Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
Optimizing FS2004 |
DVA6534
Senior Captain, B747-400
OLP
Joined on October 19 2008
50 State Club
Online Triple Century Club
Quincentenary Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Everett 250 Club
Cleveland, OH USA
576 legs, 1,329.4 hours
377 legs,
879.4 hours online 570 legs,
1,318.5 hours ACARS 36 legs,
87.6 hours event 30 legs dispatched, 40.9
hours
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Posted onPost created on
February 15 2009 20:23 ET by John DeBarr
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Anyone got some tips on what settings to set to make fs 2004 rock solid?
John DeBarrSenior Captain, B747-400
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DVA6534
Senior Captain, B747-400
OLP
Joined on October 19 2008
50 State Club
Online Triple Century Club
Quincentenary Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Everett 250 Club
Cleveland, OH USA
576 legs, 1,329.4 hours
377 legs,
879.4 hours online 570 legs,
1,318.5 hours ACARS 36 legs,
87.6 hours event 30 legs dispatched, 40.9
hours
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Posted onPost created on
February 17 2009 18:05 ET by John DeBarr
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? Wow.. really?
John DeBarrSenior Captain, B747-400
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DVA3073
Captain, B757-200
E-MAIL
Joined on April 13 2006
Online Century Club
Double Century Club
"SEMPER FI" IN USA
204 legs, 446.0 hours
156 legs,
364.2 hours online 181 legs,
395.3 hours ACARS 12 legs,
28.7 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
February 17 2009 19:36 ET by William Hogestyn
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all depends on your system specs
kind of a broad question really. no affense
good luck and GOD speed
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DVA6688
Captain, L-1011-100
Joined on November 22 2008
Beaverton, OR USA
98 legs, 194.6 hours
93 legs,
187.0 hours online 86 legs,
177.7 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.8 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
February 18 2009 00:27 ET by Scott Ring
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well I had some links but they seem no good now- just google' fs9 tips' or settings or something
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DVA1933
Senior Captain, B727-200
Joined on September 19 2004
Triple Century Club
Monterrey, NL Mexico
357 legs, 860.4 hours
72 legs,
132.3 hours online 255 legs,
668.3 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.9 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
February 18 2009 00:48 ET by David Eugenio Gomez
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Run a defrag on your HD. Not with the default useless program from Microsoft, but use dedicated software. O&O Defrag is the best, payware of course. If you can afford it, use it to run a NAME defrag.
If you know what you are doing, disable the System Restore feature. This saves memory. I'll say it again: only if you know what you are doing.
Disable file timestamping on Windows. You'll have to google this because I can't remember how to do it.
Disable Index Server in your HD. Right-click the HD icon in My PC, and uncheck "Allow Index Server...". Again: only if you know what you are doing.
Switch your Memory Usage from "Programs" to "System Cache". Google how to do this. Once again: only if you know what you are doing.
Sorry for all the warnings, but you should only mess with this if you know and accept the risks.
These are only some of Windows's tweaks that could help you improve performance, and these are the ones I use, and they have helped.
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DVA1580
Captain, B767-300
COMM
Joined on March 16 2004
Century Club
Everett Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Caryville, TN USA
199 legs, 476.5 hours
70 legs,
168.4 hours online 84 legs,
232.9 hours ACARS 4 legs,
10.4 hours event 27 legs dispatched, 71.5
hours
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Posted onPost created on
February 18 2009 01:18 ET by Scott Breuer
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Not sure about setting Memory usage to System Cache, here is what I found on this;
Memory usage. This setting controls the size of the file system cache. When set to Programs (Default) a standard sized file system cache is allocated (Less than 10MB RAM); this is recommended as it provides best Application performance. When set to System cache this enables the use of a large file system cache (Up to RAM minus 4MB!); this option is only suitable when Windows XP is acting as a Server not as a gaming system or for other Application/Workstation use as it will be detrimental to performance as Microsoft notes
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DVA1933
Senior Captain, B727-200
Joined on September 19 2004
Triple Century Club
Monterrey, NL Mexico
357 legs, 860.4 hours
72 legs,
132.3 hours online 255 legs,
668.3 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.9 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
February 18 2009 10:25 ET by David Eugenio Gomez
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That's interesting Scott, thanks. I got more performance out of FS by setting it to System Cache, and I read in some FS-related PDF that it should be done.
I'll run some tests in the Summer when I get back to flying.
