Rain (lack of it) on the virtual cockpit window

[DavidK]

I can hear when it starts raining and can see it zipping by if I look to the left or right, but none of it seems to reach the cockpit window!

Would this be because my graphics settings are low? Or should I try something like this (even though it's for FS2004, not FSX)..?

David K

[SkippyBing]

FSX, for reasons that I've never fully understood, doesn't actually support rain on the VC window. It must have been taken out fairly late in the process as there are still tick boxes in the exporter program!

[DaveG]

Could be wrong, but I think FSX does support VC rain effects, but only on FS9 port-overs You do need to add the VC rain textures first though.

[Jetstreamsky]

Go here http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library

and get "Virtual Cockpit Rain Fix for FSX"

[Fodda]

It causes a HUGE hit in fps so it was disabled when FSX was released. As the post above shows, it is possibe to re-enable it easily, but beware the frame rate hit when and if you do.

[DavidK]

Thanks for this info.

Out of curiosity, I'll try the fix linked by Jetstream (assuming it can be undone) but am already on a minimum animation speed, so I imagine I'll remove it.

Speaking of animation speeds, it would be nice if different display/traffic settings could be assigned to different airports and their surroundings as I find mine work well over most of Britain except (not surprisingly) near or at big airports such as those around London. I don't suppose someone's written a clever add-on that does this..?

David K

[DaveB]

Hi DK..

Not quite sure what you mean by display/traffic settings and animation speeds. Perhaps I don't use FSX enough

ATB

DaveB

[DavidK]

Hi Dave,

Yes, that was a bit vague -- what I mean is that the various Graphics and Traffic settings within the Display settings offer only one (presumably worldwide) setting, when one (lower one) for areas you designate as busy (e.g. near and at big airports) and one (higher one) for elsewhere should mean the frame rate (animation speed) wouldn't become slower and uneven in these areas, especially on older PCs like mine. Hope that makes more sense (and sorry for all the brackets).

David

[DaveB]

Hi David

Okey doh.. I see what you mean. Frame rates and getting more of them (higher that is) has been the Holy Grail for FS for as long as I can remember and the quest continues I think it's very much a case of one setting fits all I'm afraid. FSX does offer variances in all 3 available AI's (air, sea and land) but this is little help when flying toward something like LHR. That's not strictly true but turning your AI traffic down to zero will still give stutters at large airports like LHR. The default airports aren't too bad as far as FR's go but they're rough as a badgers bum in every other respect which is why most folk buy addon replacements. My AI in FSX is pretty much default (except sea traffic) but in FS9.. it's completely none default. Believe it or not, I flew something into GUE a few weeks back (FS9) and even that stuttered a bit. I'd obviously chosen a flight where a number of traffic files crossed/joined (timewise) and GUE was chocka block. I've never seen it so full

Good luck with the continuing quest anyway

ATB

DaveB

[Paul K]

Go here http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library

and get "Virtual Cockpit Rain Fix for FSX"

Quote: If you have FSX SP2 or Acceleration installed, you may have solid windows when in the virtual cockpit when it is raining with many addon aircraft. This update repairs FSX so that you can have transparent windows again.

Reading that, the fix stops the windows from turning opaque when its raining on certain add-on aircraft...it doesn't add the rain effects on the windows. Or does it ?