Hi,I would like to post about this display problem I have with FS2004. I think is there since I installed it, but I'm not sure. The question is, I'm getting dark borders around the clouds. Not the nearby, but the farthest ones. I've tested with different times of the day and seasons, I've tested with the FPS and FIX patch from FSW. I've tested with different drivers, disabled FSUIPC, changed driver parameters, but no avail. I don't know what else to do.The problem dissapears and the clouds render beautifully as soon as I hit the SLEW key. Weird as it may sound, I disable SLEW and the borders come again. Attached are some pictures that illustrate this.My card is a Nvidia GeForce4 440 MX-SE AGP with 64 MB. I know that's a not-so-good card, but I doubt it is the origin of the problem, because it can render clouds the right way when in SLEW mode.Another issue is that sometimes cloud layers appear hard cutted, like they do in the first shot. But in FS2002 the problem existed too. And I'm not getting ANY water reflection, but I've read that is normal on GeForce MX cards? :-(Does anyone has this same problem and has found a solution for it?Thanks!!! :-)--Daniel R. Carerihttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/38966.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/38968.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/38969.jpg

I also want to hear from someone that know the explanation to this. I have a GForce 4 128MB / P4 2.4 / 512 MB and I also get the clouds with the blue border...

Do either of you have 100 pct cloud 3-d chosen? This is common if you set cloud 3-d settings below 100 pct. I found that a better compromise of cloud settings vs. fps is keeping the draw distance down to 40 nm or less, and 3-d at 100 pct. Much more realistic, and none of the bordering like what you've seen....

I think that the bordered clouds are 2-D "imposter" clouds. Why they disappear in slew mode is beyond me. Try that suggestion of bumping 3-D to 100% and reduce the draw distance to get good FPS and let us know if that's a solution!

Yes, that should work. I have the same issue. I had 3d cloud % at about 50% and draw distance to 40 miles. I would get those blue border clouds often. Once, I paused the sim and switched the draw distance for 40-50% and could get the clouds with the borders I was seeing to switch back and forth between borders and no borders. I'll probably bump 3D % to 100 and drop the draw distance down some.

Yeah, those outline clouds bothered me too. Changing the cloud density (3D appearance) didn't do anything for me. The solution for me came with increasing the cloud draw distance some 10-20 miles beyond the general draw/visibility distance. I have the general visibility set at 60 miles and cloud draw distance to 80 miles and the outline clouds are gone! Basically with these settings the farthest clouds (the outline ones) are not rendered I think. Didn't observe any impact on frame rates on my GF3.Michal

>Hi,>>I would like to post about this display problem I have with>FS2004. I think is there since I installed it, but I'm not>sure. The question is, I'm getting dark borders around the>clouds. Not the nearby, but the farthest ones. I've tested>with different times of the day and seasons, I've tested with>the FPS and FIX patch from FSW. I've tested with different>drivers, disabled FSUIPC, changed driver parameters, but no>avail. I don't know what else to do.>>The problem dissapears and the clouds render beautifully as>soon as I hit the SLEW key. Weird as it may sound, I disable>SLEW and the borders come again. Attached are some pictures>that illustrate this.>>My card is a Nvidia GeForce4 440 MX-SE AGP with 64 MB. I know>that's a not-so-good card, but I doubt it is the origin of the>problem, because it can render clouds the right way when in>SLEW mode.>>Another issue is that sometimes cloud layers appear hard>cutted, like they do in the first shot. But in FS2002 the>problem existed too. And I'm not getting ANY water reflection,>but I've read that is normal on GeForce MX cards? :-(>>Does anyone has this same problem and has found a solution for>it?>Hi Daniel,I believe that the origin of your problem lies with your video card driver settings as it looks as though you have them set to "performance" mode which lowers the LOD (Level Of Detail) for mipmap display of the textures and those darker outlines are more pronounced in the lower mips.Simply choosing high image quality settings from within the video card driver menu should do the trick.

Thank you JohnCi. Increasing the setting to 100% made a world of difference for me. I had tried 90% and had the same borders and was afraid to try 100% on my system (2 GHz Celereon w/ Radeon 7500). After reading this thread I bumped it up, reduced the draw distance to 30, and visibility to 30 and like it much better. R-

Hi! Thanks for all the responses! :-) I've tried John's tip and the borders are gone, but 100% 3D clouds is not an option for me, as my machine is a low spec one (933 PIII, 512 MB PC133, XP). Frame rates drop to single digits with too much 3D clouds, even reducing the visible range down to 30 mn. :-(Paul, What puzzles me is the fact the clouds appear correctly rendered in slew mode. I press PAUSE (P), then hit Slew (Y) repeatedly and displays change as the picture below. I've taken your suggestion and maxed the sliders on the driver prior to starting the sim, but no change. I'm using the detonator 43.51 now, but I've also tried 43.45, 44.03, 45.23 and Omega 43.45, all unsuccessfully.Frustrated :-),--Daniel R. Carerihttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/39201.jpg

Hi, 2d clouds impostor was introduced in fs2004 to improve performance, the 2d imporstor is not used in slew mode, only the the "live" sim.The best solution is to use clouds percentage to 100 and cloud draw distant to 30 mil or 40 mil. Using clouds percentage lower then 100 % will be similar to fs2002 with his appearing clouds in front of you, no far clouds, and will reveal the 2d clouds impostor near your eyes.I recommend to use the Sight Distant slider to 60 mil, for better performance, no AA in fs2004 disabled , only from external tweaker.With a Intel P4 2.53 ghz and a gforce 4 TI 4200 128 MBI did not notice any major frame rate hit by changing the clouds percentage. The clouds draw distant fps drop is more noticable at full slider to right.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

If frame rates are a problem, just download Chris' frame rate friendly cloud textures:http://fsw.simflight.com/FSWFs2k4fix.htmlIt should let you set them at 100%!Hope this helps,--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

Thanks again, Chris and Tom.Respectfully, I thought 2D impostor (billboards that face to the aircraft) already were in FS2002. Even more, I believe they were the only cloud type in that simulator. I

It seems to be no solution, but a workaround then? :-)--Daniel R. Careri

Hi Daniel,not really. If using 100% 3D clouds is too heavy on your system, even with reduced draw distance and fewer clouds, the only thing I could think of, is to disable detailed clouds altogether (I think the option is called 'Use only simple clouds', or something like that).Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Simple solution. Increase the blue bias in your monitor. No messing with sim settings required at all. Problem 95% solved.Allcott