There ought to be a Nobel Prize category for AnKor's work. I just installed the mod and got caught in a 1918 dogfight with more than 20 aircraft at close quarters and low altitude. Smooth as silk. I can't wait to up the detail level and revel in Lou and Robert's recent terrain work! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, AnKor!

Regarding TrackIR. I don't have it, but when I used OpenTrackNoIR which emulates TrackIR I noticed that there can be odd stutters when framerate is too high. So it seemed like the FPS is still good, but the tracking itself stutters somehow.
I don't know what causes it.
If it is indeed somehow FPS dependend then the only thing I can suggest is to try switching VSync in workshops. There are 3 settings which behave differently so there's a chance something may work better.
It may also be possible to adjust VSync in your GPU control panel - modern ones have more options than simple on/off, and there's usually something like "Maximum Prerendered Frames" available in driver settings changing which may also improve fluidity of the game. However I don't use it myself so I'm not really sure, maybe someone else may advice better.
The mod itself doesn't change any code, it is just a configuration file which tells CFS3 to use larger terrain tiles with larger textures.

This mod Something similar is going to be a released as WOFF UE patch when OBD has time to implement it. We had some arguments regarding texture quality though
And as I mentioned before there are a few variables in config which should be adjusted to better suit this mod, but it not possible until we have an official patch.

Robert_Wiggins, I will make a set of files with different quality and performance levels.

Hi all,
'Ankor's' graphics fix for improved terrain at low level and the reduction/elimination of 'blue triangles' (version 1.0 - as compiled for JSGME by Rob Wiggins) has been uploaded to the Users Mod page (Terrain page).
Remember to refresh the site if the 'home' page or the 'Terrain' page are dated older than 15 May 2018. Clearing your PC's cache also helps in this regard.

AnKor, I love you, man. No, Really, I love you. This is great. Criticism? um, I'm still fat and bald. didn't change any of that. otherwise, this rocks, like everything else you guys do.

I do understand that some of the stuff far away is now less detailed, but given how much this smooths out game play and removes the blue triangles, I didn't even notice the details in the distance. I just put that down to "things get blurry the farther away they are and there is mist, fog, etc". This is, in my opinion, one of the top improvements the sim has since you added DX9 support. I am really glad it's being added as an official patch.

Also, I get the rare stutter too but having switched Vsync back on, I haven't really noticed one since. I probably haven't flown enough missions to be sure though. I was flying anywhere between 90 - 115 FPS. With Vsync on, it stays pretty solid at 60.

For anyone having issues with stutters using TrackIR with this mod, VSync needs to be enabled. I set my VSync to force ON in the Nvidia Inspector but it may also work by setting in the WOFF workshop.

Cheers all!

H

Has anyone else using an Nvidia card tried setting Vsync to Fast and set Triple buffering to Disabled? Just curious.

Actually that's part of my next test using the following nVidia Inspector settings:

1) Always had VSync turned on. Will remain on.
2) Will turn off Triple Buffering. I turned it off for the Total War games recently and noticed less stuttering.
3) Increase Maximum pre-rendered frames from 1 to 3. Always used 1 with WOFF.

My nVidia settings for my next test with my GTX 970.

I am having excellent results with the new mod using the below Nvidia settings. WOFF UE is set to all 5s, High Aircraft quality, High Airfield Complexity, High Forests, etc. Playing in 4k resolution.

Additionally, I turned OFF all CPU and RAM OVERCLOCKING. That helped minimize the microstutters down to almost zero even in a late Summer 1918 campaign with Air Density set to Medium. I will post a video soon and you can see for yourself - bearing in mind Shadowplay doesn't record in 4K, of course.

28 August 1918 - flying with JG III, Air Density set to medium - flying in 4K resolution. Never seen it fly this smooth, this late in the war before. Was averaging between 60 to 90 FPS even during combat and able to fly with 4X compression at 45 to 55 FPS.

Fantastic video Hellshade! I enjoyed that one

I made one final change - lowering Air Density from Medium to Light. Boom. 90 to 118 FPS - smooth gameplay even over the front in late 1918. Thanks again, AnKor. Your mod is amazing!

yeah, even on low air density you have more than enough to watch out for.

Oct 1918 JG III campaign dogfight with F2bs. 40 - 50 FPS while at 6x time compression over the front. 90 to 118 FPS while in combat over the front. It's seriously like a new sim.

[edit] There is a total frame jump at around 2:45. That was caused by me moving my head out of TrackIR range.

The popping has to do with sudden changes in density and LOD levels with viewing distance.

