I am not experiencing this. Maybe it is one of the filters?

I am using these 4 filters and they are great:

Deband

Pirate_Bloom

DELC_Sharpen

Pirate_Vibrance

 

Thanks for the tip, Naji.

I keep ddfix 1.5.13 for haze, and bloom management, with no frame rate increase.

In ReShade my settings are now:

ContrastAdaptiveSharpen

Levels (for better contrast)

LumaSharpen (moderate sharp)

Vibrance

In DGVoodoo2 (third layer):

Anisotropic 16x

Anti-Aliasing 4x

Disable mipmapping

Bilinear blit stretch

Apply Phong shading

IT SOUNDS ELABORATE, but the important thing is I'm satisfied with the results. (Frame rate controlled with FRAPS on testing).

 

Edited December 5, 20205 yr by patrikmore

For FU3, Anisotropic 4x is enough as I couldn't see any texture improvement in the distance with 16x. I don't use 

Bilinear blit stretch

Apply Phong shading

Edited December 6, 20205 yr by Naji

Why use ContrastAdaptiveSharpen and LumaSharpen together? With Dgvoodoo2 AA, that is 3 antialias.

First of all, please, excuse my insecurity, because day after day, I question myself my last settings. I'm looking at a combination of sharpness, color and "level curves", to be as "immersive" as possible.

Going to your post, Anti Aliasing is not for sharpness, but for jagged lines, and this is resolved in a very clever way by adding "half tones" pixels. AA 4x instead of AA 8x because it's frame rate consuming.

By the way, my last setting in ReShade 4.7:

Techniques=Pirate_Tonemap,ContrastAdaptiveSharpen,Levels,LumaSharpen,Vibrance

You're right, LumaSharpen and ContrastAdaptiveSharpen are related. Instead of tuning LumaSharpen, I add ContrastAdaptiveSharpen, and that gives me just the right amount of sharpness. I'm also satisfied with the resulting contrast. But "Levels" are also related with contrast. It's like a puzzle. And why Pirate_Tonemap? This setting is because clouds are whiter, and ground is more natural. I was fed up with colors without this setting.

I'm sure I'll reach my goal. As you said, it's like another game.

I remember 16x anisotropic filtering making a big difference when compared to 4x back in the day, but maybe modern monitors and higher screen resolutions have changed that?

Edited December 7, 20205 yr by Christopher Low

You're right Chris. Anisotropic filtering is for 3D picture definition at a distance. I do not recommend below 8x. Anti Aliasing is for jagged lines. I do not recommend below 4x.

First of all, my settings are for an average PC Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz   2.50 GHz and for an average graphic card AMD Radeon HD 8750M. If you possess a super PC, probably you do not need so much tweaking.

I keep ddfix 1.5.13 as first tweaking. I replaced FLIGHT3.EXE editing with HxD Hex Editor replacing ddraw by ddfix. It seems silly, but I'm almost sure this brings stability for DirectX output and enables further tweakings without crashes to desktop.

My last settings for ReShade 4.7 in my last post are still valid and fulfilling!

I've made an astonishing discovery with DGVoodoo2:

After applying ddfix and ReShade, I've just discovered that ticking "Fast video memory access" gives me a forward leap in frame rate. Last but not least ticking "Force vSync" brings me a steady frame rate of 27-28 fps. Without it, I have an average of 30 fps, during a second, and then a little freeze, and then go back to 30 fps (tested).

My DGVoodoo2 settings:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-0uXpvpl5hoc9mv4w?e=ObmPUP

 

One more discovery, if  your frame rate is abnormally low.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/frame-rate-issue-solved/208004

Choose desktop app instead of store app and browse to your flight3.exe

It works!

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-0yfYDQ8Hy4LDP5-Q?e=SDCDpZ

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-0xA44x2G3tNAfu5A?e=SeBLig

 

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-0vUFlhW49fPDlyhg?e=6OSQ2H

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-0wtmRp7LSIfoUfrw?e=OfCfQC

Edited December 9, 20205 yr by patrikmore

On 12/6/2020 at 7:03 PM, Naji said:

For FU3, Anisotropic 4x is enough as I couldn't see any texture improvement in the distance with 16x. I don't use 

Bilinear blit stretch

Apply Phong shading

Anisotropic 16x could be already set at PC level, in the graphic card 3D settings (override).

Bilinear is useless if your filtering is good (at ReShade level).

Apply Phong shading is interesting. It's good at geometrical cylinder objects, for example fuselage.

Now that I've frame rate unlocked, because in my laptop there were apparently two graphic cards and Windows 10 decided to choose the lowest frame rate! (It's solved as explained in previous post), now I can apply and test all the settings.

