Issue with draw distance in P3D 2.2

[fiftysix 6]

I have already asked about this problem i have been getting over at the Orbx forum, but thought i would also bring the issue up here as there seems to be a lot of talented and knowledgeable people here.

 

Up until now, P3D has been running really well with no issues.

 

But lately when I fly, I notice that distant scenery is not loading. As if the LOD slider is set at its lowest seeting. Even if I set this slider to max, it makes no difference. Draw distance looks as if its only within a 2 mile perimeter of my aircraft.... anything outside of this 2 mile radius looks blurry.

 

It literally is, all autogen and textures are rendered into the sim, pin sharp and crisp within a 2 mile (approx.) radius of the aircraft. You can see beyond that, the scenery has no autogen and very blurry. Looks like what low res photo scenery would look like.

Looks really horrible like photo terrain does.

 

This happened since on start up with P3D,a message came up if I wanted to download and install the latest object flow. Which I did

 

Any help and advice would be really appreciated

 

here is a picture showing this

 

and a video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Idw5wu9cMJohn

[Chainsawz 0]

If you think you are only seeing TWO MILES in front of you, then you need to go and get your eyes checked!

 

Just how far out onto the horizon do you expect P3D to render buildings and trees? Maybe you can draw a red line to illustrate? Two miles out wouldn't even be in the bottom left corner of the windshield.

 

And you don't list in-sim settings or hardware, so there's no telling what your system is capable of rendering. But it appears a few hundred thousand trees and buildings isn't enough???

[TheHoser11 39]

I have the same problem. It was not as bad with v2.1.

[Zgredd 4]

I have the same problem with FTX Global lighs. When I load the flight all looks very well - distance of lights drawing is quite big. But while flying, lights appear in the same way as on your movie - about 1/3 or 1/4 less comparing to flight load.

[fiftysix 6]

If you think you are only seeing TWO MILES in front of you, then you need to go and get your eyes checked!

 

Just how far out onto the horizon do you expect P3D to render buildings and trees? Maybe you can draw a red line to illustrate? Two miles out wouldn't even be in the bottom left corner of the windshield.

 

And you don't list in-sim settings or hardware, so there's no telling what your system is capable of rendering. But it appears a few hundred thousand trees and buildings isn't enough???

 

Well, if you see the picture, anything past Vancouver city is a horrible blurry mess. 

 

My system has been quite capable of running P3D with sharp visual, autogen as far as the eye can see and stretching to the horizon.

 

You are missing the point of this thread where I stated I have never had any issues up until now and is not hardware related. I been simming long enough to know how to set up, tune and balance my system... however, no ones perfect.

 

In this video, you can see how far the night lights stretch out 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsGzOfHRYp8

 

Where on the other video, you can see where they suddenly stop like no autogen or objects are being drawn beyond a certain point.

 

My system specs are:

Intel i7920@ 3.4ghz, 3 GB EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX680 graphics, 6GB 1600MHz C7 Patriot DDR3, 500GB Serial ATA HD (7200RPM), Windows 7 premium 64bit, Samsung 22" 120 Hz 3D monitor 2233RZ

 

Like I said, it has nothing to do with my settings. Something has changed in my sim internally.

 

I recently installed Caernarfon by SIM720, Orbx ENG and WLS. Though I did try to install an Orbx airfield thats not P3D ready via the estonia migration tool. When I did this, a message came up when I started the sim saying a Object flow was out of date and would I like to install an update to this. 

 

This is when I started seeing this new problem 

[Stratocruiser1 134]

fiftysix,

I also am having the same problem in FTX areas. I do not have any stutters, stops, or real blurries in the FTX areas, just that the scenery pops up with much better detail the front of the plane, during daylight, and at night as far as the lights go. Our systems are similar, except that my drive is a 1TB RAID0 at 7,500 RPM, and my graphics card is a GTX 660. When I fly in areas without FTX scenery, this does not happen.I don't have a comparison with P3D v1, as I never installed that.

[alulekk 3]

 

 

Well, if you see the picture, anything past Vancouver city is a horrible blurry mess. 

 

Well...I do see what is being talked about here.

 

But I would like to comment on the "viewing far in the distance" thing in general.  I'm not sure how much you guys normally fly in smaller planes around low levels, but it's pretty rare to have "100% clarity" beyond about 20-30nm as it is.  

 

Particles in the air (haze), and temperature distortions of the air definitely make things not nearly as clear at distance on all but the absolute clearest of clear days.

 

It shouldn't look like it does in this screenshot, but it also shouldn't be as "perfect" and "clear" as the scenery within about 30nm of the aircraft either.

 

...all assuming you're actually going for realism of course.

[fiftysix 6]

I get your point but I know something aint quite right with my sim.

 

I know my system very well and what kind of visuals I am use to. 

 

Even at low level, say 800 to 1000 ft agl, with all the elements of haze/visibilty. I use Opus weather.. I can see not too far in the distance the scenery looks blurry, no autogen.. like what looking at photo real scenery.. just really flat and washed out.

 

Thing is, when I first downloaded and installed P3D2.2, the draw distance was never an issue... I remember being wowed just how far into the horizon the detail remained. No popping, blurries or anything of the kind.

 

Only recently did I notice this problem as something between last friday has found its way into my sim and altered something thats caused this.

 

Things started to happen since I made these changes:

 

• installed ENG and WLS
• installed SIM720 Caernarfon airport and Libs
• installed latest Orbx libs.
• installed Compton Abbass via the estonia migrator tool.

It was after installing Compton Abbass, I loaded a flight there for the 1st time. All seemed to be ok, airport buildings were there.. but then as I took off I noticed something was not right as the distant scenery looked like that ugly flat photo scenery you get.. never was a fan of photo scenery.. Then I asked myself; when did I install that??.... but realised it was FTX ENG but something was wrong with the sharpness and autogen not being draw a few miles from my view point.

