Grey Tiles at Altitude?

[Aviator81 0]

Hi all,I've been wondering lately how I can get rid of the large grey scenery tiles that cut in and out on the horizon beyond the visibility range when flying at higher altitudes (30s). This is something that I've had since I started using FS9, and until recently, I thought it was just something that came with the territory, but I've noticed that most screenies I see here and elsewhere don't have them, so I'm wondering if there is some setting that I've implemented that causes them?Has anyone established what causes these (if its any one thing in particular) and how to go about fixing them?Thanks,GregPS: I use:Dell Dimension 83003GHz P42Gb RAMGeForce 6200AX-I'm not in a position to buy anything new, so if its got to do with my video card, please tell me right away so i don't go on trying to fix it in settings...

[Farlis 2,287]

You need buffer mesh to get rid of this phenomenon.

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

>You need buffer mesh to get rid of this phenomenon.Good heavens!Please elucidate SirAndy

[Farlis 2,287]

It's complicated. Has to do with the way FS displays terrain in LOD steps. It comes in layers to use less resources. Farther away the engine looks for low resolution mesh. And if there are LOD's missing and the discrepancy between the higher resolution mesh in the vicinity of the aircraft and the low resolutin mesh get's too high then you will get to see those grey/blue lines. It's the void of the FS World, the nothing, if you so will.To avoid this one has to install low resolution buffer mesh like this one here.http://www.fsgenesis.com/Merchant2/merchan...egory_Code=WRLD

[Guest Nealoc187]

I don't have this problem, and I also don't have any aftermarket buffer mesh (unless some is included that I don't know about in the freeware FSGenesis mesh that I have).If you want to avoid paying for buffer mesh you might consider lowering your view distance and visibility.for instance, I use AS6.5 for weather which has a visibility setting, and soft horizons freeware download to get rid of what I consider the "ugly cutoff" between the FS9 earth and FS9 sky on the horizon. Makes for a more realistic "slightly hazy" look. I set my view distance to 90 or 100 miles in FS9 and I can't see the horizon cutoff anymore and no gray tiles in the distance either. Now, I'm not sure how far out from your plane the gray tiles are occurring, but this might be a solution if they are way out on the horizon.

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

>It's complicated. Has to do with the way FS displays terrain>in LOD steps. It comes in layers to use less resources.>Farther away the engine looks for low resolution mesh. And if>there are LOD's missing and the discrepancy between the higher>resolution mesh in the vicinity of the aircraft and the low>resolutin mesh get's too high then you will get to see those>grey/blue lines. It's the void of the FS World, the nothing,>if you so will.>>To avoid this one has to install low resolution buffer mesh>like this one here.>>http://www.fsgenesis.com/Merchant2/merchan...egory_Code=WRLDAH ah!I guessed thats what it was.Andy:-)

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

>Hi all,>>I've been wondering lately how I can get rid of the large grey>scenery tiles that cut in and out on the horizon beyond the>visibility range when flying at higher altitudes (30s). This>is something that I've had since I started using FS9, and>until recently, I thought it was just something that came with>the territory, but I've noticed that most screenies I see here>and elsewhere don't have them, so I'm wondering if there is>some setting that I've implemented that causes them?>>Has anyone established what causes these (if its any one thing>in particular) and how to go about fixing them?>>Thanks,>Greg>>PS: I use:>Dell Dimension 8300>3GHz P4>2Gb RAM>GeForce 6200AX>>-I'm not in a position to buy anything new, so if its got to>do with my video card, please tell me right away so i don't go>on trying to fix it in settings...>>HelloI am not quite sure what you are describing.Perhaps a screen shot.AndyPs as other posters have said it may come down to fiddling with view distances,trying soft hoz(as mentioned)etc fiddle fiddle fiddle thats simming.cheers

[Aviator81 0]

Hey all,Sorry for not responding sooner, had a dead computer and a fully new built system to set up before I could get back here.Anyway, I'll fiddle around with these ideas and see if I can get them to go away.Thanks,Greg

[ideoplastic 86]

