Graphics corruption in FSX - (UPDATE: possible solution found!)

[aceridgey 330]

i use nhancer....:(

[darem 84]

*******,tried your suggestions. They are against "common sense" - but they are close to a miracle: I haven't had a smoother flight ever in the PNW area.THANKS A LOT!!!!

[bojote 20]

*******,tried your suggestions. They are against "common sense" - but they are close to a miracle: I haven't had a smoother flight ever in the PNW area.THANKS A LOT!!!!

I'm glad! ;)But If you want the *Full* Miracle you need TWO things:One:[bufferPools]UsePools=0And two, follow the following video setting suggestions TO THE LETTER!- Force vSync to OFF on your Video Card- Let FSX control Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering (set them to application controlled in the nVidia control panel and check the AntiAlias box and the Aniso option inside FSX) - Make sure you use MultiSampling AA, and not SuperSampling or Combined.- If you use nHancer, set Aniso to OFF (aniso will still work inside FSX), seems to be a bug with nHancer, but I suggest you get rid of nHancer... its evil ;)- If you use Dualview or Clone mode, DISABLE IT, make sure you ONLY use one monitor when doing the tests.- Set pre-render frames to 0 (so the CPU does not stalls the GPU with instructions)- LOCK your frame rate!! 15, 20, 25 or 30 (see which gives you better results)Adding [bufferPools] UsePools=0 to your fsx.cfg file will completely stress your video card like no other application can, because it bypasses the 'explicit' vertex buffer created by the FSX application and goes DIRECTLY to the command 'ring' buffer which is handled directly by the D3D API. The benefits of doing this, is that you 'offload' from the CPU this 'in-software' Vertex and Index buffer (its called an explicit vertex buffer because its application managed) meaning, it uses precious CPU cycles that are better spent in the FSX engine.Its very important to note that for this [bufferPools] UsePools=0 'tweak' to work the GPU & CPU need to be in total sync! what the CPU writes to the ring buffer the card will now have to process ASAP, almost instantly! otherwise, the command buffer will be overwrited with new requests coming from the CPU and you will get screen corruption. in other words, your video card has to be capable of READING instructions from the buffer ring incredibly fast (thats why the above video suggested settings are so important) but also, the GPU capability to actually 'render' the instructions, plays a crucial role, and here, nVidia with a faster shader proccesor clock leaves ATI in the dust.One last thing, I know turning Vsync OFF is unnaceptable for some, but, Fermi's (GTX 480's) are around the corner and will let you do just that. (I purchased an ATI HD5870 a week ago, tested it and returned it) my GTX285 runs FSX much faster under complex scenery and weather.Have fun...

[bojote 20]

They are against "common sense"

There is a lot of misleading information out there :)

[HUSSAR 271]

*******, what about us poor people that have <1Gb GPU, I have an EVGA GTX 275 with only 896Mb of VRAM, we cannot use Bufferpools=0 so what setting do you recommend for us <1 gig'rs.Thanks,

[Guest UlfB]

....But If you want the *Full* Miracle you need TWO things:[bufferPools]UsePools=0...

What setting for Poolsize? Poolsize=0? Or it doesn't matter with UsePools=0?

[bojote 20]

*******, what about us poor people that have <1Gb GPU, I have an EVGA GTX 275 with only 896Mb of VRAM, we cannot use Bufferpools=0 so what setting do you recommend for us <1 gig'rs.Thanks,

Well... you CAN. in fact, I have tested BP=0 with 512MB cards!! of course, under 'normal' conditions.... UsePools=0 will increase Video Ram usage slighly, but not 'that' much. (forget about my 'theory' of needing 1024MB cards, you don't)

[Guest Shockwave]

There is a lot of misleading information out there :)

Apreciate your work here, so dont take the questions the wrong way, this is great stuff!while I could be mistaken many the things suggested here seem like the same old same old.What is "TextureMaxLoad=30"? The setting is for the max texture size FSX will render, 1024x1024 is default max, while 2048x2048 and 4096x4096 enable HD textures, so what is =30? Default medium 512x512?You suggest turning filtering down to make these new "tweaks work, however many of us have already said reducing filtering and lowering settings reduced the "errors" to practicly nil with out any need for more hacking or tweaks, for some of us, reducing image Quality is a step in the wrong direction.You also posted that you removed FSDTJFK, is that still true, you cant get this to work with that?If your at low screen resolutions, fine who cares, but at 1920x1200 many of these lower settings plain sux, and since it works in XP64 would suggest this is no final solution, at least not to me.Skeptic in NY where its 86 outside ....probably snow again next week though...

