I really am not very happy with the quality of my videos. There is a fair amount of swimming/shimmering textures. The actual game play on my screen is usually quite good and the video clips taken with FRAPS are also very good. But after making a video with WMM or Adobe Premier Elements there is always the fuzzy/shimmering/swimming textures. Seems worse sometimes than at other times. Any thoughts?Here is an example leaving Miami and arriving in Cancun. http://www.vimeo.com/12520930 Bruce

Limit FS to 30 FPSCapture 30 FPS with FRAPSand made movie with 30FPS

Limit FS to 30 FPSCapture 30 FPS with FRAPSand made movie with 30FPS

I usually am below 30fps when the shimmering takes place, but I have FPS set to unlimited. I do have FRAPS set at 30 fps. Am going to try recording at half speed too.

There is a fair amount of swimming/shimmering textures

In my experience and from looking at your video this is not about FPS, it's about compression and resolution. The shimmering is about having resized the video from the source resolution, and the smudginess is about compression artifacts. In my own gradual discovery of how to get FSX videos to look right for YouTube, I have arrived at the following method. I use Premiere Elements v7.- Capture source material with FRAPS at 1280x1024. Even though I fly at 3840x1024, I record with FS-Recorder and capture video while playing back at the lower resolution. I chose 1280x1024 because it will allow me to render in 720p (1280x720) without any resizing.- Create a Premiere project using the 720p/30fps (NTSC) preset. You may wish to use or create a different preset if you don't want widescreen.- Place the clips on Premiere's timeline for editing. Select each clip and untick 'resize to frame'. This means that the clip will exactly fill the width of the preview window without any resizing. Because it's a widescreen mode, the top and bottom of the frame will be clipped. You can move the frame up or down (right-click on the clip and choose properties/motion) to adjust the framing.- When you're done editing, go to the 'Share' tab and select the option for creating Windows Media (from memory, this is under the 'for playback on this computer' options). Under the WMM options, choose 720p/30fps.These steps ensure that you will render your video using the original source material without resizing at any stage.Perhaps that will help.

In my experience and from looking at your video this is not about FPS, it's about compression and resolution. The shimmering is about having resized the video from the source resolution, and the smudginess is about compression artifacts. In my own gradual discovery of how to get FSX videos to look right for YouTube, I have arrived at the following method. I use Premiere Elements v7.- Capture source material with FRAPS at 1280x1024. Even though I fly at 3840x1024, I record with FS-Recorder and capture video while playing back at the lower resolution. I chose 1280x1024 because it will allow me to render in 720p (1280x720) without any resizing.- Create a Premiere project using the 720p/30fps (NTSC) preset. You may wish to use or create a different preset if you don't want widescreen.- Place the clips on Premiere's timeline for editing. Select each clip and untick 'resize to frame'. This means that the clip will exactly fill the width of the preview window without any resizing. Because it's a widescreen mode, the top and bottom of the frame will be clipped. You can move the frame up or down (right-click on the clip and choose properties/motion) to adjust the framing.- When you're done editing, go to the 'Share' tab and select the option for creating Windows Media (from memory, this is under the 'for playback on this computer' options). Under the WMM options, choose 720p/30fps.These steps ensure that you will render your video using the original source material without resizing at any stage.Perhaps that will help.

Mark - Thanks for the info!My 28" monitor resolution is 1900x1200, but I have WideViewAspect=False in the config, because I think it looks better. I record FRAPS clips live while flying, and I also use both FS Recorder and Instant Replay when recording.I have FRAPS Video Capture settings at 29.97 and Half Size. I don't see anyway to change the resolution to 1280x1024 in FRAPS so I guess you have to do that in the game settings just before using FSR or IR.??Anyway, I will print out your suggestion and see if I can figure out how to do it that way. Thanks.Bruce

Mark - Thanks for the info!My 28" monitor resolution is 1900x1200, but I have WideViewAspect=False in the config, because I think it looks better. I record FRAPS clips live while flying, and I also use both FS Recorder and Instant Replay when recording.I have FRAPS Video Capture settings at 29.97 and Half Size. I don't see anyway to change the resolution to 1280x1024 in FRAPS so I guess you have to do that in the game settings just before using FSR or IR.??Anyway, I will print out your suggestion and see if I can figure out how to do it that way. Thanks.Bruce

