Hi all,

Looking for a little advice with this annoying issue!

Firstly, my specs are: i7 6700K @ 4.5 GHz, 16GB RAM @ 3000 MHz, Nvidia 1080, a 4K monitor and a bunch of SSDs.

I usually run with hyperthreading off.

I have the terrain textures get blurry/not much if any autogen loading during the last few long flights.

Even after taking off out of EGLL the other day in the PMDG 777, I noticed the terrain textures over Belgium were blurry and not loading properly.

My normal settings are:

Resolution: 3840x2160
FXAA: Off
AA: 4xSSAA
Ansiotropic 16x
Texture 4096x4096
Vsync: On with triple buffering (monitor @ 30Hz)
Frame rate: unlocked

Level of detail radius: Ultra
Tesselation: Low
Mesh: 1m
Texture: 7cm

Scenery complexity: Very Dense
Autogen and scenery draw distance: High
Autogen vegetation density: Extermely dense
Autogen building density: Dense
EA: on

Shadows: High/High
Internal vehicle/external vehicle cast/receive
Sim objects/Vegetation/Buildings receive
Clouds cast

 

I tried reducing the LOD to Medium & High, Autogen/scenery draw to Medium, and both vegetationa and building autogen to normal, as well as turning down mesh, but still, when I save and resume the flight during initial cruise over western Europe, the same problem.  I am using ORBX openLC Europe + FTX global.

For some reason, if I turn hyperthreading on, this does not happen.  I let P3D decide the affinity mask for non-HT, and for HT I use:

AffinityMask=255
P3DCoreAffinityMask=255
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

I can't recall seeing blurries that don't resolve like this before, and I am not sure why hyperthreading seems to help.  I have always had HT off in the past as I feel the sim is less smooth with it on.

Have tried rebuilding P3D cfg, letting scenery indicies and terrain cfg rebuild etc., but no luck.  Scenery library is in order (Addon aiports, then orbx Airports, then orbx openLC/global, then mesh (not for Europe), then default.

Has anyone had any luck curing these annoying blurries?  I am open to any advice. 

PS my ORBX library is on a separate SSD to P3D but I am assuming that is not the problem.  I notice the scenario loads quicker with HT on.

Kind regards,
Rudy
 

Edited June 2, 20251 yr by VHOJT

Have you tried emptying the shader cashe?

Edited June 3, 20251 yr by Ian S

Tried adding a FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION to your P3D.cfg? Or using Dynamic FFTF?

With a 10 year old CPU and a 1080 GPU running P3D 5.4 at 4K your doing well, with a PMDG aircraft as well. what`s your FPS counter showing.

On 6/2/2025 at 7:42 PM, VHOJT said:

specs are: i7 6700K @ 4.5 GHz, 16GB RAM @ 3000 MHz, Nvidia 1080, a 4K monitor, Resolution: 3840x2160

Vsync: On with triple buffering (monitor @ 30Hz)
Frame rate: unlocked

Sounds very much like a hardware related issue, as in (unfortunately) your hardware is being pushed beyond what the software can achieve, especially at 4k screen resolutions.

The vsync @ 30Hz should be fine and would be great for lowering CPU/GPU use for a given P3D GFX scenario, assuming that is you're able to achieve 30 fps for vsync to actually function... What sort of fps are you getting ?

 

There is one setting in the P3D config you might want to trial...

[TERRAIN]
// P3D maintains a global terrain view for efficiency - if blurries start developing after a period of time or autogen stops loading trial setting to False.
UseGlobalTerrainView=False

 

One thing I've noticed about P3D 5 is that it's ground poly loading is much expedited when compared to earlier P3D versions, no doubt LM enhanced the loading/decompression, and yes you would likely get greater speed of ground poly loading when using hyperthreading, perhaps just enough extra CPU core threads to resolve the issue, which in turn points to fairly borderline hardware capabilities.

 

I have to say...have you trialed lossless scaling ?

It's great at allowing you to run P3D at a lower frame rate via an external limiter (like RTSS or NVidia CP/app), which in turn reduces the CPU/GPU load allowing P3D to run at a consistent fps without overloading the CPU/GPU, while frame generating to to 60 fps, e.g. I run P3D @ 20~30 fps and LS outputs 60 fps, you could trial say 15/30, or even 20/60 if you switch back to a 60Hz screen mode.

It's like updating to a far newer GPU for lunch money.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/993090/Lossless_Scaling/

 

Below is a 8 minute (quite GPU intensive) vid showing LS in action (P3D v4.5) where LS's frame counter can be see in the top LHS, screen mode for the flight was at 2560 x 1440 @ 60hz, CPU is a 5800x overclocked and GPU is a 3080Ti, and although the sim is P3D v4.5, I've found LS actually works better in P3D v5.  

 

I fly in v5.3 and do encounter similar issues every now and then. After takeoff, the ground textures get blurry and they don't load properly. When this happens, my CPU usually goes to 100% too. Any solution would be helpful.

 

On 6/5/2025 at 11:07 PM, AzureFire said:

I fly in v5.3 and do encounter similar issues every now and then. After takeoff, the ground textures get blurry and they don't load properly. When this happens, my CPU usually goes to 100% too. Any solution would be helpful.

