Sight Distance issue

[Dorel Mornea 5]

Hello everyone,

I've had this problem in the past, but at the time, I didn't know too much about this issue. Somehow, I managed back then, to get it resolved without reinstalling FS. Now troubles back, and I noticed that apparently, it only pops up while messing around with REX (I just wanted to change my clouds and sky textures). What I did in the past to get rid of this prob was to uninstall, and then reinstall FS9.1 update, that appeared to fix it. But now it doesn't fix it anymore which makes me think if that thing with FS9.1 was just a coincidence..maybe it was something else that actually fixed it..or not. And this is my nightmare I'm talking about:

 

Apparently the "sight distance"'s min and max values are swapped. Even so, when setting min, the visibility I get it's not like it should be when setting max, under normal circumstances.

Tried restoring FS' defaults, tried updating the scenery library (that fixed some other issues I had), tried messing around in REX's menus to see if I can find what caused this, uninstalled REX and started FS (thinking that perhaps REX's weather engine is the culprit)...nothing fixes it. Restored the default textures (the ones replaced by REX), doesn't work. I even replaced the folder "Weather" from FS root folder with the original one..nothing (therefore, the culprit isn't to be found in this folder). I know there WAS something that managed to fix it before...and that something may have been FS9.1's uninstallation and subsequent reinstallation..Any ideas guys? Is there something else than REX that may cause this? I'm also using GEPro, but I don't use its WX engine and still..this appears to happen only when messing around in REX. I'm tired of reinstalling FS every time this satan pos up...Looking forward to some opinions..Thank you so much!

[Dave Morgan 68]

Hi MiB.

 

I think the sight draw distance looks about right. FS9 seems to make it a clearly defined horizon like yours. Notice in your pics that when set to 150 it's a little further up the screen so showing rather more (hazy) ground. As near as I can tell, you have two different visibility settings applied. That's the one in FS' weather menu. That's what affects the haze.

 

I'd love to see a solution to the sharp horizon thing as I suffer from it too. The best I've found so far is to set TableFog=0 in the fs9.cfg and reduce visibility to about 30 nm.

 

I understand that SoftHorizons helps with the sharp line but I don't use it as I also read that it isn't compatible with High Def Environment clouds...

 

Ah well.

D

 

edit: that's a long way up for a little Cessna- did you just pop out of the top of a big thundercloud?

[neumanix 113]

I would recommend the sky textures from HDE v1.0 and clouds from HDE v2.0. (both found here in the file library).
Then in the weather menu, set your visibility to 30nm or if you use ActiveSky, set maximum visibility to 30nm there.
A sight distance of 60nm and cloud draw distance of 30nm is all you need with these settings and you should have a nice smooth horizon.
With 30nm visibility it gets hazy pretty quicky at high altitudes, but for lower flying it's perfect.

EDIT:
With the added TableFog=0 in the [DISPLAY.Device.xxx] section of your fs9.cfg the haze is removed and everything looks sweet even at high altitude.

[neumanix 113]

Tested without the TableFog=0 again and I acually like it better with the haze. I think the visibility limit is too noticable and the horizon looks strange at high altitude with the tablefog=0 entry.

This is easy enough to switch on and off so set it to your liking.

 

Jon_aus, I guess you mean you set your visibility limit to 50-60nm, becuase sight distance can't go lower than 60nm.

This can be a bit confusing, "sight distance" should really be called "draw distance" because it sets how far into the distance the world is rendered.

The visibility limit again sets how far into this space you can acually see.

By setting the visibility limit to max 30nm you get rid of the ugly water rectangles far in the distance plus you get a nice soft horizon.

[neumanix 113]

 

 

Active Sky etc overrides the visibility set in fs too doesn't it?

 

Yes. If you have ActiveSky running when starting up FS9 you see it says "User-Defined Weather" and thus AS takes contol of all your weather settings.

 

Just don't set you sight distance to more than your max visibility is at. Simple when you think about it. No point in drawing stuff that you can't see.

As the minimum value is 60nm that is what I use although my visibility is set at 30nm.

[Dorel Mornea 5]

Thanks for replies guys, very much appreciated. Honestly I don't know what to think. Are there 2 different visibility settings? I don't know! But this CAN'T be normal. Call it whatever you want..sight distance..draw distance, no mater what, I should be able to see farther when setting it to see farther and vice-versa. I tried adding that line in FS9 cfg, all it does (since my sim is ill) is that it makes the sight distance slider to be useless, now no matter where the slider is, the world will look like it it'd look when set to min (60 nm). I keep trying to find some module, folder or...something that causes this; I'm afraid I'll have to reinstall the darn sim...or pay some experts to find the culprit. I also used Ivap (IVAO' pilot client) and FSInn...both having something to do with weather...I don't know what to think anymore. I hate it when an ordinary user has to be an expert as well, knowing all the guts of a particular product in order to be able to use that product. 

