Graphics going from sharp to blurry

[ccartmel]

Has anybody else experiencing this?
I am running with FSX SP1a installed over VFR GEN X photographic scenery. with custom building at EGGP. System specs Windows Vista, AMD 3800+ dual core overclocked at 3GHz, 2Gb 677MHz RAM, NVidia 8800GTX card with 764Mb RAM,
On some occasions, triggering circumstances unclear, the displayed graphics start sharp then in two stages go blurry as if the Anti-aliassing fails. This happens either immediately or after some minutes on sporadic occasions, I have gone days without this happening, but usually after rapidly changing a view, e.g. turning 90 degrees onto a runway.
I have tried controlling the filtering, anti-aliassing etc both through the FSX graphics settings, hardware settings through the NVidia control panel, and combinations of these without any success.
I have installed new motherboard drivers, video card drivers etc also without success.
One clue may be this sequence of events:
Saved 'visual' as a Flight and set as default.
Restarted FSX - 2d cockpit view OK
Switched to VC - View starts sharp but goes blurry in 2 stages.
Selected 2d cockpit - still blurry
Switched windows after screen dump for evidence
Switced back to FSX - 2d Sharp again as per initial view.

I have attempted to attach screenshots.

I consider the card isn't processing as it should, but on the lookout for other opinions as to establishing this. The card seems to work fine on other games and on less 'cluttered' FSX areas seems more stable.

Charlie

 

[boleyd]

I have had a similar problem. The program switches to ultra-blurred textures and the panel background is blurred as well. My frame rates are locked at 20 and holding steady before and after the event. Looks like some overzealous programmer installed a decision to blur the textures to save you from something. Very annoying but no one ever had any explanation as to why it was happening.
Dick Boley

 

[Paavo]

Memory leak.

 

[ccartmel]

I won't send the card back then

Thanks folks,
Relieved that I am not the only one experiencing this, so will hope that the DX10 interface covers the area of code causing this.

Roll on October (or whenever).

 

[Paavo]

Some of your addons probably has some buggy textures or models. Try removing planes and scenery you added recently, this may fix it. In worst case, reinstall may help.

 

[arno]

It could also be that the settings are just turned up too high. This can cause a CPU or GPU overload, in which case the texture do not get enough time to fully load and stay blurry. So playing around with the settings a bit might also help.

 

[BASys]

Hi Folks

This issue is nothing new
to users of low spec machines.

The textures initially load fully,
and are correctly displayed as sharp,
then immediately fallback to the next lower MIP level.



What is new,
is that post SP1,
it's affecting a wider range of higher spec'd machines.

SP1 is apparently utilising the processor more intensively.



The disk IO subsystem also appears to be being similarly hit.

I'm also seeing some unexpected calls to sim & texture .cfgs
for all simobjects, and autogen libraries,
despite neither AI or autogen being active.



Unfortunately the only option appears to be backing off your setting slightly,
(even though you could run with these pre-SP1).



Switching views can also cause textures to blur,
as you add additional processing load,
& then unblur,
as some view changes force a full texture reload.

Unpaused loss of focus for FSX,
will allow the textures to catch up,
(for me particularly if minimized).

Paused does not.
YMMV.



In my case, (2.4GHz P4, non-HT),
I've had to drop from locked @ 25FPS
down to 15 FPS,
to achieve similar fluidity.

I also now have to do without autogen entirely.

HTH
ATB
Paul

 

[jcboliveira]

Two things puzzels me about all this problems:

1 - Never saw a post saying that with default fsx.cfg it has a problem;

2 - Never saw a post saying that the mipbias=6 / 7 doesn't work specially with the clamp option in NVIDIA CP.

Personally I don't have them but I tried 2 and noticed sharper textures (too sharp for my taste in fact)

José

 

[ccartmel]

SP1 seems to have made it worse?

Thanks all for your input. Following up on Paul's comments on SP1 it does seem more evident after SP1 installed. Most of my settings are high and I have experimented with some success, but robbing Peter to pay Paul is just not satisfactory.

