Hi Soui...!

All your tips are fine for all those heroes that fly at 30,000+ Feet AGL...

...what we need are tips for all those who land at ground level, and fly at 100/500 feet AGL, banked over, and skimming smoothly over all the Autogen tree-tops and buildings.... ...!

That's where the problem lies......!

Paul...Low and Slow... ...!

P.S. Fab pics.....at 30,000 feet AGL... ... ...!

Ahh yes, the scenery cfg. That's a story in itself. But, to make a long story short, this is the scenery cfg. The results are quite dramatic....keeps close and distant scenery in razor sharp focus..

. Backup your current working FS9.CFG first!!!(found at C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9)

TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=8.500000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.500000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1242456

BTW, great set of pics and some sound advice Soui. 

[DISPLAY]
UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=20
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=100
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=10
//RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=.9
//RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=.9
//RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=.9
//RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=.9

This helped a lot for me, it sets the limit to framerates to 20, but you can´t go much higher if you don´t have a decent rig, if you want to do this trick....
You can try it out, but backup your .cfg first.... And the Runway lights settings are in my cfg, but yo shouldn´t change those, as it´s a matter of the textures you use. Just change the upper 3 values....

Hope it helps some of you... decreases texture loading times and puts FPS a bit up when using intense scenery or aircraft

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=8.500000 
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.500000 

those are responsible for the sharpness in the distance, right? but it doesnt seem to work for me...sometimes I try 4.500000, another time 10.00000 and I couldnt notice any difference. ???

another thing: I have a ATI 9600, but in my FS9.cfg is written:

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440-SE.0]
Mode=800x600x32
MipBias=6
AntiAlias=1

That was my old graphic cards...and theres NO entry for a 9600.  strange thing is, that inside the menu of FS9 (Settings/Display/Hardware) it says "RADEON 9600 Series .0" 
Wheres the problem?

I have all maxed out and the .cfg exacly like what you guys posted, and i take at 1280X1024 so the detail shows very very far as you can see from my shots

I tried out these tips and my fs is looking better...thanks guys

Quote:


NP man that's what the studio is for!

did you try nick's tweak? not that I don't trust him, I actually followed his advices many times and never have been disapointed, but just to have more feedbacks...

vince

TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1242456

That is a garbage setting... it defaults to 1

It should only be raised if you are using what is known as buffer mesh however you can also try a value of 4, no more


TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=8.500000  
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.500000  


These are tricky and based on the CPU/memory/motherboard and Video card. What works for one system, does NOT work on another.

For everything @ x800xt or above, and a decent processor/memory rig set to:

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.9
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.0

Lower cards/systems must experiment with these as they can make or break a distance image and how the sim runs

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=8.5
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.5

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=8.5
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.5

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=6.0  
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.0



UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=

ATI-Nvida very low-end cards lock at 20-22, medium cards lock at 22-24, high end cards, including SLI, lock at 24-28

NOTE: 7900GTX 512 and the newer cards 28, everything else @ 24

Live it, learn it, do it


TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=100  
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=10

That is actually a bit too high for most cards but for low end cards it -may- work better than reducing it. .

This is also VERY system driven. Rule of thumb to start experimenting..

medium-low cards such as ATI 9800xt should run

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=100 // possibly 110-80  
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=6

All others up to 7900GTX:

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=160  // reduce to 120 if stutters occur
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=8


SLI and power rigs with huge texture memory:

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=160-180
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=10



Very low end cards AND cards with less than 128mb of memory should never attempt the TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD setting. Just eliminate that line and raise TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT= to between 180-260



Pan Rate is always 600-700



AA in the sim is ALWAYS OFF
ATI = Mip level is never higer than 4. Nvidia mip detail can be raised to max if the drivers are set up right.
Render to texture is ALWAYS enabled.



Low end systems must be cleaned up and set up right in Windows or you will always be fighting an uphill battle.

Windows install and driver install, knowing HOW to do that correctly will have a huge impact on how well a low end system runs.

THIS SECTION DEALS WITH INSTALLING WINDOWS AND YOUR SYSTEM DRIVERS.  

IF YOU DID NOT INSTALL YOUR DRIVERS IN THE CORRECT ORDER  

motherboard (chipset) – processor - network – sound – all other devices and LAST the video card

THERE COULD BE A DRIVER CONFLICT IN YOUR SYSTEM.

IN ORDER TO CORRECT SUCH CONFLICTS IN A SYSTEM THAT ALREADY HAS WINDOWS INSTALLED IT REQUIRES ALL DRIVERS BE COMPLETELY REMOVED AND THEN REINSTALLED. THE SYSTEM MUST BE REBOOTED AFTER EACH INDIVIDUAL DRIVER IS UNINSTALLED, THEN FOLLOW THE GUIDE BELOW TO REINSTALL THE DRIVERS.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I placed reminders below about updated drivers. It is always best to go to the websites for the motherboard chipset, processor, sound, NIC, video card core and all the other devices you have in your system to obtain the latest versions of the drivers so you have them ready for a clean install of Windows.

