B-50 FSX graphics issues - test version

[gray eagle]

Camera views "borrowed" from the C-97 Version 3. In the aircraft.cfg, I think it was [camera.001] and [camera.002]

@Manfred. I just downloaded and tried the C-97 Version 3. No wing view until I added in the Pan Am update from the C-97 thread. It looks great! No Glass problems and the VC wingview is perfect! Head scratchin' time!

I tried camera Views 001 and 002 and no dice. Do I have to find that Pan AM update to get those views?

tried camera Views oo1 and 002 and no dice. Do I have to find that Pan AM update to get those views?
EDIT: I found the Pan AM paint and there are no camera views in it.

 

[MrZippy]

tried camera Views oo1 and 002 and no dice. Do I have to find that Pan AM update to get those views?
EDIT: I found the Pan AM paint and there are no camera views in it.

Pam Am update is for the C-97 version 3. Same basic VC as the B-50 and with the update, I can now turn my head to the left and see the wing/engine view. This is what I also want for the B-50.

As far as the camera views are concerned, you need to right click and under Cockpit views, choose right or left wing view. This modification has nothing to do with turning your head in the VC and seeing the wings.

 

[gray eagle]

Pam Am update is for the C-97 version 3. Same basic VC as the B-50 and with the update, I can now turn my head to the left and see the wing/engine view. This is what I also want for the B-50.

As far as the camera views are concerned, you need to right click and under Cockpit views, choose right or left wing view. This modification has nothing to do with turning your head in the VC and seeing the wings.

I sent you a PM with the wing views based on the cameradef you sent me.

 

[MZee1960]

Hi Everyone !

Well, real life got in the way of my sim life again and so I had to take a three day hiatus from FSX.

Today, I finally got a couple of hours to 'fly'. After reading pretty well this entire thread all over again to catch up on where everything stands, I opted to follow 'TerryW's' path and what he said in post #45. Using the original 'vanilla' B-50 V1 download (no mods), I simply deleted the existing panel it came with and replaced it with the TEST panel, then re-named this TEST panel back to just 'panel' and put it back into the sim. I flew a total of seven round trip flights from KPSP to KBNG (the region of concern where the 'black' squares appear in Orbx textures on approach), re-starting FSX fresh each time between flights. After my sixth successful round trip flight with no issues, I had the champagne chilling in the fridge, and was getting ready to celebrate. Then I decided, ..... OK, one more last time and if all is well, then I'll call it a day and celebrate.

Flight number seven into KBNG :

So now I know my FSX Deluxe Ed. with SP 1 and 2 (no Acceleration) is OK with a few P3D entries in the 'panel'. It just underlines the 'B50!Sim_B50' may indeed be somehow causing these graphic anomalies. The only test flights I had that were without issues were those where I 'deleted' this gauge from the panel config. So I guess now the question is, which version of the 'B50' gauge to use to replace the one that was in my trials ?

(PS... .Apart from these ground texture anomalies, I have no 'texture' issues with the aircraft and see wings from VC etc. and as far as I can tell everything seems to function OK from what I've tried. Running W7. )

 

[MZee1960]

Thanks Terry & ZSolt ... nice set of conflicting reports ...

Here, have another download:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ivyoeox0z2vjgao/panelTESTsim_b50.zip?dl=0

This one has an additional Sim_B50.xml-b2 ('b-two') in it.

Terry (and anyone else) can you try this one as well and report back? Thanks.

@ZSolt, in your latest flight Monitor cannot read the FSX version - which is it?
The turretless version will have to wait until this issue is cleared up, so that I can add either an alternate panel or at least a health warning in the readme.

Hi Manfred,

Just tried the original, 'vanilla', B-50 V1 version, with this replacement 'Sim_B50.xml-b2 ('b-two')' gauge in it ---- no other changes/modifications/additions.

I flew seven trips from KPSP to KBNG, (re-starting FSX before each subsequent trip), with NO texture issues/anomalities whatsoever.
All Orbx ground textures OK.
All aircraft textures OK.
Wings visible from VC.
The shift-4 panel pops up as 'condensed', but can easily be expanded (panel reads 'TEST' on bottom RH corner).
Aircraft animations - turrets, doors, etc. all seem to work OK from the panel.

Maybe I'll have that champagne after all !

