The subject line of this post pretty much says it all. Low resolution, blurry-looking textures get swapped for nice looking, high-res versions only once I'm practically on top of the of the section where high-res textures get loaded.In practice - from virtual cockpit vintage point I highly ever get to see nice looking, non-blurry textures (because of the viewing angle). When in chase plane mode (looking at my plane from slightly above) - only once my aircraft is almost on top of a terrain section do the low-res textures get swapped for non-blurry ones.. If I pan around - textures behind my plane's tail generally look better than those in front of me. Though they also seem to get swapped out pretty quick once I pass them for low res versions.This is not a real big deal with default textures but a real bummer with quality texture replacement packages. I make my observations at around 8000 ft altitude; but the effect is pretty much the same at any altitude below this; it's just that it's much easier to notice when I'm a bit higher and more of the 'world' can be seen.My PC is as follows: geForce 7800GS w/ 256 megs memory; 2 gig RAM, regularly de-fragmented hard drive. I mention the bit about hard drive being in good, de-fragmented shape because there appears to be hardly any hard drive activity when I fly. On occasion the activity light blinks - but not like it's trying real hard to read textures from the drive and can't keep up. It really feels that FS choses not to load the textures until the last possible moment.I gave tweaking sf9.CFG a quick try but I can't seem to find any resources on the web that would explain just which entry controls what program behavior and what would be recommended settings for a given type of hardware or desired outcome... I put a section of my CFG (with some

If anybody knows of a thread or a site that explains or even just lists possible values of entries like:TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUSTERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUTERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELSplease kindly point me to the right URL.I was able to find a few threads that suggest changing those values. But nobody seems to actually know what values are even an option (except what the defaults are). So ppl seem to guess and see what happens (things like TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=60.0; or TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=[sOME RANDOM GIANT NUMBER])Thank you,Michael

>If anybody knows of a thread or a site that explains or even>just lists possible values of entries like:>>TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS>TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIU>TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS>>please kindly point me to the right URL.>>I was able to find a few threads that suggest changing those>values. But nobody seems to actually know what values are even>an option (except what the defaults are). So ppl seem to guess>and see what happens (things like TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=60.0;>or TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=[sOME RANDOM GIANT NUMBER])>>Thank you,>MichaelThere is an explanation of this over at the fsgenesis.net site by Holger. Here is the link, look at Holger's reply.http://portal.fsgenesis.net/index.php?name...iewtopic&t=1851The main thing you need to do to though to reduce the blurries, is lock your framerate somewhere in the 20-25FPS range.

Hi there,as Tom points out correctly, the problem is that your system is overtaxed with something else, which is why it can't load the highest mipmaps of the ground textures. Those three parameters in the FS9.cfg make a visible difference to the mid distance but only if your system is capable of loading high-level mipmaps in the first place.See this post by one of the FS (ex-)team members: http://steve-lacey.com/blogarchives/2005/1..._blurries.shtmlThus, you should primarily focus on reducing resource use by other FS (or external) processes. Fixing the frame rate slider should help, also reducing the Terrain_Max_Vertex_Level to 20 or even 19 (21 is a waste of resources as it forces FS to quadruple the terrain resolution near the aircraft, regardless of what type of mesh you have). Also, check that current thread about the ten top fps killers: clouds, AI, highly complex aircraft, etc. all contribute to resource issues and most can be improved on quite efficiently. Finally, shut down any unneeded Windows processes prior to loading FS, manually or with AutoStart.Hope that helps.Cheers, Holger

Thanks for the replies. I did not think FPS was a problem because my current FPS are in the range of 40-60; I did not realize that forcing it down would improve OTEHR things ;-) I completely ignored FPS (and threads dealing with FPS "killers") because I'm perfectly happy with 40fps while in virtual cockpit and 60 fps in outside views ;-)So thanks again; I will turn down that slider and report if it improves things for me.Thanks again,Michael

I think the answer there would be to remove mip maps from the ground textures entirely, if possible....downside is that FS usually makes non-mipmap textures jaggier than those that do have mm...

Well, this http://steve-lacey.com/blogarchives/2005/1..._blurries.shtml certainly has been an interesting read. No arguing - the guy workd on FS so he obviously knows what he's talking about.Sadly - I'm sorry to report that locking down FPS at 20 doesn't do a thing for how soon hi-res terrain textures load (identical to FPS left at unlimited as best I can tell). It does however make the sim all but - because it's so jerky :-( 20 FPS is roughly half of what my system can handle in virtual cockpit mode and 1/3 in outside views. So it sbould give plenty of time to other "fibers" as Steve Lacey puts it.I have all kinds of other things switched off on mystyem like dynamic terrain or AI traffic (bebcause I don't care enough about them to have them use up resources that coudl otherwise be used for... loading hihg-res textures). But that doesn't seem to help either. Perhaps "fibers" that handle those components are given "slices of time" to work on them, decide there is nothing to be doen (becase they are set do do nothing) but hold on to the alloted time they are given instead of giving it up for other "fibers" to use (say - the one that figures out which high-res textures to load next becuase they are 2 MILES out)I guess I will keep on search and reading...Thanks again,Michael

