You'll need Vista!!! PANIC!!!!



Oh wait....

True. I find that my computer can run real well for as long as AI is not too populated. If FS9 can allow you choose which AI to disable [either General Aviation or Airlines], then surely FSX can allow the same thing. For those who fly the buses, then can just simply disable the General Aviation and Flocking birds AI because those AI will be too low to see anyways [besides the lightstrobes on planes] while those who fly General Aviation aircraft with a low and slow style can simply disable the Airline AI. Much of the performance gain can be achieved by simply disable certain AI that you don't need.

Another thing. Since aircraft shadows require resources to render, it's usually wise for Airline flyers to disable the aircraft shadows since they don't really see from 30,000ft. Not only that, with the shadows disabled, which affects the AI shadows as well, resources are then directed to where you want them.

I fly General Aviation aircraft and I have the following settings:

Scenery and aircraft shadows: on
Airline AI: off
Autogen level: Dense
Scenery level: Normal

For airline flyers this should be the basic setup:

Scenery and aircraft shadows: off
General AI: off
Autogen level: sparse
Scenery level: dense [since airports are large]

These are just suggested settings. Not required settings. Basically, as others have said, how much you can render in FS is limited only by your style and hardware.

Looking for some info....  Im gonna to be starting a Traveling job working as an A&P Mechanic maintaining blimps, and am going to be purchaseing a laptop.

How well do you think a laptop with these specs, would run FSX

HP  ZD8000 series:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 650 w/HT Technology, 3.4GHz

2.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 533MHz (2x1024MB
100 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600

these are the most important ones. 

Also im curious out the Video Card, is says its a Pci card with x16 graphics with up to 256mb of dedicated video memory.   Is this a whole seperate unit or is it takeing the memory from the system memory, which would be 2.0GB

What surprises the most is that M$ was able to make a game console with the resources of 3 powerful computers [cough]XBOX 360[/cough] and sell them for only $500 while we have to pay at least $1,700 for a single computer that we need for upgrading.

Well...I doubt stuff like those reflections and all will work with my DX9 card....but the rest should work fine...

Quote:


Actually I beg to differ. The chip in the XBox 360 was manufactured by ATI and is the equivilant of the X850 XT PE, so yes PCs do have better graphics than the XBox 360. Infact I sight COD2. I've played it both on the PC, and XBox 360 and I must say that it ran and looked better on the PC.

On another note 90% of this fourms will need to upgrade. DX10 and 64bit processers are only the beggining. I've been looking at sigs lately, and the leasure gamers will only do the minimal, but if you want shots and a sim as nice as Fly2e, Me, Ramsa, and many others your gonna need to drop atleast $1000 on upgrades. I mean yes DX9 will run DX10, but with the FPS, Reflections / shadows, and light maps? NO!! No gents the wallets are gonna get hit pretty hard around november when all the new tech comes out.

Cheers
Cameron

Don't forget about Moore's Law. The law states that the density of the processors will double every 18 months. So, by the year 2020, the law will dead end and we will have no choice but to upgrade to quantum computers that can project holograms and mimic strange female voices when we say "Computer, begin holosim FSXXX".