But anyway, thanks alot for replies guys!

[neumanix 113]

M.I.B - I think the slider you're searching for is the visibility slider.

On the startup screen in FS9, click on "change" in the "Selected Weather".

Select "User-defined weather" and click the "Customize weather" button.

Here you set the visibility slider to what you want, try 30nm and enjoy a soft horizon.

You can further customize your weather with the other sliders here.

The "Advanced weather" button gives you even more options.

 

All this is for customizing your own weather if you don't use any weather addons like ActiveSky.

[Dorel Mornea 5]

I know what you're talking about. I'm sure the "sight distance" slider is the one with problems. If I use the slider you mention, and bring the visibility to an even lower level, I almost can't see anything. Even with the visibility slider set to maximum, there's this very thick fog, which has something to do with the "sight distance" slider. This ain't normal, something altered my sim, and I'll be d@mned if I know what. I'll reinstall the sim...that's all I can do. 

[Dave Morgan 68]

Hi MiB.

 

I'll just clarify (repeat) what's written above...

 

There are two sliders in two different menus that control how far you can see stuff.

 

The first is the slider in your screenshots: the Sight Draw Distance slider. This one controls how far from the 'camera' the ground and clouds are actually drawn.

 

The second is in the Weather menu - not the Settings/Weather menu. From within a flight, press Alt+W,W to call this one up. In the Customize Weather page of that menu - button bottom right (not at my FS computer.. can't remember the button's name...) you will find a Visibility slider. This one determines how murky the air is. There's a third page in this menu that has a facility for setting the vertical extent of the haze if you don't like the default.

 

The TableFog switch controls how thick the haze appears directly beneath the user. It's set to 1 by default (i. e. no entry in the config file) which produces a fairly even 'sphere' of murk. Forcing it to equal zero thins the murk beneath so allows you to thicken the haze around the horizon.

 

Set your Sight Draw Distance to about 80 miles. Set your Visibility to about 30 miles. Add the line TableFog=0 to your fs9.cfg...

 

... and report back. That ought to make a difference. If you can still see the sharp line, you could try Soft Horizons. It's freeware and probably available here in the library.

 

Cheers,

D

[Dorel Mornea 5]

This is how it looks like configured exactly like you advised:

 

Like I said, I do know FS9' menus, I'm not new to FS, I tried different configurations myself, but whatever's happening (sight draw distance issue or visibility issue), this thing is broken. I KNOW it never worked like this under normal circumstances. All of a sudden, when I was taking off for an IFR, I noticed as I was climbing that there's something wrong with the visibility (very low) so I went to the visibility slider and set it to max, but the fog was still there, so I went to sight distance slider and it was set to max (150 miles)..that's when I first "shook hands" with this issue..something's obviously messed up..

Thanks again!

[Appliance 51]

As alluded to in an earlier post what's the default Cessna doing at 35,000 feet?

 

Please try a screenie around 8,000 feet in similar settings.

[Dorel Mornea 5]

Appliance, it doesn't matter what plane that is and how it got there (slew) I just wanted to show how the sim looks like at cruising altitude. And it doesn't look good at 8000 either.  

[Dave Morgan 68]

Eeeurrk. Still there I see.

 

Sorry for the delay - no internet at home.

 

Do you have a registered copy of FSUIPC? It can be set to override FS9's internal weather settings & I wonder if that is affecting the visibility distance.

 

You could also try increasing the upper altitude of the visibility layer from within FS9 though it looks as though that's already set pretty high.

 

Regards,

D

[Dorel Mornea 5]

Hi, sorry for the delay as well. Been busy repairin' FS, and I did it. I was on the verge of taking an FS "vacation". My adventure: Reinstalled FS (multiple times), problem still there. Then, after one of these installations I installed FS9.1 update...that fixed it. Certainly one of the weirdest FS issues so far. I'm inclined to think REX caused it, someone told me he had a similar issue some time ago, and he concluded that REX was the culprit. Thanks for help guys and I told u...that wasn't normal. I'm gonna post some pics showing you THE way it's supposed to look like at those 2 different sight distance settings.

PS: Yes, I have a registered ver of FSUIPC.

[Dave Morgan 68]

Hi.

 

I'm glad you managed to solve the problem. I'll have to see about a 9.1 update for myself: I get conflicting reports of my FS9 version from different applications (FS9.exe shows 9.1... FSUIPC install log says it's found 9.0). Maybe that will sort my horizon out as well.

 

The reason I asked about FSUIPC is that (as you'll have seen) the registered version has a 'visibility' tab that will allow you to set fixed visibility distances, so suppressing any setting you make via FS' own weather menu and leading to... no change when you try to make a change.

 

Happy flying mate.

D