Got a strange one: I got FSX for xmas and have been playing. So far i got FPS around 6-10 range but when I get near an airport all the taxiway signs are white :( I wondered if anyone else was suffering from this and if so what settings to change, how to solve the problem. Thanks in advance!Nick Taylor(VATSIM 910844)

I had this, and it was sorted.Having senior moment, so cannot recall how it was fixed!!It was through a help e-mail on this forum.So, it is fixable!

Thanks! Now anyone know the solution....please....!

Hello Nick,Certain objects in FS X use new rendering techniques for their textures - these textures are pushed through the shader pipeline. You will find this for taxiway sign, bridge, tetrahedron textures, and I don't know which else.Anyway, perhaps the FS Team decided that it was time to use more modern graphics techniques and start abandoning the old way of doing things, as so many people here have asked.The problem, though, is that many graphics cards do not handle shaders very efficiently. I imagine that the official FS testing team (not the beta testers) found while testing that many test machines had very bad performance with these shader techniques.Therefore, it seems that the FS Team decided to turn shaders off by default for a very large number of graphics cards. You will find the list of these graphics cards in the display.cfg file - look for "Shaders=0".With shaders turned off, those textures do not display. Instead, a fallback color, sometimes white, sometimes bright green will show.This is an inexplicable decision, something that is hard to understand. Because it means that for a very large part of the user base, perhaps even the majority, taxiway signs and bridges, and whatever else, appear untextured.There was a post in this forum detailing how to go about turning shaders back on, a relatively simple matter, but you will get very bad performance if you do. If you are interested, please search the forum.Best regards.Luis

I had this problem and did get it fixed but it took some timeHere is the fix: also search forum for "Shader model 2.0" by cbuchner1 Another thread highlighted the possibility to disable Shader model 2.0 pixel and vertex shaders to get "FS9" like performance with FSX.Two options were mentioned:1) globally disabling shaders 2.0 and above using the RivaTuner software2) hacking display.cfg in the Flight Simulator X folder by inserting this under the entry for your graphics card:Shader20Plus=0UseShaders=0Following that, some people experienced all-white runway and taxi signs as well as glitches regarding wing flex on some aircraft models. Other people could not even find the appropriate section in display.cfg because their graphics card was not listed.In this post, I am going to elaborate more on the possibilities that you have with display.cfg and how to add a section that matches your graphics card explicitly. We are also going to use settings that WILL keep your signs readable and the wing flex working while still providing some performance boost. Ready for this?First of all, see if your graphics card model is already listed. If so, that's fine - but if not, we are going to add a new section. First, you need to find out the PCI manufacturer and device ID for your particular model. Open your "System" Control panel and activate the Device Manager under the "Hardware" Tab. Expand the "Display Adapters" tree, select your graphics card and use the right mouse button to open the context menu. Select "Properties". Select the "Details" tab and look at the string presented below. It should look something like this (this example is for my Geforce 7800 GS AGP)PCI/VEN_10DE&DEV_00F5&...Look at the 4 letters and numbers following VEN_ and DEV_. These identify your particular hardware. So I created a new entry in my display.cfg in the Nvidia section right after the first (generic) NVidia entry. Notice that I copied the 4 letter vendor ID right after the first leading 0000, and the device ID right after the 0000's following the colon. So this section will only match your particular Gfx card.;----------------------------------------------------------------------; NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS (AGP);----------------------------------------------------------------------<000010DE:000000F5:nv4_disp.dll>Shader20Plus=13UseShaders=1So what about this number following Shader20Plus ? Why the 13?It is a number that specifies the maximum permissible shader model inside the simulator. I got this from a (largely ignored) post in another thread suggesting to put a "10" here. This posting suggested that this is not simply an on/off switch but actually specifies a limit for the shader model version. Such version specifiers are often used in DirectX API programming - so his post actually made sense to me (being a programmer). A 10 would specify shader model 1.0 or lower (actually 1.0 is considered deprecated now and has been superseded with 1.1). I know most Nvidia cards support shader model up to 1.3 - Their 6xxx series DirectX 9 compatible cards also support 2.0, some GeForce 7xxx series cards even shader model 3.0ATI is slightly different in that respect that they support up to model 1.4 (all DirectX 8 based gear, e.g. Radeon 9200 and 9500) and 2.0 beginning with Radeon 9700, 9800 Shader model 3.0 is available in all the X series cards from ATI.So if you own nvidia, put 13 into Shader20Plus. If you own ATI, put 14 into Shader20Plus. I am not sure if Microsoft actually has 1.4 optimized shaders but we might as well specify the "right" shader version anyway.Leave UseShaders at 1, otherwise you would lose Vertex shaders that will be used for wing flexing and other animations. Now that we limit ourselves to shader model 1.3 or 1.4, you should set your water detail to "High 1.x" to get at least some water effects with shaders.You should have working runway signs, working wing flex, a generally an improved simulator performance now. It made the thing actually playable on my 7800 GS AGP model. I hope this guide was useful to you. Please report if this works for you.Seems complicated but it does workHope this helpsJerry

Great reply!However, I would not have had the IQ to do any of this.I have searched the database for all my meanderings over the last year, and I am unable to find the relevant posts.I am honestly trying to recall what I did, but can only say that it worked!I am now on an upgraded machine, so do not have the ability to check my old machines to see if I can check what I did.Have you tried the Mip Map settings?Is it a Nvidia? I was always seeking out newest drivers, and this may be where the problem stopped.

Jerry, You are a genious! I don't know how you know it but you should be knighted! Thank you so very much! You have saved me from giving up with FSX and going back to FS9!Happy FlyingNickT

Jerry,I had the same problem, so I was delighted to read your post. I made the suggested modification to display.cfg, and it workd --sort of. Now some of the signs are as they should be, but some are black!This is the entry for my video card:;----------------------------------------------------------------------; NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Ultra;----------------------------------------------------------------------[000010DE:00000321:nv4_disp.dll]PanelAsTexture=0[000010DE:00000321:nv4_disp.dll.1]MinDriverRev=6.14.0010.4523PanelAsTexture=2Shader20Plus=13As you see, it doesn't have a line for UseShaders; I think only the ATI cards have that line.Can you suggest anything?Thanks,Barney

I hate to sound rude but have you checked that the whole sign is black? I saw the BACK of a sign first and thought that the "fix" had just made the signs black, it was only when I taxied on and saw the other side that I realised it had worked!

You don't sound the least bit rude! But I have a red face. Yes, the signs are black --on the back. On the front they are exactly as they should be.Sorry,Barney

I too had the same problem and was very hopeful that these display.cfg settings would resolve the issue. The good news is that airport markings are now visible in Day Mode but for me, framerate plummented by 50% and the spot view jerks and stutters almost to the point of motion sickness. OK, maybe I embelished a little, but it's almost unplayable. I have a P4 3.0 with 1Gig of RAM and a FX5500 256 graphics card. I was getting 18-20 fps constant before editing the display cfg.Anyone have anything else I can try? Thanks

I too have an old fx5200 Ultra.Please tell me where you make this "entry for the video card." I can't find any place in fs9.cfg file.Thanks,Phil

PhilYou need to be looking in the display.cfg which should be in your main FSX folder -Program FilesMicrosoft GamesMicrosoft Flight Simulator XThe NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Ultra is listed towards the end of the Nvidia cards.Chris

Hi All,I have Nvidia FX5200 (Pentium 4, 3.2MHz,1Gb RAM) and these display.cfg settings don't work for me.Any other ideas??