FS2004 Graphics

Astrovana · Post by **Astrovana** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 7:44 pm

On these forums and on the flight sim 2004 website I have seen some fantastic screen shots. I have flight sim 2004 and a radeon 9550 graphics card (128MB). I changed the settings to ultra high but the aircraft still look rubbish. How can I improve the quality of the aircraft.

Speedbird083 · Post by **Speedbird083** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 10:45 pm

Hi

Are you using the default aircraft or add-on aircraft. But for the light aircraft (Cessnas and the Century of Flight models) the rest are fairly poor examples. The default 737, 747 and 777 are particularly bad and can easily be replaced by highly accurate and lovely looking freeware or payware offerings.

If its not the aircraft models and the quality of the graphics that are still the issue then I've found a high resolution is important in producing good quality shots. I run Flight Sim at 1280x1024.

There's also the fact that I for one toy with my screenshots in PaintShopPro 9 to (hopefully) improve them aesthetically and reduce their size.

CaldRail · Post by **CaldRail** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:54 am

Personally I never worried about it. I agree the default graphics could be better but I want the virtual experience, not an art gallery.

Astrovana · Post by **Astrovana** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 1:52 pm

That would explain a lot. I bought some add on aircraft recently and they looked fantastic but the 737, 747 and 777 look awful as well as the learjet. It seems that the 737 is the same model that is in flight sim 98. They look strangely similar (The 737 in 98 actually looks better).

I did expect better but I guess a lot more effort was put in the century of flight aircraft which look great.

Gingerme · Post by **Gingerme** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 5:46 pm

Some people spend sooo much money trying to make their flight sim experince superb!!

But if you want to go out and spend hundreds on buing a really expensive graphics card then thats the solution.

HINT:

If you go into the main scenery directory on the main menu, go o display, then clik on hardware. Shift all the sliders at the bottem, all the way to the highest hotch. This will make the screen go black for a while then come back. The textures in the aircraft and the Scenery should be a lot sharper and clearer. If that doesnt work try the above option.

Astrovana · Post by **Astrovana** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 12:37 pm

I see no point spending Â£150 or more when I have a relatively new graphics card that I bought for Â£50 and whats more it actually works.

Astrovana · Post by **Astrovana** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:45 pm

Graphics now look superb (almost as good as the msfs screenies). I've had some interesting graphics experiences when I've landed my ryanair 737 at Stansted though.
It appears that a large cloud of dust is appearing. Is this normal?

CaldRail · Post by **CaldRail** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:07 pm

It might be. Some aircraft have special effects like that.

Post by **martinhodgson** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:42 pm

Or you might have missed the runway and landed on the grass

Redbaron · Post by **Redbaron** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:52 pm

Astrovana wrote:Graphics now look superb (almost as good as the msfs screenies). I've had some interesting graphics experiences when I've landed my ryanair 737 at Stansted though.
It appears that a large cloud of dust is appearing. Is this normal?

Depends how large. There should be some smoke effects when touching down.

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 8:43 am

Have you updated Stanstead airport? If so you may have a runway that's not correctly aligned with the AFCAD file, so although you SEE yourself touching down on a runway, the sim sees you missing the runway by a few yards and throws up the dust-storm which comes from landing on grass.

Astrovana · Post by **Astrovana** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 7:52 pm

I'm new to FS graphics. I think you're right, only a small cloud of dust appears. Still I've a lot to learn about landing a jet. Today, I ,umm, sort've touched down nose first. Plane flipped over. Oh well.

CaldRail · Post by **CaldRail** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:35 am

Don't worry. Some qualified pilots manage to do things like that!

Not me I mean...

Gingerme · Post by **Gingerme** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 7:27 pm

The small amount of dust you see is probably you landing very hard on the runway.

In real life, tyres often hit the ground at such speeds that it skids, sends a large amount of dust in the air and can sometimes (depending on how hard you have hit the tarmac or concrete) leave tyre marks on the ground.

These same effects are found on cars too when you keep the brakes locked, and then you floor the accelerator, making a large amount of smoke

HINT

Making the graphics look a lot better is to go to Display, select the settings on the top part and move all the sliders (mapping quality and global to massive) not only make the graphics on the ground sharper.

I hope this helps

Post by **martinhodgson** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:52 pm

Gingerme wrote:In real life, tyres often hit the ground at such speeds that it skids, sends a large amount of dust in the air and can sometimes (depending on how hard you have hit the tarmac or concrete) leave tyre marks on the ground.

It is usually just smoke, from the sheer force of the landing upon the tyres, from the the tyres not moving, to suddenly moving at 140kts with several hundred tons weighing upon them.