My graphics card is powerfull, but CPU could be improved. I assume that you [Paul] are referring to the CPU being overloaded rather than the GPU as with DX10 (eventually) the GPU will bear even more load.

My experiments on the settings caused another problem. I flew around for ages looking for my home-grown landmarks. They had gone missing, but only because the complexity slider had been reduced considerably

One thing I have noticed is that some of the better produced AI stuff stay sharp, whilst the AI add-on aircraft, in the main, blur beyond recognition.

Still playing with the video card settings to try and move processing into the GPU. Can't transfer the filtering however as my skyscape ends up striped in differing shades of blue

José Not too sure what the references to fsx.cfg and mipbias refer to. My fsx.cfg is SP1 original, and have not touched the mipmap parameters in the video card configuration as I do not understand the implications.

Again, Thanks all for your help on this.

Charlie

 

[BASys]

Hi Folks

1 - Never saw a post saying that with default fsx.cfg it has a problem;

Jose -
Definitely a problem here,
and specifically on a full reinstall with fsx building a new scratch config.
There has been discussion elsewhere on this impact.

2 - Never saw a post saying that the mipbias=6 / 7 doesn't work specially with the clamp option in NVIDIA CP.

Can't personally comment on Nvidia.

On an ATI card, running at 1600x1200x32,
I get a central area of sharp, but swimming textures,
i.e.
they appear to oscillate/move in circles,
I think it's specifically as you approach a QMID boundary.

Around the edges, they are most definitely blurred.
6 being as above, 7 with shimmering.



Charlie -
Yep I was referring to your CPU.

ISTR some notes on AMD to P4 equivalent processing capabilities
specifically in FSX, (bucket handling attribution),
where an AMD @ 3GHz equates to a P4 @ 2.4GHz.
i.e.
In your case you'd have two off P4 @ 2.4GHz.

Personally I always keep scenery complexity at max
same for mesh, mesh res, and textures, (except during online mulltiplay).
I back off the FPS,
which allows the CPU more time to handle these.

HTH
ATB
Paul

 

[FlapsOut]

Screen Resolution

All of the above is Nonsense...Your running Windows Vista!

It is changing resolution based on what it thinks the game (FSX) is set too.

Try having Windows Vista Aero loaded and see what happens

sheesh

FlapsOut

 

[ccartmel]

Aero

Flapsout.
Aero is loaded (I think, not sure how to check). I assume this as I selected the Aero windows theme and have the 3D cascaded windows option.

As Aero is the 'improved' graphics engine then I hope that I haven't

 

[ccartmel]

default fsx.cfg

Paul,
I am gradually resetting the values in the SP1 produced fsx.cfg as per the performance tweaks I used previously.
The FIBER_FRAME_RATE seems to have smoothed thing out a little. Have not touched the autogen settings as using photo scenery autogenis set at none.
Locked Frame Rate set at 17.

Still playing

 

[BASys]

Hi Folks

All of the above is Nonsense...Your running Windows Vista!

It is changing resolution based on what it thinks the game (FSX) is set too.

Try having Windows Vista Aero loaded and see what happens

sheesh

FlapsOut

FlapsOut -

Which particular aspects are nonsense ?

As this also happens in XP
it's not Vista Aero.

ATB
Paul

 

[ccartmel]

New CPU has helped

Paul,
your advice on the CPU overloading prompted me to upgrade. I now run the AMD 6000+, not yet overclocked from 3GHz, and the improvement is noticable. The graphics have not as of yet gone blurry and I seem to have achieved a more stable frame rate, dropping to 8 at it's lowest in heavily populated areas (EGGP - traffic and buildings), while flying is over 30% better.

Cheers

Charlie

 

[ccartmel]

Better, but still blurrs at times

Folks,
the upgrade to the processor has helped, but has not been 100% successful.
additional info: Setting mipbias=6 under the graphics adapter section of fsx.cfg has helped a bit more. Higher values cause shimmering to the extent that mid distance objects are unrecognisable.