Blurry Lights, Missing Runway etc

[jimbrax]

I have been having several issues with FSDreamteam sceneries, not specifically Dallas but it's a good example of the type of problems I keep having with FSDT products.

I can't seem to insert an image directly into this post using the Insert Image option (if someone can explain, that would be great, thanks).  I get the [img] tags but not sure how insert my screenshots

If I load up an aircraft on the default KDFW active runway, at dusk\night to show the lights, I usually see the view in the sharp.jpg file attached.

In my [Display] section in fsx.cfg, I have the following lines:

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.8 // (edge, center, end, and touchdown lights)
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.7 // (scales VASI lights)
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.7 // (scales approach light bars)
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=0.7 // (scales RAILs and ODALs)

This gives nice pinpoint lights, easy to see, especially during night time approaches.  If I then load up the FSDT scenery for KDFW, I get the very blurry lights shown in the blurry jpg file attached where the close ones are just blurry and the further ones are large and blurry.

Not very nice and very difficult to fly into a FSDT airport at night.  Certainly unenjoyable to say the least.  I have max_texture_load set to 4096 as recommended during installation and I have tried every combination of settings for my GTX 970 as regards to anti-aliasing etc, nothing makes a difference.

If I then untick FSDT Dallas from the scenery library to revert to the default airport, it still shows the same blurry lights. Ticking\unticking makes no difference.  I have to completely restart FSX without FSDT ticked for the default airport and lights to work as they should. 

The next issue is no airport or runway displayed.  This is shown in the file nothing.jpg attached.


I flew out of Flightbeam KDEN, working OK and wanted to arrive at FSDT KDFW.  When I got there, there was no runway, no buildings, despite it being enabled in the scenery library just above the working Flightbeam entry for KDEN. I tried running the couatl live update, couatl restart, couatl restart and rebuild airport cache options which made no difference.  I tried reinstalling KDFW which successfully downloaded and updated necessary files, installed the registry key manually, and then restarted FSX.  This seems the only way to get FSDT airports to show as a departure airport (although the success rate doing this is 50/50) but doesn't help when you fly into them and nothing's there when you arrive and you can't enable it via the scenery library without shutting down and restarting which completely spoils the moment.

Initially, I was prepared to just use the FSDT airports during the day and forget about night time departure\arrivals, using the default scenery instead but when I can't even get back to that environment properly after FSDT has been activated without the shutdown\restart faff, it's frustrating.

I am running the following system:

FSX boxed but had exactly the same issues under FSX:SE.  The reason I reverted to FSX boxed was so that I could use FSDiscover which unfortunately doesn't work under FSX:SE.  XPOI is not a valid replacement, horrible piece of software that continually causes couatl crashes even when not installed (have to delete the couatl\xpoi folder it magically installs for no reason, wtf?) XPOI = Xtra Piece of *IT*.  What a waste of 15 Euros....

Windows 10 64-bit
Intel Core i7-6700K
16GB DDR4-3000 RAM
Nvidia Geforce GTX 970

If anybody can offer any advice on what I else I can try, I would be very appreciative.  I'm more than happy to admit I've made a schoolboy error somewhere, in fact would be happy to do if it solves my issues but I feel like I've tried everything and there's a lot of money spent sitting on my hard drive being wasted and not enjoyed.

I don't have these issues with any of the FlyTampa airports so I'm pretty sure it's FSDT software that's at fault.  And I can see from this forum and a many pages of Google searching for answers, that I'm not alone.  I haven't been able to find any definitive solution yet in the threads of this forum so I'm trying one last desperate plea!

Thanks All

James

[virtuali]

I can't seem to insert an image directly into this post using the Insert Image option (if someone can explain, that would be great, thanks).  I get the [img] tags but not sure how insert my screenshots

You inserted your screenshots in the proper way, by Attaching to a post. Using [img] tags is not very polite (no thumbnails), since it might force someone with slow/paid connection to load the big image.

If I load up an aircraft on the default KDFW active runway, at dusk\night to show the lights, I usually see the view in the sharp.jpg file attached.

This gives nice pinpoint lights, easy to see, especially during night time approaches.  If I then load up the FSDT scenery for KDFW, I get the very blurry lights shown in the blurry jpg file attached where the close ones are just blurry and the further ones are large and blurry.

The default settings are meaningless for a scenery like KDFW, which uses custom runway lights. If you find them to be blurry, it's because you are probably not using Anisotropic Filtering on the Video Control panel, which reduce mip-map quality. Be sure you Enhance/Force the Application settings, and set it at 16x

If I then untick FSDT Dallas from the scenery library to revert to the default airport, it still shows the same blurry lights. Ticking\unticking makes no difference.  I have to completely restart FSX without FSDT ticked for the default airport and lights to work as they should. 

This is normal, since 90% of the scenery is not controlled by the Scenery Library.

tried reinstalling KDFW which successfully downloaded and updated necessary files, installed the registry key manually, and then restarted FSX.  This seems the only way to get FSDT airports to show as a departure airport (although the success rate doing this is 50/50) but doesn't help when you fly into them and nothing's there when you arrive and you can't enable it via the scenery library without shutting down and restarting which completely spoils the moment.

You cannot enable an FSDT scenery "on the fly". If you are doing this, it won't ever work. And, doing this, won't save you any VAS memory (if you are accustomed to that practice for other sceneries). This has been discussed many times on the forum, for example here:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,9848.msg77524.html#msg77524

Turning on/off FSDT sceneries when flying it's a total waste of effort, because we ALREADY do memory-management for them independently from FSX, since 90% of the scenery is not made using .BGLs files, but with 3d object we create and destroy on demand. When you are flying outside of the area of an FSDT scenery, none of your VAS is taken, even if you enter it and the exit from it, all of it is reclaimed.

Because of this, the Addon Manager doesn't react to changes in the Scenery Library automatically, the active sceneries list is read only when FSX starts, which also make it more efficient, so it doesn't have to check for changes in the scenery.cfg while FSX is running, and it doesn't have to re-scan the scenery library when you change it, and it does this BECAUSE you wouldn't get ANY benefits by turning on/off FSDT sceneries while FSX is running.

[jimbrax]

Hi Umberto, thanks very much for your reply, I must admit to regretting the tone of my original post but hadn't the chance to edit it before you replied.

Thanks for letting me know that the sceneries must be active before the flight and not during, that will def help the frustration!

Unfortunately, I already have Anisotropic set to 16x so I just don't know what else to try for the blurry lights. Externally I have AA set to 8x via Nvidia  Control Panel and set to enhance Fsx. Internally with FSX, AA is ticked and anisotropic is set to bilinear as its being set externally to 16x.

Is there anything you can suggest?

Thanks
James

[virtuali]

The issue is, what you are referring in your screenshot as "sharp" (default lights) and "blurry", it's what I would refer to "too small" and "more realistic", instead. Have a look at this picture:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/e5/ad/89/e5ad8929090a27236e1b88821a0312d9.jpg

I think it looks closer to the one from KDFW, than the one in the first screen, which used FSX default lights.