I just discovered a simply wonderful special effect in FSX this morning and had to tell you all about it. I searched the forum and found that there was a post about this some 4 months ago, but it seems to have gotten little attention. Go visit Niagara Falls. Fly low and slow over the falls - I did it at 1000 feet - and there will be a surprise in store for you. You can use either the VC or Spot view.You may not want to use real weather, as it's quite stormy at the moment. But the effect is still discernable even in these inclement conditions.Enjoy!I wonder how many other little surprises like this are buried in the sim.Robert

I guarantee there are a LOT of things that would be nice to try or find in FSX like that. But I personally will wait until I can get 30+ fps on a modern day PC then I will go out and purchase it.

>I guarantee there are a LOT of things that would be nice to>try or find in FSX like that. But I personally will wait>until I can get 30+ fps on a modern day PC then I will go out>and purchase it.>Your nick says "I'd rather be flying" yet you allow a hangup on 30 fps to make you miss a LOT of enjoyable flying. I get 15-20 and I'm loving it, same as I did with FS9. There is nothing I do or see at 15-20 that you'd do or see better at 30.Your loss.:)Vic(seeking nomination as official MS shill)Visit the Virtual Pilot's Centerwww.flightadventures.comhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/

>Your nick says "I'd rather be flying" yet you allow a hangup>on 30 fps to make you miss a LOT of enjoyable flying. I get>15-20 and I'm loving it, same as I did with FS9. There is>nothing I do or see at 15-20 that you'd do or see better at>30.>>Your loss.You know, that's a subjective matter. There are a lot of people who (like me) see a lot of difference between 15 and 30 FPS.Frankly, chugging along at 15-20 FPS totally destroys the immersion for me (and hence the "feeling" of simulating flight).Not to talk about the fact that the control of the aircraft becomes more difficult, especially during T/O and landings.Marco

>I guarantee there are a LOT of things that would be nice to>try or find in FSX like that. But I personally will wait>until I can get 30+ fps on a modern day PC then I will go out>and purchase it.>I get that easily in most locations except the most dense areas like NY. That's with Extremely dense scenery settings, Dense Autogen, max weather, water at 2X low and 100% UT traffic file!My system is an E6700 2GB ATI X1950XTX 512MB! I think that qualifies as a "modern day PC"

>You know, that's a subjective matter. There are a lot of>people who (like me) see a lot of difference between 15 and 30>FPS.>>Frankly, chugging along at 15-20 FPS totally destroys the>immersion for me (and hence the "feeling" of simulating>flight).>>Not to talk about the fact that the control of the aircraft>becomes more difficult, especially during T/O and landings.>I found for FSX, that 25 fps was working about as well as 30 fps, since it has a stutterless smoothness to it, and set my target rate at 25. 15 fps will work for flight at altitudes where the ground scenery appears to roll slowly by, but it's not good for total control in takeoff and landing sequences.I do try to maintain those 25 fps in FSX, and usually succeed.L.Adamson

Try flying around downtown Chicago-check out all the smoke from office buildings....http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

Thanks for sharing, Robert - nice eye candy indeed and shows off FSX very well. Flying under the bridge made it a bit more interesting and the weather is great to fly in , love that unpredictable element.

Well, I saw nothing there. ONly the MOTM circling around - is that what you are talking about? Is there some atmospheric effect I should be looking for?

If what you're experiencing is merely "eye candy", then you're missing the wonderful effect I found so surprising. That isn't to say that what I consider to be the eye candy - the mist and spray - isn't pretty cool. But there's much more. To help you along, keep in mind that there are other senses besides sight. I don't want to go into any further detail because I think the surprise element is important. When you experience what I'm talking about, you'll immediately know you've found it. I don't think it exists any place else in the FSX world, although I've not yet flown by any of the other great falls in the world and don't even know if they're modeled to the same extent as Niagara. If you're not experiencing the effect I'm talking about, then perhaps your animation or effects sliders aren't fully to the right.Robert

Hey!! Wait a minute we have a NO Smoking Ordinance! :( ;-) Would be cool if someone did an addon for Autogen that puts "smoke/vapor" trails coming out of all/majority of autogen buildings.If I'm not mistaken FSX does a better job of not letting the particle effects showing thru clouds.

It might help to have an open cockpit too, if it's the same effect that I noticed as I approached the falls.

Well, I was flying in the Trike, but I noticed no mist, or anything special. Must try it again with the sliders maxed up - but it will be a slide show!

>If what you're experiencing is merely "eye candy", then>you're missing the wonderful effect I found so surprising.>That isn't to say that what I consider to be the eye candy ->the mist and spray - isn't pretty cool. But there's much more.>>Ouchy, that told me ....Um, I have sliders maxed and can't quite get what you're merley on about. I heard the falls, saw the little boat bobbing about in the turbulent waters (being driven by mad-person from the look of it)Jaysus, not alot to get excited about in the scheme of things. Will take a jaunt around later and see what all the fuss is really about. Maybe there's the smell of Niagra falls I'm not getting.. I know I hadn't found ALL those pesky sliders. SmellyVortexFXX 3.x.6 enabled, captain!!>_

I think you HAVE observed what this thread was talking about, based on your description. I kept looking for a small barrell going over, but that aint it!!