visibility below 10 miles unrealistic in FSX

[lawinge2]

I do a lot of actual flying in North Carolina and the Summer haze has already kicked in. Six miles visibility is not uncommon on otherwise sunny nice days. Everything looks good from the ground but at 3000 feet you can barely see the ground over the nose much less the horizon.

FS9 did a good job of depicting this but FSX shows a very clear horizon line. It looks as if ground textures disappear into the haze correctly but the sky stays bright blue at the horizon contrasting heavily with the silvery haze below the horizon line.

Is there a cure for this in FSX? It really takes the challenge and useful practice out of low vis flights. I now use ASA and Flight Environment that together do a great job of overcoming a host of FSX shortcomings, but still this vis problem persists.

[JSkorna]

Hi,

Much of this is the limitations of the FS graphics engine. You can pull the maximum visibility way back through ASA and see if that helps.

[napamule2]

Lawinge2,
Don't know if these pics show what you might be looking for. It's shots from ground, with a big water tank about 1/4 away, next to freeway (see traffic). The elevation shots were from 600 ft or less. If the answer 'Yes' then I'll tell you where and how to set. If 'No' then there is no need to blab. Check these out.
Chuck B
Napamule

[lawinge2]

Looks great. When I do 1/4 to 1/8 I can still see the horizon through the haze. The ground appears as a warmer color than the gray sky. Higher vis to 6 miles yields blue sky all the way to the horizon. I like using ASA for weather generation and was hoping to get a more realistic depiction of very common weather conditons.

Thanks for the pics and reply

[skullxbones]

There is a fix for the horizon problem. Look for a package called soft horizons. I can't remember where I downloaded it, but it's a free patch that hinds the line. The actual file name I have is soft_fsx.zip

[lawinge2]

Thanks, I'll look for the file and give it a try.

[napamule2]

Ok, so you want to know how/where? I'll tell you anyway (hehe). In 'World/Weather', look below button for/and click 'User Defined', then 'Custom', then 'Advanced'. Then click on 'Cloud' tab. Set clouds to 'Cirrus' (YES CIRRUS) and 'Overcast (8/8)'. Set 'layer' from 0 to 3000 ft (or 6000, whatever). Then click on 'Visibility' tab. Set 'layer' from (you guessed it!) 0 to 3000 ft (or tops of 6000, whatever-up to 28,000 ft if you don't want to see any ground while flying at higher elev's) and move slider below to 1/4 or 1/8. Go fly in the soup. Want thunder and lighting, then add layer of Cumulos or Stratus (above Sirrus layer-it's tricky, so pay attention to which layer (click it) you are changing) and pick thungerstorms (8/8). Try it at night (or like all the 'Romantics' out there always do) just before 'sunset' (aaahhhhhh).
Chuck B
Napamule

[ScatterbrainKid]

Yeah basically what Napamule said, I been playing about too with the sliders and stuff, I think there are several ways to get rid of the ghost horizon such as this method-
World> Weather> Customize> Advanced> Clouds, then set a block of Stratus Overcast 8/8 touching the ground to make the horizon disappear at any visibilty level..





Ta-da!! Here the vis is set to 5 miles and there's no horizon.




And here it's set to (gulp) 1 mile..

[napamule2]

Scatterbrainkid,
Well I am glad to have helped. You DID obliberate the horizon, that's for sure (hehe). All you need to do is the same, but set vis to 20 miles.

Oh, and when flying at 31,000 ft, set TOP of visibility to 40,000 ft. If you are above the visibility TOP then you WILL see the ground. You need to be IN the visibility layer to not see the ground.
Chuck B
Napamule

[Paul Golding]

Scatterbrainkid,
Well I am glad to have helped. You DID obliberate the horizon, that's for sure (hehe). All you need to do is the same, but set vis to 20 miles.

Oh, and when flying at 31,000 ft, set TOP of visibility to 40,000 ft. If you are above the visibility TOP then you WILL see the ground. You need to be IN the visibility layer to not see the ground.
Chuck B
Napamule

Thanks for these posts Chuck, this is something that's been anoying me again lately and especially anoying as I'd found out how to fix the issue a long time ago...........and then forgotten!

This should really be pinned in all relevant forums!

Paul