 

What's the scenario when this occurs ?

e.g. airport, plane, flight plan etc.

What's your system specs?

When the issue occurs does the scenery eventually catchup if the sim is paused ?

Generally the "blurries" are due to the system being unable to keep up with the sim, for example flying low at high speed will place great demands on scenery loading and processing.

Such blurries have been an issue since fsx days, although P3D v5+ have greatly improved the loading and processing.

• Did you happen to trial the UseGlobalTerrainView registry setting as previously detailed?
• How do you manage your frame rate?

Cheers

On 6/4/2025 at 3:40 AM, Antonov22 said:

Tried adding a FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION to your P3D.cfg? Or using Dynamic FFTF?

Looks like FFTF dynamic is no longer an option unless its website and authorisation servers come back online, or the author releases a non-phone home version, probably little chance of that though...

Also config FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION values only work if the sim is not set to unlimited fps.

Cheers

Hey @Rogen
There isn't really a specific area where this occurs and its not aircraft specific. I encountered it while flying from Chisinau to Istanbul or from Prague to Zadar. Around 20 minutes after takeoff, the ground textures get blurry and CPU launches to 100% (and very hot too, but not to a dangerous level). In both cases it did get better after some time, but simply pausing and waiting didn't resolve it as far as I remember (it happened a while ago). I kept flying and after some time it sort of "fixed itself". 

I use ORBX Global and I have several airport add-ons. 
My specs: i7 1700K, 16GB RAM, RTX3060, P3D is on a 2TB SSD
And interestingly I never encountered the blurring issue in FSX, even though I used it for over 8 years. 
 

Yes, I have the suggested .cfg edit, I added it some time ago. This is my .cfg Terrain section currently:
[TERRAIN]
LOD_RADIUS=4.500000
TESSELLATION_FACTOR=75
MESH_RESOLUTION=25
TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=28
AUTOGEN_VEGETATION_DENSITY=4
AUTOGEN_BUILDING_DENSITY=3
DETAIL_TEXTURE=1
HIGH_RESOLUTION_TERRAIN_TEXTURES=1
WATER_REFLECT_CLOUDS=1
WATER_REFLECT_USERAIRCRAFT=1
WATER_REFLECT_SIMOBJECTS=0
WATER_REFLECT_TERRAIN=0
WATER_REFLECT_AUTOGEN_VEGETATION=0
WATER_REFLECT_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS=0
WATER_REFRACT_CLOUDS=0
WATER_REFRACT_USERAIRCRAFT=0
WATER_REFRACT_SIMOBJECTS=0
WATER_REFRACT_TERRAIN=0
WATER_REFRACT_AUTOGEN_VEGETATION=0
WATER_REFRACT_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS=0
ENABLE_BATHYMETRY=0
WATER_CLARITY=30
WATER_DETAIL=3
UseGlobalTerrainView=False

My framerate is set to unlimited

 

On 6/13/2025 at 7:26 PM, AzureFire said:

Hey @Rogen
There isn't really a specific area where this occurs and its not aircraft specific. I encountered it while flying from Chisinau to Istanbul or from Prague to Zadar. Around 20 minutes after takeoff, the ground textures get blurry and CPU launches to 100% (and very hot too, but not to a dangerous level). In both cases it did get better after some time, but simply pausing and waiting didn't resolve it as far as I remember (it happened a while ago). I kept flying and after some time it sort of "fixed itself". 

I use ORBX Global and I have several airport add-ons. 
My specs: i7 1700K, 16GB RAM, RTX3060, P3D is on a 2TB SSD
And interestingly I never encountered the blurring issue in FSX, even though I used it for over 8 years. 

[SNIP]

My framerate is set to unlimited

The issue sounds like scenery loading and processing, for myself FSX used to do it all the time where I would pause and wait for the scenery processing to catch up.

If you're not limiting your frame rate then P3D will run as fast as it can and thusly use all resources to it's own detriment, typically leaving little in reserve, whereas if you limit P3D's max frame rate there will be spare resources available for background processing.

For example I limit my P3D to 30 fps (using Riva Tuner) with neither my GPU or CPU maxing out and there's plenty of spare resources available in the background to process scenery etc.

Top the limiting off with Lossless Scaling and I can comfortably fly @ 60 fps with vsync practically anywhere in the world and for those really heavy GPU hits I can drop fps down to 20 fps on the fly (to reduce GPU/CPU overhead) while Lossless Scaling maintains 60 fps and all this with almost every UI setting at max and many more custom cfg enhancements applied.

 

Do you use Orbx ? and if so do you use their Vector product ?

Their P3D v5 product has a design flaw where they amalgamated excludes into large files which result in scenery loading issues due to the time it takes to process the larger files.

There is a fix though, see https://library.avsim.net/file/225315-global-default-vector-removal

 

Lossless Scaling drum is imho the cheapest way to enhance performance far beyond the cost of LS purchase (it's lunch money) and has extended my GPU lifetime dramatically.

