There was some value of AA to cure tree shimmering in FSX. Right now I run 8xS with nvidia inspector (pull down options shown). Running 1280x1024x32 res and I know the screenshot doesn't do justice (it's more apparent while in motion), but here's a full size pic of the trees. I admit they look a heck of a lot better since I run PNW, and since the default trees are overwritten by PNW's ones. Still they shimmer pretty bad in the distance... say the 2nd quarter of the screen and up.Can someone recommend a different value than 8xS?

There was some value of AA to cure tree shimmering in FSX.

Transparency AA. If you enable it, shimmering is reduced considerably (but it will induce some stutters with 'some' add on A/C)Check this videos, one has AA transparency, the other does not. You'll notice the effect 10 feet before touching down.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bz6Cip2GH4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dMt_cneRFM

Transparency AA. If you enable it, shimmering is reduced considerably (but it will induce some stutters with 'some' add on A/C)

4x SS Sparse Grid seems to have the smallest performance impact. jja

I have found 8sQ to be the best shimmer reducer.LOD Bias Clamp.

Check this videos, one has AA transparency, the other does not. You'll notice the effect 10 feet before touching down.

This comes from the transparency AA? I would have thought above everything but not this.How can this be explained, what happens so close to touchdown? Aren't most parts you see already processed?I'm not asking in doubt but in strong interest, JesusAs for image quality, one can't beat transparency AA especially on trees and stuff like this and I double the words from JJ with 4x SS Sparse Grid recommendation. Gauges of any kind also get enhanced.Transparency AA isn't a thing for weak cards and sparse grid is even more demanding (load some standard scenes and read out the gpu load to experience it for yourself). The current models can take it even in cloudy skies when you are careful with any other supersampling component on the normal AA modes. Too much there and even new 580s get in trouble.Cards should be measured by GPU load on a standard and cloudy scene to find a good AA setting with not too demanding cost of fps. Take an aircraft with steam gauges and small fonts around the cockpit to see the improvement transparency AA gives you while your other eye should focus on the GPU load cost of it.

So I'd basically be screwed with my "ancient" 8800GT?

I'm not asking in doubt but in strong interest, *******

Don't worry, like you I'm trying to determine the 'why'.The facts so far:1) It happens ONLY with 'certain' add-on aircraft and some default (not all) and it happens precisely, just before or after takeoff (10 feet up/down)2) I can prevent this from happening *IF* I tell FSX NOT to use shaders (ALLOW_SHADER_20=0 and ALLOW_SHADER_30=0)3) problem seems to be worse if landing around airports at sea level or next to large bodies of water.Strange? you bet it is... solution? none.. I just disable transparency AA... I can replicate this anytime I want at KJFK, landing with the level-D and transparency AA enabled. Would be nice to have other users confirm it. (BTW, I tried PMDG Aircraft with this and it doesn't happen!!) also tried using default shaders, same problem.So, I simply made the comment to the OP to clarify that, he can solve the shimmering problem with transparency AA but it *might* cause what you saw in the video. (at least, it happens to me)

So, I simply made the comment to the OP to clarify that, he can solve the shimmering problem with transparency AA but it *might* cause what you saw in the video. (at least, it happens to me)

I actually didn't notice a difference... what did I miss?

Hey-SusAs I understand it nVidia did something to the 259/260.xxx drivers to increase IQ and the result maybe this shimmer. This only applies to nVidia cards.The other artefact is the case of the "swimming" instruments where in certain VCs you get a shimmer or swimming on some or all of the gauges.For example: The A2A Cub there is a small "list" "table" on the VC, which if you just choose an AA of 8xS and AA Transparency SS to off you get this shimmer or swimming effect. You get similar effects in the glass instruments in the Quest Kodiak and the Flight 1 Mustang.So far I have found 2 "cures" using nVidia Inspector :( 1. AA set at 8xS and AA transparency SS at least 4 x Sparse Grid SS - affects frame rates in ome dense areas.2. AA set at 8xSQ and AA transparency SS Off/Multisampling and AA Transparency Multisampling ENABLED - very little effect on FPS and the shimmer is gone.I have also found that AA Mode if it is set to "Override any application setting" then AA should be ticked in FSX - otherwise the override setting in nVidia inspector can't override anything! But then I have a weird sense of logic! :( This could be different to what you are seeing! :( It may well vary PC to PC.Just some thoughts!PeterH

AA settings should have nothing to do with shimmering trees. The trees are depicted within the boundarys of a polygon, and AA only affects the boundarys of polygons. If AA settings are having some effect on them it would just be a side-effect of the edge processing. removing any mipbias settings and increasing Aniso filtering will stop tree shimmer. Mipbias tweaks are really useless because they dont actually sharpen terrain textures, they only sharpen the detail1.bmp which lay underneath them, giving the illusion that the terrain is sharper but if you really look the details are still blurry. The trees and the detail1.bmp appear sharper when using the mipbias tweak because only the first mip is used, and its used all the way off into the distance, this is what causes the shimmer: in the distance these details are being depicted with a relatively high resolution texture which has to be squashed down to the size of the distant object.Theoretically AA shouldnt affect trees. look at removing mipbias tweaks.

