Flight Unlimited 3 comes with publisher unsupported config file settings. Adding the line "EnablePlayerShadow" to the file flt3.cfg in the main game folder enables the player's aircraft's shadow in the game, which not only adds realism but also helps with landing as well (you can gauge your aircraft's height above the runway using the shadow).

However, the feature randomly produces an anomaly (see file "Flight Unlimited 3 Player Shadow On" at  https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=b386bbc8a1ade599&id=B386BBC8A1ADE599%21210). The anomaly can randomly appear in any direction (i.e. in the front, right, etc. views).


Could someone kindly advise a solution to this issue?


My current PC configuration is:
PC: HP Compaq dx7500 Microtower
RAM: Corsair 4 GB
Graphics card: Zotac GeForce GTS 250 ZT-20105-10P
OS: Win Vista SP2
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7600
Monitor: HP LE1851w
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Profession1al Series

Hi Omar.

 

Yep, I've seen the spider web myself. I may even have a screenshot of it stashed away somewhere. My (favourite sim...) FU3 was zipped and archived for a couple of years and I've only jrecently unzipped my preferred setup to start playing again.

 

I think the anomaly may also be related to the black panel with flickering gauges but you'll have to give me a couple of days to refamiliarise myself. Also, I have no internet at home so it's either tea-breaks at work or the local library after hours.

 

You're not alone anyway and once my memory is fully engaged I might be able to provide a reason and a workaround if not a solution.

 

Cheers,

D

Look forward to your response Dave.

 

Regards,

Omar

Hi.

 

Well, I remembered what causes the corrupt panel with AA switched on:

 

Back when FU was coded graphics cards were so feeble that they couldn't cope with drawing a complete screen of bitmap overlaid on moving scenery (the panel and quarter-views et c.) fast enough to provide a good framerate. The solution at the time was to specify particular areas of the screen to draw and to leave the other parts blank rather than transparent. With the increase in processing power & memory the solution became redundant and the facility was eventually written out of the GPU firmware. That means modern graphcs cards can't cope with the original solution and make a mess of trying to draw the originals.

 

There is a utility available called Cockpit Designer that allows the user to delete the 'draw-this' rectangles and redefine one big one for the whole screen. I'm pretty sure it's in the library here, but if you can't find it I have a good number of planes already converted. I may upload them sometime soon as we all use AA now and the original files are pretty well redundant.

 

...

 

I still can't remember what caused the spider-web effect. I managed to get it to appear once over the weekend but as soon as I moved my POV it disappeared and I couldn't get it back so couldn't experiment. Maybe my memory will kick in a higher gear sometime...

 

September 2011:

 

 

August 2013:

 

 

...

 

If you use a Nvidia card, I have also a Nvidia profile *.nip I can forward to you, and a re-tweaked version of the tweaked FU3 config file that's in the library.

 

Cheers,

D

Hi Dave,

 

Could you send me a converted file for one of the default planes (preferably the Trainer since that is what I'm using for my troubleshooting)? Do the gauges in these converted planes flicker when you have AA on?

 

Could you also send me the re-tweaked version of the tweaked FU3 config file?

 

Also, what is a *.nip file since I can't find reference to it in my Nvidia Control Panel.

 

I've sent you my email address via private message.

 

Regards,

Omar.

Hi.

 

I've sent a few res files, a Nvidia profile and my config file. Let us know how you get on.

 

Cheers,

D

Dave,

 

Could you confirm what graphics card, OS and graphics card driver you're using?

Hi.

 

Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT on the AGP slot of an Asrock Pi465g mobo

3.4 GHz Pentium 4

2 GB RAM

XP Pro 3

Graphics driver 270.61

 

I have this in my mind as I tried updating last night to the new driver and it just wouldn't work at all: 256 colours at 800×600 was all I could get so I rolled back...

 

If you've got Nvidia Inspector installed, the elevated settings part is available by clicking the button about half way down the right side of Inspector's first, small information window.

 

Cheers,

D

Hi Dave,

The reason I asked for your Config and Trainer.res files was because I've tried the Cockpit Designer solution, which removes the cockpit distortion problem, but introduces a new one by changing the 3D region such that it is looking upwards (i.e. at a higher angle than normal). One online forum suggested using the head_tilt command line in the configuration file to change the view angle. In this way, the distorted cockpit (including the instrument anomaly) no longer exist with AA when 3D Region and Rect 1 are set to cover the entire screen. However, the head_tilt causes a slight vertical tilting of 3D objects with objects towards the left of center leaning slightly left and those towards the right leaning slightly right. Is there a fix for this as well? I've checked with the original .res file and the anomaly is caused only by the head_tilt command.

Hi Omar.

 

When you load a flight, the default zoom is set slightly telephoto, hence the splayed scenery objects. Shift+Z will zoom in and Shift+X will zoom out. The 2d panel is unaffected; only the 3d stuff is zoomed. As I recall, the default (telephoto) is the middle of 3 positions. Zoom in once and things should look better.

 

Use also a moderate change of head-tilt for planes with tall 2d panels: it helps when taxiing and when landing... I don't remember what values are good but experimenting will only take a few flights and a few minutes. As with a lot of old stuff, the head tilt doesn't really do what it says, but shifts all the scenery instead(as you've discovered).

 

Cheers,

D

Thanks Dave,

 

Let me know if you come up with a solution for that random player shadow anomaly.