NoBaddy, I've moved the gamma bar all over the place. Other than things get brighter or darker the clarity remains the same. Atari? Hehe. I started flying with a Mac. I can't remember if it had a 100 Mhz CPU but I had to upgrade the CPU in my Mac a few times until I finally got over 20 frames per minute. There were different plug-in, after market, CPU's available for a few hundred bucks. I also paid an hourly rate to fly that wasn't very cheap and the internet gateway was a bulletin board. I think there were only a few providers that you could access flying through.
Furious, I saw the check and uncheck the box for better visibility and will give it a try. I don't like using the F keys because I don't experience too much of a frame rate drop. It seems to maintain 55-65 most of the time.
Krusty, I've been flying on and off for years and have used the same card and settings the whole time. My mentioning color saturation for printing was used to show I've very familiar with card settings and setting up for this game.
Thank you all for the hints and tips.
My concern is like an old story, "There once was a game called AH. It played almost like the real thing in the virtual world of aerial combat. Then one day, along came a man from Texas who bought himself a new flat screen monitor". Well, you get my drift. It's kind of like God telling Noah to build an Ark without providing him with the design specs to have all of the animals come aboard and thrive once the flood was over. How many get left behind because they can't afford a new monitor?
I remember when the arena held 600 people and there was at least that many up on weekends. Visibilty was not an issue even with so many flying in the same arena. The frame rate wasn't even bad. I have no idea why someone would just make it so hard to see. I wonder if it's because of this so called eye candy? I'm not sure that I'm seeing much of a change in the air except of the programmer induced fog. I must say I like the wispy clouds and it doesn't appear to effect my frame rate much and is very realistic. The fog is anything but realistic. Maybe I should rephrase that. The fog is realistic but I ask anyone to show me where every single day of the week is foggy. Speaking more of eye candy I remember talking to someone from AW who went to one of their conventions. He mentioned they presented new, improved graphics and showed a P-38 canopy that went up and down. They also introduced the two smoking, burning parts when a plane blew up. I think I've seen the same eye candy here. I gather that didn't hurt frame rate much and is realistic.
One last question. What ever happened to night time? That was somewhat realistic and you knew what to expect. If you didn't like flying at night you logged off until daylight arrived which didn't take long. Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of waiting for the fog to lift.
I'm not here to complain so much as understand why the need for fog 24/7, every day. The game is excellent so why diminish it? I've been reading the forums and there doesn't appear to be much in the way of the "why" things are done but a lot of "don't ask because it's the way it is".