Hard to see dots anymore

[Drano]

It seems in recent months I've made a change or changes to my settings and I don't seem to be able to see planes as dots at long ranges like I used to. They're no longer a dark black dot but seem to almost blend into the blue of the sky. Even when close enough at far icon range I can hardly make out the dot even zoomed in, until it becomes a plane shape and then from that range and closer it's fine.

I'm running a 2GB MSI R6950 PE/OC edition (not a flashable one dangit! ), on Catalyst 12.4. I can't seem to run more recent drivers as they cause this wierd twirly problem when moving the mouse. It's some known problem. I overclock the card with afterburner and get 60 fps in most situations and have no problems with cooling. In game conditions I rarely crack 60c @ 936/1440 @ 1.2v. Still fiddling with that. My CPU is a 2600-K that I've also overclocked to 4.7 stable but with the game more dependent on the GPU it usually hangs nearer 10% load.

I'm using tray tools and wonder if there's some setting there that I've checked or need to check. What should I have insofar as AF and filtering for AH? I let the game manage AA and have it a notch below full. I run at 1920x1080 which is my desktop res and best res for my monitor at 60hz. I've tried lowering the res, different color profiles, played with the gamma--nothing seems to bring back the dots to where they used to be. Everything else looks great but need to see those dots farther out. Seems others can see them fine so it's gotta be me. Feel half blind!

Any ideas?

[save]

I set my setttings for all games with "use application settings" when I tried Anti-aliasing  on in AH settings  like the horizon disappeared for me. I have AMD7870

[BaldEagl]

Did you accidently set your vis range down?  I never use it so don't know the commands but they are either 1-5 or F1-F5 IIRC.

[Drano]

I don't have any sort of problems like with the horizon or anything else really. Things look great.  In fact, I was flying in some clouds last night (miss the clouds) and they looked great at dusk/dawn and I have no massive FR drop like some. I just can't figure out what I did to pretty much lose the good black dots I used to have. Some setting somewhere. Something I've checked or left unchecked in tray tools if I had to guess. What might some optimum settings for that be? Any that are useless to AH? It's the only "game" I have time for.

[TequilaChaser]

Heya Drano,,
BE was asking/wondering if you may have accidently went from like
Shift F1 -  Full visual range to like Shift F2  - Medium visual range etc...

I too have lost the ability to pick up dots from far off, but not quite the same
problem you are having.....

I was going through all the pc's checking Windows updates last month... While I went
ahead and did a pretty large updates on my i7 pc that is similar to your build, I noticed while reading
a pc tech bulliten website that some of the updates for last month got pulled almost immediately by
Microsoft ( with in a day or so after they originally released them )....
I was able to avoid downloading and installing any of the buggy updates on all other pc's, except for my i7 pc....

I am thinking/hoping I've found my problem with my game / pc freezeups and my video low fps...
I'll let ya know if I've cured my situation...

Best of luck, D

TC

[Drano]

Nah I'm at full vis range. Cycled thru em tonight. I've updated windows and haven't had any sort of trouble like you're having. I know we have almost identical machines too. Mine's truckin along just great. I tried changing my monitor preset to scenery mode tonight and it seemed to help. I haven't changed the monitor in all this, it's an Asus 25". I'm gonna try setting up a TT profile for AH with everything either turned off or app controlled next. Gotta grab some sleep.

[Bizman]

I'm starting to have problems seeing dots, too. My oculist said it's normal at my age... Especially when I'm tired.

You might want to test your monitor's settings: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

[mechanic]

Could be that you've recently changed your resolution? Higher resolutions make the dot smoother and much harder to see. I play at 1920x1080 with 4x AA and the long range dots are very hard to see. Not so bad in 1360x780 or whatever that one is

[Drano]

I was thinking it was the getting old thing too but nah! They seriously just aren't a good solid black on the screen. I did try changing the presets on my monitor and that helped. I run at 1920x1080 and I'm pretty sure that's what I always ran. Will try lower and lower res along with my "blank" profile and rebuild from there.

[Bizman]

The best resolution for AH usually is your monitor's native resolution, in your case 1920x1080. Check the settings for a good continuity from black to white through a scale of grays.

I wouldn't like to admit my near sight is slowly failing, but at 51 it seems the difference between morning and evening is radical. Also, some days are diamonds, some days are stones...

[gyrene81]

at 52 playing on a 22 inch monitor, i have to wear my reading glasses just to fly. next major computer purchase is going to be a big donut monitor.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

at 52 playing on a 22 inch monitor, i have to wear my reading glasses just to fly. next major computer purchase is going to be a big donut monitor.

I'm thinking on upgrading to a 29" 21:9 screen but I have to see one with my own eyes first. I'm afraid that while the screen is quite wide it's way too restricted horizontally. But in theory the bezel free ultra wide screen should be cool.

[Arlo]

at 52 playing on a 22 inch monitor, i have to wear my reading glasses just to fly. next major computer purchase is going to be a big donut monitor.

Whoa ..... that's just to coinc ..... similar.

[gyrene81]

I'm thinking on upgrading to a 29" 21:9 screen but I have to see one with my own eyes first. I'm afraid that while the screen is quite wide it's way too restricted horizontally. But in theory the bezel free ultra wide screen should be cool.

  if i only had the money Ripley...i'm envious. as it is i'll have to pinch pennies for a year and hope i don't have any issues hit me in the face over the next 12 months.

Whoa ..... that's just to coinc ..... similar.

  and uh ain't evin frum texas...

[MrRiplEy[H]]

  if i only had the money Ripley...i'm envious. as it is i'll have to pinch pennies for a year and hope i don't have any issues hit me in the face over the next 12 months.

They're not mega expensive - the Asus low input lag model is just around 650 bucks with our tax - in States 25% cheaper.