Blurry textures P3D V3

[Jim Young 2,356]

Thanks Jim for the in-sight I have removed AM and doesnt seem any different but I will tell you 30 fps locked is a no go for me - unlimited is way better - reason when panning its very slow and sluggish unlimited smooth sailing - all pc specific really and monitor - thanks Buddy for all the help  :wink:

And you zoom out to 30 or 40%?  I had blurry textures (albeit MSEv2 Vegas) w/unlimited fps.  During the flight, reduced the zoom to 30% in wingview and spotview and then set the fps limiter from unlimited to 30 fps and went back to flying and no more "blurries".  I know you have the upgraded TitanX or the 980Ti so you should experience even better textures.  I'm wondering if you are using the NI to enhance your graphic settings.  Mine is at the default for P3D and I exclusively use the P3D settings.  This is why this is so hard to figure out.  Everyone has different configurations and tweaks.  But I honestly have great graphics since going back to the 30fps (I use to be a believer of unlimited) but I'm enjoying P3D more than I have ever in the past. 

 

I was hoping this would help everyone but at least I'm happy you let the members know about your experiences with the AM tweak.  Sounds like the same as mind as well as many others.

 

Best regards,

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

And you zoom out to 30 or 40%?  I had blurry textures (albeit MSEv2 Vegas) w/unlimited fps.  During the flight, reduced the zoom to 30% in wingview and spotview and then set the fps limiter from unlimited to 30 fps and went back to flying and no more "blurries".  I know you have the upgraded TitanX or the

 

 

I dont have blurry textures - yes a Titan X here and use 4x sgss in NI for those pesky Carenado - Alabeo's post screenshot in a minute - these are Steves settings - basic but work well - may try 2x sgss again but always end up going back to 4x

 

[SteveW 1,792]

A couple of weeks ago I had the blurries, it was an array HDD having parity errors. I had noticed that for a day or two certain functions using the PC seemed to "think about it for a bit" every now and then. I changed it out, the array rebuilt and the thing seems a lot healthier in the last few weeks. Looking forward to getting something more modern now the support period is up. Notice how the drive failed out of warranty lol.

 

I've been testing HT On vs Off all week and on my old six core 3960x+GTX680 there is a consistent drop in performance going to HT off. Also I notice the icons build up a little slower when opening new Explorer views and feel the PC seems a little wheezy, not much in it. In terms of the sim the time to load the scenarios was hardly affected the HT mode wins only by a second or two loading two scenarios one after another.

 

Allocating many LPs (logical processors) in the mask increases scenario loading speed, then add a couple more LPs and it can kill the performance. so there's a sweet-spot. However I consistently find four cores work smoother than six, they just don't load scenery quite as fast as six.

 

I've been catching traces of performance and viewing in Excel since I too find it difficult to judge just by watching the sim. In fact there's such small differences to compare, when someone say's "I changed HT and I got terrible/great performance" it has to be some other thing.

 

Setting Unlimited VSync Off I find is great for spotting how much throughput can be demanded by the different setups.

 

P3D is much better at utilising HT and AMs than any FSX around, but it's also easy to scupper it with the wrong setups. Mostly these systems are upset by addon activity, the sim usually makes a simconnect client for each addon, dll or exe,and can bring down the sim performance, even worse in HT mode. That's why many systems find HT off no AM a good compromise, we get good overall performance, not the best, but less worried by addon behaviour.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

A couple of weeks ago I had the blurries, it was an array HDD having parity errors. I had noticed that for a day or two certain functions using the PC seemed to "think about it for a bit" every now and then. I changed it out, the array rebuilt and the thing seems a lot healthier in the last few weeks. Looking forward to getting something more modern now the support period is up. Notice how the drive failed out of warranty lol.

 

HT on all the way for me Steve  :wink: nice post

[Jim Young 2,356]

I thought Steve's post was informative too!  I think Steve is the guru of AM tweaking. 

 

I have HT-off as Rob had stated you get more VAS with it off and I verified that with my system (via the fsuipc utility).  With the same scenario, with HT on, I ended up with 1079984 VAS remaining.  With it off, I ended up with 1261268 VAS remaining.  Two months from now and I'll probably have it back on... :smile:  but my system and P3D are working great right now.  I don't do those really long flights like many others as I enjoy the 1-2 hour flights.

 

 

 

I dont have blurry textures - yes a Titan X here and use 4x sgss in NI for those pesky Carenado - Alabeo's post screenshot in a minute - these are Steves settings - basic but work well - may try 2x sgss again but always end up going back to 4x

 

I've had that 4x sgss on occasion but that's for trying to get better AA and reducing any shimmering.  Messing with the AA should not have anything to do with the blurries but that setting can tax many lessor systems and use a lot of resources.