Cheers,
MZ.

 

[mjahn]

MZee, if Monitor is condensed you are not flying with sim_b50 b2, because b2 sets it to fully expanded.

I have got one final tip, we noticed that the texture.cfg's in all texture folders were faulty. They should all read:

[fltsim]
fallback.1=..\texture
fallback.2=..\..\..\..\Texture
fallback.3=..\..\..\..\Scenery\Global\texture

Please replace. Probably won't make much of a difference (texture.TEST had it correct), but it's better to go by the book.

On the whole, following the posts in this thread, the waters have been getting muddier and muddier. Time for me to admit defeat and let it rest.

 

[MrZippy]

On the whole, following the posts in this thread, the waters have been getting muddier and muddier. Time for me to admit defeat and let it rest.

ACK! My only issue is with the model file! As shown with my screenshots of the C-97 V.3 after doing your minor update, all shows well, Glass and VC wingview. That's all I need for the B-50

 

[MZee1960]

MZee, if Monitor is condensed you are not flying with sim_b50 b2, because b2 sets it to fully expanded.

I have got one final tip, we noticed that the texture.cfg's in all texture folders were faulty. They should all read:

[fltsim]
fallback.1=..\texture
fallback.2=..\..\..\..\Texture
fallback.3=..\..\..\..\Scenery\Global\texture

Please replace. Probably won't make much of a difference (texture.TEST had it correct), but it's better to go by the book.

On the whole, following the posts in this thread, the waters have been getting muddier and muddier. Time for me to admit defeat and let it rest.

Hi Manfred,

I double checked and discovered it was a naming error.
Corrected it and the fallbacks as well, went back in sim to check out everything.
Just as I was getting optimistic ....... on my 8th flight, those black squares re-appeared by KBNG, as happened before.
This is very sporadic, happens unpredictably, just reminds me of those 'g3d.dll' fatal errors my FSX was subject to, before I downloaded FSUIPC (aka 'the lifesaver' ).

I totally understand your position here. I am grateful for your beautiful C-47, which works flawlessly in my FSX, and will investigate other AC you have already done, to add to my virtual hangar.

Cheers, and Happy Holidays !

MZ.

 

[mjahn]

Well what do you know, I stumbled upon a seven-year old thread over at Avsim, which had a discussion on more or less exactly the artefacts some users have reported here. It had something like 500 replies, but roundabout p. 8 users began to report favorable results following a tweak suggested by fsx guru "Bojote". The tweak mainly consists of adding some adjustments to fsx.cfg.

1 - With FSX not running, find your fsx.cfg, usually at c:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\fsx.CFG
2 - Make a backup copy, say fsx.CFG-001
3 - Using Notepad, check if there is a section called [bufferPools]
4 - If there isn't one, add it as follows

[bufferPools]
UsePools=0

If the section is already there, but has different settings, change it to read as above.

5 - Find the section called [GRAPHICS] and check if it contains the line

HIGHMEMFIX=1

If not there, add it.

6 - Save and exit. Run fsx loading one of the original B-50 models and see what's with the artefacts.


Note, Bojote also has some pointers concerning video settings and it may be worth reading up his more detailed comments such as this one here:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/...olution-found/?do=findComment&comment=1745212

 

[WarHorse47]

After replacing my video card some time back, I experimented with bufferpools and currently have it activated. This was after extensive research on the interweb.

At the moment I have my B-50 install working just dandy, so I'm not about to change anything. I'd be curious to hear from the others if disabling bufferpools removes their problems with the artifacts.

 

[mjahn]

I'd be curious to hear from the others if disabling bufferpools removes their problems with the artifacts.

You could quickly find this out yourself, and do me and other/future users a big favor. Please understand that my motive is to find a solution without any loss of functionality. As by step 2 you create a backup copy of fsx.cfg you can easily revert to your current setup after the test.

It's up to you, of course.

--Manfred

 

[MrZippy]

Hi Manfred, Happy Holidays!

Even with those changes to the FSX.cfg, my one and only one issue remains. No cockpit glass or plexiglass domes. VC wing view is no longer a concern because of the camera views I installed. The Monitor panel works perfectly and I have no issues with scenery.

I know my issue comes from the model because I had the same issue with Milton's new A-20 series. I corrected that by using the FS9 model, which shows perfectly.

