Making a tradeoff between quality and performance

[Guest]

Hi all. What would be the best setting for me so I can get performance and nice image quality?I am running a PIII 866mhz, 256mb-ram, geforce 2 mx 400 64mb, 20gb hdd.The AA, Direct3D, OpenGL settings, and the settings in FS2002, I really am looking forward to make FS2002 enjoyable to use.Shane

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Great question Shane--we have nearly identical systems, so I thought I'd offer some input.I got to my FS2002 "sweet spot" by starting with everything maxed, then lowering the sliders that slowed it most. These are the sliders I've given attention to:Building & Aircraft shadows - OffAutogen -- no real issues with fps as long as I keep it normal, or any lower setting.AI -- By far the biggest fps killer, especially in tandem with aircraft reflections. I turn it on only when I want to fly with traffic. FPS are alright (about 15-17 fps) as long as I stay out of the detailed FS cities (i.e. LA, NYC, ATL, Chicago....)Water detail & reflections -- I leave it off. It's great eye candy for screenshots, and I do turn it on sometimes if I'm flying a light aircraft between LAX and Catalina or flying in the Isles, but it's easier on the cpu to leave it off.Screen Resolution -- 800x600x32Hardware T&L - OffEverything else I have maxed. I average around 23-25 fps most places--almost a guaranteed fps if AI is off and I'm in a typical FS city, such as Phoenix. Spot views yield lower fps sometimes, especially when the aircraft is a complex one.On the hardware side, I've used Rivatuner to adjust LOD to -.5 and to enable anisotropy. Huge difference.On the O/S side, I don't allow anything to load into the "system tray" other than the volume control. That's about all I can think of.... The combination of these settings has led to many happy hours of FS simming...-John

[Guest]

Hi JohnI think I have tried Rivatuner and was frustrated, guess i'm not that much of a techie guy that knows about that stuff.. I used the "basic" settings in the geforce mx 2 card configuration and shutt AA to 2X, and the anisotropy off aswell, now I am expirencing WIERD things, like this, textures will go pink, yellow, purple, red, black, etc. Maybe time for a re-install of FS2002 and play amore with the Graphics card?Shane

[01pewterz28 117]

Several things I do1. Turn off scenery shadows2. Turn off aircraft shadows (if you use AI and have it on then all AI planes have shadows too and if you installed PAI's Delta you cn have 70 planes with shadows that will kill fps.3. Reduce your colouds from 100% to 50%4. Turn off reflections5. Tuen off dynamic scenery6. Reduce Auto gen 1 notch.Johnualfan@msn.com

http://www.flagball.com/~jthomas/dfsig02f.jpg

[Guest]

And another one: Set gauge quality to "low" if you have jerky motion in cockpit or VC view!Rob Young