Shimmering....anybodyNOT have it?

[january 19]

Hello, Do you already test using the keyboard or mouse for move the throttle(s) lever and if yes .. what is different ?(I assume you use a hotas)Regards.Gus.

Gus- it is same whether I use CH yoke throttle or mouse with throttle quadrant popup- NO shimmer until throttle is advanced by either method, even slightly.Also same phenomena on all planes. Shimmer is definitely triggered by moving the throttle. Once the shimmer starts there is no way to eliminate it other than restarting the flight.(I'd be willing to bet that, on Aug 5 1945, Col Tibbetts also saw a tropical shimmer on his horizon as he advanced the throttles of B29 "Enola Gay". The B29 was 15,000 lbs overweight on an 8500' runway on Tinian Island with a 50' drop at the end. In the bomb bay was "Little Boy" - destined for Hiroshima.)Alex Reid

[january 19]

Just to focus my prior posts- Shimmering stops when I shut down the engine(s)- even though the the sim is still running- ie FS9 is NOT paused. Restarting the engine(s) causes shimmering to resume without any throttle movement.So engine running triggers shimmering. Question is WHY? Are shimmers simulated engine vibration? Perhaps FS9 is more realistic than we thought!Alex Reid

[geoffco 0]

I don't know if this is the correct cure, but I add mip maps to all textures that are shimmering. I have done this to my trees and all of my AI aircraft. The effect is great because it tends to blurr the object as it gets farther away which is exactly what happen to things in the real world. :(

I have a couple of sceneries where this is an issue - how do I go about adding mips to a texture? Will the following command for imagetool do the job (in a holding folder containing the relevant files) or I have to do them all one-by-one?

imagetool -mip -r *.bmp

Geoff

[january 19]

'Shimmer' can only be present when moving, so that is why it relates to throttle.

red1- My shimmer- (ie some flickering objects/scenery near the distant horizon), occurs on the ground ONLY after advancing the throttle very slightly BUT there is NO movement of the airplane. Brakes still on etc. After loading the flight you can play with all functions such as setting flaps, adjusting trim, prop pitch & mixture levers etc and no shimmer. But move the throttle slightly and shimmer commences. It is NOT likely caused by the visual movement of the throttle lever as the motion of the flaps lever also DOES NOT trigger shimmer.However when airborne, shimmer continues even with engine(s) shut down. So engine noise is not the shimmer trigger.The shimmer also appears on all 3 monitor views.Alex Reid

[psolk 3,040]

red1- My shimmer- (ie some flickering objects/scenery near the distant horizon), occurs on the ground ONLY after advancing the throttle very slightly BUT there is NO movement of the airplane. Brakes still on etc. After loading the flight you can play with all functions such as setting flaps, adjusting trim, prop pitch & mixture levers etc and no shimmer. But move the throttle slightly and shimmer commences. It is NOT likely caused by the visual movement of the throttle lever as the motion of the flaps lever also DOES NOT trigger shimmer.However when airborne, shimmer continues even with engine(s) shut down. So engine noise is not the shimmer trigger.The shimmer also appears on all 3 monitor views.Alex Reid

Alex, You are seeing the shimmering when there is movement in the sim... I get the same, KEWR looks great while sitting there but try to move or taxi and the whole airport "waves" to you, not just the wingwalkers :(-Paul

[january 19]

Alex, You are seeing the shimmering when there is movement in the sim... I get the same, KEWR looks great while sitting there but try to move or taxi and the whole airport "waves" to you, not just the wingwalkers :(-Paul

Hi Paul- There is NO "movement in the sim" after loading the flight. The plane sits perfectly still- brakes on, engines running. Advance throttle a tiny bit- (just beyond the reverse thrust null point - CH yoke) - and horizon shimmer starts. (engine gauges show NO change from idle.) Retard throttle back thru' null and shimmer continues. Turn off engine magneto switches to kill engines and shimmer stops. Restart engines and shimmer also commences again.So the shimmer definitely has something to do with engine(s) or throttle and is NOT movement related.I get no "airport waving" - the shimmer appears here and there in small patches at, or just slightly below, the horizon. All other parts of the scenery are perfectly stable. These experiments at CYYJ with Don Grovenstein's add on scenery, and DreamFleet Baron & A36 Bonanza.Alex Reid

[psolk 3,040]

Hi Paul- There is NO "movement in the sim" after loading the flight. The plane sits perfectly still- brakes on, engines running. Advance throttle a tiny bit- (just beyond the reverse thrust null point - CH yoke) - and horizon shimmer starts. (engine gauges show NO change from idle.) Retard throttle back thru' null and shimmer continues. Turn off engine magneto switches to kill engines and shimmer stops. Restart engines and shimmer also commences again.So the shimmer definitely has something to do with engine(s) or throttle and is NOT movement related.I get no "airport waving" - the shimmer appears here and there in small patches at, or just slightly below, the horizon. All other parts of the scenery are perfectly stable. These experiments at CYYJ with Don Grovenstein's add on scenery, and DreamFleet Baron & A36 Bonanza.Alex Reid

