Some Issues With a New Install...

[Drzook]

Hello everyone,
I have been spending the last couple of days setting up a new install of FS2004. I inherited my father-in-law's computer and found that the video card is slightly better than the one on my laptop. In the quest for more consistent framerates I decided to set up a new install. However after most of the day at this point I found that I have a couple of problems and I think I am missing a couple simple things but I am totally stumped here...

1) the plane looks darker than the surrounding area, like it's flying in twilight but it could be noon and even a white sailplane would look dark gray. This is most pronounced when going from 2d to 3d cockpits; the instrument panel darkens. (I'd provide a screenshot but the keyboard needs replacement and Ctrl-PrtScn doesn't work--sorry)

2) I cannot seem to get anything to work in windowed mode. I am used to flying this way so I can open up other things while flying (Plan G comes to mind) but when I hit Alt-Enter the screen freezes up. I can move the hat switch all over the place and nothing happens, but when I hit Alt-Enter to go to fullscreen mode, my viewpoint is exactly where I would have been after moving the hat switch all over the place.

I had tried to set up a new install on my son's laptop a few months ago and got the same results. I thought it was because he had an old laptop but this desktop that I got seems pretty much up-to-date (Compaq Presario SR5262NX, Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.8Ghz, 2Gb Ram, Intel 82945G Graphics). Any ideas/suggestions would be most welcome.:wavey:

[napamule]

Hi,
I want to pass on a handy program that you can use to capture screen. It's called IrFanview. If you don't have it, get it. Nothing beats it for working with jpg's or bmp's and even video (with codec addon). It has capability to capture window, area, or entire desktop. You press 'Ctrl+F11' to capture screen. You have choice of saving to a folder you create (under 'My Documents'?). No need for prntscrn key. When you open with IrFanview (the saved *.jpg) you can further crop to remove unwanted background (left mouse click & drag to mark 'area' you want). I use IrFanview to make all my thumbnails (for FSX). Resize/resample is quick and easy way to do that.

Sounds like you don't have the latest drivers (or maybe 'none'?) for that video card installed in DESKTOP. Download & install recent (not latest or beta) drivers. That would be a good start. As far as laptop-forget it. The built in graphics just don't make it. FS9 is not hard to install and configure. It's the hardware that is the 'trick' to success.
Chuck B
Napamule
PS: I used to have a Pentium 4 (3.2 Ghz) and AGP video card. I now have a i7-2600K (3.4 Ghz) with a Radeon HD-5770 video card. I get 100+ FPS in FS9 (and 60 FPS in FSX with sliders 'Ulta High'). I build my own computers from parts I order. No 'system' (PC) off the store shelf for me. Only way to fly.

[Sunny9850]

I second the driver suggestion and add the by now hopefully well known suggestion to make sure to install into a location outside of the default program files location if this is a W7 PC.
Something like C:\FS2004 will make life down the road much easier for you.

Cheers
Stefan

[Drzook]

Tried updating the drivers. Got it installed and rebooted. No joy--same thing. I did however notice that when I initially load the flight all looks fine, until I hit 'alt' to change airplane (as I usually do). At that point the screen momentarily goes black, then I get the top bar where I can select 'Aircraft', then 'Change Aircraft', et al. Even if I don't change the plane it is noticably darker. The freezing screen when trying to go into windowed mode is still there as well.
I may've forgotten to tell you guys that I am running Vista 32. Sorry about that

[Sunny9850]

Not sure if Vista had this feature called something like active desktop, but it probably does.
Right click on the FS9 Icon and you may see it there under the advanced tab...this feature threw my FS9 install for a visual loop on W7.

It's a simply checkmark activation type thing so take a look at what you see there

Cheers
Stefan

[Drzook]

Sunny,
I am not seeing anything pertaining to an active desktop. I got a couple of screenshots now. I got these off my son's laptop that has the same issue. In the first screenshot you will see what I see when it first boots up. I then did something trivial, like hit Alt-Enter or change the time. I got the plane looking like the 2nd screenshot. BTW, if I window this one the same thing happens--the screen freezes but it keeps going because when I hit Alt-Enter again for fullscreen view it's like the blindfold's been taken off.

