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Cloud covers antenna at Launceston Airport


marc_eddn

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Hi guys,

have a look at the pic below and notice the cloud overlaying the antenna on the building.

Could it be a scenery problem, a graphics card driver problem, a FSX bug, an FTX thing or FEX-related?

I run a Q6600@3GHz, 2GB RAM, a 8800GT with 1GB RAM (current release and beta driver by NVIDIA tested - same result), and FSX Acceleration on Windows XP SP3. I have the feeling that it has nothing to do with FTX or the Launy scenery, but I appreciate any hint or fix for this problem. I could imagine I am not the only one having this.

Posted Image

Any help from somebody?

Thanks & best wishes

Marc

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To my knowledge, the Launy objects were made for FS9, using the Gmax gamespack for that version of FS. Object made with the current Gmax gamespack are coded differently so as to be fully compatable with the current FS platform. FS10 was a bit too ambitious and backward compatability got lost in SP2.

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I even saw distant clouds in front of closer ones... That's why i call it a bug.

I have seen this too, but just recently. I still think it may be related to NVIDIA driver or something else I recently changed... I figure I would have been irritated much earlier if I would have seen that before, using FSX pretty much from day one.

Also, the transparency thing is something I know, because some Aerosoft products and some freeware suffered from this SP2-incompatibility. But it looks different, more like a halo of invisibility, if you know what I mean  ;)

Maybe I install some very old NVIDIA drivers again, just to rule that out.

Thanks for your feedback! I'll let you know if I find something.

Marc

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So, I installed ancient NVIDIA driver 169.21 just to see what's happening - no change.

Also installed the "old" kind of clouds in FEX instead of the HD variant - no change.

I still appreciate any proposals for a fix. Does everyone else have this problem, too? If not, what are your specs?

Clueless,

Marc

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libs = libraries.

Many 3d objects are bundled into libraries of objects. Rather than having one BGL (FS-readable format) file for each object, multiple MDLs (objects in their pre-FS-readable format) in one BGL. If you use an object placement tool, you'll see lists of object libs.

Hope that helps.

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The problem stems from two objects with alpha channels conflicting with each other.

All clouds have alpha channels, and antennas are usually created with alpha channel transparency. FSX models with transparency require them to be set up to determine which one displays wrt the other. So in this case the cloud has presidence over the antenna, when it should be the other way around.

Its a pretty tricky thing to get working right.

FSX has many legacy library objects which would have been converted the FSX models, but they may not have been tweaked to use full FSX materials. You can tell new ones as they just look nicer.

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You can't fix an application bug with a GPU driver  ;).

You are right, of course. But since I still don't understand exactly what goes on, and I had the feeling that this used to be better some time ago, there was nothing wrong with trying. I am an engineer working with pretty complex HW/SW systems every day, and I have solved many problems by fixing dependencies no one knew about in the first place ;-)

I have the strong feeling FSX is a very complex system that many people think they know all about, but still has its mysteries. And this is not to offend any of the great people in this forum. I just think many systems are so complex that there's a lot of interdependencies that are not obvious to see.

By the way, I had some very annoying far away clouds displayed over closer ones yesterday while flying. It's a pity I notice this effect so strongly now, it really bugs me... >:( And it annoys me that FSX is no longer improved for the sake of FS11.  I would rather have one great sim that works every 5 years instead of a new feature-bloated one every two years or so. But that's of course typical engineer's wishful thinking, not marketing talk.

I think I'll just focus on my AU Blue map until the weekend, it's almost ready for release. This was also much more complex than anticipated (at least with the features I wanted in), but everything I have on my top priority list is solved now, I am just working on the gold plating until Saturday or so.

Again, thanks everyone four your help! I really love this community.

Marc

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I have the strong feeling FSX is a very complex system that many people think they know all about, but still has its mysteries

Spot on!

  I would rather have one great sim that works every 5 years instead of a new feature-bloated one every two years or so.

On the mark again.

I think ACES were way too ambitious with FS10. Let's hope they get the fundamentals right in the next platform.

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