Here is the basic list you should follow when installing Windows. You may already know this or most of it however the BIOS and Windows settings that get your system hopping are secondary to the install process.  

You should make sure you have the latest BIOS installed for your system and makes sure the BIOS is set up correctly (NO OVERCLOCKING) before installing Windows.

Always install Windows on a NTFS format. FAT32 is worthless for performance and security.
 
 1.
Install Windows. When complete and at the new desktop wait about 3-5 minutes and simply reboot. This ensures anything that may have been caught in the buffers and did not complete during the first run, will finish.
 
 2.
Install the motherboard (chipset) drivers.  
 
 Reboot after install.
 

NOTE: If you have a processor driver from AMD or Intel, install it after the motherboard driver has been installed and you have rebooted the system...


NOTE: FOR DUAL CORE PROCESSORS…
AMD: Install the latest AMD Dual Core Processor Driver, reboot… Install the latest Dual Core Optimizer, reboot…

INTEL: Check with the Intel website to confirm there is/ is not a processor driver for your CPU

BOTH INTEL AND AMD:
Install the Microsoft Dual Core Hotfix for WindowsXP and make the following registry edit. If the THROTTLE key is not present, create it and in the right pane create the dword value: PerfEnablePackageIdle

Set it to 1

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Throttle]
"PerfEnablePackageIdle"=dword:00000001


Close Regedit and reboot.

 3.
If necessary, install network drivers. Some NIC drivers are found automatically by Windows however if not, install them now. You may want to check and see if an update is available for them at the manufactures website. Reboot
 
 4.
Install your sound card drivers… you may wish to check to see if an update is available before installing. Reboot
 
 5.
Install all other hardware drivers (EXCEPT VIDEO) one by one and reboot between installs.. Again it is always best to check the manufactures website for updates to make sure you have the latest drivers installed.
 
 6.
Leave out the video drivers till last… believe it or not Windows and MS Office updates can cause video driver issues and it is best to install the video drivers LAST after the system has been completely updated from Microsoft. If you use Microsoft Office, install it now.
 

 7.
Go to Windows Update and install the WU software for detection, reboot as directed. Go back to Windows update and download and ONLY install ALL the critical updates offered. Reboot as directed. Go back to Windows update and repeat the CRITICAL update install until ALL critical updates have been installed. Go to Office Update and install ALL the updates offered for Microsoft Office.
 
NOTE: If you install MICROSOFT UPDATE from the Windows Update website it will update both Office and Windows at the same time eliminating the need to go to the two different web sites.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT WINDOWS XP SP2
If your Windows Installation CD does not come with SP2 and you must updated from the web, MAKE SURE YOU REBOOT TWICE AFTER SP2 IS INSTALLED before going back to Windows update to continue the update process.
 
 8.
At Windows update you want to look at the RECOMMENDED updates. The Net Framework 1.1 and 2.0 is being required for many FS9 and driver packages, install it. Install whatever update you would like from that list however you must reboot and go back to Windows update AGAIN to verify any critical updates for the software you installed from the recommended software list. Keep going back to Windows update until you get everything and make sure to reboot whenever the Microsoft system instructs.

NOTE: I highly recommend you NOT install any driver updates Microsoft offers from Windows Update unless you KNOW for a fact the driver is needed and is a good one. Microsoft driver updates have been known to trash a system or cause problems with the device they were meant to update. It is always best to get driver updates from the manufacture of the device, not Microsoft.
 
9.
Once you have all Office and WU components installed, install the video drivers. You should go to website for the card, either ATI or Nvidia and get the latest driver. I never use the CD because usually what is on it is old and the software it comes with is trash.
 
When complete, reboot. Let the system sit at the desktop for a few minutes after that reboot and reboot again.
 
 10.
Set up your video drivers.  
 
 11.
Install all other software. Anything you need or use EXCEPT FS9.  
 
 12.
Install Antivirus software. NOD32 is the BEST. You can’t get better protection however if you cannot afford NOD32... AVG or AVAST will work however you will NOT be as well protected.

THROW AWAY NORTON PRODUCTS AND MacAfee.. THEY WILL KILL YOUR SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

....and you DONT need any extra firewall software, just the Windows based firewall. DONT be fooled into putting zone alarm and other crap into your system for security. Those programs SLOW your computer and therefore they will SLOW your FS9 performance.

SECURITY:
AV = NOD32, AVG or AVAST

NOD32 is the ONLY AV on the market that boasts a 100% virus, trojan and browser attack kill rate.

Firewall = Windows Firewall (as long as you have SP2 installed)
Spybots S&D
AdAware

That’s it.. Anything else is a waste of your CPU and memory.  
 
