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Jimmy,Honestly? Incredible the increase in performance I got, following step by step your Optimization Guide. Thanks god you posted it again because I missed the first edition! L)So again, thank you very much, it really helped!Bruno Francescoli.

Hi Jim, Thanks for the guide, I enjoyed reading the last one :-)One thing I should mention though, that driver uninstall tool, I don't seem to have that and I am using CAT 4.1's. I don't even have the "UninstallAll" folder.Any ideas?Cheers :-beerchugBill

Some very good and sensible tweaks. This should help lots of FS users to get the best performance and image quality from FS2004.When trying any of these tweaks, BACKUP the original settings, or at least write them down, so that you can undo them if they cause problems. While the tweaks posted are fairly safe, some of them can cause problems with certain peripherals, networks, backup programs and defrag programs for example. Also I should emphasize that it's VERY important to optimize memory usage for PROGRAMS, NOT System Cache. There's a major bug (still not fixed AFAIK) in ATI's Catalyst drivers that in some cases can cause total loss of all data on the harddrive if you select System Cache. Even a few NVidia users have reported that problem. Your system will basically refuse to boot and when you finally reinstall and get it going again, all data is gone or severly corrupted.

Hi There Guys,You're welcome, all of you. :-smile12 And thanks for the great kudos you have given me! I am very very happy to hear that this is helping out because I actually spent a fair amount of time making this doc up.And take heed of what JimmiG says, backup your changes, or at least try to keep track of them so you can go back to the original setting if something doesn't work out right or as expected.- A little story/info -Quite a while back I tried the 'System Cache' tweak I found as a tip for MS Flight Simulator on another forum. It wasn't pretty. I rebooted and and essentially received a message that WinXP could not read the MFT, Master File Table. Yuck! In such a situation even if you use the System Restore option you can't get back into Windows to do a restore! Even people who have not had a problem with Windows itself using this have stated they had texture/image rendering problems when running FS2004.I hope you all are having spectacular flights!Jim

Dear Bill,I really don't know why you wouldn't have the driver uninstall tool. I recently went from having the 3.9's to the 4.1's. I unistalled like I said in my guide. And I made sure to delete the 'AtiCimUn.exe' before I installed the 4.1's. After installing the 4.1's it is there again. You didn't go into 'Add/Remove Programs' and uninstall the 'ATI - Software Uninstall Utility' did you? Do you have that in your Add/Remove Programs? I'm guessing that you don't have that in there for some reason, but sorry, I don't have much of an idea of why not.Regards,Jim

Hi All,I found out I made a mistake when posting. I PASTED in the post from the text doc that I is in the zip file, which has square brackets. I meant to go through and change all the square brackets to curly braces but forgot to do it. So... here I am reposting just those areas so that they show up here on the forum.Jim-----------------------------------------Reduce your fluctuations by setting the TurbulenceScale value in FS9.CFG to a lower value (0.2 is suggested by several users). Sure helped tame the buffeting from upper winds in FS2002 and has worked so far for me in FS9.Look under the {Weather} section in the FS9.cfg file.TurbulenceScale=0.200000Brent aka "dogknot"-----------------------------------------The {SOUND} section is courtesy of FFX/SGA other than I figured out to use a 4 for my 5.1 speaker setup.{SOUND}SOUND=1SOUND_FADER1=0.500000SOUND_FADER2=0.460000SOUND_FADER3=0.620000SOUND_FADER4=0.800000SOUND_FADER5=0.810000SOUND_FADER6=1.000000SOUND_QUALITY=2Channels=4 --> use a 2 here if you only have 2 speakers, I have a 5.1 speaker setup.SamplesPerSec=44100BitsPerSample=16{DISPLAY.Device.RADEON 9700 PRO.0}Mode=1600x1200x32TriLinear=1RenderToTexture=0{DISPLAY}UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=24TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120{TERRAIN}TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=85.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=200.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=20TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=4TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.900000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4-----------------------------------------

Hi,very nice and exhaustive post. I am running my Sim basically with most of the listed reccomendations already in place, and I am pretty happy with my performance (I have a very similar PC spec than yours).However,I would suggest to add a couple of items more:a) compress the entire FS9 folder using the XP built in compressor, accessible via the folder/properties/advanced tab. I have seen that although it has not a great impact on frame rate, it has (at least in my experience) greatly enhanced the smoothness. If you do that, you have to defrag after you have compressed the folder, since compression induces a great level of fragmentation:( use a software called Clever Cache (by O&O Software). It prevents what seems to be a typical issue with Win XP: cache size growing up with time and reducing the amount of available RAM. Clever Cache operates in the background, it is very straightforward, no need to define settings, and keeps the cache size below a maximum level which is automatically settled by the program or can be manually input by the user. Expecially if you carry on long flights, it is a very helpful tool to avoid decay of performances due to available RAM reduction. Regards

