Anything I Can Do To Get Rid Of The Awful Horizons?

[Guest]

Since a week or two I am flying the MD-11, after flying GA only for some years. So now I do get higher than ever before. And I can't say I like the look if it... Almost everywhere I look I see a very sharp horizon: sometimes it is as if I am flying above a huge square and I can see the edges... Even when visibility is low, and you can clearly see the textures fading in the distance, the horizon stays there... sharp as a knife...Here is an example: you can clearly see the clouds and ground fade into the mist, but then there is that horizon...Is there I can do about this? I use FEX and ASA. Or does everyone has this up high...? It really spoils the idea of really being there for me... The ground and sky should fade into each other imho. It's weird to see the clouds and ground fade and then such a sharp horizon!Here is another one I just made: approach during sunset, but that horizon really spoils it... I really shouldn't be able to see it at all!

[sightseer 895]

I'm pretty sure thats just a part of flight simulator. It seems to me that its been an issue in many previous versions.I dont know if anyone has solved it. Maybe the REX guys did?? You say you have ASA and FEX. I have FEX and Ive seen it.I think its just something to live with.I much prefer flying low and slow anyway. The sky blends better. I love flying in and near the clouds. They look great against both sky and ground.If you have FTX and you fly low you'll see flocks of birds and the occasional sheep. Theres probably a lot more.I keep encountering 'flooded areas' in FTX. I think thats cool. Ive always wanted dynamic flooding (and other events) and FTX has taken a step in that direction.

[spesimen 135]

if your system can handle it you might try increasing the cloud draw distance a bit. they will help cover up the ugly seam.also adjusting your visibility options in ASA can help. i set maximum surface visibility to around 30 and max upper to around 60 and this generally provides a much more natural looking fade in my opinion... if the visibility distance is lower than the cloud draw range it will basically fade the clouds over the horizon. i still see a little ugliness from time to time but it's much less frequent.cheers,-andy crosby

[Andydigital 93]

Thought this may be of interest to you J van E, I came across it this morning.http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showtopic=22514

[Guest RichUK]

I've been using John's 'Soft Horizons' for a long time (in FS9 and now FSX). It is one of those 'essential' files in my opinion. It will definitely help with your problem.Rich.

[Guest]

Wow, that looks good! But er... I understand this addon will render FEX useless as far as skies are concerned... I am stuck with this sky and won't be able to use any other anymore. But well, maybe this sky is good enough for my general purpose, so I will definitely give it a try. (Hm, and of course changing ANYTHING with FEX will overwrite these files, because in FEX you cannot skip specific textures...)

[Andydigital 93]

Yes you are correct FEX will overwrite them, but I'm pretty certain you can de-select the SKY theme install I think.Confirmed, you just deselect "install skies" in the options>install options page.

[Dirk98 354]

I've been using John's 'Soft Horizons' for a long time (in FS9 and now FSX). It is one of those 'essential' files in my opinion. It will definitely help with your problem.Rich.

Guys, any ideas how to integrate that overwrite softhorizon package in ASA? It's a drag to do it manually each time after the ASv6 or ASX or ASA texture update.Thanks,Dirk98.

[Guest]

Yes you are correct FEX will overwrite them, but I'm pretty certain you can de-select the SKY theme install I think.Confirmed, you just deselect "install skies" in the options>install options page.

Ah! Thanks! Completely missed that option!

[Andydigital 93]

Guys, any ideas how to integrate that overwrite softhorizon package in ASA? It's a drag to do it manually each time after the ASv6 or ASX or ASA texture update.Thanks,Dirk98.

If you have different sky colour packs in your snapshots then you cant really do anything about it. If on the other hand you don't use a different sky theme in your ASA snapshots and you are happy with the one supplied by John then just browse to where the snapshots are saved in the main FSX folder and copy and paste the softhorizon replacement files to each of the separate snapshot save folders.ASA Snapshots are saved to ....\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Snapshots\SNAPSHOT_NAME\TextureThe files need pasting into the texture folder.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I've been using John's 'Soft Horizons' for a long time (in FS9 and now FSX). It is one of those 'essential' files in my opinion. It will definitely help with your problem.Rich.

