by jgf » Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:37 am
FWIW:
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR
This is a value from 0 to 100 that control the DEM radius (it is linear in area)/Mesh density setting. (0 - min, 100 - max)
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA
This the lowest value used to calculate the DEM radius based upon the TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA
This is the highest value used to calculate the DEM radius
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL
This is the DEM size FS will render the mesh with. Valid values are 18 - 21 in FS2004, 18 - 23 in FS2002 (higher is better)
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP
This controls the terrain texture size. Valid values are 8 (256x256), 7 (128x128) or 6 (64x64)
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP
This turns on/off the gradient map (cliffs)
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES
This turns on/off the extended texture ring
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS
This is the default radius in textures for all rings (default is 2.5) - This is how far from the aircrafts point seen the textures will be sharpened, like a ring around the aircraft. valid values are 0 - 9.500000 - where 9.5 being high
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS
This is the radius used for the inner ring when the extended texture ring is turned on (default is 4.0). This how far from the aicrafts point seen the textures will be shrpened when Extended Textures are turned on. Again as a ring around the aircraft.
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS
This is the number of rings to add when using extended texture rings, default is 1 - How many rings there are around the aircraft.
AUTO_LOD
throwback from Combat Flight Sim Pacific, in which the system would automatically "lower detail" to maintain a locked frame rate counter.
TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_MAP
grass textured polygons around all the airports and taxiways
TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS
used for autogen - seems to have a memory leak on FS2004
LOD_TARGET_FPS
LOD_Target_FPS is usually a value (80% of the set frame lock) that the system would use to automatically start degrading Level of Detail to maintain the desired frame rate. If the frame rate would drop below LOD_Target_FPS for an extended period of tiem, then the system would compensate by lowering LOD to boost frames.
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT
large value can increase the speed of texture loading - but high value may cause strutter on a lower-end video card
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and some of Holger Sandmann's thoughts on the topic:
the effect of many of the settings are entirely system-dependent.
In order to maximize the detail/sharpness of ground textures it's a good idea to use terrain extended textures. Below is a summary of what these parameters mean and what values are possible. However, if you're using photoreal scenery (such as MegaScenery) you should turn off extended textures and reduce visibility to 30 miles or so. That is because without extended textures FS needs to load about 5000 texture tiles but with extended textures the number jumps to about 20,000!
There's still a lot of debate what exactly those parameters mean and what units they have but here's what I compiled from various sources and, IMO (!), makes sense:
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
* that's easy: ON/OFF switch to load higher res textures beyond the initial "ring", which extends to about 40 miles
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000
* apparently, values can range from 0 to 9.99 and higher settings will be ignored
* extends the use of the highest detailed mips (sharper textures) within the inner circle; lower settings means less than 40 miles and higher settings up to the 40-mile max.
* changing this value doesn't seem to make much of a visible difference
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.500000
* same range of values as above
* extends the use of higher maps for the outer circle(s). Supposedly, "1.5" reaches to ~70mi and "9.9" to about 100mi
* careful!!! A setting higher than 3.9 can lead to "texture tearing" (blue slivers) in the mid- to far distance when high-res mesh is used. Some add-on mesh files - like some of mine - provide additional "buffer" mesh files, which prevent those blue slivers even at settings >3.9
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4
* range from 0 to 8
* is tied to TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS and defines the max. mip level to be used for the outer ring(s), that is the sharpness of the outer ring textures
* I never noticed much difference between 0 and 4; no changes at all when >4
In summary, the TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS parameter appears to be the one with the biggest visual influence.
Oh, and TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT apparently determines the speed or priority with which ground textures are sent for processing to the graphics card.
Last edited by
jgf on Mon Jun 27, 2011 9:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
