Can anyone please help me?I have lost special effects in FSX deluxe operating with Vista. Such things as:(1) engine start up smoke(2) seaplane landing splashes(3) seaplane wake on take off(4) etc. etc.Manipulation of the relevant sliders have not resulted in the return of special effects.Installing of the latest driver for NVIDIA 7950 GT video card, produced for example for engine start up and snow flurries on a frozen runway, smoke and flurries in a profuse amount of "black tiles"! Uninstalled the driver. I would be very pleased to receive any help.Thanking you.Don

Advanced Animations checkbox checked?What version of driver are you using for your 7950 (I have the same card and am using 6.14.11.6921

Thank you for your prompt reply. Here are the details you requested.Driver version is 7.15.0010.9746 dated 8/12/2006Advanced Animations checkbox is checked.Regards, Don

If I may intrude and ask.....Along the same effects question, how can I turn OFF the helicopter "dustoff" touchdown effect?It looks good but often creates stutters and fps fluctuations.I cannot find a replacement or altered one in the fsx library.

OK, I'm confused. The driver version for my 7900 GS starts with a 6, not a 7. The driver version for my 8800 GT starts with a 7.

Don,You might want to add a list then of all the add-ons you've installed (especially recent ones that might have overwritten .fx files).I've seen instances where third-party aircraft developers will overwrite FSX default files without properly backing up the originals, or otherwise warning you that they're about to screw up your system.Wonder if that might be what happened?

Thank you for your reply. I believe that you have pinpointed the problem. At first, I'll systematically uninstall the third party aircraft with the hope that will rectify the situation. If not, it looks like a re-installation of FSX if I want the special effects to work.Thank you very much for your advice.Regards, Don

No need to re-install everything, Don. Just remove the effects files from the folder, then run the Repair option. It will replace all the original effects files.You could also sort the effects files by date and see the most recent. Those are probably the culprits and you can remove them and optionally run Repair to just replace those.As for the other question about helicopter touchdown effect, simply open the aircraft.cfg (or sim.cfg) for that helicopter and remove the relevant line from the Effects section.Best regards.Luis

You have the old 97.46 driver. Try installing the 169.25 Vista driver. The later ones have problems.Dave

Luis,Thank you for your reply and your advice to repair the Effects files in FSX. I am pleased to say that after a couple of tries, I have successfully restored special effects, but haven't tested for all yet.My first attempt failed. Second try, I uninstalled service pack 2, then did the repair, and reinstalled service pack 2. (On the job learning!!)I am sure that at least one of the add-on aircraft I installed in FSX has been the culprit for the corruption of the Effects files. I have resolved to be more mindful of what I add-on in the future.Many thanks for your suggestion Luis.Regards, Don

Dave,Thank you for your suggestion to install driver 169.25 "Vista" driver. Do you mean 169.25 driver for NVIDIA 7950 GT video card? On the assumption you do, how can I ascertain if driver 97.46 is the old driver for the video card? All I can see on the computer is NVIDIA 7950 GT, version 7.15.0010.9746, main driver nvd3dum.dll nvapi.dll. I understand from your information that the latest drivers for 7950 GT have problems. My initial attempt to install the latest driver was 175.19 which didn't help my problem with special effects, but then at that stage my special effects were not working properly any way.I am pleased to say that due to the advice from Luis (23/7/08), I have successfully restored the special effects and it seems so far everything is working OK.Would be pleased to hear from you with regard to the location on the computer of the driver number. Thanks for your help. Regards, Don