Update: free non-mipmapped textures packs are now available in the A2A Store.
Since the Bonanza's release, some customers have commented that the panel displays look "blurry". Hopefully the advice below should help you get the best visual results possible in Prepr3D v4 and Flight Simulator X.
The Bonanza features high-resolution (4096 x 4096 pixels) texture sheets for the virtual cockpit and external texturing. However, with such high-resolution textures, many users complain of "shimmering" of virtual cockpit textures. Whilst this shimmering can be reduced using supersampling anti-aliasing modes, such techniques can be very costly in terms of FPS.
To address this issue, the textures sheets in the Bonanza virtual cockpit use "mipmaps" (progressively lower resolution renditions of the texture). These should enable crisp and sharp graphics at close range, and virtually eliminate shimmering at longer range. However, some changes may be necessary to sim settings for the best effect.
Prepar3D v4
Prepar3D v4 at its default setting uses a rather modest (for modern hardware) "texture resolution" of 1024 x 1024 pixels. Please change this setting to "ultra - 4096x4096" as shown below.
If you have the "FXAA" option set to "on" you could also try setting it to "off", as Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing also tends to produce rather blurred cockpit textures.
Flight Simulator X - Steam Edition
By default FSX-SE actually uses higher-resolution global textures than Preapr3D v4. To enable crisp cockpit graphics, simply ensure that the "global texture resolution" slider is set in its default position at far right.
Flight Simulator X - DVD Version
The boxed edition of FSX is around ten years and by default, its UI only supports a maximum texture resolution of 1024 x 1024 pixels. However, you can increase this setting to 4096 x 4096 by opening the fsx.cfg file with a text editor such as notepad, and searching for the following text:
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=
By default it will be "TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024" and you'll simply need to change it to read "TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096" then resave the file.
The fsx.cfg file can be found in the following location: C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\fsx.cfg
By default this directory is hidden to protect its contents so you may need to 'unhide' it as described here.
With these setting, you should be able to achieve both very crisp gauge close-ups when compared to earlier Accu-Sim products...
...And panel graphics which are free of shimmering at more typical viewing ranges.
However, we'll continue to monitor feedback, and if necessary, we'll make changes such as issuing non-mipmapped textures.
Thanks,
Nick - A2A Simulations
