FS2004: Ceilings/visibility too high

I am a private pilot with an instrument rating and one
of my primary uses for MSFS is practicing instrument
approaches. I like to set the cloud deck to the minimum
ceilings for that approach (e.g. 200 ft and 1/2 mile vis
for an ILS), plus winds etc, so I break out of the clouds
right at minimums or close to it.

On FS2002 this worked fine. However, when I 'upgraded'
to FS2004 I now find that the in-cloud visibility is much
too high. For example, if I set the ceilings to 200
feet overcast (8/8) as above, I may start seeing the
runway while I'm still as high as 1000 feet! And looking
out any view but the front of the plane is even worse.

I've tried about every combination of video settings I can
think of, to no avail. Increasing cloud texture to max,
reducing it to min, cutting terrain display to minimum etc.
Reducing visibility helps some, but not enough. Bearing in
mind that I don't care about outside graphics, just smooth
instrument and airplane response, any suggestions?

My setup:
AMD Athlon 650 w/ 128 mb RAM
geForce 2 video card (32 MB?)

TIA
--
Allen

(ajohnson) wrote

I am a private pilot with an instrument rating and one
of my primary uses for MSFS is practicing instrument
approaches. I like to set the cloud deck to the minimum
ceilings for that approach (e.g. 200 ft and 1/2 mile vis
for an ILS), plus winds etc, so I break out of the clouds
right at minimums or close to it.

On FS2002 this worked fine. However, when I 'upgraded'
to FS2004 I now find that the in-cloud visibility is much
too high. For example, if I set the ceilings to 200
feet overcast (8/8) as above, I may start seeing the
runway while I'm still as high as 1000 feet! And looking
out any view but the front of the plane is even worse.

I've tried about every combination of video settings I can
think of, to no avail. Increasing cloud texture to max,
reducing it to min, cutting terrain display to minimum etc.
Reducing visibility helps some, but not enough. Bearing in
mind that I don't care about outside graphics, just smooth
instrument and airplane response, any suggestions?

Turn your monitor contrast/brightness down?
It's just a thot. Others here know a lot more about the program.

Good luck.

Out.




My setup:
AMD Athlon 650 w/ 128 mb RAM
geForce 2 video card (32 MB?)

TIA

On 12 Mar 2004 10:19:39 -0800, (ajohnson) wrote:

I am a private pilot with an instrument rating and one
of my primary uses for MSFS is practicing instrument
approaches. I like to set the cloud deck to the minimum
ceilings for that approach (e.g. 200 ft and 1/2 mile vis
for an ILS), plus winds etc, so I break out of the clouds
right at minimums or close to it.

On FS2002 this worked fine. However, when I 'upgraded'
to FS2004 I now find that the in-cloud visibility is much
too high. For example, if I set the ceilings to 200
feet overcast (8/8) as above, I may start seeing the
runway while I'm still as high as 1000 feet! And looking
out any view but the front of the plane is even worse.

I've tried about every combination of video settings I can
think of, to no avail. Increasing cloud texture to max,
reducing it to min, cutting terrain display to minimum etc.
Reducing visibility helps some, but not enough. Bearing in
mind that I don't care about outside graphics, just smooth
instrument and airplane response, any suggestions?

Go to World/Weather/Customize and set Cloud 8/8 and Visibility (1/2ml)
Make sure the check box is set to User Defined.
Select Advanced Weather then Visibility Tab.
You can now set the cloud Tops & Base.
If using 1ml horizontal then you need about 1/2 ml Vertical Tops
(3000ft?) and Base near Zero so you can't see down.

You ain't going to see much now!
So where is that runway?

I use the same prog for IMC practice and it's very good though it's
easier to fly the Warrior for real as it's more stable than the FS
aircraft.

David

Piper Warrior G-BHJO
Scotland, UK

E-mail (Remove Space after pilot): pilot