Arnaud

Thank you Fr Bill, I was hoping you'd throw some more light on the subject from a modeler point of view. I assume it pretty much puts an end to speculation on the suject.I was once told by a fine modeler about it indeed, but that was long time ago and since that time I forgot, also because I had gone away from fltsim for a while.There is a side question though: how Gmax (or FSDS or whatever 3d modeling program) does that polygon? I mean, is there an option to let this lightmap option out just before you compile the .mdl?If so, we could still ask the AI modelers if they could recompile their models without that polygon. At least for AI, who cares about AI having landing or taxi splash light? But it is my understanding that this polygon is needed so that the spotlight bitmap can work in the sim? I believe so, and that's a pity since if we could keep only the spotlight splash that'd be just fine.Anyway thanks for closing the topic :(

Dallyborr, as I posted already, you can switch those AI triangles off by deactiavting the aircratfs landing light off, in the FS menu display option.That will also turn your light off, as well as all the AI lightmaps (alpha controlled logo lights etc).On another note, I'd caution everyone installing Nick's lights: the uninstaller doesnt work for the effects files. Most fortunately I did back up my effects's foldr prior the install, because when I wanted to step back to the default aircrafts lights, it did not reverse to the originals. Had to restore my effetcs folder myself.Hence the reason I've always hated the auto installers...Sometime it works, sometime not.So...to sum all this up, there is no way, as far as we know, to avoid those silly triangles showing up in foggy weather.And I am still unsure they are modelled within the models, although I've read this quite a few times.

Reading again n4gix's post, or Fr Bill, I recall now some testing I made some years ago about this: there are two different things involved here: the spotlight bitmap AND the triangular polygon.On some situation, one can easily see both of them. What we need to get rid of is the later. I'm not even sure its modelled within the model, I fear its coded within FS engine, in which case nothing can be done. I'm still curious as to finding out what's different in John's set up though. because, Nick's or not Nick's, the looks of his AI taxi lights is definitely more acceptable than mine.

Well I've just installed Nick's lights. Unfortunately it of no help here. And yes, the triangular splash is most noticable in very low visibility.Nick's lights indeed makes the whole think looking slightly better, but still.Also, these splash screen come into view only upon certain vision angle (lateral and vertical).But perhaps I am derailing the initial thread, because I am talking specifically about AI taxi/landing lights.Thought those weird splash lights were common between AI/UI.

Ack, yeah, sorry I missed John's first post :( . Just grabbed the files at fs.com. Cant wait to look how it looks like, I mean: I do hope it will get me rid of those atrocious light polygons. If it does, I am somehow amazed that since 2003 I never got to put more attention to fixing this. In addition, I will also look closer to Shockwave lights.Will report back anyway.

Ok, that thread really keeps my attention. I would like to ask John what exactly he is using as light enhancement, THAT is definitely the result I'd like to get. Looks brilliant.Are those famous Shockwave lights needed? or just Nick's light? Where shall i get those Nicks textures?About the fog, I believe John has actually set some fog, looking at his screenies, but his fog looks less exagerated than with default FS fog.I am often anoyed of how FS deals with fog: it way too exagerated. If you set visiblilty to 8 miles, the sim looks like you've got only 1 or 2 miles vis.

Well that is a problem I too wished we could sort this out: Check out that magic fogged appraoch over KaiTak:D'oh! Those are AI planes taxiing. Same triangle for UI planes.I've been trying all sort of things, but to no avail. Spotlight, halo etc... I havent tried Nicks's lights yet, you had me hoping for a few seconds.The only way to disable those idiotic triangle is to uncheck the 'aircraft lighting' from the FS display menu option. The downside of course is that it deactivatedall the lights, including the lights of your own aircraft.John, you seem to be the only one who doesnt suffer this, can you make sure you the aircraft lightings switched ON?Otherwise I am really curious as to finding out how you got rid of those weird light polygons.Reading that thread I was even considering buying those shockwave lights, but what? Does it fix the problem or not?Spotting at dusk is also a no-no for me at this point.

OK, for what it's worth, thought I'd let you guys know how I finally sorted those crackling sounds out (for those searching the forums about that subject in the future)Very simple: took my good old SoundBlaster out of my old retired PC, installed it on the new one...et voil

Thanks Armen,I recall we had some emails exchanges together when you were working on the 747 sound update a few year ago :( My max fps set to 27. I also thought something got corrupted with the graphic card. I run an Asus nVidia GTX260. So I went back to nhancer, erased the originalfs9 profile, created a new one with all needed option, but that didnt help.Again, what drives me mad is that the crackling sounds occur only in full screen and when a 2D panel is displayed.In 2D cockpit view with no panel displayed, the crackling disappear.

