Scenery (trees, houses,etc) popping into view as you fly

[Guest abz]

I fly FS 2004 and I have a fairly new rig with an Nvidia GTX 280 GPU and a quad core CPU. Most of my settings are maxed out and things look great. However when I am flying along, scenery objects (like trees, houses, etc) just seem to pop into view rather than just being there. Any recommended modifications to make in the FS9.cfg file or video card settings to improve the visuals so this does not happen? I have tried several but not much improvement. Thanks, Al

[Guest tatest]

I thought that's the way autogen scenery objects work. They aren't created until we are close enough to see them. I know there is a autogen density parameter in FS9.CFG (also set by a slider in the UI), less density, less I notice things popping up. There are also terrain distance controls, don't know how they interact with autogen, but know they do control how textures are rendered with distance.

[Guest OneTinSoldier]

Howdy,I think the solution may indeed lay in your FS9.cfg settings. Here, you can try my settings and see how they work out for you. I'm not noticing any issue with objects suddenly popping into view, but I might not be as sensitive to that aspect of the sim as you are. And I recommend that you leave the TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL unless you feel you really have some reason to change it's value. I have mine set at 20 because that is supposedly the best value setting for that parameter when using FSGenesis 38M DEM Mesh.[TERRAIN]TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=90.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=20TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.900000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.900000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4All you are really going to be concerned about changing the values for are...TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=- and -TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.900000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.900000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4And here are some explanations from a few years back that I found by Holger Sandman and another fellow...In order to maximize the detail/sharpness of ground textures it's a good idea to use terrain extended textures. Below is a summary of what these parameters mean and what values are possible. However, if you're using photoreal scenery (such as MegaScenery) you should turn off extended textures and reduce visibility to 30 miles or so. That is because without extended textures FS needs to load about 5000 texture tiles but with extended textures the number jumps to about 20,000!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 milesTERRAIN_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 differenceTERRAIN_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 >3.9TERRAIN_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 >4In 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. --------------------------------TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=This determines the mesh resolution displayed. A setting of 20 will display 38 meter mesh. A setting of 19 displays 76 meter and less. A setting of 21 will display mesh that is better than 38 meter, but when encountering lower resolution mesh in the scenery being called up, will extrapolate the resolution and can look kinda screwey. Unless you have a bunch of 19 meter mesh I suggest leaving it at 20.--------------------------------Cheers, and I hope that helps,Jim

[Guest abz]

Thank you Jim for your most thorough and detailed reply. I will read this through again when I have more time at home on my sim to experiment and see if I get some improvement in what I am seeing now. Take care and have a good day, Al

[Guest OneTinSoldier]

Hi,You're welcome, and I hope it helps you out. However, my suggestions may not do anything at all for you.And I may have left out an important setting!! The setting is simply within FS2004 itself.Go to Settings --> Display --> Weather Tab --> Sight Distance SliderPlay with that slider and see if it does anything for you.I wish you good luck and let us know how it turns out!Cheers