Awesome improvement in performance :o)

[Noel 4,496]

Having decided to hold off a while on FSX purchase, I went back to reviewing and implementing a few of the various performance-enhancing tweaks I've read about here and there. Since doing these things FS9 has really maximized its potential in IQ, frame rate consistency, and smoothness. I had become a little lazy about delving fully into these, but as I thinking I will need to continue on with FS9 for a while I wanted get the best possible performance. These things restored full smoothness and steadier, better performance. I'm using PMDG big birds, Flight1's awesome Cessna 441 Conquest with an added generic TCAS, Cessna CitationX, and a few others. I am using ActiveSky, ActiveCamera, Ground Env Pro, Flight Deck Comp, FSG mesh, USA Roads. I run at 1600x1200, 16xAF, 4xAA. All sliders hard right, except detail clouds at High. Here were my changes:Quality Graphics instead of nVidia's High Quality. This involves only a couple of filters that don't degrade IQ signifcantly. It looks fantastic!ActiveGraphics Famous Clouds, DXT3, 256bitI'm using PerfectDisk8, 3rd party disk defrag utility that seems great.I restored the suggested minimal services running at boot up, using a Hardware Profile to boot from. I was previously using only FSAutostart for this capability.I disable AVG AntiVirus' Resident Shield: I was using filemonNT and noted some regular activity related to this process. This is gone now.I disabled SpySweeper's unterminatable service by adding it the my "lean boot" profile mentioned above.I added the TextureMaxLoad line mentioned, and set it: [DISPLAY]UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=26TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=200TextureMaxLoad=8RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=.9RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=.9RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=.9RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=.9[TERRAIN]TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=20TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=4TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=3.500000 TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.000000 TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=232 Since I did all these things all at once, I can't say what part any one action did. I had decent perf before, but there were too many "hesitancies" if you will, stutters I guess is another way to describe it. It was subtle and only visible looking at close up stuff like the taxiway. Very smooth and robust now, even with the big jets in busy areas & terminals. Thanks y'all--definitely optimized once again. I had been at this point some time ago, but lost it after a reinstallation. Forgot it could be this great!Noel

[Guest thedoggg]

What does this parameter do? TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=232 Mine is set to 8.Regards, Carlos

[N4865G 8]

Hi,Could you elaborate a bit more on this line:Quality Graphics instead of nVidia's High Quality. This involves only a couple of filters that don't degrade IQ signifcantly. It looks fantastic!Thank you,Dom

[Max Kraus 339]

FileMon is useful little program isn't it.I have recently done away with FSAutostart and now before each Sim session I just shut down Zone Alarm and AVG Control Centre. I then activate Windows Firewall for basic protection whilst simming. I found this really cuts down the Filemon activity and reduces stutters considerably. My task tray is virtually empty whilst simming.I've also stopped using these Uber/Mega airports like Frankfurt and Heathrow - a smooth approach into a mid sized, well designed airport gives a far more satisfying experience for me.

[mnmon 0]

Noel, A bit off-topic, but have you had any problems landing the 441? Especially a tendency to float and also an unrealistic climb with flaps? They may have patched the plane since I last used it, but if you need a fix for this let me know. Mike

[Noel 4,496]

Mike I don't think I ever updated with a patch. I haven't had troubles landing the 441 it seems to just about land itself. I am using the left rocker switch on the CH Flight Sim Yoke USB, set it to elevator trim, and this gives me the fine control that the yoke itself does not offer. So it's pleasant to set the attitude of the plane a ways out and come in smooth and in control.

[Noel 4,496]

I can't pretend to know! It was just suggested by two different people I believe here at Avsim.

[Mike S KPDX 597]

the 232 has got to be a mistype...I think the max registered value for this element is 15

[Noel 4,496]

Hi Dom, I am using the nVidia 9.1.4.7 driver and in the interface for this driver you can select and image pre-set on a slider the goes from High Performance to High Quality with intermediate steps in between. "Quality" is one click (of four) left of "High Quality." They are just a pre-sets or so it appears of various filter selections that can improve performance at the expense of image quality. Some filters apparently have a better Perf:IQ ratio. I don't see any difference in mip mapping quality or anything else at the Quality setting. But I've only flown maybe 4 flights with these tunings.

[Mike S KPDX 597]

can you specifically elaborate on these two items:'Quality Graphics instead of nVidia's High Quality. This involves only a couple of filters that don't degrade IQ signifcantly.' 'I restored the suggested minimal services running at boot up, using a Hardware Profile to boot from. I was previously using only FSAutostart for this capability.'

[Noel 4,496]

Could be Mike I will set it back to 15 n see if anything seems to change.

[N4865G 8]

Thanks Noel,Did not catch it at first - of course you are talking about nVidia card so this makes sense.I am glad you feel happy about your performance now.Faced with evergrowing performance problems with FSX we can still enjoy perfect performance of FS9 in contrast.CheersDom

[jagabom 21]

Good idea about zone alarm Max. I'am going to try it.Where does the RUNWAY_LIGHTS stuff go? I don't have any of that in the FS.CFG file.JimCYWG

[BadKarmaPT 48]

I don

[Noel 4,496]

>'Quality Graphics instead of nVidia's High Quality. This>involves only a couple of filters that don't degrade IQ>signifcantly.' >'I restored the suggested minimal services running at boot up,>using a Hardware Profile to boot from. I was previously using>only FSAutostart for this capability.'Hi Mike, instead of using FSAutostart to turn off services, you can prevent them from starting in the first place. There are some services that FSA cannot shut down, for example Webroot's Spysweeper.exe must be prevented from starting with Windows in order to not have it run as it is not possible to terminate it. I got these recommendations about which services to prevent from starting from blackviper.com which may still be under-revision.Also, but delving into the logon tab of services.msc, you can using a cloned copy of your "hardware profile" and then choose to disable any services that are SAFE to disable. Some aren't, and you can bring on a non-bootable situation so you need to know which services are manadatory and which can be disabled. You can follow FSAutostart's recommendations as a guideline on which ones should not under any circumstances be disabled.Can't recall about which filters are involved, but I got that impression reading the associated "?" help info in the driver interface.