Cheers

 

I've always had blurry scenery in P3D when flying in fast aircraft like fighter jets and airliners and I've tried everything to get rid of it.  There is only one thing that works to fix it, and that is the dynamic FFTF add-on by FSPS which can be found here:

https://www.fspsstore.com/fsps-products/fsps-fftf-dynamic-p3dv5.html

The reason blurry scenery happens is because P3D overuses of mipmap textures.  P3D uses mipmaps very aggressively.

If you use even higher quality scenery like Orbx, the problem is even worse than using default scenery.

Edited June 18, 2025Jun 18 by Zylx

On 6/13/2025 at 11:26 AM, AzureFire said:

My framerate is set to unlimited

Try limiting your frame-rate.

On 6/2/2025 at 11:42 AM, VHOJT said:

Hi all,

Looking for a little advice with this annoying issue!

Firstly, my specs are: i7 6700K @ 4.5 GHz, 16GB RAM @ 3000 MHz, Nvidia 1080, a 4K monitor and a bunch of SSDs.

I usually run with hyperthreading off.

I have the terrain textures get blurry/not much if any autogen loading during the last few long flights.

Even after taking off out of EGLL the other day in the PMDG 777, I noticed the terrain textures over Belgium were blurry and not loading properly.

My normal settings are:

Resolution: 3840x2160
FXAA: Off
AA: 4xSSAA
Ansiotropic 16x
Texture 4096x4096
Vsync: On with triple buffering (monitor @ 30Hz)
Frame rate: unlocked

Level of detail radius: Ultra
Tesselation: Low
Mesh: 1m
Texture: 7cm

Scenery complexity: Very Dense
Autogen and scenery draw distance: High
Autogen vegetation density: Extermely dense
Autogen building density: Dense
EA: on

Shadows: High/High
Internal vehicle/external vehicle cast/receive
Sim objects/Vegetation/Buildings receive
Clouds cast

 

I tried reducing the LOD to Medium & High, Autogen/scenery draw to Medium, and both vegetationa and building autogen to normal, as well as turning down mesh, but still, when I save and resume the flight during initial cruise over western Europe, the same problem.  I am using ORBX openLC Europe + FTX global.

For some reason, if I turn hyperthreading on, this does not happen.  I let P3D decide the affinity mask for non-HT, and for HT I use:

AffinityMask=255
P3DCoreAffinityMask=255
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

I can't recall seeing blurries that don't resolve like this before, and I am not sure why hyperthreading seems to help.  I have always had HT off in the past as I feel the sim is less smooth with it on.

Have tried rebuilding P3D cfg, letting scenery indicies and terrain cfg rebuild etc., but no luck.  Scenery library is in order (Addon aiports, then orbx Airports, then orbx openLC/global, then mesh (not for Europe), then default.

Has anyone had any luck curing these annoying blurries?  I am open to any advice. 

PS my ORBX library is on a separate SSD to P3D but I am assuming that is not the problem.  I notice the scenario loads quicker with HT on.

Kind regards,
Rudy
 

That is a very interesting post for me, as I have almost the same setup as you. I just don't have a 4k monitor, mine is a 1440p.

My PC runs at 4.4 as 4.5 gives problems.

That said, if I tried to run your settings at EGLL (you don't say which one), I would immediately get an OoM error and the sim would stop dead.

Why are you saving and re-starting? P3D does not like you "messing around' with it during a flight.

You don't say which Windows version you are using, but the latest Windows versions have sometimes caused problems with P3D.

I have never turned HT off.

My suggestion is to go back to what worked before and don't stop mid-flight. 

Then see if it improves.

 

 

@Rogen Hey! I don't have their Vector add-on. I made some changes in the settings (lowered Tessellation factor for example) and I will cap my FPS to something lower. I'm also considering getting Lossless scaling. I was busy in the past couple of weeks but I'll have time to test more now. I'll report back if I find something.
 

On 6/27/2025 at 9:06 PM, AzureFire said:

@Rogen Hey! I don't have their Vector add-on. I made some changes in the settings (lowered Tessellation factor for example) and I will cap my FPS to something lower. I'm also considering getting Lossless scaling. I was busy in the past couple of weeks but I'll have time to test more now. I'll report back if I find something.
 

Try using "RivaTuner Statistics Server" to manage your frame rate, basics are set fps as unlimited in sim and tune RTSS to a frame rate your machine can keep up with reliably, (for me that's 30 fps) once you've locked that base fps in, Lossless Scaling can bring the frame rate up to the monitor's sync rate.

e.g. at a fps heavy airport I can set RTSS to a base 20 fps (basically anywhere between 20~30 fps, whatever works best with the airport) with LS bringing the frame rate up to 60 fps for a 60 hz vsync.

Once I've taken off and gained a bit of height I increase the base frame rate to 30 (as 30 fps = half of my monitor's sync rate) with LS still maintaining a 60 Hz vsync, keeps things smooth while minimising frame generation artiefacts.

Trialling 15 fps via RTSS and 30 fps with vsync in LS should work, or you could trail P3D's internal frame rate slider, I prefer RTSS myself as I can up/down the frame rate while flying.

Cheers

Edited June 29, 2025Jun 29 by Rogen