Classic British Flight Sim

Hi Chaps

Well.. in for a penny, in for a pound as they say. After my disappointment with FTX England, I threw caution to the wind and bought the GenXv3 update discs which arrived yesterday and were installed.

While being impressed with the overall increase in resolution, one thing I've noticed while popping around the various landmarks is that those with trees.. Salisbury Cathedral and St Michael's Mount for example.. the trees 'shimmer'.. not the sort of shimmer where they blow in the wind but scenery shimmer.. that unnerving artifact you sometimes see at middle distances. Guess I could go to winter and see if the foliage disappears which would help but anyone know of a way to stop this happening or is it something I'll have to live with? I don't normally see this over land.. only over or near water depending on the angle you're picking up the suns reflection.

As I say, I'm very impressed with what I've seen thus far but the trees associated with the landmarks look a bit.. cheap and nasty.. if I can use that term.. FS8 rather than 9 or 10.

ATB
DaveB

Word on the street suggests that the setting to look for in combating shimmer is an anti-aliasing setting available in Nvidia Inspector.

This is what the guru Kosta has to say about shimmer...

Sparse Grid Supersampling.

Now, if you google and read about it, you’ll find out that it’s very hard on the system but it provides unprecedented quality. One thing everyone is so annoyed by, shimmering, it solves most of shimmering in cockpits and trees/autogen:

2x SGSS not as hard on the system (shimmering reduced greatly)
4x SGSS very hard on the system, especially cloudy situations (absolutely no shimmering)

The line he's talking about in NI is this one:

Antialiasing-Transparency Supersampling = 2x Sparse Grid Supersampling (or 4x if your video card can take it)

I hope this helps (but I have a feeling that it won't )

Ian

I agree Dave.

Unfortunately the trees are part of the landmark models. The only solution would be to disassemble the models and remove the trees in GMax.

Antialiasing-Transparency Supersampling = 2x Sparse Grid Supersampling

What the hell is that all about?? Thanks anyway Ian. I'm using what can be considered an old driver on the GTX560Ti and while updating may improve things, it may also break a few along the way. Never been keen on playing with graphics drivers.. find one that works and stick with it. This tends to be the one released with or near to the release of the card. I'll have a look to see if I have a Sparse Grid Supersampling bit anyway

Thanks for that George By and large, I'm very impressed with v3. Flying up the coast from Llanbedr to Caernarfon then over to Mona, around Holy Island, around the coast up to Liverpool then along the coast again up to Blackpool this morning.. the resolution difference over v2 is quite stunning.. almost like going from VFRPhoto in FS9 to GenX in FSX. I've not looked at the list of landmarks for each area but have been surprised a few more weren't added. Caernarfon Castle.. South Stack lighthouse.. the Liver Buildings.. all bits that poke your eye out along that part of the coast and all conspicuous by their absence. Perhaps these will be included in the scenery object packs someone mentioned ES were making.

I noticed too a few of the airfields show both ground tiles (that is, the original UK2K VFR Airfields tile and the newer GenXv3 tile) depending on your level. Middle Wallop, I think Popham, Caernarfon show this. As you approach the airfields either about to land or as you've landed, the GenX will creep away showing the VFR Airfield tile underneath. I guess this is down to the terrain alterations/fixes in GenX. At Middle Wallop, I had trees all over the darned place but had only just installed v3, presuming it to update v2 rather than add a full set of new areas above my existing scenery. Moving what little I had 'above' v3 has cured this (ACG Marham, Duxford, ES Needles and Stone Henge plus VFR Airfields vols 1, 2 and 3).

ATB
DaveB

DaveB wrote:What the hell is that all about??

You know what's wrong with you, Dave? You've got an unhealthy desire to understand everything! I'm sure if you just blindly did what everybody told you, without asking questions, you'd be much happier

It works for me, anyway

Ian

Blimey.. I found a x2, x6 and x8 setting. I'll have a look at some point in the very near future

ATB
DaveB

Ian..

True to my word, I've dug out what I think corresponds to the setting you mention. My driver is quite old as I said and I found 'Antialiasing - Transparency' had about 5 settings in there.. Global, Nvidia, 2x (Supersample), 4x (Supersample) and (I think) 6 or 8x (Supersample). 2x did a bit but not worth talking about but 4x has certainly knocked the shimmer off the FSX water. Not tried the highest setting as I don't want to knacker performance up too much Couldn't find any 'Sparse Grids' but I think I've changed the right thing

ATB
DaveB