I've experimented with changes in the CompositeSceneryBudgets.xml with settings like:

<Budget Name="Five">
<Rings AboveGroundLevel="0" MaxDistEyeInnerRing="0">
<Ring PatchWorldDim="1024" RingDim="50" LOD="20" MajorDensity="0.00020"/>
<Ring PatchWorldDim="512" RingDim="25" LOD="50" MajorDensity="0.00020"/>
<Ring PatchWorldDim="256" RingDim="25" LOD="70" MajorDensity="0.00020"/>
<Ring PatchWorldDim="128" RingDim="25" LOD="100" MajorDensity="0.00020"/>
</Rings>
</Budget>

or

<Budget Name="Five">
<Rings AboveGroundLevel="0" MaxDistEyeInnerRing="0">
<Ring PatchWorldDim="1024" RingDim="80" LOD="20" MajorDensity="0.00036"/>
<Ring PatchWorldDim="512" RingDim="25" LOD="50" MajorDensity="0.00036"/>
<Ring PatchWorldDim="256" RingDim="25" LOD="70" MajorDensity="0.00036"/>
<Ring PatchWorldDim="128" RingDim="25" LOD="100" MajorDensity="0.00036"/>
</Rings>
</Budget>

The idea is to have the object density fixed, ring dimensions large, and the LOD not changing too much in one step. This essentially creates unchanging scenery for as far as the eye can see.

If these values have too much impact on your system making the density a smaller number would be the first thing to try.

FYI,

The units for density is in objects per square meter.
0.00020 has an object at about every 235 ft
0.00036 has an object at about every 175 ft
0.00061 has an object at about every 135 ft

The outer view distance diameter for a ring is calculated as the Ring PatchWorldDim x RingDim / PI.

For Example:
4096 x 11 / 3.14 = 14.3 km diam so objects extend out to about 4.45 miles from you
1024 x 50 /3.14 = 16.3 km diam so object extend out to about 5.05 miles from you
1024 x 80 / 3.14 = 26.1 km diam so objects extend out to about 8.10 miles from you

The pixel resolution is a function of the PatchDim and the PatchPixelDim that we've been discussing in the compositetexturebudgets.xml.
PatchDim / PatchPixelDim = size in meters of each pixel

So with a setting of 1024 in the 1024 ring each pixel of the texture represents 1 meter (1 square meter).
With a setting of 256 in the 1024 ring each pixel covers 4 meters (16 square meters)

In the compositetexturebudgets.xml AnKor provided the outer ring covers
32768 x 3 / 3.14 = 31.3 km
with a pixel resolution at the edge of
32768 / 1024 = 32 m (1024 square meters)

The original WOFFUE has the outer ring as
16384 x 9 / 3.14 = 46.9 km
with a pixel resolution at the edge of
16384 / 256 = 64 m (4096 square meters)

Ideally the mask radius is supposed to be matched to the PatchWorldDim and the RingDim by the formula:
((RingDim - 1) x PatchWorldDim) / 2
For example
((3-1) x 32768) / 2 = 32768
((5-1) x 512) /2 = 1024

It looks like AnKor is consistently using larger values for MinMaskRadius than what's called for, but I'm not sure what effect that's going to have.

It is my error, I took values from other file and forgot to recalculate them. Incorrect radius causes abrupt changes in texture quality instead of smooth transition, but it doesn't affect performance.
When official patch comes out it will have corrected numbers.

Нour idea of using larger rings and with more consistent density/lod for scenery is interesting. I don't have time to experiment with that right now, but I plan to revisit scenery stuff at some point.

Sounds like things are going to continue to improve even more. If the new official patch also reduces scenery popping while killing blue triangles and pumping up FPS smoothness, it will be a glorious day for WWI flight simming, indeed. Can't wait! Thanks for all that you do.

Just to clarify - I didn't say that anything is going to be done with the scenery in the official patch
Terrain - yes (but not exactly as in this mod), but scenery adjustments need research and it needs time and there's never enough of it.

MajorMagee, maybe you can share a full scenery budgets xml so people could try it? People generally are not as technical here as on SOH to do edits manually

I must have misunderstood (which I do often). I thought changing to the correct values in the official patch would cause some improvement in scenery texture quality transition.

All I know is that late war, 4k simming with max details and highest forest / airfield complexity is now not just viable, it's liquid smooth, as long as I put Air Density to Light. And that isn't an issue because there is more than enough air density late war, even on Light to keep things interesting. This is like - the miracle mod / soon to be patch.