Hey 4_Series,
If I were you, I would update the topic post so that it can talk about FS2004.
Just a suggestion.
I have a few ideas that can be useful for FS2004.
I usually fly in the night time for several reasons:
1. The scenery gets beautiful at night with all the city and airport lights.
2. I am able to turn down and turn off some things that are not needed for night-time flying. I turn off shadows, and some other things that are related.
3. I fly with clear weather so that the night sky will look stunning with the stars and 50% traffic. The traffic makes it better by the stobe lights they use. Flying through clear weather also reduces the stress on the video card [greatly].
4. I set the autogen to normal or dense because the night-time textures for the cities make it feel as if it's set to Extremely Dense.
5. I set my Mipmapping level to 4 so that I can get rid of the annoying swirling effect of the scenery.
6. I also set Light Rendering to 6 [default setting] because I can't see any difference in a visual sense when it comes to lights.
7. Right now, I would get a sustained maximum of 20 FPS [locked at 20FPS by default] even in the most busiest areas when I use the above settings. Locking the FPS to a low number also reduces the stress on the video card.
8. I set the Terrain Detail to Land Only. I also set the Water Effects Detail to None as well. This is because I can't see the water details at night. DUH, I don't have night vision.
A a result by all these setting and night-time flying, my video card has enough resources for other things like increased traffic, better FPS, and better response with FS2004. And more.
I hope these tips can help.
I also use 1024x768x32. I can use 1024x768x16 if I want.