FRAPS will record at whatever your full-screen resolution is set to. (I have yet to understand how FRAPS chooses what reoslution to use if you fly in windowed mode.) Hence, if you record live to FRAPS, you need to run in a lower resolution or accept that you will need to resize the video (bad). Capturing in half-size, same thing; you are better recording at 15fps (or 20fps if you can) full-size than 30fps half-size.I would not record live to FRAPS anyway, it is very hard to get anything but the most basic shots because you're too busy flying to frame things carefully and you only get one go. I would advise that you don't use FSX Instant Replay, as it's glitchy and doesn't replay even basic things like aileron and rudder movements. FS-Recorder replays more or less everything, and is completely configurable. The screen resolution is irrelevant to FS-Recorder, so you can record while flying in your chosen resolution (1920x1200) and then switch resolutions for playback and recording to FRAPS.'WideViewAspect' is irrelevant as your monitor is not a 'wide' view at all. My understanding of this flag is that it merely changes the permissible zoom range. It is for use with absurdly wide displays such as generated by the TripleHead2Go, as without it you sometimes cannot zoom out far enough to see the whole panel.

FRAPS will record at whatever your full-screen resolution is set to. (I have yet to understand how FRAPS chooses what reoslution to use if you fly in windowed mode.) Hence, if you record live to FRAPS, you need to run in a lower resolution or accept that you will need to resize the video (bad). Capturing in half-size, same thing; you are better recording at 15fps (or 20fps if you can) full-size than 30fps half-size.I would not record live to FRAPS anyway, it is very hard to get anything but the most basic shots because you're too busy flying to frame things carefully and you only get one go. I would advise that you don't use FSX Instant Replay, as it's glitchy and doesn't replay even basic things like aileron and rudder movements. FS-Recorder replays more or less everything, and is completely configurable. The screen resolution is irrelevant to FS-Recorder, so you can record while flying in your chosen resolution (1920x1200) and then switch resolutions for playback and recording to FRAPS.'WideViewAspect' is irrelevant as your monitor is not a 'wide' view at all. My understanding of this flag is that it merely changes the permissible zoom range. It is for use with absurdly wide displays such as generated by the TripleHead2Go, as without it you sometimes cannot zoom out far enough to see the whole panel.

More good info---thanks, Mark.I usually fly in Windowed Mode. I'm not entirely sure why except I had problems in Full Screen some time back I think when increasing the sim rate---not sure. Might have been a prior computer too.Anyway, I'll try your suggestions in Full Screen mode. Btw, it's easy to record live when you are vfr and on auto pilot! :( Bruce

Looks to me your biggest problem is none or low anisotropic filtering, increase it to the highest your system can handle without affecting performance. Preferably 16X.

Looks to me your biggest problem is none or low anisotropic filtering, increase it to the highest your system can handle without affecting performance. Preferably 16X.

Hi Tom!I have always had Anniso at 16 (and AA at 8). I use Nick's tuning guide and enhancer mostly. Sometimes I revert to the Nvidia control panel, but I use Nick's suggestions there too. Have tried everything a zillion times.I did discover 2 things that helped a lot in the last couple days. In using FRAPS I had the video setting at *Half* size because WMM struggles with these large files). I changed it to *Full* size. Big improvement. I also did 2 consecutive *Complete Name* defrags of the HD (that FSX occupies exclusively) before starting my last FSX session. The scenery looked so much better, and there was almost no visible shimmer at altitude. Going to try that again today.I tried to use some of Mark's suggestions:"- Capture source material with FRAPS at 1280x1024. Even though I fly at 3840x1024, I record with FS-Recorder and capture video while playing back at the lower resolution. I chose 1280x1024 because it will allow me to render in 720p (1280x720) without any resizing.""- Place the clips on Premiere's timeline for editing. Select each clip and untick 'resize to frame'. This means that the clip will exactly fill the width of the preview window without any resizing. Because it's a widescreen mode, the top and bottom of the frame will be clipped. You can move the frame up or down (right-click on the clip and choose properties/motion) to adjust the framing.Changing from my native res of 1920x1200 to 1280x1024 didn't look good and I got lost trying to do the second one in Premier Elements.I'll make a short wing view take off from ATL today with FRAPS at full size and after defragging again. I'll save at 720p and see what it looks like. Maybe I'll use MCO down there by you. I lived in Longwood from 89 to 98 and flew out of MCO many times on business, though I rarely go there in FSX!Thanks for the reply!Bruce