So i've managed to get my system pretty frames happy (see hereforsliders). Basically my sliders are mostly maxed out, except autogen is at Normal and water mid2x. I was initially using 4x4x in the ati catalyst panel but found based on the images below that 8x for AF made the runways look clearer.

 

The runway below is from KORS (orcas island). I noticed the lines seemed blurry so I worked to try to tweak things a bit. I run with textures at 4096 for clouds and after a setting change 2048 (aero setting) for surfaces. The biggest factor on clearing up the blurriness seemed to be to use both Mipmap set to Quality (not performance) and the AF at 8x. It seems that the AF levels help with things beyond say 50 feet from your aircraft.

 

Has anyone else had any better success at making the runway surfaces a bit clearer looking (short of maybe doing dx10 which is my next project)?

 

Here are some sample images:

 

This works better in a slide show one after another to really see the differences here, but there are some minor differences. These have been cropped down from 5760x1200 to focus on the parts that matter.

 

#1: Runway on performance mipmap and 4x4x ati settings:

 

#2: Runway on aero 2048 and mipmap quality and 4x4x ati settings

 

#3: Runway on aero 2048 and mipmap quality and 4x8x ati settings

 

#4 aa4x af16 (cost avg 1.3 fps from AF4x)

Anistropic filtering can have a major impact on runway textures, not so much close up but further away. I see you are referring to ATI, for me I use Nvidia and run via Inspector. Unlike many guys, I actually allow FSX to take control of anistropic filtering instead of Inspector, as it helps with blurries and scenery texture loading, but it is at the expense of slightly less sharp runways and at distance scenery sharpness. However, for me the sacrifice is justified. So if you want to help with runway sharpness, try running anistropic filtering through the ATI control panel rather than FSX.

Anistropic filtering can have a major impact on runway textures, not so much close up but further away. I see you are referring to ATI, for me I use Nvidia and run via Inspector. Unlike many guys, I actually allow FSX to take control of anistropic filtering instead of Inspector, as it helps with blurries and scenery texture loading, but it is at the expense of slightly less sharp runways and at distance scenery sharpness. However, for me the sacrifice is justified. So if you want to help with runway sharpness, try running anistropic filtering through the ATI control panel rather than FSX.

 

Yeah the AF really made the biggest change here.. i added #4 photo, you can see going from 4x to 8x to 16x really helped. I have fsx set to anistropic, but yeah in the ATI panel its set to 4, 8 or 16x.. currently at 16x (use application settings is unchecked). I guess one has to decide which they value more, a few extra fps while in the air (with rain/clouds) or clearer runways when on them for a small portion of the time.

Yeah the AF really made the biggest change here.. i added #4 photo, you can see going from 4x to 8x to 16x really helped. I have fsx set to anistropic, but yeah in the ATI panel its set to 4, 8 or 16x.. currently at 16x (use application settings is unchecked). I guess one has to decide which they value more, a few extra fps while in the air (with rain/clouds) or clearer runways when on them for a small portion of the time.

 

That's right... give with one hand and take with the other, that's the core element of FSX!