New Water Effects and Textures Q&A

[Guest]

Ed Truthan (Blackkettle) Aloha all, Most users have not had a problem, but to those who MAY be having problems or questions about the "oceansfx.zip" Water Surface Effects, here's a few things I sent to another simmer who was trying to get the new water effects to show, and I thought it might be helpful to post it here for anyone searching for answers. Some of you already know this stuff, but to the uninitiaded, some things might be helpful. Especially to those issues I may not have covered in the readme texts. These are of course not specific to any system per se, and may most help those with lower end systems who may not fully understand the way FS2002 designed it's water TX/FX rendering. Also if you have not done so go and get Johan De Vries OceanFX ("ofx10sa.zip") front-load utility by checking POST# 11 in this thread: http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/DCForumID8/3463.html First, just to be clear, the TEXTURES files, "oceanstx.zip" are STATIC textures by FS2002 design. They don't move, and there is no way I can see to design them to. This is an FS2002 constant. Above them, in "transparent motion" are the EFFECTS animations, "oceanfx.zip" which are there to lend the appearance of surface movement. Completely seperate are the "shore breaking waves", which I have not altered, and are not a part of the new files. These are still FS2002 default animations. The second thing to remember is that these effects are not as "in your face" as the original "pusating" FS2002 surface effects. I designed them that way on purpose. The calmer effects (i.e. dead calm, normal calm and restless calm) in fact are quite subtle, so as to not unrealistically "pulse" over a widespread area as the defaults did. They only show up well at very low altitudes. They are meant for being on the water or near it, so that the surface from a float-plane at rest, (with "gentle breeze" as the effect for instance)... is quite realistic and pleasing. If you don't spend your time at or near the water surface, load a STRONGER "wind" surface effect, such as "moderate" or "heavy". There's quite a difference in these as compared to the "non-wind" variety. Thirdly, though the wind effects, (four in all) are progressively easier to see from the air, even "Heavy Wind" begins to almost vanish at 4000 feetor so above the water. At this point the STATIC water textures "oceanstx.zip", begin to take on the resposibility of having to "look like water." I found this to be the most realistic compromise that could be made in order to fulfill both low AND high altitude flying. In other words, making the EFFECTS files more" visible" from high altitude renderered them completely unrealisticlooking at the surface. Conversely, making the TEXTURES "swells" smaller, (though closer to life in size), rendered them much too repeditive and "finely tiled" at higher altitude. This compromise seems to work, once the parameters are understood. With all that said, if you STILL cannot see any surface effects after loading the files, here are a few Questions to consider:1. Once again, you MUST have "detail and reflection" AND "multi-texturing" engaged in Display Properties to see FS2002 surface effects....default or otherwise.2. Did you see the Original Default Suface Effects before you installed my files? i.e. "the default surface rythmic oscilations"?3. If so, it seems strange you should not see the new ones, since they are exactly the the same format and file size of the originals, there seems no reason they shouldn't show. Unzip the Default textures and install them in the right folder in De Vries OceanFX program (see above post) and try to reload them through the OceanFX interface. Do they show up?4. I have noticed that some water bodies in my Fs2002 world sometimes will not load, (or reluctantly load), the Effects for some reason. Have you tried different water localities? ( If you slew to these areas, just like all the ground textures, it takes a while for textures to load, so use the "go to airport function") Babb, Montana is a rural strip, for instance, with lakes nearby, etc.5. Three (related) things: A. Are your other display settings, (i.e. texture quality etc.) Maxed? I f so your systems resources may be overtaxed. I have noticed that the water effects are the LAST PROPERTY of the FS world to load. Try decreasing them and see if you get water effects. B. What frame rate lock settings are you set at? I always fly with a 15fps frame lock as it seems to free up the sim for loading textures more quickly. Try a lower setting. C. If your test area is near a large city with heavy scenery or hi-resolution mesh installed this could stall or prevent the loading of the water effects for the same above reasons.6. IMPORTANT!!! On my Nvidia 32MB GeForce2 GTS card there is a setting to allow for "multi-texturing to occur. If I disable this OUTSIDE the sim, it doesn't matter if I have multi-texturing enabled IN the sim, I don't get water effects. Does your video card properties setting have such a switch? Or if you are using a third party tweaker is there one there?7. Are you ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN you have installed everything correctly? Try loading an effects set manually into the scenerydb/world/texture folder. Try BOTH the default and new files and see what you get. I assuming in all this of course that you have a Fully Installed copy of FS2002. If not the scenrydb/world/texture folder operates of the CD disc, and therefore you cannot "load" the effects in the first place. AND of course that we're talking about the SURFACE EFFECTS ONLY and not the animation of the water TEXTURES per se, (as stated above), as they are by MS design STATIC in nature. If none of this helps, i am no GURU of different OS systems, but I'll be glad to assist further in any way I can. E-mail me directly and we'll go from there. Thanks to all the simmers who have responded so kindly to me. I really appreciate it. -Ed Truthan P.S. Does anyone have any idea why someone would have an FS2002 Pro installation with only a ZIP file named "world" in the scenerydb folder, instead of the world/texture folder that should be there? I'm trying to help a simmer in Portugal nail this down so he can load the water FX. Could it be lack of a full install, or a wierd "European Issue" thing? -E.T.