Shimmering (swimming textures)

[Guest Lurk]

Hi Mike.Thanks for keeping up the subject.I own an ATI Radeon9800 Pro. I find it somewhat strange that we both have the same problem on two different cards, and have to assume it's a hardware fault. I'm afraid it's rather a combination of how fs9 renders graphics, probably coupled with a driver problem. For example, I still can't move the aircraft around in the preview window using the mouse, just because my cursor disappears. On the other hand, this problem doesn't occur if I play in windowed mode; this is definitely a driver issue. Maybe I should write ATI about it, but I'm extremely skeptical on single-customer feedback from major hardware companies. It's worth to try any possible solution anyway.Good luck, and let us know.luca

[Guest Mike_MAC]

I know it's pretty strange that both ATI and Nvidia cards seem to have the same problem. But since we are the only ones having this kind of problem chances are it's not a driver problem. I simply don't have any options left, faulty hardware is the only thing I can think of now, I'll keep you informed,Mike

[Guest Lurk]

You know what? In the end you may be right!But damn, are we the only two people who are experiencing this?At this point I think I'm next to having tried every possible solution, software-wise.People who have posted so far in this topic don't seem to have grasped the difference between shimmering and trembling as we experience it. I feel somehow privileged it's happening only to us two!I'm obviously just kidding; I'm next to going crazy for this crappy thing. It's just NOT possible to fly with everything in front of your cockpit shaking like a rattle snake.And no, I'm not going to resolve this by going flying where there are no mountains!The thing is, when you fly with clear weather and you have mountains in the distant horizon, trembling is just absolutely unbearable. Then you load real weather, find out that clouds covering the trembling mountains somehow make things a little better only to discover, after taking off, that EVERY SINGLE DAMN CLOUD intersecting mountains and hills shakes just as bad!Sorry Mike, I'm so frustrated about this. I've spent just about two months tweaking the sim right, and then this crap comes out, after I've spent my monthly income to buy a video-card.Unfortunally the problem is evident on a fresh installation of the sim, too.Let me know about your findings. I'll keep this up as long as I have the energy.luca

[Guest ej74]

I too have had this problam. Even though i havent solved it completely im happy with the results for now. I have a fx5200 on a AMD 1.3MHZ system. Here are a few tips.Use a program to override the default refresh rate of FS. It will run at 60 Hz no matter what refresh rate you have your monitor set at. I used RefreshForce and it did help a lot. There is a another utility called Rivatuner though i havent figured out how to use it. Use high resolutions such as 1600*1200 combined with AA/AF controlled by card. AA will cure much of the shimmering but will hit performance especially with clouds and Nvidia cards. I have AA disabled because my system can not handle it. If you have a fast system use AA.When i run FS04 in 1920*1440 and AA/AF 4x/8x my shimmering is almost completely gone, but so are also FPS. By turning AA off i get very little shimmering and the hit on my computer is much less. I hope MS addresses this problem soon and come up with a solution, doesnt seem like the card manufacturers do.

[Guest Lurk]

ej74, thanks for your post.I must reply by saying:1) I'm already overriding the 60Hz base frequency. I'm running at 1024x768@85Hz2) My monitor doesn't handle 1600x1200, and running at my highest resolution possible leaves the problem unsolved3) AA and AF don't have any effect whatsoever on the SHAKING. Yes, the SHAKING, NOT the SHIMMERING. I'm afraid we are getting things confused, here. I'm experiencing SHAKING OF DISTANT MOUNTAIN HORIZON WHENEVER I TURN MY VIEWPOINT AROUND (in ALL available simulator views) AND SEVERE FLICKERING OF CLOUDS IN THE POINT WHERE THEY INTERSECT MOUNTAINS. Bare with me, please!Thanks for your attention!luca

[Guest Bigshot]

Hit the start menu/programs/microsoft games/fs2004/troubleshooting/reset defaults. See if that solves your problems. I remember some of the beta testers mention that things went all to heck and that did the trick. Like the game gets out of sync every now and then and that corrects it.

