Hi Guys,I need help with a sound problem I

Your changing aircraft positions/angles seem to point to the fact that the computer now has to generate more complex scenery. Combine that with playing audio and something has to give, namely the frames per second.I would guess that the audio files might have a higher priority level in the computer code than does the scenery. Does the frames per second drop when the sound is "Turned" off and the aircraft is re-positioned? With the sound still turned off, select the ATC instructions be displayed on the screen in written form. Then check to see if the frames per second drop as when the sound is turned on. I would think it might but maybe not to the same level.Bottom line is the way FS2004 is written, the average and or top of the line processors we have today are just not quick or powerful enough to smoothly run the simulation. Just another case of "Doing Too Much with Too Little."Terry

Hi Terry,Thanks for your reply. I don't have any problems with FS sound, or ATC sound causing an FPS issue, just the FDC add-on. The FPS drop does not happen when I change position (in motion), it happens sitting stationary. So for example, I could be sitting at the gate pointing NW, and then play an FDC sound and get low FPS. If I then slew the plane to point N, and then play the FDC sound, I don't get the drop. I too believe that it has something to do with how the sounds are played. Dave March the programmer of FDC told me that his app simply plays .wav files via DirectX. DirectX is up to date on my PC (9.0b), and all acceleration is on.Strange...Thanks,JD

I ran the test with the PMDG 737 and DID NOT find any effect on frames while running the checklists--absolutely none. I am running the creative 80.0.0.3 WDM drivers on an Audigy 2. Also, and I don't know if anyone mentioned this, I am running on BASIC acceleration, in dxdiag.exe. One other consideration, though I doubt it's an issue, is that I am using a SCSI file subsystem. CPU utilization during sustained I/O reads is about 3-4%. These files are small, so the hit for loading them into ram should be really small, even on ATA systems. I put this high performance drive in for FS, but also for another digital audio application.For those of you who have an Audigy AND onboard sound, try disabling the Audigy and reenabling onboard audio to see if the Audigy is an issue on your system. Hopefully you don't have BOTH active, which I believe is a possibility!Noel

Hi Noel,Thanks for your note. I tried to set my DirectX sound acceleration to basic last night in the hopes that it was the problem. Still, the problem existed.The strange thing is that no matter how much I pump up my FPS (changed from locked at 25 to 35 (and got 34)), the playing of the checklists reduces the FPS down to 16-17. - JD

Hi Noel,Thanks for your note. I tried to set my DirectX sound acceleration to basic last night in the hopes that it was the problem. Still, the problem existed.The strange thing is that no matter how much I pump up my FPS (changed from locked at 25 to 35 (and got 34)), the playing of the checklists reduces the FPS down to 16-17.I don't have onboard audio, so that's not the problem here.- JD