AA settings should have nothing to do with shimmering trees. The trees are depicted within the boundarys of a polygon, and AA only affects the boundarys of polygons. If AA settings are having some effect on them it would just be a side-effect of the edge processing. removing any mipbias settings and increasing Aniso filtering will stop tree shimmer. Mipbias tweaks are really useless because they dont actually sharpen terrain textures, they only sharpen the detail1.bmp which lay underneath them, giving the illusion that the terrain is sharper but if you really look the details are still blurry. The trees and the detail1.bmp appear sharper when using the mipbias tweak because only the first mip is used, and its used all the way off into the distance, this is what causes the shimmer: in the distance these details are being depicted with a relatively high resolution texture which has to be squashed down to the size of the distant object.Theoretically AA shouldnt affect trees. look at removing mipbias tweaks.

Some correct info there, however AA of alphatextured fragments works just fine with the correct settings (the correct GPU helps as well).Maybe as a start this will help you -->NVidiaDevSDKAs a side note, I do use negative mipbias of -0.125 at driver level, if you want to see the effects in the terrain you need to set LOD at 6.5 or higher, run at a high res and only use high quality texture filtering (driver).As per the other post re: override - Something broke there, if it is not hooking, suggest try to delete and then rebuild your FSX profile from inspector.

1) It happens ONLY with 'certain' add-on aircraft and some default (not all) and it happens precisely, just before or after takeoff (10 feet up/down)

It also happens with FSDT's KDFW, where they mention in the users manual to turn off transparency AA for that scenery. Prior to reading it in their manual I was getting some really jerky taxing motion when at that airport. However, once I turned transparency AA off KDFW was smooth as silk. Like the OP mentioned, I also get a little tree shimmer that I never noticed prior to turning it off. I can live with it but the trees looked a lot better with it on.

Freebird, your completely correct, id always known what transparency AA did, but associated the principle to every game except FSX, hate it when that happens :( If you uncheck the 'detail terrain' checkbox in the fsx display menus, do you still notice any mipbias effect?

1) It happens ONLY with 'certain' add-on aircraft and some default (not all) and it happens precisely, just before or after takeoff (10 feet up/down)Would be nice to have other users confirm it.

Confirmed, ******* and I always asked myself where this thing comes from as it happens at a very important point of a flight. Landing Concorde X with this short stutter is :(.If transparency AA would generally kill your frames and smooth impression, I wouldn't care at all. But as it only affects you on that on spot at some places and others not, I must admit that I don't get it. What could be the cause there? What is FSX doing at this moment which gives us such a high workload on the card or the system itself? Some strange touchdown effect? But why does this happen at some locations and others not?

So I'd basically be screwed with my "ancient" 8800GT?

I wouldn't say so, Ryan. I think this isn't the card for any transparency AA in FSX but surely one for good non-transparency modes. Same suggestion: Take a tool which reads out the GPU load (like GPU-Z) and load a scene where you have some autogen, some clouds and some more or less shimmiring gauges on the plane. Then go through some AA modes and see what gives you best IQ (which most likely will happen on the combined modes using some supersampling) with always taking a look at the loads on your card.AA should harm your CPU powers so the limits arise from the cards limits there. I'm sure there will be some modes with less shimmering and not too heavy impact for you. If you ever think of upgrading, you can choose e. g. a 1GB GTX460 and feel free to use all high filtering modes mentioned.I found the new driver generation (2xx) from Nvidia being a source of shimmering in almost any mode, like some other guys mentioned before. You raise the one mode here and get shimmering runway markings (at some angles), use another one and see good runways while your instruments look bad. So you most likely come to a trade-off solution with e. g. an instrument bias.But we still have to admit that we are complaining at a high level here. If you look at all high performance consoles of these days, they are rarely using AA (normal modes, no transparency) at all. Some 2x or so seems to be the maximum while even an older PC runs 8x on some titles.

Freebird, your completely correct, id always known what transparency AA did, but associated the principle to every game except FSX, hate it when that happens :( If you uncheck the 'detail terrain' checkbox in the fsx display menus, do you still notice any mipbias effect?

Besides OrbX and flying into busy Dteam JFK/ORG I also fly a lot of 7cm/pix photoreal scenery and prefer the detail texture=off, probably been years since I last used it.When you use Mipbias at the driver level (vs the fsx.cfg) in a working profile that is set to override it works just fine.The added FSX.cfg lines of vsynce, mipbias just dont work as well compared to the driver, ATI cards asside of course.