Military AI Works

The new NAS lemoore package looks awesome in P3DV4. But I have one problem and no idea how to stop it.

It seems like all the symbols on the hangers flicker like crazy! Any idea what is causing it? and also to reduce it?

Also the writing on the fuel trucks flicker as well.

The main sign that flickers the most is the squadron symbols on the side of the hangers.

This is the dreaded Z-buffer fighting problem, quite common with converted FS9 scenery objects. FSX and specially P3D do not like rendering scenery object polygons which are placed closely in front of another polygon, in your case the symbol placards. This also happens with FS9 style windows which are modeled as polygons in front of the building wall. The only fix is to remodel those scenery objects.

Henk.

I think Greg has already discovered a way to solve that problem that involved opening the object bgl in MCX and changing a setting. Cannot remember the exact procedure but I’m sure its on the forums somewhere as I did one myself & it worked.

Greg wrote about this bug and its fix here :- https://militaryaiworks.com/forums/83/1 ... as#p187757

It seems like it is a fix on a case by case basis so either you have to be patient and wait for somebody to mod a particular library or you could have a go yourself - but I would recommend backing up the lib before attempting such thibgs.

Thanks to Greg's idea I found this in the P3Dv4.4 SDK:

"In order to improve layering materials on the ground for airport ground polygons, Prepar3D has implemented a Z-Bias level material setting. This functionality only works with "No Z Write" checked on the material. Using values between -1 and -50, you can set and order the layering of the ground polygon textures above the default airport aprons, taxiways and runways. The more negative the Z-bias, the higher layer the material will be. For example, the runway ground polygon could be -1 making it the lower layer, the white runway markings could be the middle layer at -2, the yellow runway markings could be -3 ending as the highest layer. This process can be repeated for up to fifty layers, supporting standard and alpha blended materials."

Summarizing, these would be the object model decal material property values you need to set in MCX:
- Enhanced parameters - No Z Write = true
- Enhanced parameters - No Shadow = true
- Z-Bias = -50

Indeed you need to give the decal texture a negative z-bias in MCX, but not just any negative value seems to work. I’m traveling for work right now but will provide more details when I’m back.