Ok, First, apologies for yet another sound crackling topic.I've been reading through the tons of topics related to the subject of the crackling sounds, but did not find anything that helped me.Untill now, I've always been lucky and didnt suffer those craclking sounds.The problem started to occur suddenly, and the strange things is it occurs ONLY WITH 2D PANELS.At first I noticed it with the PMDG 747s, but realised while testing other add-ons like the Carenado's, that it affects all aircrafts including default ones.When in 2D cockpit view, the sounds are crackling. If I switch to external view or virtual cockpit, the crackling disappear. Weird.Now, in 2D cockpit view, if I swith off the panels (like pressing SHIFT+1 etc), the cracklings disappear as well.It is the display of the 2D panels that cause the craclking sounds.Also, the crackling sounds do not ocuur in windowed mode, only full creen. What the hell?My default sound fs9.cfg reads:[sOUND]SOUND=1SOUND_FADER1=0.560000SOUND_FADER2=0.300000SOUND_FADER3=0.520000SOUND_FADER4=0.000000SOUND_FADER5=0.500000SOUND_FADER6=0.800000SOUND_QUALITY=2It's drivging me mad since I did not have that issue one day ago, and I havent installed anything new on the system recently.I run WinXP32 Home SP2 with all drivers uptodate etc...Any idea what's going on?-Arnaud S

Thank you Joseph,I do actually have a registered version of FSUIPC, si I tried, but it just doesnt work. When I set a key press and assign it to Panel ID open with 10304, and when I press the input, nothing happens.What could I be missing?Or, and this could do just as well, is there a way to set that lower eicas panel so that when checked in the veiw/panel menu it displays and remains bellow the FMC for instance.Since the lower eicas pop up is always on top.

Hey people :( Although I've spent many hours enjoying the 747 and the MD11, I like sometime to fly the good ol 737s, the one that made me discover about PMDGback in 2003. Needless to say I want to use it before the NGv2 for fs9 comes out :(Anwyays...here's my question - I've been searching both the wikkied PMDG/OPS and this forum, but no luck so far:Is there any trick or fix to get the lower eicas (when using the over/under display mode) assigned to a key via the PMDG option menu?For some reason, if I assign that panel to some keyboard shortcut as I do for all other panels (737/747/MD11), it points to the RADIOs panel instead, and not the lower eicas.The only way I can have that lower eicas displayed is through the normal FS View/panel menu, but that's a bit annoying, especiallysince I need that panel in order to fill the space left but the stretched/reduced main panel on a 16/9 wide screen monitor.I want to be able to display it on/off whenever I want just by pressing a key and not pausing the sim entering any FS menu all the time.I believe that is a small glitch in the PMDGoption.dll whcih could be easily overcome.'Course, I could just wait for the NG2s wide panels ala excellent MD11, I know I know...Thanks for any help in advance!Regards,Arnaud S

Well thanks for your inputs gentlemen, I guess now I showed myself as a true barbarian with the eleven :( Of course I flew manually the beast over TNCM VOR 09 quite a few time and its a real pleasure.I must have kept some habits from the 747, on which you can set whatever speed you want on the MCP no matter the operating weights nor conditions and on which even on VNAV mode you can force the speeds.

hey Markus and guys,What do I want to change Vref instead of Vapp? Erm... most likely since I'm a dangerous pilot who is not type qualified yet :(Serioulsy, I want to find how to lower the final approach speed, when on FMS SPD mode. Even at a max zero fuel weight load and normal fuel reserves(couple of tons), I find the fa speeds to be too high, at a given wind/temp/pressure.Overwriting the Vapp in the CDU does not change anything, although I understand the aircraft follow Vapp and not Vref as I wrongly thought.The lower yellow brackets on the PFD would allow me to speed down, yet the autopilot doesnt proceed. Even if I select the speed mode on the MCP by pulling the know it wouldnt allow the plane to fly below the Vapp value.I went through the FMS manual many times, didnt find anything about this.Thanks for your input anyway :)Rgds

Okay thank you guys, I must admit I am still so unsure about what to choose as a CPU. Might well be the duo E8600@3.33 rather then the quad Q9650@3.00Again, what about the choice for the RAM? I will follow MaxC adise about the no-hybrid mobo, and get some DDR2 only. Shall I go for some PC-8500 or PC-5300, for an 1333 FSB ?