 

 

For nostalgic people:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-0zSOqHlzZIsyHKuw?e=taCJhQ

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-00-Kb-V9g7rvLHEA?e=osv5Kj

Three more pictures:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-0148ChOzwaWiBHJg?e=b4lSyB

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-02GsdyxCOeBq11TA?e=6bxmBz

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aigh3EjyJKT3j-03nsMcYQ7sChPWCw?e=ufxscr

I'll give you below the best setting for clouds, borrowed from Driscoll's last setting for clouds, a tricky thing in FU3 indeed:

UsePuffCloudModels

;--In hardware, smaller values make the clouds puff-out when further away, and
;--will adversely affect framerate (defaults min=150, max=200).
model_puff_min 150
model_puff_max 200
;--This will change the size of the "puffs" within a cumuliform cloud (default=2)
model_puffscale 3
;--One factor in determining "puff" size (default=0.05).
CloudDeck_PuffOnlyRadiusRatio 0.050000
;--Maximum size of "grid" element (in whole numbers, default=16).
CloudDeck_PuffOnlyMaxQuadSize 32
;--Maximum size of puff, in whole numbers (default=5).
CloudDeck_PuffOnlyMaxPuffSize 8
;--Other factors in puff size (defaults 2.5,0.1).
PuffGrid_Scale 2.5
PuffGrid_TopScaleVariation 0.1
;--Random puff placement (defaults 0.1, 0.1).
puff_puffonlyx 0.1
puff_puffonlyz 0.1
;--Values that affect puff placement and scale with distance (defaults 0.5, 0.5, 0.8).
PuffGrid_TopOffset 0.5
PuffGrid_TopAdjust 0.5
PuffGrid_CosmicFudge 0.8
;--Size, in whole numbers, of backdrop (default=4).
PuffGrid_BackdropSize 4
;--Decreasing this decreases framerate, but improves accuracy of puff sizes (default=0.1).
PuffGrid_SquashIncrement 0.08
;--Fade-in/out time for grid puffs (default=3).
puff_gridstale 20
;--Wait this long before puff dies (default=2).
puff_griddelay 2
;--Define this to turn off terrain height compensation.
;PuffGridIntersectTerrain

;--Haze calc frequency for puffs (default 4, 2).
puff_gridHazeCalcTime 5
puff_gridHazeCalcTimeVariation 2
;--Largest size of glommed non-puff grid elements (default=32).
grid_MaxTileIncrement 32
;--How quickly non-puff grid elements are glommed together with distance (default=1.6).
grid_MinTexelScreenSize 1.6
;--Fudgy things (defaults SubQuad 0.5, StandAlone 0.9).
;--I guess Threashold means threshold.
grid_SubQuadThreashhold 0.5
grid_StandAloneThreashhold 0.9
;--Various grid element sizes, in meters (defaults 64000,16000,16000,4096,4096,4096).
grid_TileSize_Cirrus 64000
grid_TileSize_CirroCumulus 16000
grid_TileSize_AltoCumulus 16000
grid_TileSize_StratoCumulus 4096
grid_TileSize_NimboStratus 4096
grid_TileSize_Stratus 4096
;--In Software (SW), how many grid elements are sorted. The more, the better
;--looking, but slower the framerate (defaults 25,50).
CloudDeck_MinSWGridObjects 25
CloudDeck_MaxSWGridObjects 50

;--How often backdrop haze is calculated (defaults 3, 1).
Backdrop_HazeTimeDelta 10
Backdrop_HazeTimeVariation 3

;--Large cloud models (aka cumulus clouds) may obscure other clouds, terrain,
;--and models. This behavior may be disabled.
;DisableCloudObscuration
;--Cumulus clouds may also "shade" depending on the sun's position relative to
;--the camera. This may be disabled.
;DisableCloudShading
;--In software, cumulus clouds are positioned near cloud decks, unless disabled.
;DisableCloudDeckModels

;--When under cumuliform clouds, their bases get hazed specially. When these
;--values are smaller, their update frequency increases, and framerate decreases.
;--Defaults Dist=1024, Time (seconds)=10, Delta=3
CloudModel_QuadRecomputeDist 1024
CloudModel_QuadRecomputeTime 5
CloudModel_HazeDistDeltaUpdateTime 4

;--These define when vertical polygons alpha (fade) out, depending on angle to camera.
;--Smaller values yield tighter transitions (default Min=0.17, Max=0.34).
CloudModel_AlphaValMin 0.17
CloudModel_AlphaValMax 0.34

;--This defines the relative color intensity of the base, relative to the rest of
;--the cloud (default 0.6).
CloudModel_BottomIntensity 0.8

;--Smaller values here increase overall cloud haze calculation frequency, and
;--decrease performance (defaults Time=5, Var=2).
CloudModel_HazeCalcTime 10
CloudModel_HazeCalcTimeVariation 2
;--This defines the largest size chunk with which the base of the cloud may be
;--rendered (default=1024).
CloudModel_MinBottomSize 1024
;--Maximum number of chunks for base of cloud. Must be a power of 2 (default=32).
CloudModel_MaxBottomQuads 32
;--Rate, relative to distance from camera, at which the cloud base is broken into
;--chunks. Large values yield higher rate (default=200).
CloudModel_MinBottomScreenSize 200
;--Rate at which the chunks hazes are computed. Smaller values yield more frequent
;--computation (defaults 20 sec and 100).
CloudModel_HazeTimeDelta 20
CloudModel_HazeDistDelta 100
;--Max number of cumuliform clouds whose visibility is calculated per frame (default=50).
CloudVisibilityMax 70
;--How important a contributor the sky as a whole is to lighting itself (default=0.5).
Cloud_SkyWeight 0.5

;--Says over what time, in seconds, does cumuliform haze interpolate (default=3).
CloudHazeDeltaTime 8