The Sky turned Gray! Help!!

[Tom_G_2010]

My sky has gone gray in FSX.  Clouds still show, but anywhere I should see blue it is gray.  And, the gray bleeds down onto the land in several places and masks land about 15 miles out from my position.  Airport beacons and some scenery objects show through but nothing of the terrain.  I'm also seeing some static like vertical black streaks in the gray where it bleeds over the ground.

Just before the change I was making some minor scenery tweaks like shuffling the order of a couple scenery files.  I also loaded an update to an airport from the virtual atc group I fly with.  I've checked with numerous members of the group and no one else has experienced the issue.  Also the scenery order changes would not seem to be the cause.  Just to be sure I uninstalled the scenery and put the scenery file order back but it makes no difference, my sky is still gray.

I did find one workaround but it's really only masking the problem and not fixing it.  I did a video card driver update and loaded the latest service pack for Active Sky Evolution.  Now as long as ASE is running the sky is blue, but running FSX only the sky goes gray again.

With ASE:


FSX Only:


I realized after taking the pics that they don't show the ground masking because I was too close to the mountains.

Not sure what other information might be relavent, but here's the basic setup: 

• FSX w/Acceleration
  
• FSUIPC4 latest biuld
  
• ASE w/SP3
  
• PC is running a Core i5
  
• OS is Win 7 64bit
  
• Video Card is a ATI Radeon HD5450
  

Any thoughts on how to resolve this (I'm really hoping to avoid a reload) would be greatly appreciated!

[blueskydriver]

My favorite saying "Use System Restore". Use Windows System Restore by selecting a date prior to you making any changes. Once the problem is fixed, reinstall one thing at a time, restart first, then go into FSX on a default airport. Now, maybe fly around or at least taxi a bit, do this every time you install something new...one thing at a time. If you install more than one, how do you know what causes the problem?

Finally, may I suggest a log book. After all the years of doing or redoing FSX, a log book will have what you've done and when, as well as what you have to do again, if you have to reinstall everything...hopefully, you won't have too.

BSD

[jackpilot]

Not Hijk the post but the Log Book idea is worth a mint!
Everyone should have one !

[Bob Reed]

Looks to me to be a texture issue. And you say you checked with others, problem there I am sure none of them is running the same install you are. Different software add ons interact differently together. My guess is a texture was modified improperly during the install of something and when you uninstalled the software it did not change the texture back or could not.

[Tom_G_2010]

I'm going to run the repair routine from FSX this weekend and see what happens.  I'm reasonably confident that the scenery add on is not the issue, but won't rule it out.

I can reload from a prior restore point if the FSX repair doesn't work.

As for the log book, That sounds like a great idea and one that I will implement going forward.

[Tom_G_2010]

I ran the repair on FSX and the sky is blue again!  THANKS ALL!!!