[bojote 20]

What setting for Poolsize? Poolsize=0? Or it doesn't matter with UsePools=0?

UsePools=0 ignores your PoolSize setting. So:[bufferPools]UsePools=0is exactly the same as:[bufferPools]PoolSize=0and you can even have:[bufferPools]UsePools=0PoolSize=80000000

[bojote 20]

while I could be mistaken many the things suggested here seem like the same old same old.What is "TextureMaxLoad=30"?

Don't worry.... its legacy stuff from the FS2004 days (but still used in FSX as can be easily tested and/or checked inside the DLL's or in-sim)Here's the info from Steve Lacey: (and the link) http://www.steve-lacey.com/blogarchives/20..._stutters.shtml

By default, the texture manager will upload a maximum number of texture's per frame. This is measured in bytes, and the default is the equivalent of three 256x256 textures with mips.The 'three' comes from a configuration variable you may not be familar with. This is TextureMaxLoad in the DISPLAY section. The default is three.This value is multiplied by the TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT configuration variable and divided by the target framerate only in the case where you have a target framerate set. With 'unlimited', the variable will have no effect. So, you can see that the value is a multiplier, rather than having any specific units.- Steve

[Guest Shockwave]

Force VSYNC to OFF on your Video CardLet The Application control Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering (set them to application controlled in the nVidia control panel) Make sure you use MultiSampling AA, and not SuperSampling or Combined.if you use the evil nHancer, set Aniso there to OFF (it will still work), seems to be a bug with nHancer.

What do you mean by "Bug" or "Experts"?With out a reg hack like nhancer adjusting AA settings is not possible from the NV control panel, you can select it but it does nothing in FSX, So what bug are you talking about? What there is > is what the different AA settings actually do when you select them in nhancer/RivaTuner/Hardpage etc, and that means larger and larger prerendered frames the higher the choice of filtering one choses and so the quicker you will loose your resources in win7/Vista.

[Guest Shockwave]

Don't worry.... its legacy stuff from the FS2004 days (but still used in FSX as can be easily tested and/or checked inside the DLL's or in-sim)Here's the info from Steve Lacey: (and the link) http://www.steve-lacey.com/blogarchives/20..._stutters.shtml

Right, so now we are down to a very low 768x768 max texture size along with lower filter quality that even an old 7800 series AGP card with 512MB Vram would have no trouble with, including using any of these add-ons, so not seeing anything new here, we are all just lowering our settings, which lowers the draw on resources that break under Win7/Vista but not under XP. What is new here?Isnt this as other have said just "masking the problem"?

[bojote 20]

Right, so now we are down to a very low 768x768 max texture size along with lower filter quality that even an old 7800 series AGP card with 512MB Vram would have no trouble with, including using any of these add-ons, so not seeing anything new here, we are all just lowering our settings, which lowers the draw on resources that break under Win7/Vista but not under XP. What is new here?Isnt this as other have said just "masking the problem"?

I would love to see someone Like Pete Dowson, Steve Lacey, Adam Zofran, Phil Taylor or ANYONE that you 'admire' tell me I'm wrong, here, in front of everyone :) but they wont.... :) and I'll not get confrontational with you Paul.

[Guest Shockwave]

I would love to see someone Like Pete Dowson, Steve Lacey, Adam Zofran, Phil Taylor or ANYONE that you 'admire' tell me I'm wrong, here, in front of everyone :) but they wont.... :) and I'll not get confrontational with you Paul.

No need to get so defensive. You dont think those are fair and objective questions to answer for all of us? Why can't you just answer them?No one is saying your wrong, please do not try to stick any words in my mouth, I think you are reading too much into the questions, I have replied to you in a civil manner, please do the same.On the contrary, you seem to be only confirming what many of us have already known and have stated over and over again, lowering settings reduces load on the resources which lowers the chance of getting a black screen or corrupted textures.So I disagree that this is a new solution.

[darem 84]

*******,your last advice, goiung to bufferpools=0 and turning on AA and filtering internally didn't do anything but getting me bad picture quality. Sound cracking remained. So I will stick with AA and filtering through nHancer and a bufferpools setting of 190MB. For me, it's the best compromise between picture quality and frames without stuttering.