Blurred ground textures in fs2002

[Guest flightsimmer05]

Does anyone have the same problem of blurred ground textures in fs2002. Got the lastest drivers but still persists.Thanks, Andy

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Andy,"Does anyone have the same problem of blurred ground textures in fs2002"..... yes, we all did at the start and indeed for several weeks after installation of the sim and we have the scars to prove it!In most cases it is fixable and has been well documented in the forum. Try searching the archives using keywords like 'blurry', 'textures', 'FS2k2' or 'FS2002' and under Author try 'PaulL01', the acknowledged guru on the subject and you'll soon find out what I mean.It is a complex issue which took some time to sort out. What degree of success you can expect will depend on your CPU and GPU. In the case of the former, the faster the better as FS2002 is so CPU intensive. As far as the GPU is concerned it will depend on whether you can adjust features such as mip-mapping level of detail (LOD) and level of anisotropic filtering in your graphic card's drivers.You can start by trying these entries under the 'Terrain' section of FS2002.cfg:(TERRAIN) <------N.B. Square bracketsTERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=3.470000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=2TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=7.500000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=3Maybe you could help us by providing more details about your current system?Mike

[Cruachan 705]

Sorry, I guess I should have checked first before recommending an archive search :( I may be wrong, but it looks like you can't search beyond a month, in which case you won't have much success. Perhaps someone else could correct me on this one if I am in error.Mike

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Only thing I could add to what you mentioned Mike is to question whether the simmer is seeing dynamic blurring (textures blurring over time) or whether the textures simply look muddy all the time. In FS2002, an almost certain cure for dynamic blurring is lowering the fps lock (although an unlimited lock seems to be better in FS2004). Another trick seems to be keeping the screen res. lower on lower end cards.... In the case of the textures looking muddy, if the card supports anisotropic filtering and changing the LOD, I've found those have more significant impact vs. changing the FS2002.cfg...-John

[Guest cwright]

John, lowering the frame rate lock was certainly the best method to reduce the dyna-blurs, at least in my experience. For me, the next best cure was to reduce the terrain complexity. That had a dramatic effect on the dyna-blurs, particularly when flying over mountainous terrain. There is another cure, though it's considerably more expensive than dropping the frame rate limit: buy FS2004! I was *very* pleased to find that dynamic blurred textures are almost non-existent in this sim, both on my old and humble PC as well as the new one. Best regards, Chris

[Guest flightsimmer05]

Cheers Guys for all your help im currently tesing changing the fs2002.cfg file keep you posted on how it goes!!Thanks Again, Andy

[Guest flightsimmer05]

tried it, no luck. Anyway heres the details of my system, INTEL CELERON 1.8GHZ, NVIDIA GEFORCE 4 MX 440 128 ddr ram, 512 MB RAM and all the lastest drivers andyway hope you can help.Andy

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Andy,Ok, I think you now need to concentrate your attention on your graphic card's drivers:There are 2 settings worth changing:--> Degree of Anisotropic Filtering--> MipMapping LODBoth can be adjusted using RivaTuner.http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/N.B.The following info regarding the application of a 'patch script' may no longer apply with the latest drivers as I believe they have been fixed. Also, it's worth remembering that the Omega variants of the Nvidia drivers have these 'tweaks' applied already. http://www.omegacorner.com/Also, the driver Control Panel under Display Properties>Advanced should have a Direct3D tab allowing you to adjust settings like the level of anisotropic filtering and mipmapping LOD.First, in order to get the LOD 'tweak' to work properly you need to apply a so-called 'patch script' to your selected driver. What follows was guidance kindly provided by Paul Leatzaw (PaulL01), the Avsim Guru of all things driver related:Go into your windows/system or windows/system32 folder and find this file "nvdd32.dll" (WIN98se) or "Nv4_disp.dll" (WinXP) now copy it into a temp folder.Now go into RivaTuner and under the power users tab, look at the bottom where you will see an icon that looks like a folder with a gear on it, click it, next choose "patch scripts" then "lodbiasfix" now choose according to your OS and when prompted point the program towards the temp folder where you put the nvdd32.dll (or Nv4_disp.dll), RivaTuner will let you know that it was patched, now simply reboot windows into SAFE mode and replace the orginal nvdd32.dll (or Nv4_disp.dll) that resides in the windows/system folder with the patched version (name the original nvdd32.bak first), now reboot Windows and you can now make adjustments to LOD in negative values (not much is needed)."Paul is absolutely correct when he states that "not much is needed"In fact an LOD setting of -0.1 worked very well in my case (I used to have a GeForce 4 Ti4400). I'm afraid I am unable to comment on the capabilities of the MX 440. All I can suggest is that you try the tweaks and see how you get on.So, fire up RivaTuner and on the main page click on the small arrow just to the right of 'customize' which appears above your driver listing. Select the DirectX icon (2nd one along)and you will see you are in the MipMapping page. Adjust the slider to the left just a tad until you see the value -0.1 appear.Now select the 'Textures' tab at the top of the window and at the bottom of that window you will see 'Texture filtering settings'. The setting you choose here will depend largely on the capabilities of your CPU/GPU as there is a modest but significant performance hit the higher the setting (You will note this especially if you run 3Dmark 2001SE). However, there is no harm experimenting. My card, a GeForce4 Ti4400 128MB, supported up to level 8 and I had 'force level 8' selected here and was quite happy with the results (P4 2.4GHz). Once done, don't forget to click on the 'Apply' button before exiting RivaTuner.It may not be strictly necessary but it's worth rebooting to ensure these 'tweaks' are applied correctly.Hope this is helpful.Mike :-wave

[Guest Stamatis]

Hello Mike,"The following info regarding the application of a 'patch script' may no longer apply with the latest drivers as I believe they have been fixed"How can we find out if the above is indeed so?Starting from which version of the drivers?RegardsStamatis

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Stamatis,"How can we find out if the above is indeed so?Starting from which version of the drivers?"(i.e. whether more recent drivers have been fixed and whether or not the application of the patch script is still necessary)......I must confess I don't know. My statement was based on a memory of having read the fact sometime in the past on this forum. All I can say for sure is that the Omega drivers have been optimized for quality and performance - your choice as to which you install. Even then, the provided Omega/ATI Control Panel allows further driver tuning of features like Anisotropic filtering, Mipmapping LOD (although I think the choices are fairly coarse) and Anti-Aliasing.If you want full control, I suppose the way to go is with 'RivaTuner' (best to d/l the latest version if you are running very recent drivers). Try applying the patch script - again, if I remember correctly ;) the utility will advise you if it is indeed necessary. Also, the blurb on Guru3D concerning RivaTuner, updates, etc. is worth reading. Make your adjustments using RivaTuner and see the results.I'm now a firm ATI Radeon convert and full control of the drivers is available via the Control Panel, so memories of what I used to do with my Nvidia cards is becoming a little hazy..LOLCheers,Mike