clouds

[yancovitch]

hello, tried search but could not find:
please, anyone know what causes and how to get rid of blocky clouds, or clouds outlined in grey, or vertical line in middle of clouds? not to mention clouds that, when approaching, fade away in front of you.....midmap is up as someone suggested. hopefully, vic.
pentium4 -1,8
asus p4t-e w/intel 850 main
512 rdram
g-force4 ti-4200

[garymbuska]

Sounds like another video card issue here.
First thing make sure you have the lattest drivers for the card you have.If everything there is ok I would suggest you run diaxdiag I know that it is not the best tool but at least it gives you an idea. If you can not run the direct draw or direct play Then the odds are fs2004 will have problems.If you are using windows XP it would not hurt to obtain another 512 memory if you can afford it.
Also whow much memory does your video card have if it is less than 128 meg than you might not be able to do much better with out adjusting the sliders to get the results you want. A card with 256 meg can be bought for 100.00 not that bad really.

[yancovitch]

thanks for advice.........rambus ram is more expensive, if i can get it, but i may do it if you think it will make a difference. i'll check into what you said earlier as my knowledge is rather limited...... i wonder if it would it be better to use the money to upgrade the whole system in anticipation of fs2006???               grateful, vic

[Skligmund]

Or just set aside a little fund for a new computer that will be purchased when FS2006 arrives, and then you can ahave a really scookum computer.

[garymbuska]

You have to way the pro's and con's,
Adding more memory can never hurt , But if your video card is below 128 megs it is not going to make a whole lot of differance. But on the other hand it does not do you much good to have a video card with 256 meg ram when the System has only 512 meg ram. My system uses 768 meg ram and I have a video card with 128 meg ram ddr. I also have a PENTIUM 4 operating at 3.2 gig with a total of 180 gig hard drive. I get 30 to 35 FPS even in maxed out wheater..
I know it can be a diffuclt decision. Offf hand I would add more system ram first before I did any thing with the video card. But a new system might be in order if you feel that the one you have now is close to being maxed out.

[yancovitch]

gee, thanks so much for your kind advise!!  cheers, vic

[cleobis]

also make sure you have 3d clouds set to 100% in the menu. Of course you'll loose fps in doing this but if you don't, some clouds will allways look blockyiish....

[Iroquois]

I just checked the price for RDRAM, very expensive. You could get some major upgrades such as a new mobo and CPU for that. My suggestion is if you do upgrade, dump Rambus. It's useless and is equal in preformance to DDR even with the extra clock speed.

[yancovitch]

hi iroquois, yes that is what

[yancovitch]

oopsy! oopsy!............cleobis!! i can't believe i've ignored the 3-d slider because i thought that it would just add more clouds, which i liked to keep simple. i increased it just to 50% and voila, puffy l'il cotton balls. i wonder if any one else could be so dense. and after a year of fooling around with fs9..... get around 10-15 fps at airport and 18-30 upstairs....sliders mostly up. but if i up to 90%  it goes down, a bit too low..........so i'll still work towards an upgrade. anyways it's a relief.

[cleobis]

yes, it really is a pain...good looking skyes allways come at a great expense of fps...I hope m$ get's addresses this issue in the next fs...