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PhilTaylor

Topdown View Problem

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Guest jstone154

I am using FSX and when in the top down view, I do not get any terrain. Only the runways and trees/buildings. No grass/water.I have a NVIDIA graphics card. I have a friend that has the same problem.I also have a laptop with an Intel graphics card, and it works.Any ideas?

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Guest UlfB

jstone154,The probability that somebody would answer your quetion might increase if you give more information about your hardware (cpu, ram, graphic card model) and what OS you use. If you do somebody with a similar system may answer your question.Some possible causes:1. Your graphics card has only 256mb memory or less and you try to run fsx with the scenery sliders to far to the right. Might choke your graphics card.2. Your nVIDIA driver is old and need to be updated.You might also search the forum. I bet that this problem is allready covered in a couple of threads.Ulf B :-)Core2Duo X6800 OC 3.3GHz, 4GB RAM8800GTX nVIDIA driver 162.18, dual view 1920x1200 and 1280x1024Creative SB X-Fi (Gamer mode)WinXP Pro SP2, FSX SP1, FS9.1

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Guest jstone154

My Graphics card is a 64MB NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 420. I have updateded the drivers with no help. The CPU is a Intel Pentium 4 2.8MZ with 512MB RAM. I am running XP Home with all of the service packs. My friend has a 64MB NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 440 w/TV and has the same prolem. His computer is very similuar with 1G RAM.I have tried moving the scenery sliders to both ends. It is now set for the default condition at the present time. This is the same settting that is on my laptop which has an Intel chip (915GM/GMS with 128 MB.) and the topdown view is fine.Is the problem with the 128MB memory vs. the 64MB memeory?I have searched the forum, but I did not come up with anyone else that has had this problem. My FS9 runs with no problem. The topdown view is normal.

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GF4MX is actually a gussied up geForce2. That means its DX7 class hw, and not great DX7 class hw. Its fixed function, and FSX as it is today barely runs on that class of hw.FSX-Acceleration and FSX-SP2(DX10) will not run on this hardware, we have cut fixed function support to aid the effort to get alpha-fade for DX9 in SP2. Note - we dont have alpha-fade working yet and all features are on the cut list to make this holiday's schedule so treat this as further confirmation *we are trying* to get that feature in.I suggest you would be well served to buy reasonable DX9 class hw, its on the order of $50 or less today and will greatly improve that experience. Further, I would advise against buying any graphics hw on the same board with TV tuners. If NV does the same as ATI, the multimedia boards are almost always de-tuned versions of the pure graphics hw. De-tuned means core and memory clocks are usually less, the memory type is different, etc.

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Guest jstone154

Phil...What would you recommend as a good DX9 class of video card. My AGP slot is a 4X. My friends is a 8X.ThanksJim...

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>>FSX-Acceleration and FSX-SP2(DX10) will not run on this>hardware, we have cut fixed function support to aid the effort>to get alpha-fade for DX9 in SP2. Note - we dont have>alpha-fade working yet and all features are on the cut list to>make this holiday's schedule so treat this as further>confirmation *we are trying* to get that feature in.>Appreciate the effort on alpha fade!I hope you all get it working well. That would be wonderful.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian


Rhett

7800X3D ♣ 32 GB G.Skill TridentZ  Gigabyte 4090  Crucial P5 Plus 2TB 

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any 78xx or 79xx series NV AGP board, or any 18xx or 19xx series ATI AGP board ( if they offer them in AGP ) would be best.if those are PCI-E only ( and I'd have to check as my memory unit is failing at the moment ) then whatever is the latest AGP. 6 series or X8xx would be better than a 9800.

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Hi All:Here's an excellent web site that offers very informative and easy to follow side-by-side comparisons of add-in video cards; their pick lists quickly show what types are/were made by the various manufacturers:http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=126&card2=511http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=126&card2=503It has been my impression that the "Memory Bandwidth" would be most influential in how well a currently available video card might perform with FS; it would be interesting to learn of others' experience with this specification info. :-roll It has also been my impression that the other listed numbers aside from "Memory Bandwidth" might reveal how efficient the associated circuitry is in supporting/complementing the GPU chip in the FS rendering process.It will be even more interesting to see how these numbers (and prices!) change as subsequent video card hardware revisions become available later this year. ;) Hope this helps when shopping! :-)GaryGB

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I wonder why is alpha fade such a problem that they are still trying. This is not a flame by the way. I am ignorant of programing stuff and thus surprised that this feature was in FS9 but its so hard to put in FSX.

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>I wonder why is alpha fade such a problem that they are still>trying. This is not a flame by the way. I am ignorant of>programing stuff and thus surprised that this feature was in>FS9 but its so hard to put in FSX.I think Phil or P-12C blogged about alpha fade one time, and answered your question in that. I think part of the problem had to do with the way autogen objects are batched out to be displayed. That is different in FSX vs. FS2004 and meant that things had to change unfortunately.Anyway good to see that they are trying to see if it can be put back in.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian


Rhett

7800X3D ♣ 32 GB G.Skill TridentZ  Gigabyte 4090  Crucial P5 Plus 2TB 

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Its actually even more complicated.The way we handled fixed function cards and shader capable cards at the same time required some compromises which mean the information to enable alpha-fade was not able to be sent down the pipeline. So thats why no alpha-fade in FSX-RTM and FSX-SP1.To enable alpha-fade in FSX-SP2, we have to 1)rip out the fixed function part of the code, 2)re-plumb the remaining shader pipeline, 3)add the alpha information for object classes that need it, 4)send it down the pipeline, 5)draw the alpha-faded Autogen object.Nothing is ever as easy as it seems from the outside. :-).

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