Flashing shadows???

[Guest markyc]

Hi again,A week or so ago I reported that I was experiencing a strange problem with panels flashing and going black on a couple of Hennies aircraft. Well since then the problem has spread to all of my installed aircraft, even the stock ones. It also now effects the rear cabin view, but only up to where the panel would have been had I been looking forward.(About half way)The problem seems to be tied up with enabling player shadow in the Cfg file. Not only do you get the problem above. You also get multiple shadows going off into the distance. Some times these shadows flash on and off. The next time you look in that direction they're not there at all.(These problems are only visible using the F1,F2 & F3 views) I've tried using various cfg files from various sources. I've removed various files associated with Seattle 2005/Ansgar's ai package and I've even tried a different video driver. But every configuration behaves in exactly the same manner. If however I use the San Fran area. Which is 'stock' except for Ansgar's ai pack, I have no problems at all:-hmmmGet your thinking caps on chaps, this is a strange one!Mark:)

[Guest fu3]

Mark,It seems to be a video card/ old DirectX problem. My ATI does it worse than my old Nvidia did - it flickers faster and in strange ways. I put up with it or turn it off ;) If some one else has any ideas?:-wave

[Guest markyc]

Hi Jon,I've just finished having another 'play', and I've made a very interesting discovery.The problem also seems to be tied up with the angle of the sun.When the sun is fairly high in the sky strange things start happening.Where as early/mid morning and early/late evening all is good in the world.By the way. The San Fran area is effected by this problem. I must have checked it out when the sun was low in the sky:-dohI think what you say about video card/DX problems is probably correct.I have DX9c installed at the moment which as far as I know hasn't caused problems with any other software. But I do remember having to ditch DX9 when it was first released and go back to DX8.1 because of various issues.To be perfectly honest I don't think shadows will improve my flying(As if anything could):-lol So I guess I'll have to live without them:-(Thanks for your time.Mark:-)

[Guest fu3]

Mark,The sun angle does seem to affect it and I've found that if you advance/retard the time of day a bit it sometimes makes it better, sometimes worse. If you send the shadow out of view, it doesn't flicker at all! (Duh...) > Maybe it it affected by the perspective setting? > Maybe it's only real bad when the renderer cannot decide which side the sun should be on? In other words, there's an inherent instability around noon. > Maybe there are only so many discrete angles of sunlight available and noon/summer only leaves a choice of -0.5, 0, +0.5 degrees? This could explain it I guess. The one I really hate is when a spinning prop cuts the screen border in the F5/F8 views. The whole images flashes on my PC :-eek This has nothing to do with time of day though...Never did all that under DX8 with the old (slow as a wet week but solid) GE4MX card in it :-rollNow my head hurts, I'm going to fix the Stanford Dish base...:-wave

[Christopher Low 5,353]

I remember adding that player shadow line to the flt3.cfg file several years ago. It resulted in multiple shadows.I have never used it since.Chris Low.

[Guest fu3]

Yeeeees....No wonder it is absent by default...:-roll

[Guest R_Driscoll]

I have player shadow on by default, but I don't use the cloud shadows, I guess mainly to save framerate rather than any real problem. I used to have problems in the past with multiple player shadows, but not for years, and it doesn't seem to be a problem if you are on overtextured ground (eg runways, taxiways, ramps, grass as scenery objects) - at least I haven't had problems with this since the early days of developing Heathrow. Also, the multiple shadows seems to coincide with that occasional problem of rendering the ground where a sliver or triangle of ground is not being drawn properly. Again this is only a problem with the default ground and disappears if you put in ground texture objects. So put in proper landscaped airports and the problem will at least be reduced. This doesn't solve the problem though - plane shadows have always been a bit dodgy. But its worth having the plane shadow because in the absence of proper binocular vision, it gives one of the best illusions of depth.Of course models also help provide this illusion of depth, so that instead of flying over a flat photo, the change in perspective with angle also gives the feeling of being there (radar installations are good for this, I've heard). The best moment to appreciate this illusion is on takeoff or touchdown, which is a shame because that's the time when you have least time for looking! I love the takeoff moment in a little Cherokee from London city airport, precisely because of this effect - that fall-away moment as the buildings drop down, and LCA is good because of the high degree of verticality of the scenery around the airport. Hence the great appeal of GA flying - fly low and slow and see the scene! Its great to see that new models are being developed and used. Before I worked out how to make models for myself, I used to desperately search every FU3 post for Bazza's newest and best. At low altitudes, the sim depends on having adequate models at key points. 'Adequate' means not the default models by FU3 from many years ago, but high polygon well-textured models.So my conclusion - switch on the player shadow and then SOLVE the problems. Its not too difficult and is a substantial improvement.A special thanks to Jim and others who have sent help for building Lloyds! I don't know if I ever will build it now - my interests are changing, its probably still too hard for me, and I have less time than I used to, but I really appreciate the efforts people went to for this. Especially those highly detailed models from Jim! Cheers,RobD.