You C-97 version 3, the C-47 ver 2, ver. 3.12, and ver. 3.14 all show correctly. Just curious if you are using any new modeling techniques in the B-50? I'm running WinXP 32 bit with FSX Standard with SP1 and 2.

I posted the same over at Flightsim site!

 

[MZee1960]

Hi Manfred,

I'm currently away from my sim computer and will be for the next several days due to Christmas break. I will definitely revisit my Bufferpools tweak when I get back. I remember several years ago sending my config file over to 'bojote' for analysis, and one recommendation he made was re this tweak. So I put in :

[BUFFERPOOLS]
UsePools=1
RejectThreshold=131072

As I understand it :

Usepools is used to tell the sim to use or not use bufferpools (and therefore rejectthreshold); 0 = off, 1 = on.

So to see any difference you would want usepools=1

Leave a setting for poolsize completely alone and out of the Bufferpools section - its not needed when using rejectthreshold as only anything above this value is sent straight to your GPU. This basically means anything below that value gets sent to the pool, giving your bus a break. Poolsize=0 (or Usepools=0) would send all data directly to the GPU. It is rejectthreshold that makes the difference between seeing those jaggedy spikes or not as its an indication your GPU bus is being overwhelmed - hence the artifacts.

Start down low and work your way up until you find a size that removes them - everyone's rig is different so different settings for different people. A good starting ground is:

96kb = 98304 (anything lower is equivalent to not using it)
128kb = 131072
256kb = 262144
512kb = 524288

(eg. Rejectthreshold=131072 in my case)

Try to find the highest level that removes them and then work back down - try 32 kb size chunks to make it easy.

To this day, I still get the odd spike, especially in heavy Orbx regions which tells me something is momentarily being overwhelmed. The question is whether it's my i7 2600 CPU or my ATI Radeon HD 7970 GPU ? I have my suspicions that my ATI card can handle the extra workload so I will re-visit the 'usepools=0' setting. The worst thing about this is that the 'black squares' happen completely at random and sometimes not at all, which further leads me to believe that they may be due to something momentarily being 'overworked'. Why I even remember when they popped up in the past, just simply going to the FSX drop-down menu and choosing 'select aircraft' and re-loading exactly the same B-50 back into the exact same spot got rid of all of them - as if the sim now had a chance to 'catch it's breath' and all scenery was once again good.

I will re-visit this Bufferpools tweak in a few days time.

Cheers, and Happy Holidays !
MZ.

 

[MrZippy]

Big Thank you to Manfred

This was also posted over at Flightsim.com site.

Manfred,

I have either walked on water or suffered severe brain flatulence. I said to myself..."self, why not try
combining Manfred's shaders with my own?" I opened each of the sub-folders and copied and pasted into my shader file sub-folders all of your info overwriting what was in mine. Low and behold it's looking 99% better than ever! Thanks for your help on this project!

EVEN BETTER! I'm now 100% perfect! I was missing the common folder in the ShadersHLSL folder in the main FSX folder. Handy thing having a vanilla backup! Now I gotta test Milton and team's AG20!

 

[MrZippy]

Even Better!

Now at 100% outside visual of B-50! I was missing a Common folder inside of ShaderHLSL in the main FSX folder? No idea how it was missing but glad I keep a vanilla copy on a USB device! Thanks again, Manfred and to a friend over at Flightsim.com for spotting the missing folder!

 

[mjahn]

Hope it's a durable solution. But there were other, more radical cases, so I still don't know what to think of the whole matter. Flushing shaders (see the Flightsim thread) seems to be an alternative. Setting BufferPools to 0 may be too radical, as MZee says. Also the temporary overload that you mention may be a clue.

 

[MrZippy]

Hope it's a durable solution. But there were other, more radical cases, so I still don't know what to think of the whole matter. Flushing shaders (see the Flightsim thread) seems to be an alternative. Setting BufferPools to 0 may be too radical, as MZee says. Also the temporary overload that you mention may be a clue.

Here's hoping everything goes good from now on. Can't think of any reason that sub-folder came up missing. I also think that missing sub-folder caused what I saw when flushing the Shaders folder.

I guess we never stop learning about these flight sims! Beautiful aircraft, Manfred!