Hello,Just one quick question: is there anyway to change the VREF value in the CDU on the APPROACH page?While in final for example, you can manually edit the VAPP by prompting any entry, but it doesnt affect the VREF as it should.The put it simply, is it possible the overwrite the VREF value in order to keep the aircraft controling the speed.The only (highly unrealistic and dangerous) trick I found was to modify the ZFW, of course it changes immediately the VREF.I know that's an horror :( so I'd prefer something more orthodox...Arnaud S

Thanks MaxC,Of course I didnt plan to mix DDR2 and DDR3, but the fact that those hybrids mobos could induce limitations makes sense, although I've always thought that what dealt with the RAM was nothing but the onboard chipset, namely the Intel P45. And the DDR3 only mobo I found (Asus P5Q3) with only DDR3 supported, has got the same iP45 chip mounted.Now how about the choice between all the different DDR3 available? PC3 8500? PC3 10600? PC3 12800? for a CPU (iQ9550) which FSB is 1333.I see on your spec maxC that you're an FSX user, but about fs9, are you still positive that a quad@2.83 would run fs9 better (better=smoothness, graphics sharpness and stutterless-wise, not only FPS) than a duo@3.33?

Guys,Yet another question about the optimum choice I am trying to make for a new rig. I've been browsing this forum and lots of others, reading with lots of interests posters, googling, asking advises to my retailer prior to my order etc, and found lots of informations but I still cant figure. Especially because many posts know deals with rigs for FSX.I am an fs9 user and dont plan on FSX anytime soon. I'm aiming at an Q9550 which FSB is 1333. I run WinXP Home 32bit SP2.I came to the conclusion that some DDR2 667 PC5300 would make it for 1:1 ratio (no OC for me), especially for a non 64bit OS, yet I still doubt. I know XP32 wont make a full use of all 2*2Gb I want to install,and I want to be sure that with 4Gb I wont fall in memory problems with WinXP32.The motherboard I picked is an Asus P5Q-C which support also the DDR3. I was told the Q9550 and the iP45 mb chip turns around DDR2 better than DDR3. What'd happen if I choose some DDR3 PC10600 or some DDR2 PC8500? :( Thanks in advance.

I actually bought Active Camera few years ago, but trashed quickly it because I encoutered issues with it, espacially in the vc. Instead I bought DBC's Walk'n'Follow which is much better, espacially because it does not have some of AC's flaws with the outside view (remote terrain bug) and also because it allows you to set wingviews - unlike AC.To get back to my initial question, I asked about 2D cockpit view because I dont fly from the VC except for small planes like the lovely Carenado's.

Well, the PAN_RATE entry in my fs9.cfg was set to its default value, 400. I tried different settings, 900,600, etc... but at the end it appears that it affects only the panning in VC. The commands for moving eyepoint up, down, left, forward, left or or right (SHIFT+ENTER, SHIFT+BACKSPACE, CTRL+ENTER, CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER etc..) is another command and it seems the increments rate cannot be adjusted. At least I had not find it, even looking for EYEPOINT entries in the fs9.cfg. The only entries for eyepoint are the keyboard ASCII assignments.

THat PAN_RATE thing I did not know about, and that makes sense. That must be it, some add-on I installed must have changed that entry, I'll reverse it to 400 and see what it gives. Maybe a compromise like 600 would make the trick. Will report back, cheers.

aha, now that's interesting indeed, because it could be somehow linked to low frames (which was the case last time I noticed this).I use the keyboard for those movements, since my old crappy joystick does not have that camera switch.You can use keyboard arrows for viewing up/down/arround in VC, provided you assigned those keys in the FS assignment controls,by default those keys arent assigend at all (panning).

Well thanks, but I rather thought this had to do with the fs9.cfg since it's a general fs9 command. Updating the aircraft.cfg could affect only one aircraft.The issue I'm talking about happens with all and any aircfrafts, from the default C172 to any add-on crafts. I will try to edit an acft.cfg though, and see if it solves the problem.

Guys,The question is about a possible setting for the 2D cockpit view in fs9. We all know we can either press SHIFT+ENTER or SHIFT+BACKSPACE to move the viewpoint up or down. For some reason, it works smooth on a fresh install,after some addons aircrafts, pressing SHIFT+ENTER makes big steps, so that it's not possible to adjust the viewpoint as I would like to. I've been browsing the fs9.cfg in search of that value to be changed to default without any luck.I know about the PAN_IN_COCKPIT_MODE entry and it could have been useful, but it causes the PMDG MD11 to CTD for me, so I cant use this.Any help would be greatly appreciated.Rgds

hey Greg, no you arent too late :) (Cool avatar you've got btw)That's interesting, and you have me doubting again. I stayed away from the hardware discussions too long obviously, I had no idea about the nVidia 9800GTX being a must for flight sims.My 9800XT is an old ATI, not nVidia, old stuff that I need to replace indeed. Thanks for the advise, going to look closer to the i7 family then.Regards-