FS 2004 Ground Scenery Blur Problem

[Guest FR153]

Hi All,Here is a new FS2004 problem, I think. I cannot remember reading anything along this line and searches have come up empty.I am working on an area in Michigan where three Ground2K4 areas (194,121 & 195,121 & 195,122) all come together near one geographic point called Houghton-Hancock. In changing the course of the river, altering the terrain, and adding a GMAX model of the real bridge (along with a nearby GMAX mine) I have created a monster. If I am flying a chopper over area 195,122 on a heading of 235, I see crystal clear ground cover textures in front of me. Should I turn to a heading of 035 and fly for about 5 seconds (still in area 195,122), the ground INTERMITTENTLY goes completely fuzzy, with or without Autogen scenery. The ground cover remains fuzzy for the immediate area as well as area 195,121 which is out in front of me now. Should I turn and fly toward 194,121 or land at the mine in 195,121 the ground cover textures as well as the mine textures will resolve themselves within about 15 seconds of landing. If I remove the bridge (leaving the mine) the problem goes away, indicating that the problem might be with the bridge or its textures. However, the bridge has proven clean as I removed one part at a time until there was nothing left. One thought, and hopefully somebody out there has experience; the bridge sits almost exactly on the border of the two areas mentioned above and only about a mile (5km) north of area 195,122. Is it possible that you cannot place scenery on the border of two areas (or as in this case three geographic areas)? Anyone have a suggestion on getting the ground cover cleaned up again? For info, I have removed all the MIPS on the bridge and mine textures and it made no difference.Thanks for any input.....Al Heline FR-153

[arno 1]

This is interesting. Which version of the gamepack did you use to make the bridge? Was it made with the Fs2004 gamepack and placed with some XML code? Just trying to figure out where it might go wrong, as it indeed sounds like your object is interfering with the terrain somehow.

[jkanold 0]

Can you watch your frame rates when moving from one area to the blurry area and tell me if the frame rates, all of a sudden, drop by a third?If you have FS2002 installed, try flying in the same area and report if the same problem persistshttp://www.asic.ca/flightontario/jimlogo.gif

[Guest Vauchez]

Just to check, make sure you don't have ground2k or Gmax running in the background, as they seem to conflict and fight for (graphic) resources with FS.This blurring happens to me sometimes when I switch back and forth during scenery development.V.

[Guest FR153]

Hi Arno,Yes, it was made with the FS2004 gamepack and is placed with the XML file. As of this morning I removed (renamed) all of the Ground2K4 files for the area and had just the bridge in place for scenery (the mine was renamed at the time as well). The fuzzies were there, intermittently, just like they were when I snapped the screen shot. Further info on the problem, I removed one part at a time from the bridge structure until there was little left. I was still getting the fuzzies.... Made a new item and used the same textures but this was a simple slab (box) of concrete that spanned the river. Immediately, I went into the fuzzies again. BTW, this was using the same exact XML file to place the slab as was used to place the real bridge. It does not appear to be a memory problem as I am showing about 130 mb of RAM still available (out of 512 mb installed).Any thoughts would be appreciated. BTW #2, This bridge was a canidate for FS2004 CAT but the 'real life' bridge is no longer a lift bridge, they put it in the up position and left it there. :( Al Heline FR-153

[Guest FR153]

Hi V,Both GMAX and Ground2K4 are shut down and the fuzzies continue. My video board is a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra AGP with 128 MB DDR driving a Sony LCD display as a digital device (no analog conversion). However, it is happening on my co-designer's machine up in Michigan as well and he is running analog. As mentioned to Arno, there is plenty of RAM and it does not appear that I am crowding video memory. Al FR-153

[Guest FR153]

Hi Jim,I have my machine set at 30 FPS and running at 29.8 FPS, fuzzies or clear. There is no apparent hit at all. One thing I do notice is that when I leave one 'area' and fly into another, there is a slight pause or lurch to the video, but it does not affect the frame rate. I still have FS2002 but it is no longer loaded. I will try loading it up and see what it does. That is an interesting thought. Since there is no animation or special effects involved, it should not present any problems. I will try it and let you know ASAP. Al FR-153

[Guest FR153]

Hi again Jim,Loaded FS2002 but cannot get the BGL for the bridge to show up at all. Since it was built with the FS2004 gamepack, I suspect that this is the reason. Good idea though..... I am going to try to recompile the GMAX scene into the FS2002 gamepack version. I am not sure that will work but it is worth a try. Al FR-153

[arno 1]

Hi Al,Very interesting object. I do not really have an idea right now, but could you mail me a copy of it if you can't find the problem? I would find it interesting to look at.