white flashes?

[Cees Donker]

I get white flashes om my screen in the sim. It seems to have something to do with the scenery. Is there something I must turn off?

Any help would be appreciated.


Cees

[Tako_Kichi]

I have been having the same issue for months now (possibly more than 1 year) and nothing I have done seems to fix it so I would like to know if there is a cure too!

[Roger]

I think it's textures a little slow to load. I get it a lot less in Dx10 but I still get the odd one.

[hschuit]

FYI a quote from Kosta's tweaks about texture flashing and Bufferpools settings:

[BUFFERPOOLS]
Poolsize=0 / Usepools=0 (use either or, both do the same thing) – referenced as BP=0

This tweak bypasses the internal FSX bufferpool, and sends the data directly from the CPU to the GPU. Benefit: higher frames, Downside: possible artifacts. A very good balance with locked FPS is required!
Water Effects must be High 2.x or higher, otherwise you will get flashes.
Often seen in combination with other tweaks, especially with RejectThreshold:
In the Bufferpools section, if BP=0 is used, nothing else is required or should be in there.
If you get flashing and artifacts with BP=0 tweak, it would be a good idea to check what the GPU is doing – running a GPU at 100% is a source of artifacts, flashes, driver crashes and BSODs. As the CPU sends the data directly to the GPU, and GPU is not able to handle the incoming data, you will get flashing and artifacts, as already mentioned. The only way is to lower the settings, cloud resolutions, or anything basically that is going to give the GPU more headroom, including buying a faster GPU.

If your GPU cannot load the texures fast enough, setting Bufferpools like this might help:

[BUFFERPOOLS]
UsePools=1
Poolsize=8388608
RejectThreshold=126976

If you still get flashing, increase RejectThreshold to : 262144 or 524288.

Edit: Link to Kosta's FSX tweaks http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/

[SpaceWeevil]

I think Nick N mentioned this in his famous FSX Bible - something about switching to external view and panning round the aircraft six times (not five, not seven - you know how Nick is) to load the texture buffers or some such. The thing is - it does seem to work. The only white flashes I ever see is after I've done this are when the 'real world' weather updates every 15 minutes or so and everything blinks white just the once.

[Paul Anderson]

I had less flashing when in the fsx.cfg [Display] I added or changed the line TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=70 (think default is 40).

As you have probably read many times, what works for one person does not work for all, but you might want to try it plus Google it and see if there is a better suggested value for your particular system. Believe the values that work best depend on where you have your graphic sliders set too.

[heywooood]

ok - this has been kinda buggin me too - I get one big white flash in every flight, about 20-30 seconds into the flight - and it seems to be just the water that flashes white for a split second and only once per flight.

I figured it was livable and that it was probably just peculiar to my rig / settings - and since hunting down a culprit usually leads me to more trouble, I just let it go...

I did try the bufferpools fixes but got no joy - I even commented the BP out altogether - still got the big flash so...

[odourboy]

Even with "Water Effects must be High 2.x or higher, otherwise you will get flashes".. I still get white water flashes. (DX10, bufferpools = 0)

[Anthin]

I get a white flas 20 to 30 seconds into a flight. I now
just accept it as one of thos FSX things.

Anthin.

[odourboy]

I get a white flas 20 to 30 seconds into a flight. I now
just accept it as one of thos FSX things.

Anthin. Yep.. that's what I'm talking about.

[heywooood]

are we all running Nvidia cards through inspector? Thats what I have...

or are some of us using ATi ?

[JimmyRFR]

I guess I'm lucky, I have no idea what these white flashes are, never seen 'em.

Every once in a rare while I get a block of land textures that goes black for a second or two. Even then, it depends on where I'm flying - pretty much only ever happens in full Orbx regions. However, it's rare enough that I don't worry about it, happens maybe one in ten flights.

[hschuit]

are we all running Nvidia cards through inspector? Thats what I have...
or are some of us using ATi ?

I am running a GTX670 with Bufferpools = 0 and NVidia Inspector settings as per Nick Needham's bible - iirc Anti Aliasing - Transparency Supersampling = 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling helped me to get rid of the white/blue flashes.

