Odd ground texture problem

[martinlest2 58]

I've noticed recently that some (maybe all, but it's so marginal sometimes I am not sure) FS9 ground textures are being divided by a large arc slightly away from my aircraft. Beyond the arc textures are slightly darker than closer to the aircraft - the arc moves around with you as you pan or move the aircraft.

 

I thought it was something to do with SweetFX, but the splitscreen setting is definitely off. If I turn it on, the effect is much more pronounced that what I am seeing in FS9 anyway. In any case, it only seems to happen over FS9 'generic' ground textures, as below. If I slew across to a 3rd. party airport, with its own ground textures, the arc demarcation and colour differences are not there (as far as I can see).

 

Here's a screenshot, though I am not sure how obvious it will be. The colours at 'X' for example are slightly darker and with a little more contrast than at 'O', with, as I say, a visible, mobile line between the two areas. Can you see it from the screenshot? It would be much more obvious if I were to make a video of it...

 

Any idea what this could be down to? It may be slight, but it's noticeable in FS9 and quite irritating.

 

Thanks.

 

[martinlest2 58]

Very short video of the same here:

 

http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v68/martinlest/Texture.mp4

 

It came out too bright and the quality of the video is low, but the demarcation can be seen a bit more clearly than in the photo, to the left of the crosshairs - it's more noticeable in the sim though.

[martinlest2 58]

All confounded by this one, eh? :wink:

[A32xx 129]

All confounded by this one, eh? :wink:

 

Au contraire, it's been done to death many times before. If you google FS2004 Blurries you'll find a solution that works for you.

[martinlest2 58]

 

google FS2004 Blurries..

 

and you get 3,270 results. So sorry to introduce a subject that's been 'done to death', must be a real bore for you to see it come up again.

 

Not that I did introduce that subject (you did) - my textures aren't blurred, so why would I want to Google "FS2004 Blurries", when they are perfectly sharp and crisp, not blurred at all (though they may seem so in the low quality video)? But they do have a demarcation line beyond which they are slightly darker, as I explained, and can be seen in the video if not the screenshot.

 

Anything else you recommend I should Google? Ι ran out of ideas after several tries with no relevant results before originally posting here. If you know something within those 3270 results that refers to the problem I outlined, maybe you'd be good enough to be more specific. Thanks.

[sascha 314]

Could be that the detail1.bmp in the scenery/world/texture directory which controls the ground detail lies at the root of this. Unfortunately I can't spot the effect in your image or video so not sure about this. Try turning off the terrain detail in FS and see what happens to the colour demarcation.

[A32xx 129]

 

 

my textures aren't blurred, so why would I want to Google "FS2004 Blurries"

 

I didn't say they were, I said you'd find the answer by searching for FS2004 Blurries. Which is to adjust your Terrain Detail/LOD radius settings in your FS9.cfg and your Graphics Card settings. Everyone's optimum settings are different so that's all the help anyone can give you, there are no magic numbers which work for everyone.

[martinlest2 58]

I'll try the Terrain Detail settings, but frankly they have been just fine for years. I spent ages, many years ago, both on AVSIM and other forums (FS Genesis mostly) on this topic and got things set up in the fs9.cfg file so that textures loaded as sharply as I could hope for. Never had a problem really until this issue. I can't think that another addon would alter this globally.

 

The only exception by the way is snow on mountains, which nearly always takes ages to load and, in the meantime, has lots of 'eye hooks' (sewing metaphor!). Anyone know what I mean (or is aware of a cure?).

 

I will definitely look at the detail1.bmp, because I added a new one fairly recently, so that could well be the cause. It also makes sense because it is really only happening to default ground/grass textures, as I said. Thanks a lot for that heads up.. will post back re. any progress.

 

Martin

[sascha 314]

 

 

I'll try the Terrain Detail settings, but frankly they have been just fine for years

 

Turning off the terain detail will only deactivate the detail1.bmp, so it's the easiest way to check if that is the culprit. Everything else should be unaffected. I think the setting is Water Only, haven't touched it in ages and am not at home

[martinlest2 58]

I have tried replacing, then removing the detail1.bmp file (from FS9/texture and FS9/scenery/world/texture), but no difference (even after restarting FS9). Turned Terrain detail and Water effects to 'None', but that also made no difference.

 

I replaced the FS9/texture folder with the default 'out-of-the-box' one. No change. Moved the SweetFX dll files out of FS9 - same thing.

 

I could try another video, to better show what I mean, but the description is probably enough (?) - a sharp demarcation line across the scenery beyond which the textures are slightly darker. The line moves about as you pan. It actually affects 3rd. party textures too - I can see it now at FSDT's KORD.

 

Not sure what else to try - I have only had this for a few weeks or so, but don't recall what I might have changed at that time. Further troubleshooting suggestions anyone? Thanks.

[A32xx 129]

These are the terrain detail settings I meant, in your FS9.cfg settings:

 

(TERRAIN)
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=95.000000
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000 //40.00000 //0.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.50000 //60.000000 //0.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4 //1307992 //0

 

If changing these has no effect or improvement you might try adjusting your nvidia Inspector (or equivalent) settings.

[martinlest2 58]

Hi. Thanks, but I tracked down the problem and it is, at least in so far as the issue when on grass textures is concerned, the detail1.bmp file. I backed up my (huge!) FS9/scenery/world/texture folder and then started to overwrite various files there with ones from a clean (default) FS9 installation. As soon as I overwrote the detail1.bmp file with the default, the problem disappeared on grassy terrain (once I reloaded the scenery of course). I did replace the files earlier, as I posted, so I don't know why I didn't have the same result then, but no matter...

The only dilemma now is that the version of detail1.bmp which was causing the problem creates superb, sharp grass textures. I hope I can find a suitable replacement.

Also, I still have the same 'shadow' issue at certain airports, on the tarmac and taxiways, but replacing generic tarmac/concrete bitmaps/r8 etc. files has not helped there, so I suppose the problem is specific to those airports where the shadow is showing (e.g. the FSDT Chicago O'Hare, as I mentioned above). I'll have to troubleshoot those as I find them...

[martinlest2 58]

OK, in case anyone gets the same issue, I seem to have cleared the problem:

 

I located the bgl files that were creating the issue, decompiled them to find the bitmaps they use and then changed the sizes of those bitmaps from 1024x1024 to 512x512. No more lines and shadows, so far anyway.

 

BTW, my terrain data in the fs9.cfg is exactly the same as yours, above - I set the values like that some years ago: we clearly read the same forums!

 

M.

[martinlest2 58]

One last comment, by way of being 'complete' - I'm not sure it's the 'size that matters', in fact: what's important is not to have mipped and unmipped textures together. I have added mips and the problem has gone. It can happen with any file, not just the detail1.bmp. I have just got rid of the same problem at another couple of airports, by mipping some of the ground textures(concrete, asphalt and so on). The image size probably isn't relevant...

[sascha 314]

Thank you for sharing this info. It's always interesting to see what new stuff crops up even in a sim that has been around a bit ...