 

I forgot to mention I also turned off cloud shadowing.  Just shadowing externally and internally for sim objects.  I saw that I think in one of Rob's setups too.  It's easy to turn back on if I decide I want to use it for a flight.  So maybe that helped me to get great graphics too. 

 

Best regards,

[TheBoom 31]

It's irrelevant to compare present 3D technology to what "should have been done" by ACES a decade or more ago. You can keep believing in tweaking and yes, you might get "prompt temporary relief in mild cases". But whether it's messing with undocumented settings or endlessly fiddling with affinity masks, neither is a substitute for better hardware. And if one's hardware is not up to it, then turn the IQ settings down.

 

 

I actually provided solutions that they can use on their system w/o using a tweak like Affinity Mask.  And, like you and everyone else, I made my comments (although not liked by some such as you) as these forums are a free place to express opinions about so-called tweaks and suggest something better.  Not everyone know that lowering your settings and your fps limiter fixes most blurries and giving false hopes a tweak posted back in 2007 is going to work.  If the Affinity Mask and other tweaks worked so well, we wouldn't have 4 or 5 page topics on the blurries about every three or four weeks in different forums here on AVSIM.  Sometimes we have several topics discussing the blurries and somehow I feel there is some motive for continually bringing the topic up.  It has been beaten to death in the FSX Forums since FSX was first released. 

 

I appreciate your comments but I am definitely not trying to stymie comments about the Affinity Mask tweak.  I posted my comments and members can take them or leave them just like your comments that the Affinity Mask tweak works.

 

Best regards,

 

I think the important point you seem to be missing here is the fact that many are having this issue with very good hardware and default configs. Which ultimately means that it is not a hardware limitation or settings that are too high. Might have very likely been the case with any version prior to 3.2, where you can dial down settings a bit and they disappear. Unless of course you are saying that anyone who wants to have no issues with low-medium settings must buy at least a 5960X with 2 980Tis in SLI configuration (which is nonsense). And even then you would likely have problems.

 

There is definitely something off with 3.2, in the software/coding level, whether you choose to believe it or not.

 

We have come to a point where the hardware is not the limiting factor any more, at least for most users.

 

About tweaking, all I can say is that this Sim is still based off a 10 year old engine for which many tweaks worked and still do. So yes 2007 is still somewhat relevant. Not a 100% for sure but at least 70-80% the same thing. Yes there are some tweaks that are redundant, and some users don't have to use them, especially if you have no blurries or any other issues, but saying all tweaks are useless is like saying changing in game settings don't do anything either. 

 

You mention threads that bring up this issue over and over again, which is true, yet I have seen that in at least 3/5 threads some tweaking actually worked for someone. 

 

Hope you understand that I'm not trying to bash anyone, just trying to show the bigger picture here.

 

Regards,

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Sorry for jumping in, but you guys seem to be talking past each other..

 

One topic is how to get p3d to behave on an ordinary system, another is what to do about p3d 2.3. and its peculiarities.

 

It gets confusing when each release of p3d behaves slightly differently..

[portanav 12]

Hello! I've got a pretty annoying problem in p3d v3.. With blurries it seems like im the only one who really has this kind of problems with them. Here is a picture with everything maxed out in p3d: https://gyazo.com/ebdc688e216fd626232f607b06d96a2f it don't really make a difference in the distant blurries if I put all the settings to the right, but I just don't understand why this only happens to me. Yes I know that there is distant blurries in P3D, but I don't think there is on this level.

Thanks

 

PC Specs:

i5 6500 3.2 - 3.6 GHz

GTX 960 4GB OC

8gb 2133 MHz ram

 

 

Hope that pretty much describes it all.

btw I've think I've tried most of the tweaks out there and even tried Nvidia Inspector and reinstalled many times.

 

Thanks.

Morten

Hello Morten;

 

I am having the exact same problem that you are having. I have been trying everything imaginable with out any solution. Did you ever resolve your problem?

 

The thing is, I did not have this before, and only suddenly I noticed the blurriness. I am at a loss.

 

My system is:

i7 3770

ASUS Z77

Kingston SSDs (480Gb and 120Gb)

Kingston DDR3 2400

GTX 680

 

I used FSX previously before switching with exceptional graphics and performance. P3D started out the same, but It was only recently I noticed the blurriness. I then switched back to FSX, now with the same blurrys. I borrowed an GTX 970 to see if it was the video card; same result. I reformatted my SDD and have returned to P3D. I keep my addon scenery on a seperate SSD (120Gb), and use UTX terrain for landclass.