 

I really do think something cocked up after I installed Compton Abbass.. though completely my own fault as I should have followed advice not to install any scenery thats not P3D2 ready.

 

Here is a screen shot of mine before this started happening. This is the sim I know.

 

My sim looks nothing like this now 

[TrafficPilot 121]

Agree with the OP - autogen and focus is restricted and LOD adjustment makes no discernible difference.

 

What Compton Abbas scenery was it? UK2000? I've not installed any UK2000 stuff on my new P3D install but still notice the problem you're highlighting.

 

Have you posted about this over at the Orbx official forum? The only scenery we share is FTX Global.

[Novation 534]

This came up when P3D went from v 2.0 to 2.1 with some (inc. me, but I then changed my mind) saying the agn draw distance had been reduced, though there was no consensus whether it actually had... You are a lot higher in the first shot, compared to the second, and the terrain is flatter, so the radius will be more noticeable. Not sure with the lighting, but again the altitude looks higher... you really need a direct comparison.

 

What does this line in the cfg read, as a value? AUTOGEN_TREE_MAX_DRAW_DISTANCE= You can extend it beyond the default to a max (I think) of 12000.000000... but that is only trees, not lights or buildings.

 

I have just installed FTX England, Scotland and Wales, and the latest library with the new objectflow and have not noticed any changes, and can't imagine this or any scenery add-on affecting the agn draw radius... but anything is possible.

 

Also note there is an issue with anisotropic filtering reverting to 4x each time, regardless of the setting you have set in the GUI... you need to reset it each time, by changing the setting once a flight has loaded, and then reset it back to 16x and return to the flight once again.

[badapple 2]

You know something?  Its amazing how people can say my stuff used to look good but something is wrong. They don't tell you about their system. You have to ask. Then when you get a partial description of their machine they still say they don't understand.  They do this without regard to the program requirements that are established by Lockheed Martin.

 

If you will carefully look at ALL the requirements and recommendations set by Lockheed Martin you will see that YOU should be using a Solid State Drive (SSD). They specifically say this.  And now that you find out you want to say well it used to work before?  Luck was with you my friend.  For years I flew with two to three Western Digital Velociraptor hard drives.  10,000 RPMs a piece. delivered great great graphics for my scenery. But when I started using P3D I had the same problems you are mentioning and came to the conclusion that I must comply with the manufacturers recommendations.  P3D is not FSX. It is similar and for the most part made from the same people that made FSX and FS9 and so on and so on.......   They now work in a place that gives them the green light to make flight simulation all it can be FOR TRAINING purposes.  They know that people aren't doing that but they have to stick to a set of values that makes their product more than Microsoft could ever be.

 

My suggestion is buy yourself a SSD, Install your P3D and if you will check, you will see that Lockheed even gives you changes that can be made to your configuration file to help you get what your supposed too.  Microsoft never did that.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is, before you try and troubleshoot a problem. Make sure you are in compliance with the manufacturers recommendations and requirements.  You then have a starting point. Then you can apply the manufacturers recommendations.  I can fix your problem. But you wouldn't like the method in which I would get you flying with what YOU want to see.

 

Learn, Read, keep notes. Save files and LOOK at the requirements. Then if you have a problem, you can state your problem, state what you are using for a system and get answers that will not just pacify you but give you the Flight Sim that you want.

 

Have a nice day.

[TheHoser11 39]

Well...I do see what is being talked about here.

 

But I would like to comment on the "viewing far in the distance" thing in general.  I'm not sure how much you guys normally fly in smaller planes around low levels, but it's pretty rare to have "100% clarity" beyond about 20-30nm as it is.  

 

Particles in the air (haze), and temperature distortions of the air definitely make things not nearly as clear at distance on all but the absolute clearest of clear days.

 

It shouldn't look like it does in this screenshot, but it also shouldn't be as "perfect" and "clear" as the scenery within about 30nm of the aircraft either.

 

...all assuming you're actually going for realism of course.

 

You are still missing the point. We aren't talking 20-30 nm, we are talking a couple miles. Video and pictures just don't do it justice, but I feel the OP's pain because it's happening to me.

 

I know the difference between terrain loading properly and screwed up square tiles only a short distance in front of me looking blurry when they shouldn't.

My suggestion is buy yourself a SSD, Install your P3D and if you will check, you will see that Lockheed even gives you changes that can be made to your configuration file to help you get what your supposed too.  Microsoft never did that.

 

Did that, made no difference. 7200 RPM spinner to a SSD and the blurry textures that were not there in 2.1 are there regardless of drive.

[badapple 2]

I am assuming you have P3D installed on an SSD. (according to what you said), now go into the folder where your C:\user\appdata\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\pREPAR3dV2\ and delete the file named Prepar3D.CFG. Once you do this. Shut down your computer. (It clears memory), reboot, then start P3D.

Look at what you have. See if it looks better. If not let me know.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Try fiddling with these two settings:

 

[sCENERY]

...

AUTOGEN_TREE_MAX_DRAW_DISTANCE=9500.000000

AUTOGEN_TREE_MIN_DISTANCE_TO_LOD=2500.000000

...

[Jazzfan 57]

    Fiftysix, I can understand your frustration. I had a similar issue with P3D, still not sure what I did to cure it. My only tip would be to try reducing the load on your cpu/gpu, to see what effect, if any, it has. Starting with the default cfg settings is a good place to start. If you are going to make any changes to your cfg file, it is always a good idea to delete the 'shader' files( make a backup copy first) and let P3D re-build them.

  regards, Jazz.