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Old Thames Water Problem Returned in Acceleration, + Others

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Guest surfsup

Any help on the following would be appreciated.The Thames water issue has returned in Acceleration, not sure about Portugal as I have an addon scenery here and it is not present.How can one correct it? It appears in both DX-9 and DX-10.Also like others there is flashing of textures on some runways in DX-10. Go to London City as an example. Is there any solution?The F-18 is buggy in DX-9. Is it only supposed to be flown in DX-10? It freezes within a few minutes if it is flying in heavily populated area such as London, NY, etc, in DX-9. In non-populated areas like Hilo, Hawaii there is no problem. In DX-10 it only freezes if one changes screens on the panel too frequently. Seems as if there needs to be a lot more work done to it's codeing. Maybe a rush job considering the time. Who designed it Aces or someone else? Will there be an SP1 for the F-18?In regards to the SDK, SDK and SDK1 updates are installed but I cannot find imagetools.exe. How can I find it? Did I ever have it there or when I installed it did I not install everything, if so what should I do now?Overall frame rates are greatly improved especially in DX-10. The water seems a little too oily and artificial but DX-10 is in its infancy so this should improve. Can fly 20fps in DX-10 locked with bloom, full water, most others at or near max, except road at 12, even in London - NY 18 fps. Love DX-10. Also most of fuzzies are gone but even when I fly real planes there are fuzzies in the distance.Hope IFly, Eaglesoft and Carenado do texture updates so one is not flying around in a white ghost in DX-10. Cannot be that difficult and would certainly help their reputations. Or is it that difficult?The Halo works well but difficult to see cockpit intruments. Mustang a little to shiny for my taste. Why no 2-Ds?One interstingly point when config was rebuilt it left out Texture_Bandwidth_Multi so I had to put it in. Second time I did this it was present - bizarre. Also have two mentions of my video card I think someone else mentioned this:First mention is after Weather stuffDispay.Device.NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX.0Second is much lower down after MiscDispay.Device.NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX.0.0Why is this? Is it something to do with DX-10?Overall a 6/10, 9/10 without the F-18.Only tweaks are:JOBSCHEDULERAffintyMask=14 (i.e. Utilizes CPUs 1,2,3 but not Zero - definetly improves FPS)DisplayTexture_Bandwidth_Multi=35BufferPoolsPoolSize=10000000q6600 G0 overclocked to 3.4 8x1700 at 1:1Stock Voltage - No voltage adjustments 29 idle/40 load (Prime95-latest stable 24 hours)Monsoon II CoolerEVGA 680i A18800 GTX (slightly overclocked)4 Corsair Dominator 85005 * 75 Raptors (No Raid)Using on board sound.Latest NVidia BetaVista 32 Ultimate

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Guest robby88

I can verify the Thames terrain/water problem. It looks as if a bug has been introduced in Acceleration.

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Hi guys,Just like SP1, Acceleration overwrites the existing terrain.cfg file with a "pristine" version, a version that will display "sloped" water as rocks.The solution is the same as for SP1: installing the modified terrain.cfg http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=93289As a matter of fact, if you have any add-ons that also modify the terrain.cfg file, like MegaScenery Hawaii, Ultimate Terrain, Vancouver+, etc., you'll need to run a Repair on all of them to get those custom terrain.cfg entries back. Do that AFTER installing the modified terrain.cfg because it doesn't include an auto-installer.Cheers, Holger

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But SP1 fixed the issue without this .cfg fix before. Not sure why it is back in SP2

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Guest robby88

SP1 worked fine for me in this respect. I didn't have to alter any config files.As an experiment I uninstalled Acceleration, reverting back to SP1. Checked out London in SP1 and everything was fine. I copied the SP1 terrain cfg file while I was at it. I then reinstalled Acceleration, had one flight, then backed up terrain.cfg and replaced with the SP1 terrain.cfg which had functioned correctly in SP1. The problem still exists in Acceleration using the SP1.cfg file. Thus the problem is more than a cfg override. I do recall Adam mentioning the cause of the problem in the original RTM, but have been unable to find any of his posts on the subject. I thought it was a little more complex than a config problem.

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Hi there,good point. It appears there is indeed a regression to pre-SP1 conditions along the Thames. The rock textures disappear when using the modified terrain.cfg I mention above but that, of course, doesn't change the problems with the uneven (to put it mildly) water surface.Apologies about the partially incorrect response. Cheers, Holger

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Hi there,the problem with the Thames in London in FSX RTM was that ACES's algorithm, which allows for water surfaces to be sloped, failed due to problems with the source terrain data. ACES used Shuttle Radar data, which have the problem that they also track the surface of man-made structures. Given all the bridges and tall buildings near the Thames the terrain data for that area is rather "bumpy" and the water flattening algorithm blindly follows those inaccuracies.With SP1 ACES (manually) fixed some of those elevation jumps in the water but it seems to have been "unfixed" again in Acceleration/SP2.What I was referring to in regards to the terrain.cfg is something else. Because ACES knew that their water data doesn't always match well with their terrain data they decided to automatically switch water surfaces to cliff textures when the water's gradient gets above a specific value. This "feature" is what the modified terrain.cfg removes again because the cliffs tend to highlight rather than mask problematic areas like the Thames.Cheers, Holger

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The f18 runs great over NY here, I just did a number of passes around Manhattan until the fuel ran out, no locks at all in DX9.Had water on high 2.x, frame rate in VC 15-25.The ground textures did look softer than before Acc at times, also lots of autogen popping in and out, still great fun. Try a tail view with the f18 with with zoom at 40%, fly low, you get real sense of speed!

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Guest kd001

Has anyone tried installing SP1 over Acceleration. That might solve the problem. It seems most people havent seen much of an improvement of SP2 over SP1 anyway.

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I don't know about the Thames but Lake Boyano in Panama has the cliffs in the water, that I didn't notice with SP1.Obviously, everyone's TERRAIN.CFG was overwritten.That won't fix any source data issues but it will turn the cliffs into water cliffs...a mixed blessing I suppose...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

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Guest spsuthers

The return of the Thames problems in Acceleration is because ACES accidentally recompiled using pre-SP1 data.From PTaylor's WebLog:"River Thames. Longleat is in the same QMID as the Thames, and a re-export of that QMID on 8/22 picked up the pre-SP1 data. It appears only 2 slope problems exist, as compared to how many slope issues were in RTM at this location, but this is an unfortunate regression it is true."

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Guest dswo

Is this something that's fixable with a flatten polygon?

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Hi David:I was thinking the same thing about just trying a different type of water poly that replaces the default SP2 water in the Thames area which has the problem.Perhaps Holger would know what type of SDK method(s) might be capable of implementing the appropriate fix for this?Otherwise, I should think a replacement FSX-SP2 compliant terrain mesh BGL for the Thames area should solve the issue regardless of the current function in the rendering engine.I suppose that the VFR-UK photoscenery with a reportedly available high-resolution 5 meter source data terrain mesh does not have this problem, as it places custom photorealistic textures (including Thames water) over the terrain mesh that is willing to "drape and behave" regardless of the terrain morphology? :-rollApparently a high detail version of the London area will be available:http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopuk/in...products_id=219Hope this helps! :-) GaryGB

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