Hi All,

 

This problem has finally annoyed me enough that I'd like to find more info on it. See the attached image - within the black box I have drawn are three cumulus clouds that shouldn't be visible. Why?? Because they are several miles behind the big cumulus cloud that should be obscuring it. This problem is rampant enough on my machine that certain weather themes look so bad as to be unusable (for example Grey and Rainy where the lower stratus layer sometimes completely covers a large cumulus cloud above it). I have had a very hard time finding any info about this problem - what few threads I have found on the net don't seem to offer any suggestions and I don't hear many people complaining about it. Is this an engine bug that affects everyone or just certain hardware setups? My specs:

 

Intel I7 3930K @ 4.6 GHz

Corsair H100 CPU Cooling

EVGA GTX 580 1024MB with Forceware 285.62

16GB Corsair DDR3 Quad Channel RAM

Windows 7 Professional 64bit

Onboard Sound

OCZ Vertex 3 MaxIOPS 120GB SSD

 

Major addons are REX and VLC (a New Zealand landclass addon).

 

A perfectly good PC that should run FSX very nicely. If anyone could offer any advice that would be very much appreciated. At the moment I am relegated to single cloud layers less than a few thousand ft thick before the problem becomes too noticeable. Perhaps this is an nVidia card problem?? Any ATI users seeing this?? I have played around with antialiasing and anistropy in my nVidia profile using Nvidia Inspector, have tried different effects settings, DX10 mode, non-DXT5 textures in REX, anything that looks like it could have an effect on this issue. Also, FSX settings are full throttle except cloud draw distance and change time (set to none).

Not sure about the clouds...cant say I have ever really noticed this effect. I will have a look!

 

I would actually be more concerned about your case of the 'blurries' in the ground textures.............

As far as I know, I am pretty sure that this is a bug with the FSX DX9 rendering engine. I remember one of the Lockheed Martin Devs discussing this.- Essentially, they said that they plan to have this fixed by version 2.

As far as I know, I am pretty sure that this is a bug with the FSX DX9 rendering engine. I remember one of the Lockheed Martin Devs discussing this.- Essentially, they said that they plan to have this fixed by version 2.

 

Bingo.

 

Certain themes and textures seem to be worse than others. I've come to terms with that.

Thanks for the replies - does anyone get any better results with DX10 mode? I tried it and it doesn't make any difference. I wonder if there are any AMD/ATI users here with one of the newer cards that could report whether they see this problem?

 

@GHarrall - My textures are usually much crisper. I had been playing with settings when I took this pic so the LOD RADIUS tweak went back to 4.5. I normally run it at 7.5 with max anistropy and textures look great. Except for this problem of course.

 

I'm just surprised more people aren't complaining about it? I read somewhere also that AS2012 helps somewhat due to the way it can lay out the cloud sprites - can anyone confirm this? Apart from that, it look like it is possible to limit to 1 cloud layer which seems to be the only way to mitigate the effect at the moment.

I wonder if there are any AMD/ATI users here with one of the newer cards that could report whether they see this problem?

 

 

Like I said 2 posts above, it is a fault in the FSX rendering system.

I guess everyone has it then. Can't seem to find any vids on Youtube to prove otherwise.

This guy doesn't seem to have a hint of this problem in this entire vid:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVH5ahTR5fQ

 

Not sure what his specs are. Is it possible this could be driver/gpu related?

I have the very same. I've accepted that it is an FSX bug or some issue specific to Nvidia GPUs. I won't lose any sleep over it though.

This guy doesn't seem to have a hint of this problem in this entire vid:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVH5ahTR5fQ

 

Not sure what his specs are. Is it possible this could be driver/gpu related?

 

 

Maybe you're missing the replies... It has nothing to do with hardware or drivers - it's fsx related and specifically with certain combinations of clouds (themes) that the sim is trying to draw. Just because someone's video doesn't replicate your problem just means that their particular 'enviroment' isn't creating this anomoly. Probably if you were to setup a flight with the exact same settings as that recorded flight, then you'd have the clouds in the correct place...

 

Also, maybe nobody is complaining about 'this', but generally speaking, weather in FSX is a massive area of complaint. Hell.... Wind, something that you can't even see - is a complete disaster.

Maybe you're missing the replies... It has nothing to do with hardware or drivers - it's fsx related and specifically with certain combinations of clouds (themes) that the sim is trying to draw. Just because someone's video doesn't replicate your problem just means that their particular 'enviroment' isn't creating this anomoly. Probably if you were to setup a flight with the exact same settings as that recorded flight, then you'd have the clouds in the correct place...

 

Also, maybe nobody is complaining about 'this', but generally speaking, weather in FSX is a massive area of complaint. Hell.... Wind, something that you can't even see - is a complete disaster.

 

Nope didn't miss them, just making sure I've explored as many possibilities as possible. Thank you all for your replies, it looks like something I'll just have to live with at this point. I might get Activesky 2012 since it allows one to limit the number of cloud layers which is so far the only way to really limit the interference.

When I'm flying in and out of clouds in FSX, it is incredibly annoying and highly unrealistic to clearly see clouds in the distance whilst in a cloud. Furthermore, I frequently notice clouds further away in the distance superimposed on clouds closer in...again totally unrealistic. I show an example of what I mean. The image clearly shows the aircraft in a cloud layer yet cumulus clouds are clearly visible in the distance when they should obscured from view.

 

http://www.2shared.com/photo/XOBVolFZ/cloud_issue_3.html

 

Oh btw, AS2012 will not cure the problem. I to have a nvidea graphics card? Will an ATI graphics card solve this annoying issue?