Problems with Autogen

[ohanmer 0]

Hi folksI wonder if any of you scenery gurus can shed some light on a recent problem I have encoutered with my autogen.I have recently re-installed FS9.1 and everything seemed to be fine after adding Genesis Mesh, Ground Environment (not Pro), Flight Environment, UT USA, various add-on aircraft, add-on sceneries and a whole host of WOAI and MAIW AI aircraft. Suddenly became aware that my Autogen was only drawing out detailed buildings at very short range (please see accompanying series of five pictures taken at KJFK). Browsed through related topics on this forum and I have tried the following remedies so far:1) Reinstalled an original default.xml file into the Autogen Folder2) Deselected all my add-on sceneries using the FS Library manager (made no difference)3) Removed UT USA plus the Sandwich fix for using Genesis US Landclass4) Copied over contents of original Sceneries and Texture folders for Scenery\World, Scenery\Base\, Scenery Generic\, Scenery Cities and Scenery Name5) Deleted all the Scenery.Dat files in all the folders in FS9\Scenery and allowed FS9 to regenerate new ones6) Loaded FS9 with the original FS9.cfgNow I've completely run out of ideas.System spec is as follows:Athlon 64 38000+ processor, nForce A939 MOBO, 2GB DDR RAM, nVidia 7600GS (256Mb) graphics cardFS9 Display Sliders as follows:SCENERY - All maxed except Water Effects set to LowWEATHER - Sight Distance 60m, Cloud Draw Distance 40m, 3D Cloud Percentage 100%, Cloud Coverage Density MAXHARDWARE - Target Frame Rate 30, Render to Texture ON, Transform & Lighting ON, AA OFF, Filtering TRILINEAR, MIP Mapping Quality 4, H/ware Rendered Lights 8, Global Max Texture Size MASSIVE Relevant settings in FS9.cfg as follows:[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS .0]Mode=1280x1024x32TriLinear=1[DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=30TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=600TextureMaxLoad=6[TERRAIN]TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=3.500000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=3.500000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4[sCENERY]IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=5DYNAMIC_SCENERY=1DYN_SCN_DENSITY=5DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1SUNGLARE=1LENSFLARE=1nHancer settings for video card as follows:AA Combined 8xSEnhanced in game settings - OFFGamma Correction - ONTransparency - MULTIAnisotropic Filtering - APPLICATIONVert Sync - ONTexture Filtering - HIGH QUALITYTrilenear - OFFNegative LOD Bias - CLAMPNow I'm completely stuck! Any guidance or assistance would be gratefully received.Thanks in anticipationOwen

[mebull 27]

Hello Owen. First of all I should let you know that I don't really fit the scenery guru category but I did notice that your setting of "TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=600" is probably way off. For the latest high end cards that are out I think 400 is considered max and for your card ; 7600GS (256Mb) I would suggest you might give 60 a try and TextureMaxLoad=8. Test and see if this helps any. Other than these your .cfg settings appear to be good. Also, you did not report any stutters when flying and your scenery is updating the autogen. Any stuttering? Micro or big time?One other thing; I just read somewhere that having streetlights switched on in UTerrain causes a decrease in autogen ( I don't know this to be a proven fact myself ) so you could try switching them off in the UT interface and see what happens. *Note* I tried this and it seemed to make a difference but it may be one of those placebo things!I hope this helps!Best regards,Mel

[Guest Zevious Zoquis]

Yes its a known consequence of enabling the 3D lights in UT that it impacts the amount of autogen. Nothing placebo about that one... :)

[ohanmer 0]

Thanks for the quick response Mel.Tried your suggested amendments for the FS9.cfg - unfortunately still no improvement. I have been using UT for years (I only removed it as a last resort in trying to eliminate the source of the problem).Does anyone else out there have any ideas to help me on this one? (Opa....where are you in my time or need?)CheersOwen

[N60JBravo 27]

I have not tested this, but I seem tp remember mention of a tweak related to...TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5Try changing that value to a higher number.I believe FS will re-write this back down to 5 when you close FS, so you have to edit this every time you start FS.Like I said, this is based on my memory alone, and I might be wrong.But you can do no harm in trying.regards,Joe

[Mike T 208]

What happens when you "unlock" your framerates? From your screenshots I see a lot of blurry mush off in the distance which leads me to believe that you don't have a high end video card and to achieve 30 FPS in NYC the sim is going to reduce settings to attempt to achieve your desired frame rate.Unlock your frame rates in the same area and take a screen shot (with FPS showing). IF that doesn't help, delete your FS9.cfg and let it rebuild and see what happens, you can always add your terrain optimizations back afterwards.

[red1 0]

I have not tested this, but I seem tp remember mention of a tweak related to...TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5Try changing that value to a higher number.I believe FS will re-write this back down to 5 when you close FS, so you have to edit this every time you start FS.Like I said, this is based on my memory alone, and I might be wrong.But you can do no harm in trying.regards,Joe

Is that really a tweak? I've been around for awhile and never heard of that working.

[ohanmer 0]

Many thanks for the additional suggestions guys. Tried them all...unfortunately with no success. I would be really grateful for any other input as I am completely stumped!CheersOwen

[Wolfko 0]

What happens when you "unlock" your framerates? From your screenshots I see a lot of blurry mush off in the distance which leads me to believe that you don't have a high end video card and to achieve 30 FPS in NYC the sim is going to reduce settings to attempt to achieve your desired frame rate.Unlock your frame rates in the same area and take a screen shot (with FPS showing). IF that doesn't help, delete your FS9.cfg and let it rebuild and see what happens, you can always add your terrain optimizations back afterwards.

Mike,Unlocking the FPS would make things even worse! Unlocking means the system would chase unlimited frames. Locking FPS will take loads of work of the CPU and set power free for other tasks. Locking FPS can even improve the looks of weather/clouds as Jim Skorna explains in this thread http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=264296Wolfgang

[ohanmer 0]

Thanks for the few suggestions made so far guys...unfortunately the problem still persists.The key thing is that all the scenery objects are there (autogen buildings, landmark city buildings, add-on airport scenery and custom objects created with EZ-Scenery) and eventually they all come into view. It's just the Autogen objects that don't appear until they are within approx 1nm distance from my viewpoint. All other objects appear according to their inherent sight range. Surely there is a setting that controls the maximum range for autogen to start appearing (but I certainly can't find it). Really could do with some more help here please......CheersOwen

[Dave Morgan 68]

Mike,Unlocking the FPS would make things even worse! Unlocking means the system would chase unlimited frames. Locking FPS will take loads of work of the CPU and set power free for other tasks. Locking FPS can even improve the looks of weather/clouds as Jim Skorna explains in this thread http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=264296Wolfgang

Just browsing through before posting my own plea for help in another thread...Yes, unlocking the FPS would make things worse (or at best give no improvement) but wouldn't doing that, and then posting another screenshot including the Shift+Z text, show how much of a struggle the hardware is suffering while trying to keep up. I suppose that might give forum members a better idea of how well the hardware can perform and so enable better suggestions?

[Mike T 208]

Just browsing through before posting my own plea for help in another thread...Yes, unlocking the FPS would make things worse (or at best give no improvement) but wouldn't doing that, and then posting another screenshot including the Shift+Z text, show how much of a struggle the hardware is suffering while trying to keep up. I suppose that might give forum members a better idea of how well the hardware can perform and so enable better suggestions?

Exactly my point in telling him to unlock his FPS. We need to see what the performace of his rig is flat out unlocked.