FSX-MS Black Squares on Ground textures

[boeing247 0]

Lately, especially while on the ground, or taking off or landing, blocks of ground textures seem to flash black for a split second. Sometimes it's just one little square, other times it's a large are (about half this size of an international airport). This happens with both ground and water textures. Any ideas as to what might be causing this?Thanks,boeing247

[Tom Wright 438]

This is often a symptom of overworked hardware, which isn't able to process the rendering information fast enough. The best solution is to back off the display settings a bit.

[boeing247 0]

Could it be a specific setting that's throwing it off, though? I'm not feeling any effects on any other aspect of FSX (e.g. fps, aircraft textures, etc...)

[Guest firehawk44]

Could it be a specific setting that's throwing it off, though? I'm not feeling any effects on any other aspect of FSX (e.g. fps, aircraft textures, etc...)

Tom is correct. Your settings are taking up too many resources. Unfortunately it is impossible to know which setting. I would start with lowering level of detail and go down the list under the scenery tab until you no longer see the effect. It could be your AI settings are too high too. I think the best way to figure this out is to save or rename your FSX.cfg, delete it, restart FSX and let the config rebuild itself. This will return you to default settings. Tweak the general settings then begin increasing your sliders. You can keep your AI settings at the default, then increase the sliders in Scenery. If you max all your sliders under Scenery and don't see the effect, then you know it's likely too high AI settings OR it's a tweak you put in the FSX.cfg that is not working on your system.You should be able to overclock your CPU through the Dell BIOS too. Look for a Performance setting in the BIOS. You can overclock an i7 2600 CPU to 4.2 IF your BIOS allows it. Best regards,Jim

[boeing247 0]

I'll look at overclocking--that should help if I do it right.I noticed that it happens the most around water, so I'm going to try turning down the water effects.

[Guest firehawk44]

I'll look at overclocking--that should help if I do it right.

I just Googled 'overclocking a Dell 8300 and they say it is impossible. Dell is afraid of overheating and the PSU may not allow it.Best regards,Jim

[boeing247 0]

Okay, good to know. Saves me a lot of time. :(

[bud7h7 1]

I'll bet if you run task manager and watch the performance monitor you might see the cpu usage spike to 100% every time you get those blocky textures. Could be something else hogging resources.Or, your power supply could be inadequate, or dying.

Edited February 12, 2012 by bud7h7

[Ben Cap 89]

I feel like I remember hearing somewhere that not having the "HIGHMEMFIX=1" in your FSX.cfg, you can get the dreaded black scenery squares.

[boeing247 0]

I used to have that in my .cfg file, but it's not there anymore. That could likely be the problem. What category does it go under?

[DickB 6]

This was a problem I had for a while on my old system. Some suggestions (apologies if some of this is in the grandma's eggs category !) :

1. Make sure your system is properly tuned and defragged. Best guide for this IMO is NickN's guide http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.html
2. The HIGHMEMFIX=1 setting didn't fix it for me, but apparently it has worked for others. It goes in the [Graphics] section of FSX/CFG
3. The fix for me was the TextureMaxLoad setting in the [DISPLAY] section (NOT to be confused with the TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD setting in the [Graphics] section). From memory, this needs to be set in mutiples of 3. In my case raising it to 9 almost completely resolved the problem andsetting it at 12 completely eliminated it.

Hope this helps

[boeing247 0]

Thanks for the tip on the TextureMaxLoad variable. That's a variable I used to mess around with a lot to achieve better a better FPS/graphics ratio, but since I got a new video card, I haven't worried about FPS, and the TextureMaxLoad variable got removed at some point.

[CoolP 283]

Didn't you use that payware tweak software before? Just asking because manually tweaking plus fuzzy automatics isn't a good point to start looking for problems. I'd recommend using the manual way only. Should be cheaper too.

[boeing247 0]

Yes, I'm using "that tweak software". I didn't mention it because I take flack for it every time I do, and I had a feeling it wasn't related to this problem, which it wasn't (well, I think it may have been the reason my .cfg file lost those variables, so I guess in a way it was, but it was just an indirect cause).Changing the TextureMaxLoad value seems to have worked, though. So all is good (for now...).

[CoolP 283]

There's nothing wrong with using or naming it, but it influences the fsx.cfg settings silently. So if one is looking for some possible error sources, he may end up in the fuzzy automation logics. :(