Now that everything but FS9 is installed… you are ready for that.  Make sure FS9, all your add-ons and all your software is installed and working before continuing. Do not be concerned if FS9 or your other software does not seem to run smooth at this point… you’re just getting started.


NOTE: MAKE SURE WHEN YOU INSTALL THE FS9.1 UPDATE YOU PLACE THE UPDATER FILE INSIDE THE

C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FLIGHT SIMULATOR 9

..FOLDER before you run the updater. If you do not do that you WILL corrupt your .dll files in the modules folder.



Your system is now installed… HOWEVER... your system is a mess from all that installing work and it needs to be properly cleaned up, set up for performance and optimized.

AGP DRIVER UPDATES:
REMEMBER.. AGP driver replacement REQUIRES the motherboard AGP driver be removed right after the video driver and then reinstalled BEFORE the new video drivers go in!!!!!!!!!!!


Proceed to my cleanup post

you may also wish to review this thread:
http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=COF;action=display;num=116...

Quote:



Windows and driver settings apply to any system for any software... the FS9 settings, for the most part, can not be imported into FSX

FSX is a completely different animal and when I get time I will post a low-medium config file for people to try

EDIT: The 4 most overlooked areas by people is the hardware types, (all of it) how it is installed on the motherboard (especially memory), the BIOS and how Windows is set up with correct driver installs and then properly cleaned on the disk.

If one or all of those items are out of sync... you will always fight a uphill battle with any MSFS product.

Thats why you may see some people with lesser hardware post things work well and most post they dont... also, there is the issue of frustration caused by low grade hardware. No body wants to fly and not see the eye-candy and a large number of complaints stem from people trying to see the eye candy with hardware they have no business trying to push... then get depressed from the results.


also.. Go to the DIRECTX website and download the lastest web update tool and update DirectX properly.

What it all boils down to is whatever works best for your system and as long as it is not harmful, do it.

There is more than one way to make a system run good and without issues. I take the engineering approach which goes by the book, the designers of the operating system and the software being used.

If a method is found that produces desired results consistently and has worked for years on end by all means, stick with it.  

I have never posted anything on these forums that was inaccurate in the slightest or that would ever harm a system in any way. I have also never posted anything or suggested anyone do anything that would have absolutely no effect on their system either.

The user is the most dangerous thing a computer system has to deal with. It is usually their error with improper procedures, setting something up wrong or implementing a mass of useless tweaks that end up causing more trouble than they fix and makes it impossible to see/know when a good tweak is found, if it actually did anything.

And I will add one last item... If your not sure of what you are doing and do not feel comfortable changing settings on your system, dont. Seek professional engineering help.

For every 15 tweaks you see on the internet or hear about, usually only 1 has any merit... and that 1 only works if the rest of the system is properly set up for it.

None of my posts contain research. They contain a methodology which has been practiced by professionals for years with changes to the specifics in order to accommodate present day logistics with respect to Windows, hardware and driver engineering.

I do not have clients for services, nor will I in the future.

What I posted was not an advertisement for business or placed on the forums to attract customers.

It was placed here to help, nothing more... and without any catch, at all.

Anyone who has used the method I outlined properly knows the results. I do not fine tune anyone’s system because if they have at least a minimum spec of good hardware (ie; the right amount of memory and a good video adapter)  installed and use the proper approach, there is no need to go to all sorts of over the top, outside the box setup methods.

Those with medium-low grade hardware can get better results but they also must accept its limitations and that there is no miracle cure to make it run better. One must accept the limits of the hardware once a system has been properly set up. Looks and performance are 2 different things. I can have a sim that looks like I am running the best hardware money can buy in a screenshot, and in reality I jacked up the settings to get the shot @ 5-10FPS. There is no practical sim function to screenshots which people sometimes forget.

Electronic circuits do not function outside the box, they function in a very controlled and measured environment and must remain inside the box or they stop working.

There are many ways to move variables around in a mathematical formula (theoretical or otherwise) and still obtain the same final answer however, as in electronics, the shorter the formula, the faster the result.

Add-ons are an entirely different subject. That is where an intimate understanding of an add-on can make or break a sim and that is also where ‘outside the box’ experience comes in, is invaluable and should be sought out. Undertstanding textures and the affects of load variables from the configuration files is outside the box experience which can not be obtained from a forum.

I have no negative comments about the FSX team. I think they did the best they could with what they had to work with. I also believe they made some mistakes and hope they are addressing them properly.

They have my full support.


Nick

My gosh Michael... I -am- quite surprised.


actually.. Im not.  You said this was not personal yet that is exactly what you have turned it into and what it was about when you posted from the beginning.

I am sorry if I have in some way upset you.

Thank you for posting back.

No sir, I haven’t

Have you managed or succeeded to enroll in anger management, perhaps AA or some other group where you may receive proper care?


Goodnite and sleep well.

Guys, please...