"Sadly - I'm sorry to report that locking down FPS at 20 doesn't do a thing for how soon hi-res terrain textures load (identical to FPS left at unlimited as best I can tell). It does however make the sim all but - because it's so jerky" Just so you don't feel like the Lone Ranger I had the same experience. Lowered my frames from unlimited to 20 and got a case of the stutters.However as what Steve had to say made sense to me, I played around withthe target framerate a little. What I discovered was that you can hit a"Sweet Spot" by doing this. Sometimes a little higher...sometimes lower.I've had good results at limiting at 24..18..28. I know it seems screwybut it seems to work for me. Its probably very system dependent, so it'll take some trial and error.But I think you'll find that just a small change will effect the stuttering. Good luck Denny

Denny,Please see screen shots below.What Steve Lacey wrote certainly makes sense. But I don't think that is the problem I'm experiencing I think in my case it's a simple matter of finding the settings that FS will chose not to ignore...I experimented some more and it seems it doesn't matter what frame rate I set. To be sure that it's no a resource issue - I even set my resolution to 1024x768 and pegged FPS at 35. Normally I play at 1600x1200 and without limiting FPS - I get between 55 and 60 in external views. So I think it's fairly reasonable to say 1024x768 at 35fps is not taxing my system in the least (with AI still completely off and dynamic scenery switched off). The way FS loads high-res tiles close to the aircraft only is IDENTICAL. This can be clearly seen in the shots below (I marked them up with red lines that show where low res textures stop and high res textures start; both images look the same)Here are the shots (pls note - once you load the image you may need to click on it to make it load in full resolution - depending on your browser):

Hi there,you should repeat the experiment with Ultimate Terrain (or whatever add-on you're using for the roads) off. With plenty of detailed roads to draw the system definitely needs more resources. It's possible that drawing those roads is linked to the same "fiber" that places the textures.Also, I noticed that there's no autogen visible; did you turn that off on purpose?Cheers, Holger

>you should repeat the experiment with Ultimate Terrain (or>whatever add-on you're using for the roads) off. Thank you for the suggestion. Just tested it. Identical behavior as best as I can tell. Same pattern of hi-res as on screen shots in previous message. It's like FS2004 is ignoring whaterver I'm trying to tell it with TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS and TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS. Then again - it seem nobody knows for sure what values these settings can take... So my 9.5; 4.5 or 9.5;9.5 may be no better than 2.0; 60.5...>Also, I noticed that there's no autogen visible; did you turn>that off on purpose?Yep. In order to save resources (and also because it's personal preference of mine; I don't like auto-gen).Thank you,Michael

You're not alone with this one Michael. Check out my post here: http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=49704Be EXTREMELY grateful to hear if you get it sorted.

>[DISPLAY]>UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0>TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400>[TERRAIN]>TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=90.000000>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=0>TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1>TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1>TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.000000>TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.000000>TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1>>Any suggestions would be much appreciated!>>Thanks,>MichaelFew moons ago and twenty, err um four score and...Some time ago this issue was put to rest with days of testing, pic depate etc. but just as a story gets past around the details get mixed or forgot.First, there are two kinds of blury, "Dynamic blurry" loss of highres mips as when you start to run out of system recources as the memory subsystem gets overly taxed due addons or simply a lack of cpu power and memory bandwidth.to correct turn down settings that tax or boost cpu power and memory subsystem.Two, the other "static blurry" ...mips as seen directly below you suddenly seem to end prematurely as seen/noticed usualy only when running at higher screen res settings as well as high levels of anisotropic filtering (if)...a few things come into play here...to correct:This is good, you can also back off a bit (7) etc>TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.000000 >TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.000000Nest is key,>TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1 increase this to atleast =3 (=4 is tops with very little more noticed) those with weaker systems should beware that you are going to increase your dynamic blurries as you are now asking more of your system, just try different settings and make your own judgements.If you however do not use high levels of aniso and AA along with high res screen settings these FSconfig settings will not hardly be noticed.Hope this helps you.

Paul,Thanks for the info. Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing. The problem I'm seeing I'm almost positive is not of the "dynamic blurry" variety. The issue is that FS only loads a very small number of full-res texture tiles directly below the plane, one tile in front, one behind and one on each side. As I fly forward - this high-res "shadow" moves with me. Tiles remain this way even if pause the simulation and let it take a break. In other words FS2004 does not want to show me any more than only a handful full-res textured tiles directly around the plane.Are you saying that by setting TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS to 3 or 4 I will force FS to show me MORE full-res textured tiles? Or are you saying that what I 'm seeing is normal behavior of FS2004 and by setting TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS to 3 or 4 I will make those low res tiles look less bad? But they will always be there and no matter what and only a few tiles around my plane will be shown in their full high-res glory? And that the only reason I'm even noticing that so few tiles are in hi-res is because my vid card allows me to jack up AA and aniso as well as resolution (8x, 16 x and 1600x1200 respectively)?Thank you,Michael