Dear All,I've always heard rendertotexture=off and dxt3 clouds would lead to crashes in fs9.Well after flying for 3-4 days in cloudy situations I haven't had any.Let's explain:I'm using resized dxt3 clouds textures, plus dxt3 pai aircrafts and dxt3 resized scenery textures. I used to keep rendertotexture ON all the time (as suggested). Now I started using fsmetar and I encounter panel flickering with rendertotexture ON and slow framerates if using panelastexture=0. So I decided to give it a try and just disable the rendertotexture checkbox, leaving all the dxt3 clouds and scenery textures installed.Well so far I flew in italy, spain and canada with real weather (fsmetar) and no crashes. Hence my framerates are great and the experience quite smooth anyway.How come? I was expecting crashes but I didn't get none.could the explosive mix of rendertotexture=off and dxt3 textures linked to some particular display card?I'm on a lappy with ati radeon 9600 128Mb, latest omegadrivers and a noncrashing fs9 ;-)RegardsLuca

I have had Render to Texture off and DXT3 clouds for many months. Never had a problem.

I think that we found that later video drivers fixed this.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

>I think that we found that later video drivers fixed this.>>Hope this helps,>Jim>ActiveSky Sales and Support>http://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpgHi Jim,Do you mean you were aware that it might've been fixed....or are you just guessing from mine and bobsk8's comments?however thank you for your fast replies guys Now I feel better and happier :-)RegardsLuca

If I use DXT3 clouds FS9 crashes if I don't enable RtoT. I have a Radeon 9600 Pro and the 4.10 drivers. I see that ATI are now up to the 5.3 drivers. Is it worth updating?

HI Victor, "If I use DXT3 clouds FS9 crashes if I don't enable RtoT. I have a Radeon 9600 Pro and the 4.10 drivers. I see that ATI are now up to the 5.3 drivers. Is it worth updating?"Be carefull, on nvidia cards latest driver official from nvidia, still crash at 77% when fs2004 start to load.Changing driver can reduce your performance with your system spec as well for others games compare to your previous driver, each system spec are differents, test if they are good your system. The only issue with texture, render to texture disabled, was using clouds in dtx3 before, scenery or aircraft never had this problems before, by default they are in DXT format. The Idea of using Dxt3 on clouds, was only about reducing the kb on the texture, you can have the same amount of kb with using 32 bits, only by chosing lower size 256x256 or lower just compare the kb on the texture, you will get better visual in 32 bits then dxt3 since there is more color in 32 bits, they do not change the color and depth of the texture like dxt format. Cirrus clouds in dxt3 looks (pixels) in 32 bits they are whispy and smooth texture. ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

with my ati radeon 9600 128MB and latest omegadrivers I don't get crashes using rendertotexture OFF and dxt3 clouds. Apparently from what Jim says it might have been fixed on recent drivers.RegadsHappy easter as I'm off to Spain tomorrow for my holidaysLuca

Hi All,My comments were based on quite a long discussion in the Active Sky forum about a month ago. Our documentation stated one thing, but MANY users came forward with their own findings that were the opposite. Some of us tried things out and it was true. Well, FS is still the same, the cloud textures are still the same, video cards are still the same, so we concluded that the more modern video drivers were the answer. Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

Jim, I notice you are with ActiveSky Sales and Support. I also noticed in another post that you recommend FSW clouds. I just purchased ActiveSky 2004 tonight and wish to try FSW clouds. Can you tell me where I might find them?Thanks.Dewey

"...and wish to try FSW clouds. Can you tell me where I might find them?"In the Avsim Library. Search the "in Category" of "Flight Simulator 2004". Search for "fsw". You'll then have choices of different FSW Sky World 2004 packages.Greg

>Hi All,>>My comments were based on quite a long discussion in the>Active Sky forum about a month ago. Our documentation stated>one thing, but MANY users came forward with their own findings>that were the opposite. Some of us tried things out and it was>true. Well, FS is still the same, the cloud textures are still>the same, video cards are still the same, so we concluded that>the more modern video drivers were the answer.> >Hope this helps,>Jim>ActiveSky Sales and Support>http://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpgDear Jim,I'm back from my holiday and finally able to reply :)I'm glad rendertotexture=off+dxt3 is not causing many problems any more. With my rig this means gaining framerates without risking crashes ;-)p.s.activesky 5 is now definitely on my buy-list: Looking forward to it and to the new offline features! :)Luca