[Guest yarvelling]

Lurk...you are indeed priviliged to have this problem! I can guess at what you mean, but I don't get that trembling effect when flying over cloud covered mountains. I enjoy flying from Heathrow to Rome (Fumi) IFR across the Alps, and use real weather, but where the clouds and mountains meet, there is just a line...slightly unreal, but no trembling. You are using a Radeon 9800, if I remember correctly? Which Cats are you using? I stayed with the 3.4's because after those, other problems showed up in other games.....the settings I described earlier give me a good stable image with little of that shimmering, and certainly no trembling!Oh!! As an after-thought...try setting Vsynch to 'On'....that stops tearing, and could possibly be causing your problem (texture tearing)?

[Guest Lurk]

Ok. The problem is that I would have to post a video showing the unstable mountain horizon effect, as well as clouds vibrating in the point where they meet mountains. But I really don't have the time to get so involved. I just wish I could fly without having major annoyances, such as this damn shaking effect is!I thank you for your understanding anyway, and maybe I'll try out an older version of the Cats and see what happens.And yes, I do own a 9800Pro, and believe me, it hasn't yet given me a reason to think it was money well spent. But this is a totally different discussion to get involved in...luca

[Guest Lurk]

Sorry if I insist. I've attached two images. The red rectangles show where the shaking is taking place in this particular case. Shaking of clouds gets worse as you fly above any area with mountains. Mountain horizon shakes just the same regardless of flight level and arcraft position, and is evident as soon as your aricraft moves or view point changes.I'm obviously desperate, as you can probably tell by the frequency of my postings.P.S. Older driver versions are not making any difference.Damn. I'm quite ###### at this point.luca

[Guest mej023]

Have you even considered that your joystick may be causing the problem?

[Guest Lurk]

Actually no!At this point I take every suggestion as pure gold!I'll definitely check it out this evening at home.I'm kind of upset, 'cause they removed a topic I posted last night, calling for desperate help on the trembling issue and posting the two pictures as above. I don't know why. Is this subject somehow taboo?Thanks a lot for your suggestion.I'll let you know later on.luca

[Guest Lurk]

Ok. No.It wasn't my joystick.Goodbye.That's it for me. I give up.Thanks to all.luca:-hang

[Guest Mike_MAC]

Hi there,I've got a reply from creative labs saying I should test with a opengl game like quake to see if the problem is with direct x,I have direct x 9b installed, is there a opengl test in 3dmark?? I don't have any opengl games so that would be a easy way to check.thanks,Mike

[Guest allcott]

I think you need to look closer to home. Try altering the difference between cloud visibility range and absolute visibility range in the sim menu. If the visibility is set to the same or a higher number than the clouds, the shimmering can be caused by the distant clouds rendering and de-rendering, blocking and unblocking the ground texture view. If the ground is flat the clouds are rendered against the sky background so the effect isn't really noticeable, but mountainous regions highlight it.Downloading real weather also causes this as it simply takes the reported visibility and ignores the cloud visibility so if you have a clear view you can see clouds `popping` into and out of view. You may need to limit visibility to ten miles less than cloud vis.Allcott

[Guest Lurk]

Hi Mike.Personally I'm next to giving up, but I'll keep posting as long as I see you are posting too. Since I own a Radeon9800Pro I've been running Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which is an Opengl game based on the Quake3 engine. I had no such problems, although I was experiencing a graphic anomaly of a completely different nature. But NOT the trembling. That was not happening at all.The idea that it might be something related to DirectX is quite interesting though. What should one do at this point? Uninstall DirectX 9.b and go back to what? 9.0 or even 8.1? Does fs9 take advantage of DirectX 9 features? I can't remember.We might as well find a good DirectX uninstaller and give it a try, for what we have to loose.Let's keep in touch.luca