Right, Your DX9 setup is broken, so there is no reason to be perplexed.

I'm afraid Shockwave is right Ziffel. Your DX9 shots shouldn't look like that. Looks like AF is not working. I have a similar system except for the graphics card (nVidia GTX285) and my image quality in DX9 is much better than in DX10. Which is reasonable, considering that in DX9 I am running AF16 and an AA8S mode with nHancer that can't be enabled in DX10. You could try downloading RivaTuner from guru3D.com and see if its tweaking tools fix your DX9.Cheers,Noel.

I'm afraid Shockwave is right Ziffel. Your DX9 shots shouldn't look like that. Looks like AF is not working. I have a similar system except for the graphics card (nVidia GTX285) and my image quality in DX9 is much better than in DX10. Which is reasonable, considering that in DX9 I am running AF16 and an AA8S mode with nHancer that can't be enabled in DX10. You could try downloading RivaTuner from guru3D.com and see if its tweaking tools fix your DX9.Cheers,Noel.

I've tried RivaTuner before, and it always says my driver set isn't recognized and so it can't proceed. That's how I ended up finding ATI Tray Tools, which is supposed to be the ATI equivalent of nhancer. For some reason ATI Tray Tools is passing commands to DX10, but not to DX9.

I use dx9 as many including me with win7 systems have observed it being faster and smother in fsx. I also prefer it for the ablity to boost AA and AF quality through drivers.

Iooks like AF is not working.

Yes, it looks like that on my computer when I turn off filtering completely: even trilinear or bilinear looks better then this.If your driver isn't recognized, you might try other drivers. And don't try all kinds of tuners at once: I don't know about ATI but with my nVidia card I get into trouble when I use the nVidia control panel AND nHancer at the same time (or even when I switch between them): some settings just don't work anymore or they are stuck in a certain mode. So I would delete your current driver (can you use Driver sweeper in Safe mode for ATI?) and all addons like ATI Tray tools (so your system is really clean) and then install a new driver and take it from there: first see what you get with the ATI control panel, than (if necessary) see what happens when you install ATI Tray Tools.

I'm perplexed. Some of you say DX9 is much better, some even call DX10 "ugly", which kind of befuddles me. For me, DX9 looks absolutely horrendous:here's a few shots:DX9 close up:http://img2.pict.com/1c/12/06/3258034/0/dx9close.jpgDX10 close up:http://img2.pict.com/de/0b/c5/3258036/0/dx10close.jpgThat DX9 shot is with Anistropic and AA checked, and apparently my ATI TrayTools has zero effect on the outcome. Obviously, filtering is not kicking in for me on DX9 for some reason.To really see DX10 in all it's glory on my rig, please view and maximize this image:http://img2.pict.com/5b/c0/a2/3105195/0/l39.jpgTHAT is what I'm reluctant to give up!My DX9 sky has 'rings' that go around it:http://www.pict.com/view/3258166/0/skydx9My DX10 sky:http://www.pict.com/view/3258168/0/skydx10 (no rings)Another example of a stunning DX10 shot:http://img2.pict.com/f0/96/e6/3105124/0/starktrike.jpgI put the pics in links for two reasons. 1, the forum rule for file size, and 2, a small version wouldn't do these justice. In fact when you click on them, please click your browser's magnifying glass thingy to make them go full size, if your browser auto-shrinks them.Clearly, my DX9 is broken. I also get double to even triple the framerate in DX10. My specs are in my sig. Do all of the DX9 people here use Nvidia cards?

Something's badly broken with your install, my DX9 looks like your DX10. I'll look how much better my DX10 will look like...

I don't know if I'm fully qualified to answer this because I still use mostly FS9. But when I do fly in FSX - DX10 does give me problems so I've stuck to DX9 and I'm OK with the results.

What is it the " HDR mod" ?Thanks

What is it the " HDR mod" ?Thanks

http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtop...p;hl=enb+seriesIt's the main reason i dont bother with DX10 in FSX. I cant fly without the HDR mod..the world looks so much better with it. when configured properly of course ;)

Yes, it looks like that on my computer when I turn off filtering completely: even trilinear or bilinear looks better then this.If your driver isn't recognized, you might try other drivers. And don't try all kinds of tuners at once: I don't know about ATI but with my nVidia card I get into trouble when I use the nVidia control panel AND nHancer at the same time (or even when I switch between them): some settings just don't work anymore or they are stuck in a certain mode. So I would delete your current driver (can you use Driver sweeper in Safe mode for ATI?) and all addons like ATI Tray tools (so your system is really clean) and then install a new driver and take it from there: first see what you get with the ATI control panel, than (if necessary) see what happens when you install ATI Tray Tools.

