Jump to content

Glitter / White Pixels / Sprarkes at KMRY KPSP and others


Slayer

Recommended Posts

This problem occurs in both FSX in DX10 and Prepar3dV2:


 


I'm having a problem with mostly airport objects such as the runway light fixtures, light poles, aircraft stairs, radio towers, windmills, cars etc. There are white pixels / texture sparkling that show up on distant objects all over the airports -  but only ORBX airports. The 2 in the title are the worst. it is very pronounced and the pixels that show this are pure white, like any reflective surface or edge of small objects


 


I've used the search function but everyone who apparently had this problem before just left the thread without telling what they did to fix it if anything, nor had any solution been provided. Several have suggested not to use DX 10, obviously this is impossible with P3D since it is using DX11


 


It looks like possibly the mipmaps are messed up because as you get really close the white pixels disappear.  


 


It looks exactly like what this guy posted about except it's not just cars:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAO59ziGWNc


Note you have to watch that video in 1080 //large to see the sparkles..


 


 


 


I'm by no means a computer or flight sim noob and have tried anything relating to:


 


-mipmaps/LOD/optimizations on/off, different levels of texture quality. Nvidia control panel and also using Nvidia inspector


 


-DX10 fixer for FSX (there is nothing for P3D because DX11 is fully supported)


 


-I've tried the last 3 versions of nvidia drivers


 


-just about every combination of graphics settings


 


-installed latest orbx libraries


 


The only thing that will somewhat alleviate it is to force on SGSSAA or SSAA but these have to be turned up to very high levels which will kill FPS because I'm running on 3 monitors. This isn't really a solution for me as it's unflyable at 10 FPS ( I have a very good computer and a TITAN GPU)


 


Please help

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't fly at night, I like watching the world go by too much. However, I get the same effect around airports and have been hoping to see some solution or explanation as to why this happens. I haven't seen anything though. My grandson was with me the other day and said "Look at all the people taking photos granddad". Now I just use the effect as a navigational tool to spot airstrip from a distance. :)


 


I do hope someone will be able to answer your question for you. I will be keen to know too.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe try the old pixel radius reject tweak... which might affect other things but I believe it was designed for just this problem

Hi John..I have just got to ask you..what and where is pixel radius reject tweak ?

I have a couple of third party airports that would need this...

I have just changed over to DX10 and havnt been to them yet to know if theiy are now fixed..but I have never heard of this tweak

Cheers stu

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem seems to be, as I suspected, DX10-related.  DX10 gets a lot of its performance increase by discarding some of the finer image processing elements of the display coding.


 


I just tried DX9 at KPSP where I am getting major sparkling from a distance and all the sparkling pixels virtually have gone.


 


I doubt there's an easy fix for this.  Maybe Jarrad knows of a texture fix, fingers crossed!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John..the airports I am talking about were like that in DX9..just terrible..bright floresent shimmering green until you got on short fails..just 3 third party airports.

I have about 30 FTX airports and well over 150 assorted third party airports that are all fine.

Can you advise the tweak so I can try it out

Stu

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, I got rid of most of the sparkles in DX10.  Ramped up all the NVidia control panel settings and importantly set the Texture Quality to High.  Should have done it ages ago.  No effect on fps at KPSP, haven't tried more demanding sceneries.


 


post-82-0-70467500-1415782989_thumb.jpg


Link to comment
Share on other sites

G'day Slayer,


 


As has been mentioned, it is determined by your graphics card setup, and particularly the AA settings. Contrary to what should be expected, the cause isn't actually textures (or mipmaps) but rather how your graphics card renders polygons that are in close proximity. The reason that you see this more at airports in FSX is that, in general, there are more complex objects (and therefore higher-density polygon geometry) compared to autogen buildings or trees. The effect is compounded by distance (ie why you see it more often with objects in the distance), and using your video as reference is also compounded at dusk due to the higher contrast in the lighting engine (faces away from the dusk/dawn sun=very dark, faces pointed towards sun=very bright). Lastly, the reason why it is more pronounced at KPSP is that I like to make many of my high-priority objects (airport buildings etc) with a high level of polygon detail, as this has little performance impact for the extra detail included. 


 


So, again as mentioned, the solution is to find the best balance in your graphics card settings between performance and visual quality. Also, make sure your DX10 fixer is updated to the latest version - I remember this being more of a problem in default DX10/early versions of the fixer, and I know that Steve has worked hard to address the issue with further versions. 


 


Cheers,


Jarrad


Link to comment
Share on other sites

John, I just noticed from looking at your NVI screengrab that you're not using SGSS (Sparse Grid Supersampling) for Antialiasing Transparency. It may help.


 


Take a look at my "HowTo" guide to see if there's anything else in there that may be of use. Also - try posting on Steve's Blog (or one of the other DX10-specific forums). I think Steve has worked closely with ORBX to try and get these (complex) lighting issues sorted. As he's "back on the job" now - and it's in his interest (being as ORBX has such a large user base) - you're likely to get a good response.


 


I have neither of the two add-ons in question, so I can't test.


 


Adam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finally found where the glittering is coming from.


 


In P3DV2 if I turn off HDR lighting then the sparkles vanish. I'm not sure on DX10 if it uses HDR in FSX or not I'll have to dig into that a bit deeper, I think in FSX this may be the light bloom setting? 


 


If I turn off HDR I loose all the nice lighting effects so I really don't want to leave it off.


 


Again I have lots of other payware airports from other vendors with very highly detailed objects and there are no white sparkles.


 


The problem only seems to be related to ORBX library objects not rendering properly with HDR on.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...