The setting "Render to Texture," what does it do? Should it be on or off on a high end system?While I'm at it, what is Lens Flare?--Tom________[a href=http://www.corpairamerica.com]http://mysite.verizon.net/tjrush/tjrcaasig.jpg[/a]--Tom________[a href=http://www.corpairamerica.com]http://mysite.verizon.net/tjrush/tjrcaasig.jpg[/a]

Render to Texture, as per Answers.com:1. The rendered image is captured and subjected to Pixel Shaders or other computer manipulation. This allows for many of todays popular computer graphics effects to be carried out, including the addition of a blurring or bloom effect.2. Can be used to create views of other scenes, for example: a TV in a house. A scene can be rendered through an FBO to a texture, then that texture can be applied to the surface of a TV. This is sometimes called "Render to Texture" or RTT.Lens Flare is the effect you get when light sources interact with camera lenses - concentric circles that spread out from the light source. Kind of unrealistic in FS in my opinion, as I don't sim from the viewpoint of a camera, but from my own eyes.jt

Your definition of Render to Texture may be accurate, but how does it relate to FS9??--Tom________[a href=http://www.corpairamerica.com]http://mysite.verizon.net/tjrush/tjrcaasig.jpg[/a]

One use for RTT in FS is to apply the environment map to a "reflective" surface, such as a bare metal aircraft or the surface of a body of water.jt

>Your definition of Render to Texture may be accurate, but how>does it relate to FS9??>>>--Tom>________>[a>href=http://www.corpairamerica.com]http://mysite.verizon.net/tjrush/tjrcaasig.jpg[/a]umm, the definition above is not 100% correct. In FS9, it has nothing to do with reflections.Render to Texture is a DirectX call, to "fake" certain 3D elements. It does this by rendering 3D objects as 2D texture cards. This can help increase FPS on certain machines. FS9 uses this function mostly for clouds (distance clouds are not in 3D, but rather flat textures, which "face" the camera at all times). By default, this is on. You can turn it off w/out any problems, especially if you have a newer v-card. On old cards however, you might get a CTD at around 77% load, IF ONLY you use DXT clouds. If you stick with 32 bit clouds, then there will be no problems at all. I have this turned off on my laptop, and on, on my workstation.*edit* Here's an interesting video showing how the clouds are generated in fs9, made by the developer herself. Notice the use of "imposter" clouds....http://www.ofb.net/~niniane/clouds/-feng

Certain panels also make use of this effect. Usually you'll read about it in the readme's of addon airplanes. It's usually just safest to keep this checked as there is not much of a performance hit with it on.Patrick ClarkAnchorage, Alaska, USAhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/1900driver.jpg

One additional point; if you render stuff to texture thenthe hard work is done by the GPU rather than CPU for objectin the view that are not normally textures. You should use renderto texture if your GPU is "over-specified" compared to your CPU(faster) and should not use this option if your CPU is better thanyour graphics card. Ie the effect on fps depends on the specificationof your computer.Tom

>One additional point; if you render stuff to texture then>the hard work is done by the GPU rather than CPU for object>in the view that are not normally textures. Tom:Whoa. I didn't know that. Are you absolutely certain of this when it comes to FS9?

>umm, the definition above is not 100% correct. In FS9, it has>nothing to do with reflections.>>-fengReally? Well, ignore my comments, then. Thanks for the info.jt