Airport PAPI lights dont show until the last second?

[RCITGuy 35]

Hiya folks...

 

Have found a bit of a problem, hopefully somebody here knows what's causing this...

On approach to Heathrow, from the virtual cockpit view, the PAPI lights at the start of the runway, and all runway lights don't show until I'm pretty much about to touchdown (Too late by then)..

 

I have tried this several times now by doing a take-off, fly-round and land back at the same runway, and am finding that if I use the external view, all the runway lights show just fine, but only in the 3D cockpit view, there is nothing at all.

 

I have the graphics settings all on max, am getting about 50fps+ on approach all the way, nothing stuttering, just this odd problem with the airport lighting..

 

I have installed Aerosoft Mega Airports Heathrow..... I sat and read over the lengthy manual too, couldn't find any reference to it or and tweaks needed..

Am at a bit of a loss as to what's causing this. Same thing happened when I was on approach to Schipol, no lights, nothing, and I also have the Aerosoft Mega Airports Amsterdam Schipol installed too..

 

Any help you guys could provide would be Mega Airpreciated :-)

 

Thanks, Rich..

[Aamir 2,907]

Hmmm, try increasing your LOD? Read Word Not Allowed's tweaking guide in the hardware forums, the MOBO section. Read the post and follow the LOD tweak.

 

 

50fps on approach to Aerosoft's Heathrow, with everything MAXED!? HOLY BANANAS, my OC'd 3770K can't do more than 18fps!

[RCITGuy 35]

Do you have a link to it? (Lazy I know, just still new to these forums and finding my feet here at AVSIM :-)

Not sure what my Motherboard has to do with Runway approach lighting though, all my graphics are handled by my ATI-6990

(I am an I.T Guru for 20yrs now by the way, so know a thing or 3 about computers ;-) )

[Aamir 2,907]

No, it's just in the Mobo section

 

Here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/370594-read-before-posting-software-hardware-guide-for-fsx/

 

Check the LOD bit, it should help me thinks.

[ryanbatc 12,839]

I bet it's something to do with the video card settings... with my nvidia card turning on SGSS makes lights vanish until I'm right near them... especially taxiway lighting... What anti aliasing settings are you running?

[RCITGuy 35]

Thanks Ryan, I'm using an ATI 6990, and it seems it has only 3 settings for anti-aliasing going from "Performance > Quality"

It was set on "Multi-Sample-AA" (Lowest) so I've bumped it right up to "Super-Sample-AA" and will test over the weekend to see if that sorts it out :-)

 

Is Mobo some sort of acronym for something in FSX? In my world it means "Motherboard"...

[RCITGuy 35]

Hi Guys

 

Been doing a few more experimental trips to see what's setting this off, using a slow Grob Tutor, and wanted to show you what Heathrow looks like on my screen, from the 3D cockpit view, howevr I dont have access to create a gallery, so can only describe what's happening...

 

Heathrow, runway lighting is off/not-visible until right on top of it, so I take off, fly a tight circuit of the runway, all the time the runway lights are not visible, but if I switch to an external camera view, they are visible just fine, it only seems to be the 3D cockpit view.

 

Now, if I then zoom in a bit from 0.30 to 0.45, the light seem to magically light up, and also the quality of the scenery and airport also seem to improve.

 

Tried a few airports like biggin hill and Birmingham, and this doesn't happen, it seems to happen at airports where I have the Aerosoft Mega Airport installed...

If I get approved for a gallery, I'll upload the few screen-shots I took to show you the difference in visible/invisible internal/external views...

 

When on the runway, I can see the lights, but its as if they are all switched off, on their poles at the end of the runway, then by getting closer, its like a light-switch is tripped and they all come on.

 

Also, when close to landing, and the lights are on, they are very blurry, not a good look at all, hence I grabbed a screen-shot of it, awaiting upload here.

 

I have tried as suggested to crank up the anti-aliasing on my ATI 6990 but sadly that didn't do anything. Have tried other settings in the graphics, but nothing seems to improve it.

 

What other airports have the same lighting as Heathrow that I could fly around to compare the differences?

