FS9 needs a benchmark mode...

[Guest]

Wouldn't it be great if FS9 had an internal benchmark mode like some of the other popular games? While the new 3DMark03 is getting pretty severely panned, it does have a flight simulator as one of its components. So it might prove useful for those of us eternal tinkerers who need a good benchmark for tweaking our computers.If only I could find a decent mirror to download the thing! I've tried every one of them, many more than most. Most are overloaded. Two I aborted because the speed was so slow. Two had good speeds, and then crapped out about half way through the downloads.Has anybody here managed to download a copy of 3DMark03?-Basil

[Guest]

No!The framerate counter should be dropped!Only that will prevent the endless threads of people complaining that FS has less fps than Doom.

[Guest]

>No! >The framerate counter should be dropped! >>Only that will prevent the endless threads of people >complaining that FS has less fps than Doom. Oh, come on, we're smarter than that! Aren't we? :-hmmm I miss Bruce Wilson's FSBENCH. While not perfect, it provided a reasonably standard point of reference for hardware comparisons. I think an internal benchmark would provide a way to definitely answer the interminable "how will FSx run on this hardware" threads. I see more of those, than "FS has less fps than Doom" threads. :-hah -Basil

[Guest]

Sadly many of us are not.There are so many threads of people who are what I call fps-junks that it can no longer be seen as a minor threat to simmers.

[Guest]

Hi Basil,Just about everyone should be able to grab it as long as they use one of the que systems. I did from FileShack about two hours after it was first released. At a guaranteed 100KBps, its the only way to reliably get '03 just yet. Problem is: you have to wait in the que for an hour or so... Not a big deal if you keep it in the background and spend the time doing your daily web rounds.http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=2229And yes, I would very much like to see a built in bench in FS9 - it would bring flight sims to the consciousness of many who don't even think of sims today: always a good thing for us if we want to see sims re-flourish again. Comanche took the first step (and succeeded well), lets hope MS sees its opportunity here. 3DMark03 is also helping in this regard with its sim bench and demo. It doesn't, however, have much in common with real sims out there - its graphic prowess and method of design is much too esoteric to be similar. But, it does showcase sims to the millions who use 3DMark... A great thing!Take care,Elrond

[Bill McQueen 0]

I got 3D Mark 03 yesterday from Guru 3D. Their servers seem to be back to normal after the mass exodus on Tuesday :-)www.guru3d.com/filesP.S That sounds like a good idea having some sort of benchmarking utility for FS9!! On the other hand I would love to see the ground scenery featured in the new 3D Mark 03 aircraft demo in FS9 ;-)Bill

[Guest]

Guess what? I was already there, had waited through the que, was getting the file at 100kB/s, only to have the download stop 61 percent of the way through! That's the third site, and third time, I've downloaded over fifty percent, only to fail.-Basil

[Guest]

Okay, now I'm trying guru3d again. Tried it earlier, probably both last night and this morning, without success. It is downloading now, and pretty fast (140 kB/sec). I hope it comes ALL the way through.Edit: it did! (Score: 5027)-Basil

[Guest]

Ouch! Well, lets hope you have better luck this time.Take care,Elrond

[Guest JonP01]

And for those for whom the download is simply too big, it should not take long for it to find it's way to the cover CDs of your favourite computing mag.

[Guest]

To drive your point home Basil, here is an excellent editorial about the problems the industry has right now when relying on synthetic benchmarks such as 3DMark. If {H}'s and others evangelism for real-world benchmarks are followed through and the industry starts placing much more weight on non-synthetics, the flight sim genre *must* have accurate representation in that group. As it stands today, we'd be left out in the cold (besides Comanche - but thats not really FS representative), not good when we're already less than 1% of the gaming market.A highly recommended read:Benchmarking Right: An editorial about the millions and millions of dollars that are invested in hardware to play computer games, yet when it comes to tools in order to evaluate that hardware, it is slim pickens at best.http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDMwMicrosoft needs to seriously look at this issue and release a built-in benchmark tool with FS9.Take care,Elrond

[Guest]

I'm staying a couple of steps ahead of you. Read that sometime this morning. I agree, though, and hope MS is reading. It shouldn't be too hard for them to code a "flyby" in some area with dense scenery, lots of weather, and AI, to provide a standard to benchmark by.-Basil