The folder compression also have helped me alot. A little note to this would have to be (in case some people cant find that function), that your HDD have to be formattet in the NTFS system to be able to use this.Great guide, OneTinSoldier, your first guide helped me alot.I have a comment though, the bit about antialiasing using external AA and not the FS build in. Whenever I use external AA settings, It is simply impossible for me to fly with alot of clouds around. The sound stutters insanely :(However, if I use "application controlled" in the external Nvidia AA settings and check AA in the FS options, it gets much smoother and at the same time look a bit better then with no AA at all.There seems to be alot more antialiasing beeing done on the clouds (even with Chris Willis' cloudset) when I run 2-4X AA set in the Nvidia settings in the tastbar.I believe someone mentioned along time ago that there was a way to force clouds not to be antialiased by unchecking one or more things in Rivatuner's DX settings. Does anyone remember what settings were to be checked/unchecked?Maybe if anyone knows (and it works) it should be added to this great guide.Sorry about the long post :D

Hello Jackson,I want to say Thank You for contributing a couple of sugesstions/tips. I have been aware of the compressed folder option but I have never tried it out. Same with the Clever Cache utility. Anyone who wants to try either of those out is welcome to do so by following your post. ;)Thanks Again,Jim

>The folder compression also have helped me alot. A little>note to this would have to be (in case some people cant find>that function), that your HDD have to be formattet in the NTFS>system to be able to use this.>>Great guide, OneTinSoldier, your first guide helped me alot.>>I have a comment though, the bit about antialiasing using>external AA and not the FS build in. Whenever I use external>AA settings, It is simply impossible for me to fly with alot>of clouds around. The sound stutters insanely :(>>However, if I use "application controlled" in the external>Nvidia AA settings and check AA in the FS options, it gets>much smoother and at the same time look a bit better then with>no AA at all.>>There seems to be alot more antialiasing beeing done on the>clouds (even with Chris Willis' cloudset) when I run 2-4X AA>set in the Nvidia settings in the tastbar.>>I believe someone mentioned along time ago that there was a>way to force clouds not to be antialiased by unchecking one or>more things in Rivatuner's DX settings. Does anyone remember>what settings were to be checked/unchecked?>Maybe if anyone knows (and it works) it should be added to>this great guide.>>Sorry about the long post :DHello CarguMun,I am pleased to hear that my first guide helped you out a lot. :) As far as the Anti-Aliasing I can only say a couple things. I hope someone can point out how to help you using the Rivatuner. It is my understanding that Nvidia cards AA the clouds, and as you can see I am an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro user. So I'm not of much help to people with Nvidia cards and all I have included is how to set up an ATI card in my guide. If you find out how to keep Nvidia cards from AA'ing the clouds it would be great if you could come back here and post the tip! I am fortunate in that it takes a LOT of clouds for my performance to start bogging down. ;-)Regards,Jim

Thanks for taking the time and effort to post this, Jimmy. I'm sure I'll put it to use when I upgrade to Xp in a couple of weeks.RobertPIII 1 ghz, 512 dram, 64 meg Radeon 7200 graphic card, Intel mobo/815 chipset,80 gig Western 7200 hd,Win Me, 19" ViewSonic E 90f + SB monitor

OneTinSldierWould like to says a big Thanks!I suckered for GameXP, and when I ran it, it screwed FS with 100% CPU usage and permanent flickering on the Create Flight screen. Reloads of FS and XP didn't fix it. Something in your recommended Services did, and I'm back on the straight and narrow.Word of warning for all those who see GameXP - don't do it!ThanksRichard

Thanks for posting.In a few days, I will move this into the Tips & Tricks sub forum.

Howdy,Robert... I hope you'll end up being another sastified customer!Richard... I am pleased as punch to hear that going through your Services fixed the troublesome software problem. :-) Don't you just hate when something you install messes up something else entirely which was working just fine beforehand?Dear Ken,Allright, sounds good to me. I thought about posting this in there as well as here. Of course it stands to reason that the proper place for it is in the Tips & Tricks section of the forum.Cheers,Jim