 

Thanks

Rich

[Jim Young 2,356]

from the virtual cockpit view, the PAPI lights at the start of the runway, and all runway lights don't show until I'm pretty much about to touchdown

 

I personally have not seen this. I'm wondering if you're too high. You should see two red lights if you're on the glideslope. You might need to raise your Captain's seat too by hitting shift/enter a couple of times so you can 'look over the dashboard'. I haven't heard of anyone else seeing this problem so it must be your computer-related. Welcome to the AVSIM forums!

 

Best regards,

Jim

[RCITGuy 35]

Hi Jim

 

Its not a case of "Cant physically see them", I can see the physical lights, on their poles, but its as if they are switched off, then literally seconds before touchdown, they all come on.

Same goes for the PAPI lights too, but I have noticed that the graphics quality is also really really poor, until seconds before touchdown, when the lights come on, the airport graphics also seem to refresh and vastly improve.

 

FPS is around 40+ with the scenery cracked up, special effects all ramped up, anything graphics and scenery all cranked to the max... Anything traffic and fluff pretty much off or minimum..

Just wondering if anybody else is using Aerosoft Mega Airports Heathrow and possibly has had this happen to them?

 

I've just done a few test flights out of Gibraltar and Budapest, getting 70FPS+ each, so am now going to installed the Aerosoft Gibraltar and Budapest to see what happens..

I didn't do this with Heathrow unfortunately...

[spilok 1,133]

What's the best LOD setting?

 

Stan

[Jim Young 2,356]

4.5 is the max setting within the FSX settings under the Scenery Tab but you can modify your FSX.cfg to 6.5, maybe higher if you want to suffer an occasional CTD or BSOD. I would think everyone should be able to see papi lights at the max LOD.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[Jim Young 2,356]

Its not a case of "Cant physically see them", I can see the physical lights, on their poles, but its as if they are switched off, then literally seconds before touchdown, they all come on.

 

Then, in that case you might look for a modified AFCAD for that particular airport. Perhaps the elevation in the AFCAD is incorrect or you have your FSX texture resolution set too high. As I recall the default setting set by Microsoft was 152M which is very low on the slider. For some sceneries, if you move this slider to the max, the ground will literally rise. That's why many people see airports sitting on plateaus especially with FS Genesis stuff installed (it was later fixed by FS Genesis or most of it was fixed). I know this was a major problem around MegaScenery Las Vegas several years ago. So what I'm thinking is that the AFCAD or the high texture resolution is actually covering up the lights until you get near them. I believe FSX is coded so that all Papi lights operate the same. However, a payware developer may have built their own lights for the airport they developed. FSX is not a perfect product and there are bugs. Hopefully your problem can be fixed. Just wondering why this has not been seen before.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[RCITGuy 35]

Hi Jim

 

I think I found the problem... After reading your post last night, and spending an entire evening messing about with it, I disabled the Mega Airports Heathrow scenery, then went for another test flight and everything is fine, all PAPI lights visible for miles out, but when the Mega AIrports Heathrow is re-enabled, the problem goes right back to Sq1 again... Nothing visible until I'm about to touch-down, and the runway is barely visible with it enabled, its borderline a black smudge until your right on top of it.

 

If I use the external views, its fine, looks crisp and sharp from miles out, lights showing, everything looks great, but as soon as I go back to VC view, its just a jelly smudge of a mess and no lights..

 

I could understand if it was the other way round, external view being naff and VC view being the best, but sadly, its the wrong way round.

 

I also tested the same things with Mega Airports Stockholm and Gibraltar and found that those airports are fine, everything as it should be, all working perfectly.

 

The manual for M.A.Heathrow does state that due to the amount of objects, some things may pop-up at the last minute, but I surely wouldn't expect those things to be the runway and its lighting?

 

Been messing about with the settings so much today that now in my PMDG-NGX737 I'm getting a framerate of 9fps in VC view, although I did just install FS2Crew right before I loaded the NGX800..

 

So it looks like the M.A.Heathrow is a dud... No good flying if you cant see what your aiming at...

[MHyypia 1]

Definitely a scenery issue then. You should try asking on the Aerosoft support forum. They are usually very helpful there although the scenery is now quite old I think. Hopefully they can help you get it sorted.

Personally I would recommend the UK2000 Heathrow which I have been very happy with.

[meshman 109]

What happens if you use a zoom setting of .7 or .8? I seem to recall seeing mention of problems when running a super low zoom level and display issues.