hi all,a while ago i made a post here with the folowing problem. I had a terrible flickering (or shimmering, whatever you call it) when moving around with my plane. This was only when moving, not when the plane was still. I had then a Radeon 9800 Pro, and some said that this happened with this card. i tried different drivers, combined with different settings, but nothing helped. Never i saw even the slightest improvement.A few weeks ago i was sick of it and decided, again, to buy a new videocard. Nvidia this time: GeForce 6600TDGuess what: i still have the exact same problem. No more, no less. CHanging settings doest help anything.This leads me to the conclusion that my problem is NOT related to my videocard and/or drivers. Is that correct? But what might be the problem then? What other part of my hardware can cause a video problem? I also have it in Far Cry (the only other game i have installed), and i even sometimes see it when i watch a normal (non-flightsim related) video with windws media player.its worst with textures that have a lot of horizontal or vertical lines, such as fences. But even landclass and trees shimmer.Who helps?thanks!!Matt

Try this .... go under settings>display>hardware .. and adjust your MIP map quality to 4 ... that should do the trick ;)Vern

hi,i appreciate the help, but mips are already at 4.

Hi,For some reason your settings are not actually taking effect.I have a 9800 and there is a little flickering in the middle distance, but not too much. THIS is typical of Radeon cards. Have you right clicked the Windows desktop, chosen Properties/Settings/Advanced and looked for your video card settings (look for Direct3D) and set them:1. Uncheck Application Preference boxes (or check Override Application)2. Increase the Antialiasing and Filtering sliders to at least halfway, and further if needed.3. Restart FS and check it out. You can also go from full screen to windowed and back if you like (Alt-Enter) to reset the video.Hope this helps,--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

hi,i've already done all this. I also know that there is a flickering problem on ATI cards, but thats why i got myself a Nvidia this time. But the problem remains, so it must be something else then the ATI flicker thing.

This is such a wierd issue because I too remember not seeing it at one time on my card. I've since tested FS on an X800XL and GF6800GT and both also exhibited the shimmering. I think it must be something that changed in the drivers at some point. I'm not about to install two year old drivers tho, as that would probably break every other game I play...

well...on my radeon 9800, the omega drivers signifcantly lessened the shimmeringmaybe it has something to do with the LOD settings?

Shimmering is connected to a combination of Anti Aliasing, filtering and Level of Detail. Ironically, higher mip map settings give can increased apparent resolution but also increase the shimmering. Anisotropic filtering can eliminate shimmering but at high levels affects performance. A lower Mip Map setting can reduce shimmering.The best combination is a compromise between Mip Map level, Filtering and resolution.Kind Regards,Rob Young

I first noticed this kind of shimmering when I purchased( quite a few years ago and using my old P3-1000 machine) Microsoft Train Simulator . In general, the scenery looked quite good - but the shimmering affected any horizontal and vertical lines. This was most evident in the train tracks and the electric train lines . It was most disturbing and took away from the otherwise realistic looking scenery. Now , years later and with a newer maching, I subsequently found that this also affected Microsoft Flight Simulator. I have personaly tried all kinds of different settings - but nothing has ever improved it for me . Barry

Greetings Matt,When I first started experimenting (back in the days of FS2002) with negative LOD settings, I used to see the shimmering (the lower the resolution, the worse it was). But I also found part of the answer is I was using unrealistically low LOD levels in the -2 to -3 range (I use -.5 today). I poured over all the photos I'd taken from real flights, and many more on airliners.net, and realized my LOD settings were creating an artificially clear environment.So fine, I lowered them, applied just the minimal AA and Aniso. filtering, and 99 pct. of my shimmering went away. Then, I installed one of what I like to call those "tweaked" driver sets.MSFS shimmered like there was no tomorrow. Digging into the settings via Rivatuner, I found that the tweaked driver set had set my LOD back to -2. So I guess to sum up, even though the FS2004 mip setting is at its default, your driver may be shooting for an artifically low LOD. Tweak the LOD to the -1 to -.5 range to start, make sure you have AA and aniso enabled, and see if the shimmering is reduced. Then work the LOD down to a point where you're satisfied with compromise of shimmering vs. texture clarity.If this still doesn't help, try various resolutions--go up one level higher, or one level lower. I get no shimmering at 800x600, a little more at 1024x768, and a little less at a higher res. Once I had everything the way I wanted it though, I just wrote my LOD, aniso, AA and res. settings down and put it in the FS2004 box. After any driver upgrade, I watch for visual changes and if needed use Rivatuner (I have an Nvidia based card) to tweak them back to my preferences.-John

Go to the "hardware" settings menu in the game, and change whatever you have set for "hardware-rendered lights" to a lower value and see if that helps. I had a very bad shimmering problem and this is what solved it for me.Chris

hi all and thanks for the replies.As for the LODs, i am not familiar with them and i sure do not know how to change them. The resolution doesnt seem to make any effect. 800, 1024 or 1260 doesnt make a difference.Also lowering "hardware rendering lights" doesnt seem to helpWhat does help, partly, is lowering to MIPS from 4 to 3. But it only helps for the shimmering from the landclass. Vertical line-textures, such as fences, trees ... are not affected by this.So what do i do with the LODs?thanks!