What Graphical Glitches Are This

[jfri 42]

Sometimes I encounter corrupted outside views in FSX. It seem to happen more or less randomly but maybe using addon planes worsen it.It first usually starts with the whole screen going white for a short while. Sometimes it ends with that. But sometimes the outside forward view in fullscreen from a 2D panel goes completely black and the external view is corrupted with strange artifacts. The first pic shows this. This happen in fullscreen mode and switching to windowed mode removed the corruption (but I wan't fullscreen). Also the view once got normal after I had landed the plane. I have seen this F1 C172 and Carenado 182RG and SIA Marchetti SF260. Another glitch which seems constant in these plane is that the forward window turn lightblue in the VC. The last pic shows this even in 2D right forward view. How can this be cured? What is it?My systemAMD 64 4000+ , 2 Gb RAM , 7950GT AGP 512M DDR3Win XP Home FSX SP1 (SP2 gave me other glitches in form of black spikes in the outside view)

[JSkorna 137]

Hi,Pic 1: Video drivers.Pic 2: Using a FS2004 plane in FSX.Thanks,

[Guest jshyluk]

That's my guess as well. You can get white screens in external views with FS9 aircraft in FSX. It's a texturing issue. Spikes are probably the result of video driver issues. Black squares can be from that as well as corrupted textures files in your system. Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[Andydigital 93]

Spikes can be the result of the VRAM on the graphics card becoming flooded, especially during a long'ish session, try reducing your settings in FS.

[Mace 1,904]

I have some suggestions:1) firstly I suggest starting out troubleshooting by using an older nVidia driver with your 7-series card, such as 169.25 or older (and as always when switching drivers, do it the correct way)2) if you are running aftermarket lights, such as shockwave, or XGraphics landing lights, I suggest you disable those, rinse and see if you can repeat the lighting issues you see.3) a system upgrade would be a good idea for you; your setup is top line for 3 years ago but that is an eternity in the tech scene;All of your issues stem from 3 year old hardware. I built several rigs with 4000+ and nVidia 7-series cards; they would all do the square blocks on lights in FSX at times when the mem became saturated.

[jfri 42]

Hi,Pic 1: Video drivers.Pic 2: Using a FS2004 plane in FSX.Thanks,

1) I use NVIDIA 178.24. 2) But these are FSX compatible versions of the planes and SF260 is for FSX only

Spikes can be the result of the VRAM on the graphics card becoming flooded, especially during a long'ish session, try reducing your settings in FS.

It was very short sessions. I have reduced the settings so I have around 20 fps and smooth performence

[jfri 42]

I have some suggestions:1) firstly I suggest starting out troubleshooting by using an older nVidia driver with your 7-series card, such as 169.25 or older(and as always when switching drivers, do it the correct way)2) if you are running aftermarket lights, such as shockwave, or XGraphics landing lights, I suggest you disable those, rinse and see if you can repeat the lighting issues you see.3) a system upgrade would be a good idea for you; your setup is top line for 3 years ago but that is an eternity in the tech scene;All of your issues stem from 3 year old hardware. I built several rigs with 4000+ and nVidia 7-series cards; they would all do the square blocks on lights in FSX at times when the mem became saturated.

1) Isn't it a common advice to use the latest versions?2) I use Ultimate Terrain X and GEX and it was daytime3) I know but my economy can't take an sufficient upgradeWhat do you mean by memory being saturated? Many highend videocard has 512M like mine. But from your experience it seems likely that the problem is that my system can't handle FSX even if I turn down the sliders

[A36 Apache 0]

Not all video card manufacturers update their drivers along with Nvidia. So concerning 1) I recommend visiting the website of your video card manufacturer and using the latest driver they have for your card. Mace made an excellent suggestion with the version number from his experience which goes a long way.You might also want to do a search on 'OOM error,' because you may very well be on the edge right now. But, you might also save your system the way it is for playing FSX without the need of upgrading.

[mjrhealth 820]

Graphic issues can also be contributed by onboard ram issues. When i was messing around with new ram in my PC whichii could not quiet reach the required volts.If i went to tower view after a few minutes the he buildings would slowly sink or rise. or when flying the textures would suddenly become corrupted. Now i have correct ram i have none of these issues.