>It's complicated. Has to do with the way FS displays terrain>in LOD steps. It comes in layers to use less resources.>Farther away the engine looks for low resolution mesh. And if>there are LOD's missing and the discrepancy between the higher>resolution mesh in the vicinity of the aircraft and the low>resolutin mesh get's too high then you will get to see those>grey/blue lines. It's the void of the FS World, the nothing,>if you so will.>>To avoid this one has to install low resolution buffer mesh>like this one here.>>http://www.fsgenesis.com/Merchant2/merchan...egory_Code=WRLDI can see your point when we are dealing with terrain, but the problem of grey/blue tiles also happens while flying over the ocean which of course has no mesh associated with it as such.The LOD mesh does make quite a difference to the terrain thoughand if you can afford it, is worth buying it.Fiddling about with the FS9.cfg got rid of these tiles. Will post some settings when I get home this evening.Regards

[Aviator81 0]

After a lot of messing around, I've managed to get rid of the tiles, but now I've just got the hard line of the horizon which only renders out to about 30nm and then drops off into the abyss.>Fiddling about with the FS9.cfg got rid of these tiles. >Will post some settings when I get home this evening.I'd really like to see what you've come up with here. I've been trying to mess with this file all day, along with fiddling with the visibility settings in ActiveSky and FS9. With these I've managed to degrade the vis enough to almost get rid of the horizon, but then I can't see clearly more than 5-10 nm even at FL360, and I can't seem to get it to remain consistent.I guess what I really want to know is the following:How can I get FS9 to display more than ~30nm of terrain so that the "edge of the world" isn't so apparent (somewhere I remember reading that FS9 had the curvature of the earth built in somehow, but I've never gotten to it at any altitude...)?How can I adjust the terrain and graphics settings so that the extreme ranges of terrain appear consistently without some of the tiles dropping out?What FS9 / AS settings will give me a consistent and realistic degradation of visibility without clearly showing the "edge of the world"?Thanks,GregPS: I'll try to include a screenie here to show you what I've got that I don't want...http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/193799.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/193800.jpg

[neumanix 113]

Make sure your TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES is set to 1 (on) andtry increasing the TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS to 4 or 5.If you have a full version of FSUIPC you can use the visibility settings there to get a fuzzy horizon. I use values of 3000 for Clear and Cloudy conditions. This limits the visibility range to 30 miles though.

[Aviator81 0]

>Make sure your TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES is set to 1 (on)>and>try increasing the TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS to 4 or 5.>>If you have a full version of FSUIPC you can use the>visibility settings there to get a fuzzy horizon. I use values>of 3000 for Clear and Cloudy conditions. This limits the>visibility range to 30 miles though.Unfortunately, no full fsuipc, but I should be able to get the same results by manipulating vis in AS, only problem being i can't seem to get it to remain consistent, with it starting out with a nice greyed out only to update to something similar to the picture I posted, ruining the view at altitude.It may just be that there is no way around the "edge of the world" effect, though I still think there has to be a way to expand the generated terrain to produce a larger surface to get degraded out... if that makes any sense.Thanks,Greg

[Aviator81 0]

Well, after some more messing with settings, i've managed to accomplish the same 30nm effect that neumanix mentioned, though I'm still a little disappointed by the lack of vis at altitude.... I was able to expand the loaded terrain by increasing the sight distance to 150nm, but I've not been able to get the vis degradation to fit with that distance, though I really only want about 60~80nm before its degraded the sky color, as this would fit more realistically with the visibility you could expect on an average day at cruise altitude.One thing I noticed in this process is that 30nm seems to be some sort of magical number. These two pictures show the difference just 1nm makes in the overall appearance:30nmhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/193811.jpg31nmhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/193812.jpgAs you can see, 1nm of increased vis at ~FL360 reveals the harsh horizon (even if it is greyed out) and changes the whole view. Really if there is a way to make the terrain visibility degrade away like that shown in the first image here, but at a much larger range so you don't lose the whole scenery picture, I'd really like to know how to do it. Something tells me there is a way, as I've seen more than a few screenshots from the pro's where the aircraft is at cruise altitude and the terrain is visible for some distance, but the horizon fades away gently and realistically.any thoughts?Greg

[ideoplastic 86]

Treblesum81Sorry I couldn't get back to you last night, but unfortunatelyI got in very late and didn't get a chance to attend to this issue.Glad you managed to get rid of the tiles problem. As regards thehorizon problem I use soft horizon but neumanix's suggestion is alsoa very valid one.Regards

[Aviator81 0]

Out of curiosity, is soft horizons compatible with ASv6? I really like the sky textures that come with the Graphics portion of the ASv6 program and I'd hate to have to give that up just to get rid of the horizon... seems almost counter productive you know...