 

I certainly hope you or someone will have a suggestion to a solution

 

Many thanks.

[TheBoom 31]

Sorry for jumping in, but you guys seem to be talking past each other..

One topic is how to get p3d to behave on an ordinary system, another is what to do about p3d 2.3. and its peculiarities.

It gets confusing when each release of p3d behaves slightly differently..

Exactly what I've been saying all this while and what they don't seem to be to get.

[AnkH 2,264]

First, the picture from Morten looks absolutely ok to me, but it is sometimes hard to judge without seeing it in motion and the fullscreen resolution. BUT: as those blurry issues continue to pop up since the release of 3.2, I really have two things in mind probably causing this:

 

1. the nVidia driver. The last driver releases were all crap, and regarding all those different setups in respect to NVI etc., it might be simply related to a small setting inside the driver menue/NVI leading to pronounced blurries.

 

2. the tesselation algorithm. It seems that certain ground textures are blurried simply due to the use of tesselation and perfectly crisp, if tesselation is off. As this observation seems to be new to 3.2, LM might have changed something in the tesselation algorithm now driving us all nuts.

 

Sadly, for both possibilites, I have no solution. If it is related to the driver, well, bad luck and difficult to find out which driver release does not show this issue and if it is related to the tesselation, we have the problem of bad looking water when turning tesselation off. Well...

[Jimm 437]

I think the important point you seem to be missing here is the fact that many are having this issue with very good hardware and default configs. Which ultimately means that it is not a hardware limitation or settings that are too high. Might have very likely been the case with any version prior to 3.2, where you can dial down settings a bit and they disappear. Unless of course you are saying that anyone who wants to have no issues with low-medium settings must buy at least a 5960X with 2 980Tis in SLI configuration (which is nonsense). And even then you would likely have problems.

 

There is definitely something off with 3.2, in the software/coding level, whether you choose to believe it or not.

 

We have come to a point where the hardware is not the limiting factor any more, at least for most users.

 

About tweaking, all I can say is that this Sim is still based off a 10 year old engine for which many tweaks worked and still do. So yes 2007 is still somewhat relevant. Not a 100% for sure but at least 70-80% the same thing. Yes there are some tweaks that are redundant, and some users don't have to use them, especially if you have no blurries or any other issues, but saying all tweaks are useless is like saying changing in game settings don't do anything either. 

 

You mention threads that bring up this issue over and over again, which is true, yet I have seen that in at least 3/5 threads some tweaking actually worked for someone. 

 

Hope you understand that I'm not trying to bash anyone, just trying to show the bigger picture here.

 

Regards,

I run P3D on a laptop with a desktop processor and a nvidia 980M gpu, which equates to a desktop 750.  I have most of my P3D settings set high...risky, yet effective.  I no longer get blurry textures while flying at any flight level and this is due to ditching tweaks within the P3D cfg.  I have some settings changes with the nVidia Control Panel, but nothing being done in inspector.  I won't ask why it works fine on my rig, neither will I say my settings are the correct ones everyone should follow either, but I WILL reinforce the fact that everyone's rig will behave differently.  This is fast becoming a circular argument that pops up all too frequently now, and for new users, it can get downright confusing, so I for one, feel for them when they ask a question as to why their sim is acting the way it is.  There are sooo many variables at play and without actually being at someone's computer, no one will ever know the true nature of the failures.  We can follow guides, tutorials, videos and word of mouth until we are blue in the face but the fact remains that we all must fail first before success.  We can try to diagnose and advise on what people could use and recommend certain settings changes or provide examples, but in this day and age, there isn't any magic bullet cure-all for some of these issues.

 

Jim stated it well that ditching tweaks is a good first step.  I want to add to that, that tweaks are fast becoming unnecessary, due to the constant evolution of the flight sim coding.  LM has done, what I believe to be, a remarkable job with their latest version and judging by the fact that I am on the low end of the totem pole when it comes to best performing rigs and even I don't have an issue so, getting to the point of the OP's post, trying to diagnose such a strange and unusual occurrence such as this, it may be a case for presenting it to LM to see if they know what to make of it.  If the OP doesn't want to wait, there are still options, albeit options that aren't exactly the easiest to get through but could yield much better results.