Turn off engine magneto switches to kill engines and shimmer stops. Restart engines and shimmer also commences again.Alex,Whenever I start the engines there is movement in the sim. Not in the wheels are moving movement but the vibration of the engine start, the internal view effect in active camera etc... Just because your wheels aren't moving does not mean there is not movement in the sim... The engine/throttle is not the root cause of the shimmer in my opinion it is causing small movements in the sim which are the cause of the shimmer but that is just my .02. That is why I made the "movement" call, it has nothing to do with parking brakes or the wheels moving.I do not get shimmer at any other airports (anymore) but if you fly with the old ImagineSim KEWR you will always see shimmer even after adding MIP to the textures. Same with a lot of the Aerosoft airports and the old FlyTampa stuff. Hence the KEWR is waving to me comment... Other than taxi lines at some of the above mentioned airports I have no shimmering in the sim. It is strictly a texture issue on my box... Paul

[january 19]

Paul- just tried KEWR (default)- results are identical to my prior posting notes at CYYJ (Don Grovenstein addon scenery). Not sure what you're seeing when you refer to "whole airport waving". The shimmer I see is in very narrow horizontal whitish strips that look like distant runways- in the area immediately below the horizon. Rest of the scenery remains pretty stable- with occasional shimmer of some intermediate distance runway lines. Whitish areas of distant scenery seems to be the component affected by shimmer.Shimmer appears as throttle advances BEFORE airplane itself has any movement. Alex Reid

[january 19]

Turn off engine magneto switches to kill engines and shimmer stops. Restart engines and shimmer also commences again.Alex,Whenever I start the engines there is movement in the sim. Not in the wheels are moving movement but the vibration of the engine start, the internal view effect in active camera etc... Just because your wheels aren't moving does not mean there is not movement in the sim... The engine/throttle is not the root cause of the shimmer in my opinion it is causing small movements in the sim which are the cause of the shimmer but that is just my .02. That is why I made the "movement" call, it has nothing to do with parking brakes or the wheels moving.Paul

Paul - latest test result-Load DF Baron cold and dark at CYYJ. NOT paused. NO shimmer.Turn switches & fuel On. Start #1. Engine running. NO shimmerStart #2. Both engines running. Adjust prop pitch, mixture & flaps. NO shimmer. So it isn't vibration causing shimmer!Advance throttle beyond null zone but not increasing engine RPM and no detectable aircraft movement. Shimmer starts. Retard throttle to null zone, shimmer continues.Shut down #1 & 2 engines. Shimmer stops but sim is still active----------That makes me suspect throttle has some effect on shimmer.But you are probably also correct re movement being a cause- However, engine vibration is not sufficient to cause shimmer. Shut down engines on a take off run and shimmer continues until aircraft comes to a stop.So shimmer perhaps has two "triggers"- throttle and/or motion.Alex Reid

[psolk 3,040]

Well since the throttle causes motion I they are one and the same :) and not movement of an animated part, actual movement of the AC regardless of the brakes being set. At some airports engine vibration alone is enough to trigger it. (ImagineSim KEWR is one) I also fly heavy jests so a lot of time while sitting there with the engines running and brakes on the whole aircraft is moving just like in real life (vibration evidenced by movement in the wings and felt in your bum.) Advancing the throttle is the same thing as sitting at the traffic light with your foot on the brake and hitting the gas... The car moves (nose dips) even though the wheels don't. Just because you don't perceive the movement doesn't mean it isn't there. I think it is really obvious in the VC and TrackIR enhanced it to the point I stopped using it but I think that is a driver issue that the textures in FS make worse because it doesn't happen in my racing sims (but I digress)Cheers,-Paul

[january 19]

Well since the throttle causes motion I they are one and the same :) and not movement of an animated part, actual movement of the AC regardless of the brakes being set. At some airports engine vibration alone is enough to trigger it. (ImagineSim KEWR is one) I also fly heavy jests so a lot of time while sitting there with the engines running and brakes on the whole aircraft is moving just like in real life (vibration evidenced by movement in the wings and felt in your bum.) Advancing the throttle is the same thing as sitting at the traffic light with your foot on the brake and hitting the gas... The car moves (nose dips) even though the wheels don't. Just because you don't perceive the movement doesn't mean it isn't there. I think it is really obvious in the VC and TrackIR enhanced it to the point I stopped using it but I think that is a driver issue that the textures in FS make worse because it doesn't happen in my racing sims (but I digress)Cheers,-Paul

But one would think that moving the prop pitch lever - (even as far as to full feather with engine running!) would affect vibration. Pitch or Mixture changes have no effect on shimmer. Only throttle- and that occurs simply moving it from null to minimum engaged with no change in the RPM gauge. Ah well, just one of the mysteries of Flight Sim! In any event, shimmer is such a small thing that I had never before paid any attention to it. I'll just pretend it is heat waves rising off a distant tarmac or roadway!Regards Alex Reid

[Jetblst 23]

:( I am new and a uninformed with this, however eager to learn. Now then, 1. Are you guys talking about the settings for AA in your graphics cards?2. I get midmapping in FS9, if that can elim the shim that would be great I will do that next.3. Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.091208-2036) Language: English (Regional Setting: English)System Manufacturer: n/a System Model: n/a BIOS: n/a Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs) Memory: 1536MB RAM Running an old machine here, however I have a nice Nividia GeForce 9400GT card. QUESTION. About how often do they update drivers for a card like mine, if anyone knows. Does that make a huge difference. My card is only a year old.4. Is there a tutorial anywhere that can help me set up the card or tweak this card better for FS9 exclusively? Or close to it?THANKS SO MUCH!!Jet

[Jetblst 23]

Nevermind. I just got schooled finally finding my help files for my Nvidia Geforce. Now the darn question is how come its not effecting much. I'll have a more specific question later. :(On shimmering. What has been helping me is to lessen midmapping.