Support issue - all FSDT and Cloud9 products - SOLVED

[mikkelen]

Hi,

around all my FSDT and Cloud9 products, there is a bug that produce a large solid mass of land around the airport. Probably a few kilometers in diameter. I guess it's a compatibility issue. Is it know, any solutions?

Best regards,
Mikkelen

[virtuali]

Surely not a problem of the sceneries.

Is the land mass square ? If yes, it might be a problem of a default landclass texture missing or corrupted.

[mikkelen]

The massive clump of land is a bit rounded. It's only around my FSDT and Bergen (Cloud9) airports. It was not like this from the start, but happened after my FSX install got built up by more add ons. It's the second time it occurred to me. It also happened on my former FSX install on a different computer on a different OS.

I have a bunch of PMDG and Aerosoft add-ons, the Ultimate Terrain series from Flight1, active sky and real environment x.

Unfortunately I have no clue why and exactly after witch install the problem occurred.

But I figure some one else must have experienced this problem?

[mikkelen]

Here is one sample of the problem - at JFK.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2516/capturevyb.jpg

[mikkelen]

Here is another example from O'hare:
http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/6774/capture2ni.jpg

[virtuali]

The massive clump of land is a bit rounded

No, it's square. Or, more precisely, is made by several square tiles, which are arranged around a radius. From your screenshots, it looks more like a video driver problem, or some addon that has changed a fsx setting or fsx default files that created this problem.

But I figure some one else must have experienced this problem?

No, nobody ever reported this. The only sure thing, it's nothing related to the airports, since the problem area is way beyond the airport ranges.

[mikkelen]

But Virtuali, it only happens around my FSDT airports. And as you can see - the airport is always the center of the landmass. Not likely a video driver problem, as i'm currently getting the problem on an iMac i7 with ATI card. Last time I got it on my core2 duo with Nvidia card. I _believe_ it happened after installing Aerosoft London last time. Do you have Aerosoft London on your system?

Any idea as to what setting an add-on could have changed, that would produce such a thing? Again - it only happens on FSDT products. Could that give us a clue as to what setting it might be?

[meshman]

... the Ultimate Terrain series from Flight1,

You may see land where water should be if some add on is installed after the UTX products and this add on changes the entries in the Terrain.Cfg file that UTX needs. Have you restarted any of the UTX Setup Tool to let it verify that the entries if needs are correct? The Setup Tool does this each time it is started. If the entries are missing, the Setup Tool will add them back in.

[mikkelen]

meshman, thanks, this seems like a reasonable diagnostic of the problem. will report back after i have tried your suggestion. thanks.

[DrJ1]

Mikkelen,

  Have you changed your video card recently.  I had a similar expierence after I changed from an Geforce 9600GT to a GTS450.   I couldn't tell you why but I had a similar issue and it was only around the FSDT sceneries.  (mainly at JFK and a little at DFW)   I thought it could be a driver issue since the nVidia 400 series is having driver issues at this time.   I then figured i's try this web site to try to improve some fame rates

http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

and after using one of the sites tweaked fsx.cfg files i noticed that the graphics errors changed a bit.   Long story short, I was able to modify the fsx.cfg file (after a little more research into the fsx.cfg files)   to the point where I don't have any graphics glitches around FSDT sceneries anymore.....   and i picked up a few rates

[virtuali]

it only happens around my FSDT airports. And as you can see - the airport is always the center of the landmass.

That doesn't means it's related to the scenery but, instead, your video card bug is affecting specific kind of features only our sceneries use (of those you have installed, of course), which are normally supposed to work, if the video driver is performing correctly.

Not likely a video driver problem, as i'm currently getting the problem on an iMac i7 with ATI card.

I too use only Macs (a MacPro with ATI and a MacBook pro with nVidia), once you boot in Windows, the fact the hardware is a Mac doesn't make much difference: you are exposed to possible driver problems and similar issues just like any other Windows user.

[mikkelen]

Virtuali, my point about the mac was not that it was a mac, but it was very different from my last set-up with nVidia card and another cpu - were i got the same problem.

DrJ1, I have not changed any gfx-card, but i will try to rebuild the fsx.cfg and see what happens.

[mikkelen]

Hmm, this is how it looks after I deleted/rebuilt the fsx.cfg :
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5909/capture3wf.jpg

[meshman]

It's a really nice layout of the LOD boundaries. Could be helpful during scenery design, I think? (Humor for Umberto!)


Somewhere you have changed one of the land detail files for FSX. Then for some reason unknown to me, people zoom out really, really far and say this looks strange, wonder why? If you don't like the looks when zoomed out really, really far change back to the default file. Sorry, I don't recall which one it is. Guess you'll have to go search the Flight1 forums for that answer, as there was a recent (last month or so?) thread about the same thing. Please don't go and start a new thread for what is an old problem that's been addressed many times, at all different forums. And you could apologize to Umberto for suggesting there's a "bug" with his products. There isn't, this is something you have introduced to your FSX installation. If there was said "bug", don't you think there would be many, many posting about this "bug"?

Couple of questions. Why do you zoom out so far? And how does it look at what normal people consider to be the view sight, like 10,000 or 30,000 feet?

[mikkelen]

Actually, i also restarted the UTX setup tool. So I'm not sure if this change was because of rebuilding the .cfg or because running the set-up tool.

But it still doesn't look normal, does it? Any thoughts on further diagnostics of the problem Virtuali?

Best,
Mikkelen