[Drzook]

All righty,
I think I got the windowed/fullscreen issue licked. Apparently someone else in an Nvidia forum had the same problem a couple of years ago. Couple of guys on that forum suggested going to the FS9 icon, right click on properties and from there under the compatibility tab check something called 'Disable desktop composition.' I tried it and now got my beloved windows back without everything freezing. Y'know, this desktop composition thing just might be that 'active desktop you were alluding to, Sunny. Thanks!

Plane's still dark though. :isadizzy:

I really don't want to give up on this. The frame rates are slightly better on this computer and the sound...WOW. Dad had a Boston Acoustics system with a subwoofer on this rig. Even a Light Sport running a Rotax 912 sounds downright beefy, and given the placement of the subwoofer there are some very subtle vibrations-I KNOW it'll help with the immersive factor.

[Sunny9850]

That was indeed what I was thinking of, just a case of not remembering exactly what MSGeekSpeak had called it.

Cheers
Stefan

[Drzook]

Now going with ongoing research of the dark plane problem. I found this thread: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/231296-dark-plane-textures/ Unfortunately there seems to be no easy fix. I tried the link in the last post but there seems to be a lot of things to try out. Oddly enough my laptop runs Vista 32 as well and doesn't have this problem so I don't think it is a Vista problem per se. The only real difference is that I shut off User Account Control on the laptop but I don't see how that would affect aircraft textures in FS2004.

[Sunny9850]

Just a thought, have you tried turning off reflections ??? Could be that they are not being processed correctly.
Turning of UAC is the first thing I do....but some folks are more hesitant about that.

Cheers
Stefan

[Drzook]

I tried turning off reflections--no dice. Still a dark plane. Same deal with the UAC--although this computer is now a bit easier to live with it didn't do anything with the textures in FS2004.
Now here's a twist to the story--I try doing some trivial hardware modification such as going from trilinear filtering to bilinear and the plane gets brighter, at least until I change views or aircraft.
I also noticed that with all the computers I have put on FS2004 the only one that is showing things normally is my laptop--and that one has an AMD processor in it with an Nvidia graphics card. Both of the other computers are running Intel processors with Intel graphics cards. Hopefully that is not the problem, just an observation however.

[Sunny9850]

In other words the desk top has only an onboard GPU and not a separate GPU card ???
That may not be the only issue, but would certainly be the first thing I would address with an upgrade in hardware. Nvidea or ATI...the differences are small and folks in either camp swear by one or the other.

I am out of ideas otherwise...

Cheers
Stefan

[Desert Rat]

I remember a similar(ish) problem in CFS2 (due to particular graphics cards) that aircraft would appear almost black until you zoomed in. Getting better the closer you got. It was due to the grafix card not liking certain saved extended bmps. Opening then in DXTbmp and resaving then solved the problem in my case back then.

As it's a new install have you tried aircraft that you know have 32 bit textures (ie. not DXT1/3/5 (not stock))?

Jamie

[Drzook]

Sunny,
Now that you mention it that would explain why this computer runs out of memory in FSPaint. Not sure if it is the Silver Bullet we are looking for but will try to get a dedicated graphics card; certainly couldn't hurt.
JD,
Tried Milton's C-1 Cargo with the 888-8 textures. Same thing as always--selection screen looks fine, go to Fly Now and everything is a shade darker--even some of the surrounding scenery. I go to options->settings->display->hardware, change something from bilinear to trilinear (changing from trilinear to bilinear seems to be more effective) or check/uncheck anti-aliasing then everything looks normal. And for a short time it is fantastic. Frame rates are smooth, everything looks great and the sound is sublime. Then I either change aircraft or even sometimes change view to 2D panel and everything goes dark, and I need to do that tweak with the hardware again.