My system struggles a bit with FS9 - it has only a Pentium 4 2 ghz, but I've upgraded to 1gb of DDR RAM and an nVidia FX5900 video card with 128mb as a stop gap until I can afford to go to get back up to a top spec machine.I've followed through a lot of the tips and tweaks in this forum and generally getting acceptable frame rates (under the circumstances) of between, say 18 and 25 - having started with 7 to 12 at times!It appears to me that weather and clouds are a big factor in frame rates and the compromises I have had to make include loading various of the smaller, less demanding cloud sets which are around and moving the weather sliders back to the right, at least to a "medium" position.I have a regisered version of FSUIPC. I like a relatively "hazy look" and have visibility settings set relatively close - 60 to 80 miles, with cloud draw similar and FSUIPC set for graduated visibility and cirrus layers.There isn't a lot of point going through detailed settings as I change them every time I fly!One of the problems I'm left with is that as I fly along, clouds "flick" into view, which I presume occurs as FS9 models clouds appearing at whatever visibility limit has been set. At first a fragment of the cloud maybe visible, followed by the rest of it flicking in as the aircraft moves toward it. It's quite off-putting.I'd be interested in knowing:a) if other people have this problem:( if so, is it only only low end spec machines or is it FS9 generallyc) what should be the relationship between visibility limits and cloud draw limits (the same, one greater, if so which and by how muchd) what should be the relationship between FS9 visibiity/cloud settings and their equivalents in FSUIPCe) does the problem lessen if you are able to extend visibility outwardsf) is it related to "flickering" of scenery items and maybe fixable by some graphic setting somewhereg) anything else you care to add!

I have noticed the effect you describe, but I'm not so off-put by it. I see it mostly when in external view or virtual cockpit, and it seems to occur at the edges of the screen more commonly. My machine is minimally better than yours, but I don't think its a performance issue. It could be a video driver issue, but its never changed for me in the various detonators I've had installed up to the 53.03s I'm running now.There is no correct relationship between the various settings, just what works for you, although clouds view distance should be equal or less than maximum visibilty. I have both set at 80 miles. Since you have registered FSUIPC, you could try this - use FSUIPC to restrict the maximum weather visibilty to 5 or 10 miles less than your max draw distance. In theory, this should make the distant clouds a bit harder to see, but they should still be drawn. Should minimize the flickers at the expense of only being able to see 70 miles ahead.Just some thoughts - love to hear what some others (like Radeon owners) have to say.Best,sg

I see something similar, but the clouds are gradually drawn and "fade" into the scene. During the drawing process, I will see performance drop for a second or two--usually from 20-25 down to 15-20. But I don't find it an issue under the two most common scenarios I fly under--either high altitude commercial flight, or low altitude light GA flight. One thing to note is this process also seems to relate to the position of the aircraft relative to the reporting weather station. I can fly in circles all day and never see it. But it happens in set locations. Fly out of Medford, headed south, and you will see it happen almost as soon as you cross the southern threshold of the runway. Visibility has no impact. I generally like to fly with approx. 50 miles vis, as it seems most faithful to the regions I tend to enjoy flying over. Like you, my settings change often per my flight, whims, etc.... So in the desert SW, I fly with unlimited vis. The clouds still appear in the same way. The greater your cloud draw distance, the more impact the process will have on your system. Dynamic weather seems to make it much worse--I seldom fly with dynamic weather on.... If your clouds aren't gradually coming into view, but seem to just pop in, then perhaps the process isn't working quite right. I have a very low end system...I'll include my specs for comparison...

On an only slightly related topic - there was a reply from the guy who did the FSW cloud sets I think.That advocated turning the cloud sliders right up - density to maximum or medium and 3d percentage to maximum - but visibiity to 60 miles and cloud draw to 30 miles only.I have left FSUIPC graduating to 60 miles from 6000 feet to 25000 feet.I must say that works pretty well, frame rates are OK even with quite a bit of cloud, and the clouds are so thick I dont see any "stuttering" into vision.In fact, with the clock set to evening and the sun setting, which was coincidental, the clouds looked stunning.It's a bit of a pea soup effect - but OK, especially for polluted European skies! I haven't had the time to get up to altitude and see what it looks like then, but you might like to try turning the cloud quality right up and the visibility and cloud draw right down.

As I feared that works well at low level, but once you get high up, you just have a little ring of clouds around you at 30 miles distance.As you say, visibility and clouds set to the maximum your frame rates will stand with the clouds percentage at 100% but density at medium, with FSUIPC set to a slightly shorter range looks much better.The clouds are still arriving in the unsatisfactory manner as they come within range, but they are much harder to see behind the denser, closer clouds and the misty horizon effect you get from FSUIPC.

The effect you are seeing is what happens when the cloud draw range is close to or equal to the visibility range (for example Draw distance and visibility are both 60.)To combat that, reel in the draw distance.I find 80 mile view distance and 50 mile draw distance to be much more satisfactory. Very rarely do the flickering clouds appear on the horizon, and I don't find that the frame rate for 80/50 is approximately the same as 60/60. Plust a 50 Mile draw distance is more than enough to counter the "ring of clouds" effect you see externally from altitude.Plus, on a clear day. 80 mile Vis is just that much better than 60.

Is your specs really correct? I see you're running a P3 @ 800 mhz and getting 20-25 FPS?That's really good! About the only difference between your system and mine is the video card. I have a TI-200 64mb card. I'm happy with the performance (generally 15 fps), considering the computer (900 mhz).But, if you're really getting 20-25 fps, maybe I should upgrade my video card. I just didn't think it would make that much of a difference...I really thought the CPU upgrade would do the most!What do you say, did your video card upgrade make that much of a difference?Jeff

It's not so much that they pop into view suddenly - although it is quite abrupt - it's more that they appear in parts - you can see the nearest part of the cloud first, followed by the rest - and because of the irregualr shape, this gives an irritating "stuttering" look.To be honest, I have some other "stuttering" issues - I was at an airport the other day where the tower had some sort of aerial array on top.Those were stuttering too, to the extent that they appeared to be spinning around the tower roof as each individual aerial flicked in and out!I think getting a good cloud set up is one issue, but I may have some graphic setting problems too, possibly because I'm pushing an elderly (2 years old in the new year!) system as hard as it will go.I believe I read that the MIP Mapping Quality setting can be associated with "shimmering" if that's the same thing and that it shouldn't be set higher than 4 or 5 at most (out of 7). I have mine set to 5 as to go to 4 seems to affect quality of images generally. Having said that, I have just upgraded my nVidia drivers (to 53.03) and my BIOS and one or the other (presumably the former) seems to have improved the sharpness of the image. So maybe I can try dropping back to 4 on MIP mapping.I'm also going to try the suggestion of having a bigger gap between visibility and cloud draw. If I go for 80 miles visibility and 50 miles cloud draw, anybody got any suggestions how FSUIPC should be set up?