RAM + lots of>input devices and TrackIR.Hi,this might have something to do with the texture bandwidth setting within the FS9.cfg. The default value is 40. Try rising it to something about 120 or higher, this depends on your hardware. Some suggests a value of 400, i

[Holger 0]

Hi guys,actually, I was wrong in some aspects of my statements regarding those parameters. Joachim Buhre has since proven with specific test files that all three parameters have a maximum value of 4; any value higher than 4 will be read by the sim as 4.If you want to read the real dissertation on this (Joachim's 500+ pages, in German) grab it here: http://www.jobia.de/ . The direct link for the pdf file is http://www.germany-vfr.de/Jobia/lcdokupdf/lcdokupdf.zip and the relevant information starts at about page 295.Interestingly, given that the three parameters are closely interrelated, a combination with maximum mipmap use (=sharpness) is the following:TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS = 4TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS = 0TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS = 0which, in its effect on mipmaps, is the same asTERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS = 4TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS = 4TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS = 4However, not everyone may want to use this combination because the maximum value of TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS will lead to light blue slivers in the background unless you don't use any add-on mesh or your add-on mesh has additional LODs as "buffers". Cheers, Holger

[Dirk98 354]

Thanks, guys. Ron, I'm using RivaTuner and in the Mipmapping LOD bias adjustment is set to -1.0. Is it too much load for GF7900GTX?

[Paul J 349]

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!x(x(x(x(x(x(x((That's really a nice Grrrr, by the way)Hmmmmph! I just want to FLY, Holger!:-wave. . . so now I'm going to try 4,4,4.

[Paul J 349]

. . . a bit dark, but the detail is still there. Settings now 4,4,4, so you're right on, Holger. :)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/172697.jpgSee what I mean, Steve? I swear half of this hobby is tweaking!:-beerchug

[normada 0]

Negative values here will always produce some type of shimmering on the textures. I

[Dirk98 354]

I don't know, looks like RivaTuner sets this value in different format, -0.125 settings might correspond to -1.2? I never noticed shimmmering at Riva's -1.4-4-4 is an excellent setting indeed, Paul.Thanks.