Ground Detail Display Distance?

[rjsagel 0]

Hello,Is there a parameter that controls the distance from the aircraft position where the highest ground detail begins to display?I have what used to be a fast system (by todays standards it is not!. I run FS9.1 with all sliders set to max and my FPS is about 24. I am using Ultimate Terrain for USA, Canada and Europe. Also using all FSGENESIS mesh for the same areas. It seems to me that the ground detail changes to its higest level when I am very close to it - no idea of the distance but it is hard to get good airport runway display at a distance. It seems to be a bother when the weather is bad and visibility is poor.Thanks in advance for any help here and cheers,Ron SagelNEAR KCHS

[PaulM 1]

Gurus can correct me, but i think these lines can be very important on the FS9.cfg:[TERRAIN]TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=4.200000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.200000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1Where these:TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=4.200000 :)

[altstiff 71]

From Holger...There's still a lot of debate what exactly those parameters mean and what units they have but here's what I compiled from various sources and, IMO (!), makes sense: TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1 * that's easy: ON/OFF switch to load higher res textures beyond the initial "ring", which extends to about 40 miles TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000 * apparently, values can range from 0 to 9.99 and higher settings will be ignored * extends the use of the highest detailed mips (sharper textures) within the inner circle; lower settings means less than 40 miles and higher settings up to the 40-mile max. * changing this value doesn't seem to make much of a visible difference TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.500000 * same range of values as above * extends the use of higher maps for the outer circle(s). Supposedly, "1.5" reaches to ~70mi and "9.9" to about 100mi * careful!!! A setting higher than 3.9 can lead to "texture tearing" (blue slivers) in the mid- to far distance when high-res mesh is used. Some add-on mesh files - like some of mine - provide additional "buffer" mesh files, which prevent those blue slivers even at settings >3.9 TERRAIN_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 In summary, the TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS parameter appears to be the one with the biggest visual influence. Oh, and TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT apparently determines the speed or priority with which ground textures are sent for processing to the graphics card. cheers Holger

[rjsagel 0]

Hello,Thanks for the help and cheers,Ron Sagel