I've read a couple times that letting just the default MS software do the minimum level of compression on the FS9 directory it will speed things up and in turn look better in the sim. Seeing as how that sounds so counter intuitive and I haven't seen a lot of posts confirming it I wonder what has been the general experience with people for this tweak.It would be great if it worked but I'm just not totally convinced until I hear it a few more times I guess. That would be a real win win situation if it's effective.

Compressing folders makes the textures files in them smaller so they load faster. The problem is that these textures need to be uncompressed to be usefull. Generaly speaking large photo sceneries can benefit from compression I believe MegaScenery always compresses the folder its installed in.Basicly you are trading harddisk transfer times against extra processor time. The results as always are very dependant on your own hardware.Personally I don't use compression.

Thanks, that's pretty much what my instincts told me. I suppose the only way to find out if one might benefit is to give it a try. Right now I've deleted my FS9 while I install it's new dedicated HD but as things move on I think I might try it, it certainly wouldn't be difficult and there's no fear of it messing something up.Any further comments much appreciated.

I've had both installs at some point or another, compressed and uncompressed. I can't say that I noticed any difference at all between the two.Aaron

i do have the textures compressed.for me it seemed to work well,but having had my installation for over 2 years now i really don't know anymore.i'd say try it and see what happens :)cheersJP.

If yo have a dedicated FS9 harddisk you can easly make a fresh instal and then copy the entire directory to someplace safe. For example I have a "Flight Simulator 9.VFR" and a "Flight Simulator 9.ATP" directory and remove the ".***" when I want to use one or the other. You could make a compressed and uncompressed install to check it out.

I inadvertently compressed the folders by letting XP compress old folders. I didn't see any performance changes and, in fact, only noticed it when I saw the the file sizes on disk were less than the file size!

That's a good idea Boshar. What I think I'll do is put my FX9 on it's own dedicated drive then, not compressed. I have that new all the world 76M mesh from FS Global (14Gb.installed), I'll put that mesh on the other drive, twice. Once compressed and once not compressed and see if I see any difference.If it turns out they are equal I may as well stick with the compressed as it's always good to gain space on that system drive.

I once investigated this on my system (AMD 3500+) to see which is better. Could not notice any difference in performance but since compressed saves my about 20% disk space (I only have a single 35 GB drive) - this is what I use.Michael J.