Good suggestions. I'll try driver sweeper today. Do any ATI users have a suggestion for the best FSX drivers? Is anyone using the new 10.3's without any issues?Another question regarding FSX settings:let's say you want to use your driver's settings for AA & AF, so you force those on in driver level. Do you still have to check the AA box and set AF to Anisotropic in FSX? Or do you leave those set to None and unchecked because the drivers are doing it? (or does it matter?)

Well fellas, I've tried everything I can think of.I swept the drivers, and uninstalled ATI Tray Tools. I tried the ATI 9.12 drivers (it wouldn't let me install those), then I tried re-doing the 10.3's, still no go. I'm within my return window on the 5850, so I'm going to return it. I just ordered a GTX 285, so hopefully I'll have better results with that. It's my understanding that the 285 is the premeire FSX card.

Well fellas, I've tried everything I can think of.I swept the drivers, and uninstalled ATI Tray Tools. I tried the ATI 9.12 drivers (it wouldn't let me install those), then I tried re-doing the 10.3's, still no go. I'm within my return window on the 5850, so I'm going to return it. I just ordered a GTX 285, so hopefully I'll have better results with that. It's my understanding that the 285 is the premeire FSX card.

I don't know if it's the premiere card for FSX still, but I've had a GTX 285 for a while now, and I absolutely love it.

I got my GTX 285 installed this evening, and I'm happy to report ... all my DX9 issues are gone! I followed NickN's guide to the letter on setting up nhancer, and I am blown away at how good DX9 looks now. And no more flickering runways, yay!I'm using:1920x10808xS AA16x AFVsync forced onI'm getting 50 to 60 fps in non-FTX areas, and that's with REX, GEX, and UTX all enabled. In PNW, I'm getting 25 to 55 fps (it seems to vary wildly), but the worst I'm getting, even over thick auto-gen towns, is 25 fps (so far). 8xS AA looks awesome!However, I am having two issues now:1. I am now seeing slightly stuttering textures. If I'm flying low, and pan down to the ground, the textures seem to hop, just a bit. I haven't tried bufferpools yet, but I will next.2. this is a weird one. I'm running full-screen, and if I even just go to a menu choice that drops me out of the flight (say to change a hotkey), the sim will NOT return to full screen. I just get a black screen, and yet the flight continues (i can hear the engine sound, and affect it with throttle). But, if then drop to a window, then restore back to full screen, everything works fine again.If I can get these two things worked out, i'll be in flight sim heaven.

I find FPS Limiter helps smoothness. Works fine in W7 64-bit on my system at least. Without it I was always getting slightly jerky frames, even with the frame limit on in the sim. Cheers,Noel.

I find FPS Limiter helps smoothness. Works fine in W7 64-bit on my system at least. Without it I was always getting slightly jerky frames, even with the frame limit on in the sim. Cheers,Noel.

I spent all evening working on getting everything just so, and attempting to work out the kinks. My current status is looking good. I will say this, now that DX9 is working as it should for me - that is, with nhancer and the incredible effect of 8xS AA, and 16xAF actually being passed to FSX ... DX9, without question, looks better than DX10. I didn't think it was possible, but it certainly is.At first, in DX9, I was getting pretty bad artifacts, texture flashes, black squares and/or triangles popping up on the screen. I spent a good bit of time trying to figure that out, as it was not happening in DX10, or any other game, so I knew it had to do with a setting. I went over nhancer and tried different things. Eventually, I came to "negative LOD bias", which was set to clamp. after disabling that, the glitches went away.And Noel, you were spot on with FPS Limiter... that sorted my stuttering textures like a champ. DX9 in PNW with FPSLimiter going looks and runs like a slice of heaven now. My final unsolved problem is in the inability to drop to a menu selection that minimizes the sim (Display, Controls, etc), and come back to full-screen. Upon return to full-screen, I get nothing but black, but the sim is running and I still have audio. (this only happens in DX9, btw). However, my workaround is to simply go to windowed mode before selecting the menu choice, do what I need to do, then press Alt-Enter to go back to fullscreen. No problems that way so far.All in all, the GTX 285 is, IMO, THE card to get for FSX, and I'm very happy I got it.