[meatball]

Cees, I had white screen flashes during flights also, I reduced cloud cover gradually until I almost reached clear skies and the flashes stopped.

I hope this helps.

Meatball

[Cees Donker]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I thought it was my system!

Cees

[Duckie]

I think Nick N mentioned this in his famous FSX Bible - something about switching to external view and panning round the aircraft six times (not five, not seven - you know how Nick is) to load the texture buffers or some such. The thing is - it does seem to work...

Well, I guess I'll join the frey! I, too, get the white flashes (sounds like something I should visit my geriatric specialist for!). However, my vid card is an AMD (ATI) Radeon R9 270 2gb Gddr5. This thread made me revisit NN's tweak docs. I actually tried one of his Buffer Pool settings (=200000000), coupled with the above "6 not 5 or 7" ritual. Tried this last night and it worked, at least for the couple short flights I took around KFFC, KATL, and KMGE.

[Paul Anderson]

So nobody tried TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=70, or you did and it didn't work for your setup?

[Duckie]

So nobody tried TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=70, or you did and it didn't work for your setup?


I used that setting from initial install and still had the flashes. It is still set on 70. But without the above noted adjustment the 70 setting did not affect the flashing.

[Paul Anderson]

I also use buffer pools, but noticed some flashes recently and changed the muliplier back to 70 from default.
Only major thing added since going back to default was FTX Global, think could be their lights system.
Again, varies for system, RAM, hardware, background applications running, etc.

Spent years tweaking things to run smoothly on my old rig, when I get a new one might have to start over, then again hear P3D (which I don't have the machine for now) doesn't really need any config tweaks.

Thanks for the reply and info.

[heywooood]

ok - how about this twist...I do NOT get a white flash flying in FSX in the virtual night time....only in daylight hours...maybe it is some combo of daylight and cloud cover and water - dont get them unless there is a body of water in the frame

FWIW my TBM = 90

I have tried other settings - I get uneven frames with 85 and under - and various artifacts and anomalies when set at 95 and higher...

[Cees Donker]

I put these in:

[BUFFERPOOLS]
UsePools=1
Poolsize=8388608
RejectThreshold=126976

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=70

Seems to be gone now, but I have to test more extensively!


Cees

[Paul Anderson]

... ever tried this? (new version at Avsim today) It found some fixes to make after I added FTX Global.



Category: Miscellaneous Files - General Utilities
New! DXTFixerX v2.2 ZipDive! Download

File Description:
Fixes a stuttering issue caused by a bug in dxt3 and dxt5 compressed bmp textures. Works for both FS9 and FSX. Not tested in P3D yet, but if there are bmp textures you can safely do a scan in P3D as well.

Filename: dxtfixerx_v2.2.zip
License: Freeware
Added: 26th November 2014, 00:28:23
Downloads: 6270
Author: Peter Nyman
Size: 124kb

[Roger]

I read a thread on Avsim forums where the flashes were explained. evidently as one climbs through 2 specific flight levels something is refreshed and that causes the brief flashes. Wish I could be more specific but the memory cells have seen better days.:dizzy:

[heywooood]

... ever tried this? (new version at Avsim today) It found some fixes to make after I added FTX Global.



Category: Miscellaneous Files - General Utilities
New! DXTFixerX v2.2 ZipDive! Download

File Description:
Fixes a stuttering issue caused by a bug in dxt3 and dxt5 compressed bmp textures. Works for both FS9 and FSX. Not tested in P3D yet, but if there are bmp textures you can safely do a scan in P3D as well.

Filename: dxtfixerx_v2.2.zip

First Ive heard of this - is anyone running it or have feedback ?

[heywooood]

I read a thread on Avsim forums where the flashes were explained. evidently as one climbs through 2 specific flight levels something is refreshed and that causes the brief flashes. Wish I could be more specific but the memory cells have seen better days.:dizzy:

This sounds just like an FSX thing...just wonky enough to make sense.
Further testing for flashes required.
So far it happens to me when flying in daylight, over water, with cumulus clouds or reduced visibility or haze...i like haze..