What's the latest on AI traffic displaying white textures?

[glider1 90]

When my vantage point to AI traffic is beyond a certain distance their textures (liveries) disappear and the plane turns to all white. The AI traffic model is still visible, just their liveries go missing. My LOD is set on max in P3D.

 

After searching the long history about this on the web, best I could come up with is this setting:

 

[sCENERY]

SmallPartRejectRadius=nn

 

But that setting is not in the AVSIM P3D guide.

 

Thanks in advance

 

i6700k 4.7GHz GTX1080 Flyinside P3D 3.4.9.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

SmallPartRejectRadius was mentioned in the the P3d V2 SDK:

 

http://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv2/LearningCenter/general/sdk_overview.html

Configuration Settings

In Prepar3D.cfg, in the [Graphics] section, the following two settings can affect performance:
SmallPartRejectRadius=N (default is 1) which determines the radius in pixels that an object has to be in order to be rendered. Increasing this size will cull more objects from the rendering pipeline.

The reference to it was dropped in the V3 SDK documentation, but that doesn't mean it no longer works. Unfortunately, the default value is 1 pixel, so one can only make the value larger. That would just make AI aircraft disappear from view sooner.

 

Anyway, have you posted this observation on the official LM forum? For all I know, the behavior that your describe may be normal. I find that hard to believe, as if LM was trying to save some computational time by not painting the model, then the model would appear all black and not white. Painting an AI model with the color white instead of either a DDS or BMP file might save some time, but it just seems like whatever would be saved would be trivial.

 

And now for the perfunctory "dumb" questions. Which AI are you referring to, the default AI or a 3rd party addon package (MyT 6, UT2, WOAI, etc.)? The reason that I am asking this is that some AI packages use FS9 format models. Based on the aircraft label, at what distance does this start happening? Does it also happen with a predominantly dark livery? Many liveries are mostly either white or gray, so at distance, the small amount of color on the empennage or fuselage may not be obvious.

 

For me, when airborne most of the AI aircraft are so small that it is difficult to tell what the livery is. Most AI aircraft models have multiple LODs, with the simpler models being used at distance. I have a GTX 1080, so I am going to take a closer look at distant AI aircraft when I get a chance.

[glider1 90]

 

 

I have a GTX 1080, so I am going to take a closer look at distant AI aircraft when I get a chance.

 

The AI traffic I use is ORBX Freeware AI Traffic 5.0.

 

The distance the AI traffic turns to all white is probably 1000ft or so as I notice it when I am in the traffic pattern. When I'm closer in the liveries reappear. It doesn't matter whether the livery is light or dark.

 

I should check to see if it happens with default AI liveries as well as the ORBX liveries. They are turned off by FTX Central. I suspect you have a point that it might be something to do with older model formats?

 

SmallPartReject isn't the problem I now realise, because the AI model is clearly visible, just the missing livery appearing all white.

 

If it only happens with ORBX AI then I'll let them know. If it happens with all AI, I'll let LM know.

 

Thanks again.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

 If they are turning all white at a distance of 1000 feet, then that's definitely indicative of something not being right. I don't have AU AI Traffic 5.0 installed, so there is no way for me to help you further. As I recall, V5.0 uses FSX/P3d models and FSX schedule formats, so that's not an issue. My suggestion is that you post your information on the official ORBX support forum. The stock answers are going to be, "Do you have the latest ORBXlibs installed?" and "Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the AI package?"

[touchdown84 34]

I use WoAI and in the beginning had no textures on some models. But since then I always convert all AI DDSs without Mips and BMPs to DDS with Mips and never had this problem again.