[TheBoom 31]

I run P3D on a laptop with a desktop processor and a nvidia 980M gpu, which equates to a desktop 750.  I have most of my P3D settings set high...risky, yet effective.  I no longer get blurry textures while flying at any flight level and this is due to ditching tweaks within the P3D cfg.  I have some settings changes with the nVidia Control Panel, but nothing being done in inspector.  I won't ask why it works fine on my rig, neither will I say my settings are the correct ones everyone should follow either, but I WILL reinforce the fact that everyone's rig will behave differently.  This is fast becoming a circular argument that pops up all too frequently now, and for new users, it can get downright confusing, so I for one, feel for them when they ask a question as to why their sim is acting the way it is.  There are sooo many variables at play and without actually being at someone's computer, no one will ever know the true nature of the failures.  We can follow guides, tutorials, videos and word of mouth until we are blue in the face but the fact remains that we all must fail first before success.  We can try to diagnose and advise on what people could use and recommend certain settings changes or provide examples, but in this day and age, there isn't any magic bullet cure-all for some of these issues.

 

Jim stated it well that ditching tweaks is a good first step.  I want to add to that, that tweaks are fast becoming unnecessary, due to the constant evolution of the flight sim coding.  LM has done, what I believe to be, a remarkable job with their latest version and judging by the fact that I am on the low end of the totem pole when it comes to best performing rigs and even I don't have an issue so, getting to the point of the OP's post, trying to diagnose such a strange and unusual occurrence such as this, it may be a case for presenting it to LM to see if they know what to make of it.  If the OP doesn't want to wait, there are still options, albeit options that aren't exactly the easiest to get through but could yield much better results.

 

Tweaks were always unnecessary, as long as you had a properly performing sim that is. The only reason we started using them were when things didn't work as intended, in order to compensate for the shortfalls of the core engine. 

 

Same scenario here.

 

Yeah I agree, we should have no need to use any of them tweaks with 3.2, but unfortunately 3.2 isn't as remarkable as you think it to be. Why it works well on some systems and not on others I cannot explain, but its definitely far from perfect. Then again, there's only so much you can do with the same 10 year old engine.

[Jimm 437]

P3D v3.2 works a lot better than it's previous versions.  With the older versions, I needed all the help I could get, and now I don't.  Sure, I have since upgraded my rig but that happened at a time when I was using P3D v3.  I'm not sure why you would say that tweaks were always unnecessary.  A lot of good came about with some of their usage.

 

If anyone was to suffer from blurry textures, it would have been me, and actually a few weeks ago, I did but realized it WAS due to an unnecessary tweak, one that so many tout as required.  I won't get into specifics as it would fire up the community again, but long story short, I ditched it and anything else that was modified in the cfg and my sim runs fine.

 

The one good thing to come out of all of this is that we become a little smarter with every failure.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Exactly what I've been saying all this while and what they don't seem to be to get.

No, It's just a difference in troubleshooting philosophies. I recommend (as apparently so does Jim Young who helps people out here on a constant basis) that the first step to solving these types of problems is to turn all the settings down to the minimums and eliminating any influences from 3rd party add ons. If this doesn't work, then something is probably gummed up with either the P3d installation, the video driver or the hardware.

 

Others here apparently believe that the first step is to add tweaks and tinker with affinity masks. This either might even add to the problem or may work just by chance. If that works for you, then great. My experience with P3d version 2 and version 3 is the "blurries" are quite specific to the system in question and not a generic problem.

[Jimm 437]

No, It's just a difference in troubleshooting philosophies. I recommend (as apparently so does Jim Young who helps people out here on a constant basis) that the first step to solving these types of problems is to turn all the settings down to the minimums and eliminating any influences from 3rd party add ons. If this doesn't work, then something is probably gummed up with either the P3d installation, the video driver or the hardware.

 

Others here apparently believe that the first step is to add tweaks and tinker with affinity masks. This either might even add to the problem or may work just by chance. If that works for you, then great. My experience with P3d version 2 and version 3 is the "blurries" are quite specific to the system in question and not a generic problem.

+1.  No truer words were spoken in this regard.  

 

Unfortunately, the new folks or even the uninformed, look for guidance and get it from the wrong sources.  It is an unfortunate fact, but what you stated about "troubleshooting philosophies" is very much at the heart of the matter.  People will take whatever advice they get and when the end result isn't what they expected, they freak, place blame, get upset and all the while, they could have simply reverted back to what they had (courtesy of a trusty backup) and then start from where they were.  I've seen my fair share of people who apply all of these tweaks all at once and wonder why they don't get what they see coming from others or worse, their sim is screwed up.