[Andydigital 93]

If you have Ultimate Terrain X try disabling the road traffic that comes with it, you will see a increase in performance even if you don't have road traffic switched on. The same goes for the night lighting, if you never fly at night disable the night lighting too as this even slows performance during the day.

[Mace 1,904]

1) Isn't it a common advice to use the latest versions?

Yes it is, but in my experience with 7-series nVidia cards, an older driver makes them perform better, and visuals are better. For instance, these newer driver versions, the 170's and 180.48, for example, have visual anomalies on my 2nd computer, which has a 7800GT card in it. That's why I tend to go back to 160's drivers for it. If it ain't broke--don't fix it.There are some theories out there about why this is (they have to do with the thought that as drivers advance, nVidia optimizes them for the latest cards, and in so doing this inadvertantly negatively affects the older cards...) but I don't know about any theories--all I know is what works well on what I have. It is worth a try for you, anyway...

2) I use Ultimate Terrain X and GEX and it was daytime

I don't own those progs but I don't think they have any light changes. But the black squares issue occurs with stock lights, too, so those aren't the issue. What is the issue is relatively speaking, a slower cpu, slower mem.

3) I know but my economy can't take an sufficient upgradeWhat do you mean by memory being saturated? Many highend videocard has 512M like mine. But from your experience it seems likely that the problem is that my system can't handle FSX even if I turn down the sliders

No, your system CAN handle FSX with reasonable slider settings; I ran FSX on an identical rig for over a year. But the black squares on lights, will probably not go away until you upgrade. I could never get the 3700+, and 4000+ I made to run FSX without the black squares issue.But you are seeing more visual anomalies than just the black squares on lights. You probably should try a different video driver version--an older one--and see how that works for you. If it were me, that would be my first step--new driver ver.

[jfri 42]

Yes it is, but in my experience with 7-series nVidia cards, an older driver makes them perform better, and visuals are better. For instance, these newer driver versions, the 170's and 180.48, for example, have visual anomalies on my 2nd computer, which has a 7800GT card in it. That's why I tend to go back to 160's drivers for it. If it ain't broke--don't fix it.There are some theories out there about why this is (they have to do with the thought that as drivers advance, nVidia optimizes them for the latest cards, and in so doing this inadvertantly negatively affects the older cards...) but I don't know about any theories--all I know is what works well on what I have. It is worth a try for you, anyway...I don't own those progs but I don't think they have any light changes. But the black squares issue occurs with stock lights, too, so those aren't the issue. What is the issue is relatively speaking, a slower cpu, slower mem.No, your system CAN handle FSX with reasonable slider settings; I ran FSX on an identical rig for over a year. But the black squares on lights, will probably not go away until you upgrade. I could never get the 3700+, and 4000+ I made to run FSX without the black squares issue.But you are seeing more visual anomalies than just the black squares on lights. You probably should try a different video driver version--an older one--and see how that works for you. If it were me, that would be my first step--new driver ver.

I have made some more testflights and the black sqaures didn't show up this time. But when loading a flight the load progressbar got corrupted. Here I should have pointed out a thing. The last time I saw these squares I also had FS flying school running in the background. And after minimizing FSX to startup FFS it took very long time to get FSX back. When you had these problems with 3700+ and 4000+ did you have some other programs running in the background?Otherwise there indeed are some indications that my weak system has something to do with the problem. For example loading a flight with thunderstorm theme had the problem right after loading the flight. This was not the case when I loaded this flight after starting FSX with alacrityPC to turn off background processes.Maybe the fact that I don't have multicore CPU could be the problem?

[JoeD 0]

I had those exact same graphical glitches a couple of days ago which appeard sudenly for the first time.I simply entered window mode, then imediately back to full screen and eveything was back to normal.I have no idea what cause it but suspect it was a resourse problem that simply temporaily overwhelmed my sys whem I was using RW weather.

[Andydigital 93]

I simply entered window mode, then immediately back to full screen and everything was back to normal.

VRAM is flushed and reloaded when switching from fullscreen and windowed mode and vice versa, the glitches will still probably return though, it simply means that you have your FSX settings too high for your computer spec, and are running out of available RAM, if you leave it running long enough when these anomallies are on screen eventually FSX will crash with an OOM error.