Hello all, this is my first post on this forum.I've been trying to tweak some water settings in FS2004, which I have owned since it came out but haven't really used much until lately. So I am pretty new to all of this, but am generallly pretty computer-literate.After doing some research on the web and downloading a bunch of freeware water texture files - including many of the most highly-recommended ones - I mixed-and-matched various files until I found a combination that has nice color, real 3d depth and great texture for the water. The only problem is, especially when flying over the open ocean, these funny parallel vertical lines show up along the far horizon. They seem to be most prominent in the 4 primary directions, but the best description I can give is that it looks like a fence or comb running along the horizon. They don't go very far toward me from the horizon, maybe a centimeter or so on my monitor, but it definitely looks weird. I can probably get a screenshot of it if it helps, but I have seen no reference to this issue in any of the forums. Just wondering if it's just my computer, or what?P.S. it doesn't really seem to matter which of the env_bmp, OceanHeightField or other water texture related files I switch out - as soon as I make a single change to the default FS2004 textures (which I think look too light and flat, definitely not realistic at all), this comb-texture shows up on the far horizon. Again, though, otherwise I've found some combinations that look really good.Also, I have tried all kinds of adjustments to the graphics settings in the FS2004 program, but nothing seems to make any difference. Also doesn't matter what the screen resolution is, whether I have clouds in the sky or not, etc.I have a Radeon 9800 graphics card, Windows XP with a Pentium IV 2.4GB, 512MB memory. Also, I just recently downloaded the most recent drivers for the graphics card, which I think have helped considerably in improving the framerate.Does anyone else know anything about this? Thanks...

Hello Daniel and welcome to the forums. :)I recommend you go ahead and post a screenshot to make it easier to see what your talking about.Cheers

Thanks, I will do so when I get home, right now I am killing time at work & hoped there would be a simple explanation for this. I think maybe it is the settings for my graphics card doing this - I recently installed the most recent drivers from ATI, also I recently installed the FS9 updated file.

OK folks, here's a picture of what I am talking about. Look to the horizon, see the annoying lines like a picket fence. I did a little more tweaking with my graphics card, still nothing seems to make any difference as soon as I make any kind of changes to the default water texture files. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into.... the Flight Simulator Zone.Do not try to shut down your computer. Do not attempt to adjust your drivers, for Flight Simulator is now in complete control.:-lolWell, depending on what water set(for lack of a better term) you are using, what you are seeing is completely normal. Swaths of striations like that are seen in a lot of water sets that have been made. The way I remember it it seemed to me, this effect was more pronounced and noticeable in the earlier FS2004 water sets. As time went on the makers of water learned how to lessen the the striations. And what your using there is not one of the earlier sets either. Someone with more knowledge, and probably experience at making FS9 water, would have to come along in order to explain what the true cause and effect is. I do think it does have a lot to do with the env_bmp and OceanHeightField, but perhaps the other texures included in water sets play a role in how profound it is too. Again, someone with more expertise is needed to give a truly informative answer.I can tell you that I use a Payware water set and I don't have that happening. In case your curious, it's Flight Enviroment(formerly FSWater) by Peter Wilding, and has choices of water, cloud, and sky textures. I attatched a screenshot.I know that's not much help really, but I hope it helped anyway.

OK, if it's not that unusual then it's probably not a huge deal. Just a minor distraction anyway. I just see all these screenshots for a lot of the same water packages I've been trying, none of them seem to show this effect so I thought maybe something was wrong with my system. I'll keep playing around with them, I think it's one of the env_bmp files so maybe just a matter of isolating the one that causes this effect. Thanks.

For what it's worth, I think I solved the issue. It was one of the env_bmp files causing the "comb" effect, specifically the env_overcast.bmp file. After some more mixing and matching, I came up with what I think is the very best combination for my system:env_overcast.bmp file from Vater.zipall other env_bmp files from waterzone.zipOceanHeightField file from new_wave3.zipb2wa1 files from waterzone.zip

Cool, I'm glad to hear you got it sorted out. :)