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DVA3749
Senior Captain, B737-800
Joined on November 24 2006
Three Million Mile Club
Everett Millennium Club
Panda Club
Flying Colonel
DVA Five-Year Anniversary
Online Fifteen Century
"Delta Chop" Milwaukee, WI USA
1,598 legs, 7,139.2 hours
1,527 legs,
6,895.2 hours online 1,348 legs,
6,154.1 hours ACARS 5 legs,
10.4 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
February 18 2009 11:27 ET by Ryan Schmidt
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Before I get into this I want you to understand that if you believe 40+ frames are necessary for
smooth flight and great scenery – or- you believe running ‘unlimited’ on the frame lock and
nothing else… this tweak is not for you and there is probably nothing I can do to convince you
that your 7900GTX or faster does not need to be locked @ or above 38-45FPS. (Note: the unlimited frame
trick does work but NOT for most systems)
Understand that blurry textures and stutters come from both the same source -and-difference
sources all at once. Assuming you have a good CLEAN system which you have tweaked and
optimized so your not running all sorts of programs in startup and you have a good base to work
from… try this:
The TEXTURE BANDWIDTH MULTIPLER is just that. It multiplies, just like it says.
The mystery is, what does it multiply? Well, it multiples loading a specified number of 256x256
ground textures (in file kb size depending on what ground textures you use) AND it calculates a
load for the rendering engine to analyse based on the frame lock.
So the question is… where is that specified number?
Here it is:
TextureMaxLoad=X
Never seen that one? If you haven’t don’t be surprised because it is an Microsoft developers edit
which is undocumented. The DEFAULT value when the line is not present in the FS9.cfg file, ... is
“3”.
And the formula the system produces is:
TextureMaxLoad -MULTIPLED BY - TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT – DIVIDED BY – FRAME
LOCK = X
Now that you know this, how does that help?
Immensely!
Knowing that, I will go on to say the TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT does NOT require a set
number or to be a factor of anything. Although it is best this number remain a divisible by 20 the
number used for the TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT is not set in stone and it is completely
based on the system being tweaked.
Assuming you have a x800 (or fairly close) or greater performance type card, -and- a DECENT
supporting motherboard/memory/CPU... AND your Flight Sim works good but it is not as smooth
or does not display the scenery as well as you would like… or you just want to play and have
some fun, try the following.
First, save a copy of your FS9.cfg file for safe keeping.
Next, open your FS9.cfg and edit the following
TextureMaxLoad =X
……directly under the TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT= entry in you cfg file.
I will make this easy and without going into allot of chatter… about testing and tweaking because
I cannot possibly tweak these numbers without sitting in front of the system.
Start with these values:
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=100
TextureMaxLoad =10
YOUR FRAME LOCK MUST BE REDUCED OR THIS WON’T WORK.
For x800 – x1600 and comparable Nvidia cards, lock your frame @ 22
You read right… 22 (you might be able to nudge it up to 24 after its tweaked)
For x850xt and comparable Nvidia, lock it @ 25
For x1800 and comparable Nvidia cards, lock it @ 28
For x1900 and 7900GT – GTX, lock it @ 30
Set your PAN_RATE= to either 600 or 700 for any card (your choice)
For x800 – x850 x1600 and comparable Nvidia cards, disable SHADOWS in the sim. Others can
test it to see how it does. The cards I mentioned can also test it but if you are not using a GOOD
set of properly designed DX3 clouds such as found in FLIGHT Environment, I would leave
shadows disabled. Test using "Building Storms" so you can judge the full load properly.
THIS TWEAK assumes you know how to correctly set up your video drivers and have all the FS9
SCENERY sliders maxed and all boxes checked (except shadows for those I mentioned above)
and correctly set up your cloud sliders (60 -40 – 100 with Detailed Clouds and 100% maximum
density) AA disabled in the sim and the rest of the display settings correct.
When you first boot … DON’T judge the tweak until you fly around for a bit. It will most likely need
to be adjusted.
If you have blurry scenery most likely the frame lock is too high. ONLY drop it by 1 to test.
Also, I would NOT exceed 10 as the value for TextureMaxLoad =X Good values are (3 default) 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10… but it WILL go higher. If you experience stutters, DROP the
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT= from 100 to 80.
Assuming the TextureMaxLoad = 5 or GREATER, I would not go any higher than 120 on the
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT no matter WHAT you have learned in the past about that
setting… most of which was the max value being 400.
You guys with the right video cards but slower systems may want to work with LOWER
TextureMaxLoad values and HIGHER TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT values.
The idea is to find the spot where your ground textures load in a flash with no stutters when
changing views over an area your flying in for the first time during a flight. With the extra time
after that flash load the sim can start using the correct calculations to start sharpening and
displaying them further away.
You will need to work with this setting.. It’s REALLY a gem once you learn how to CORRECTLY
set up the FS9.cfg by understanding how the sim works.
This setting was brought to you by Steve Lacey, software developer and co-founder of
SwitchGear Software who posted it almost a year ago but no one seemed to catch on over this
past year.
Ryan SchmidtSenior Captain, B737-800
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