Heads UP! ... FSWC IS BEING RELEASED

[Guest pwheeler]

Hi Jim,I personally run at 2x low most of the time. FSWC makes a difference even at this level water. It enhances the waves and sky reflections that you get at this level.It does not make any difference to 1x water settings.Psul

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Ulf, Yeah, I did that while rushing out the door to catch a flight from Cairo to London. I didn't bother removing yours, and in retrospect, it makes it look like you are taking a shot at me... :) You were responding to the Annan dude, right??? :)

[Guest Nick_N]

It's cool TomUlf was responding to a post that was removed

[Guest UlfB]

Tom,Yeah, my response was to that SG Kofi Annan character. I would have taken a shot at you if you wouldn't have deleted his posts ;-) Thanks.Ulf B

[jwenham 1]

I'm confused. Here is my question again.If using 2x low water, will I see a big enough difference to use this utility?Still catching up on your sleep?:-lol

[Guest Nick_N]

ha haYes, finally got a full 8 hoursYes, 2xLow and above. 2xLow you will definitely see a difference but the higher you go the more you can do with the tool2xMED introduces cloud reflections to water and in default the water reflects them TOO much, this tool allows you to tone that back2xHIGH and you introduce shoreline reflections. Default tends to create nasty shimmers and this tool allows you to tone that back as shown in the images I posted above.. gives water a more realsitic reflection qualityYou can also boost that too for photo ops. Nitetime water off shore of a city with mirror reflections, etc

[jwenham 1]

Nick, In the pat you have always said not to go higher than 2x LOW water, that it wasnt worth the performance hit to go higher. Now it looks like you are saying to crank it up. Will FSWC help allowing us to turn the water sliders up? I am ablr to run 2X HIGH depending on area and still have decent frames/performance but I am just wondering.Thanks, Jim

[Guest UlfB]

I'm not Nick, but I would say that the type of flight your'e flying should have a big impact on your display settings.I use two saved configurations: One for IFR flights over dense urban areas with water set 2.x low, autogen set to normal. Another for VFR flights in rural areas with water set to 2.x medium and autogen to very dense. Very convenient.Ulf BCore2Duo X6800 3.3GHz4GB RAM Corsair XMS2-8500C5BFG 8800GTX, Creative SB X-FiFSX Acc/SP2, Vista 32

[Guest Nick_N]

Jim I think you may be reading what I have said in the past about setting up the sim and getting it tuned in as "these settings should never be changed"There are some settings IMO that should not be changed like LOD radius, Mesh res, texture res, scenery complex as these should be located at one value and locked. Mesh res can be a variable if you install a high res mesh (above 10m) for one area in the future as those types of products may come available. Right now Acceleration comes with a very high res mesh for the Mt St. Hellens area and one can bump the resolution up and use 30/60cm tile proxy to see that area in all its glory with that mesh.I do suggest that one use the same advice Phil Taylor posted about water shaders and to use the 'tradeoff' setting of 2xLow to get the ball rolling in setting up the sim for the hardware and get the best of both worlds on water visuals. Once the system and sim are dialed in the user can work a few of the sliders based on the area they are flying.. and I know I have posted that as well.In example.. in bush flying or outside of large urban influence I have posted that I set frame lock down to 30 (from unlimited in heavy urban) and I also raise water to 2xMED or HIGH.. I rarely use ultra high but do from time to time. Alaska and other wilderness bush flying I do use the higher water settings because my system is able to deliver the resources in those circumstances and the visuals are so much more appealing. There are times when I may drop my AG slider a notch down from 100% too.It comes down to what your system can and can not do in the area being flow and still deliver the fluid flight experience.Then there are those that like to use the sim for photo-ops. This tool will give them another way to enhance their creations both fantasy type results, and, reality wise.

[FalconAF 213]

I'm with Nick on the above advice. I've got a "fast" system configured correctly for FSX, and generally never change LOD radius, mesh res, texture res, or scenrry complexity. I will vary the autogen sometimes, but normally don't need to. AI traffic (air and ground) gets varied depending on the type of flying I'm doing and where. I can run water 2xMed everywhere, which works great with the new FSWC ability to vary the water display. In "remote" areas (bush flying in Alasks, etc) I'll crank it up to 2xHigh with no problems. Gotta adjust the FSWC sliders for this though, to eliminate some of the "shimmering" from mountain/land reflections on the water. Also, if using FEX SHD's new 4096 cloud textures, you'll need some extra FSX.CFG files to load during your session if you want to change any of the display sliders in FSX (to keep the 4096 setting for the "Texture Max Load=nnnn" setting in the FSX.CFG file, or it gets reset to 1024 if you use the FSX Display sliders). If I'm really froggy, I can max everything out even in a dense metropolitan area such as Seattle, but I have to be doing the "right" kind of flying for this to work, even with my "fast" system. With the PMDG 747, it's a no-go slideshow with everything maxed out. But in the default Bell 206 chopper, flying "by the book" (no horsing the aircraft all over the place), I can still get 20+ FPS with everything maxed, which is excellent for sight-seeing and admiring GEXn, FEX SHD, UTX, and FSWC. Sight-seeing with the Bell in these cases is incredible. You can get "up close and personal" to every scenery object in FSX. The visuals are amazing when landing the Bell 206 at a shoreline heliport with the surrounding scenery in these cases.Rick

[Guest pwheeler]

Hi guys,Just to let you know our support system has changed. Can you now direct all support issues to our support forum:http://www.fswaterconfigurator.com/forumThanksPaul

[Guest Bob I]

Bump....

[Guest Nick_N]

Some screenshots posted after some recent testing http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...73642&mode=full

[Guest cbuchner1]

I run FSX Acceleration in DX9 mode and I've previously installed some water shader mods. Will the program still function correctly, i.e. does it replace the water shader with its own versions no matter what the user had installed previousoly?

[Guest Nick_N]

If the mods you made were to the file Water20.fxh, simply back that file up and restore the orifinal FSX version before FSWC use. That is the only file FSWC will alter. You can then proceed to use FSWC and if the edits you made in the past to your Water20.fxh file are not part of FSWC's current control, then you can manually edit those items into the Water20.fxh file after applying FSWC changes. It will overwrite any manual edits you made if a change is made and applied in the FSWC interface after any manual edits to that file, so do keep that in mind. Make your FSWC changes first, then make you manual edits. Each time you hit APPLY in FSWC it clears the FSX terrain shader folder automatically however you must clear the terrain shader file manually should you make manual edits.We are currently looking at the possiblility of translucency, base texture brightness and dynamic range, bumpmap, wave height and frequency controls along with a few other settings for the next update.