"Spiky" Graphics when playing Jane's WW II Fighters

[Steady Teddy]

I just purchased an old 'bargain bin' Combat Flight sim from Jane's called "WW II Fighters". This sim was released 3 years ago but it plays great and it the graphics look spectacular, even by today's standards.
I took a chance and installed it on my XP Hard Drive and it plays fine only if I set the game graphics to 32 bit resolution (which I never do). But there is a problem whenever I'm in the 'cockpit' view at 16 bit graphics. I get "spiky" background texture graphics where the 'horizon' should be. This happens at any resolution setting and only at 16 bit.
I always have my desktop settings to 16 bit (1024 x 768).

I have about 30 games stored on my pc right now and don't have a problem like this with any of them.

If it's an XP Compatibility problem, wouldn't the game just not work at all?

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[Blakhart]

I have the same effect in 16 bit color, usually noticeing the spikeys at the base of buildings where they meet the ground. 32 bit color seems to clear up all that crap but its a performance hit, so turn on the fast mip map filter and make sure aniso filter is off.
I have the gf2ti and have seen these be wildly variable in rendering performance.

[Steady Teddy]

Thanks Blakhart,
I'll give it a try. Do you have this problem with any other games?

[Blakhart]

I think you will find this artifact in any game played at 16 bit color.
Perhaps there are some that were written to counteract the clipping I believe its called, at 16 bit color.
Make sure you have not set the refresh too high as that places a load on cards like the gf2. Mine can run the monitor at 120 Hertz but that stresses the card as it tries to put a fresh picture on the screen and refresh the screen at the same time. I use 85 or 100 as that should be handled with little or no trouble.
Do you have a frame rate counter?
Experiment with the settings and let me know what gives best picture and doesnt hurt performance.
Good luck!

PS

running at 800x600 will give you more frames so try it and see if ya like it. I do on a 19 inch mon but always run 640x480 on a 15 incher.

[mike breck]

Why can't you just play the game at 32 bit if it plays well?

Is it causing too much slowdown?

Some games work better in 32 bit and some can cope with 16 and 32 bit. It just depends on the game, the PC, and OS.

It can sometimes be a good idea to match the desktop resolution to that of the game. So if you play the game at 32 bit, then set your desktop to 32 bit.

This can sometimes solve graphical (or startup) problems with certain games.