Help me eliminate shimmering

[FridayChild]

As per the topic. I have tried each and every nHancer setting, and nothing seems to change the fact that I get a lot of shimmering, really a lot.
Shimmering is even worse than blurries for me; I really hate it.
What else can I do besides getting a new video card?

[Groundbound1]

What is your mipmap setting at in the sim?

[FridayChild]

4.
Anything below 4 kills every detail; anything over 4 makes no difference.
And even setting it to below 4 does not eliminate shimmering.

[beaky]

Oddly enough, I've just re-acquired this problem myself, after having to repair my install of Windows XP.  >:(

I've re-set everything as it was before (including tweaking the OS, of course), but I can't get rid of it (so far).  

If I figure it out, I'll let you know... there's a chance it may be related to BIOS settings for voltages, etc... I haven't gone there yet as I never made a note of my earlier changes (stupid!).

[FridayChild]

Voltages and timings should only affect performance and stability, I don't think they have an effect on visual quality.
I have never been able to eliminate shimmering, while I've been reasonably successful at reducing blurries. I've come to think the culprit is the 6600GT chip, but I still hope someone will pull a rabbit outta the hat for me. In the meantime, I'll sing.

"Twinkle twinkle little stars... and little trees... and little houses... and little runway centerlines..."  ;D

[Joe60]

Well I hope you guys come up with a solution and post it here.
I used to have this annoying shimmering problem then after installing and uninstalling stuff, following Nicks stickys and doing all sorts of stuff it went away and I dont remember what made it go away.
I have never touched anything in the hardware side except the nHancer addition, but I dont think that made it go away although it might be.
I would like to reformat my drive and reinstall everything as I have so much junk in the drive atm its crazy, but I'm scared I'm gonna loose my performance as currently I have fantastic performance in both FS2004 and FSX.
mmm now that I think of it maybe it went away when I switched my CPU from 2 core to single core - not sure though.

[FridayChild]

I'm convinced that there can be multiple causes for the shimmering phenomenon, so I don't think that there is one single cure for all. In my case for instance I don't even have a double core CPU and the setting in nHancer is "single core".
FS2004 is not the only shimmering game; all of them are, and that's why I think it's a system wide issue perhaps related to my video card. I too have followed the stickies, so I'm left with no options.

[FridayChild]

Message for the admins:
do you think it would be a good idea to move this thread to "tweaking and overclocking"?

[Joe60]

Maybe I should not say anything but I am going to.
Personally I believe in shifting threads around is not a good idea and is probably the reason so many people have problems with their FS's as if you have a problem with FS2004 you come here and not go hunting around a jungle of forums trying to find the solution for your problem.
One needs a lot of time on your hands to go hunting through so many forums as in my case I come here, then have a quick look at the FSX forum and leave.

[Fozzer]

Hello Friday!... ...

...funny thing is....

The only "Shimmering" I ever come across, (in all my various Graphics card incarnations), have been the leaves on the Trees, and I put that down to the fact that the Processor and Graphics Card have to render and re-render, a zillion times a second... ...., every intricate leaf on all the Autogen trees, as we constantly move around... that I can understand and accept... ...!
...actually adds a bit of "animation" to the Trees...Wind?... ...!

The rest of my scenery objects appear rock-solid... ...!

What other objects (apart from the Trees) are affected by your "Shimmering", Friday..?

Paul....G-BPLF...FS 2004 SP2...Win XP....Joy... 8-)...!

Socket A Athlon XP 2600+...... + Winfast 7800GS 256Meg AGP Card.... ...!

Frame Rate permanently locked at 20 FPS (Rules for Multiplayer!)... 8-)...!

[FridayChild]

Anything with a thin outline shimmers.
Fences, trees, poles, wires, runway lines et al.
You can see that's a pretty annoying problem.

[Fozzer]

Anything with a thin outline shimmers.
Fences, trees, poles, wires, runway lines et al.
You can see that's a pretty annoying problem.

...Tornado time?... ... ..!

...sorry Friday... ...!

..a bit of an anti-aliasing problem?

...or go into the Storm Shelter until its passed over?.... ......!

Paul... G-BPLF...... ...

[FridayChild]

AA seems to work well, or at least I can see that the various settings in nHancer have a definite effect in FS2004 as far as jaggies are concerned, while nothing seems to affect shimmering at all.

[Joe60]

Friday, sometimes its also like a mirroring effect caused by the Mip Mapping being set to high.
I run mine on a 4 or 5 as this is very noticable on the frames of city type buildings.
Also looking at your specs its definently not your 6600GT as my previous PC has that and I never had a problem there.
Something else you can try is in your Advanced nVidia Panel, set it up to use nVidia settings instead of the applications, then pull your Contrast down and maybe increase or decrease your Gamma.
This shimmering is often noticed on TV Plasma screens when the Contrast Ratio is to high.
A final option is if you are using a LCD monitor check its response time as if that is higher than 8 ms then that could also be your problem.
In this case try another monitor.

[FridayChild]

The display may be involved, but consider that it runs at nominal 8 ms.
As for the mip map detail, as I said I run at 4 but I have tried all the other settings to no avail.
I haven't tried to tweak contrast and gamma; are you sure they can affect shimmering?