Thanks Rich for mention of Soft Horizons. I must apologize it took so long to get it out there for FS-X....I did not own a system capable of running FS-X until just after the holidays. From the start there was something in FS-X that irked me--not the horizon, but the clouds. When I made the Soft Horizon/FS9 textures, one side effect was the improvement I saw in the clouds--they blended much more naturally in the distance. That was my main motivation for converting my FS9 project, which I did just this past weekend.Another side effect (for Tileproxy users) is that Soft Horizons helps to mask the different texture levels Tileproxy uses to display photo scenery. With visibility set to 50 miles and a small tweak to my proxyuser.ini, my photoreal textures appear to extend seamlessly to the horizon, as in this sample attached.Anyway, wanted to step in and say how much I appreciate the support and kind words both versions of "Soft Horizons" receive. I also have a "Mars Horizon" bitmap, on those odd days I feel like escaping the planet and the summer heat. But that one is not for public distribution :)Regards,JohnSoft Horizons/Tileproxy Example - FL210/Vis 50 Miles

[Guest RichUK]

You are welcome John. It's a great little addition to either FS9 or FSX. You better be sorry it took so long to get it out there for FSX ;) Seriously though, thanks for the work with this. Free stuff like this is one of the reasons this hobby of ours is so cool.Dirk - I guess you could make a little batch file to copy the Soft Horizon files to the correct place when you've made a change etc. It would then simply be a case of clicking on the batch file when you need to copy files, rather than copying them all across manually.Rich.

[Dirk98 354]

You are welcome John. It's a great little addition to either FS9 or FSX. You better be sorry it took so long to get it out there for FSX ;) Seriously though, thanks for the work with this. Free stuff like this is one of the reasons this hobby of ours is so cool.Dirk - I guess you could make a little batch file to copy the Soft Horizon files to the correct place when you've made a change etc. It would then simply be a case of clicking on the batch file when you need to copy files, rather than copying them all across manually.Rich.

Thanks, Rich. That's what I was thinking. Just in case, has anyone the code for the batch? I have a few other things that I'd like to incorporate in it as well. I know it's not that hard to create, but I'm much better in editing, lol.Dirk.

[Guest RichUK]

Thanks, Rich. That's what I was thinking. Just in case, has anyone the code for the batch? I have a few other things that I'd like to incorporate in it as well. I know it's not that hard to create, but I'm much better in editing, lol.Dirk.

Dirk,It should be a simple case of creating a batch file in the texture folder where you want to overwrite the textures. For example, in your fsx or fs9 texture folder. In this folder create a folder called horizons. Copy all the soft horizons files into this new horizons folder. So you end up with your main FS texture folder with a folder called horizons within it, which includes all the soft horizons files.Open up notepad and paste the following:copy horizons\*.* /ySave this file in your main texture folder as a .bat file. You can then obviously create a shortcut to your desktop or wherever is convenient to execute this bat file.All this bat file is doing is taking the files out of the horizons folder and overwriting the files in your texture folder that have the same name. Obviously you can change path names or adjust where you place the horizons folder depending on your set up and location of files etc - obviously changing the script too etc.It's a pretty quick and dirty way. I don't have to say be careful when messing around with batch files..especially with /y enabled. In any case it isn't too difficult to recover with these particular files.Let me know if you have problems.Rich.

[Dirk98 354]

Dirk,It should be a simple case of creating a batch file in the texture folder where you want to overwrite the textures. For example, in your fsx or fs9 texture folder. In this folder create a folder called horizons. Copy all the soft horizons files into this new horizons folder. So you end up with your main FS texture folder with a folder called horizons within it, which includes all the soft horizons files.Open up notepad and paste the following:copy horizons\*.* /ySave this file in your main texture folder as a .bat file. You can then obviously create a shortcut to your desktop or wherever is convenient to execute this bat file.All this bat file is doing is taking the files out of the horizons folder and overwriting the files in your texture folder that have the same name. Obviously you can change path names or adjust where you place the horizons folder depending on your set up and location of files etc - obviously changing the script too etc.It's a pretty quick and dirty way. I don't have to say be careful when messing around with batch files..especially with /y enabled. In any case it isn't too difficult to recover with these particular files.Let me know if you have problems.Rich.

Thanks, Rich. How to start FSX in the same batch?Dirk.