Hi Jocko Flocko,
Unfortunately, I am using P3Dv3 and not v4 so cannot test this for myself. Using .dds as an image file vs. .bmp should not have any significant impact on rendering rate...at least it hasn't in the past In fact,
I am guessing that there are still plenty of .bmp files in P3Dv4 like in Scenery\World\texture. I know that at one time someone tried to convert the Scenery\World\Texture folder to .dds and the sim would not run that way. In general, .dds files are the more desirable image files for normal imaging since the image doesn't have to be flipped though DirectX does it very quickly.
If you only turn off cvx_TF_FSX_water_summer.BGL, does that take away the stutter? Just wondering since that is the one that causes all the main terrain water areas to be rendered.
Am I correct that you are doing this on a single screen system? I know Jeff has three screens.
Have you reported this to Lockheed? If, in fact, you can clearly demonstrate the difference between P3Dv3 and v4, it sounds like a bug.
It is a bit more problematic than it seems to convert the textures to .dds since you would also have to change the terrain.cfg file for the changed textures that are declared in the terrain.cfg. Also, back in the FSX developer days, some very good developers came up with tricks that worked in FSX but sometimes don't work in P3D. ORBX runs into that a bit....e.g. ORBX water that freezes has its problems in P3D but worked great in FSX. There is always a risk that converting some .bmp files will cause trouble when you venture outside of the textures that are strictly associated with objects.
Rod