Tips and Tricks

Fixing Screen Flicker
Easy to find batteries for ED glasses
Double runway lights
A trick for low resolution interlaced stereo
Fixing erratic TrackIR head tracking
Is your FS2004 "Aircraft Preview" blacked out?

Screen Flicker

The video adapter for 3D glasses effectively cuts the refresh rate of the PC's monitor in half. If your monitor or projector is running at a 60 Hz refresh rate then its rate essentially goes down to 30 Hz when the stereo graphics is turned on. Such a low refresh rate produces a very noticable, and to many users a very obnoxious, flickering or flashing screen.

To eliminate the problem you must first make sure your monitor or projector supports a high enough refresh rate. An 85 Hertz refresh rate is satisfactory. But installing a high speed monitor does not automatically eliminate the flicker!

It is a common problem that the monitor refresh rate automatically reverts back down to 60 Hertz as soon as a flight simulation is loaded up. A good solution to this problem is REFRESH LOCK, a handy freeware program designed by Gregory Maynard-Hoarelectus. There are several other programs available that also address the refresh rate problem, but I found Gregory's program to be the most effective.

Can't find batteries for your 3D glasses?

The stores in my part of town don't carry the type 1620 batteries that operate eDimensional's wireless glasses. The glasses take two (2) batteries, size 1620. But I found an acceptable work-around. One 1616 battery and one 1025 (or one 1225) battery add up to the nearly the same thickness as the 2 x 1620 batteries. These alternative sizes readily available at Walgreen stores. Just place the small diameter 1025 in place first with the thinner 1616 on top. Place the (+) side facing up on both.

Doubled Lights and Gun Sights

Flying an approach in FS2004 shows up one bug in many 3D graphics drivers, especially in a night setting. The airport runway lights are not rendered in 3D, making them appear double and way out of position. Very annoying in a virtual reality session. For NVidia graphics cards there is a fix: turn off the "Transform and Lighting" function in the FS2004 display settings. A similar problem occurs in CFS3 with target brackets. In this case the "Transform and Lighting" function can be turned off in the NVidia Stereo Driver settings before CFS3 is started. I have not found a fix for ATI cards.

There is a draw back to this solution. Turning off the transform and lighting function disables much of the graphics acceleration performed by the graphics card. The burden switches to the motherboard. This means that you must have a very robust PC to keep up the frame rate and resolution otherwise maintained by the graphics card. Not all ATI or NVidia cards may suffer from this problem.

Low Res. Interlaced Stereo Images

If your stereo drivers use interlacing instead of page-flipping to alternate the stereo images your screen resolution may take a big hit. Essentially, instead of having an 800 X 600 display (for example) you end up with an 800 X 300 display with very grainy scenery.

I used a trick once that completely fixed this problem. In FS2004's settings->display->hardware page see if FS2004 lists a number of high display resolutions. Try selecting one of the higher resolutions (like 1280 X 960). But be prepared to reset your fs9.cfg file if the display goes off the screen. You can find the fs9.cfg file in the directory: \Documents and Settings\(loin name)\application data\mircosoft\fs9\fs9.cfg. In the fs9.cfg file use a text editor to find the line that looks like:
[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT .0]
Mode=1280 X 960 X 32
Change the resolution with the text editor back to the original setting, for example, Mode=800x600x32

Troubleshooting Erratic Head Tracking

Be careful when selecting a place to put the camera for your NaturalPoint TrackIR. When using a big projector screen it may seem that a table surface below the screen is a good spot for the head-tracker. But placing the tracker below eye level may cause very erratic operation. For example, pitch (up and down) motion is not detected or yaw (turning your head) is mistaken for roll (tilting) motion. Placing the tracker at the top of the screen will fix the problem.

Missing aircraft preview

Some FS2004 users find that the aircraft preview disappears in the "select aircraft" screen as illustrated below:



The solution: make sure your video card driver is set to "application controlled" for antialiasing. The setting is shown here for an NVidia card.