29.42 Drivers Revisited - Great FPS with a Downside

[Guest]

I recently installed the Detonator 29.42 drivers in place of the 40.72s that I had been using. I was surprised to find that my FPS nearly doubled (no exaggeration) under all flying conditions! As a reference point, when sitting on Rwy 36 at Meigs I normally get about 28-30 FPS with the 40.72s. With the 29.42s I got over 55. In flight The FPS frequently went up to 80.The downside? Working in full-screen mode the ALT key would not bring up the menu bar and FS Navigator wouldn't display if anti-aliasing was on. Probably other problems too but I didn't investigate any further. Everything behaved normally when I worked in a window instead of full-screen but I don't like the appearance in window mode.Anybody else have this problem, and is there a fix or a work-around? Even with a fairly fast machine the prospect of doubled FPS is intriguing.Warren2.53 GHz P4, 512 MB DDR, GeForce4 Ti 4200, 60GB 7200rpm HD, Win XP Home, DX 8.1I have all sliders except AutoGen maxed, and Autogen is one step back from maxed.

[Guest]

Warren - If you have SP1 installed there are only two options I've seen that work. Either uninstall SP1 or upgrade to DirectX 9. I've used the 29.46's with SP1 and DX9 and can verify that neither the full-screen menu problem nor the FSNavigator problem occur with that combination. If you haven't installed SP1 I don't have an answer.Trip

[Guest abent]

Hi Warren.I tried the 29.42's and found a bit of an increase in frame rates but also found a more exaggerated fluctuation in fps. When I got into more dense areas, the frame rate would really be jumping up and down.Trip, I'm interested in this DX9, but have heard people say that it cannot make a difference as FS is not written with DX9. What are your experiences with it?Thanks, Adam

[Guest Kristiaan]

i downloaded a tutorial about tweaking your system which included the tip to go back to the 29.42 drivers, and well, The fps at my schiphol with fully AI, all gates full, got from 5, to 11 fps !!, this is really awesome, and until now i aint have any downsides......Greetzzz..Kris,

[Guest hoohah]

On my setup with the 29.42's, I only get the "Full-screen menu-bar invisibility" problem when the anti-aliasing is set to anything other than '4xS'. I've ben using the 30.82's lately; but I'm rolling back to the 29.42's because they have been more stable on my setup. I've tried most of the new certified drivers as they have been released; but I've come to the conclusion that the new drivers simply are not geared toward improving my GF4 MX420 card. If they are not helping the 4x00's then I don't know what they are trying to do...-T Edwin (hoo)

[Guest]

Adam - What you have read is correct. DX9 makes no difference at all to FS2002. There are a couple of things that work better - like the menu bar problem in the post above - but, overall, there won't be a noticeable change in performance. I installed DX9 only because I was trying to solve a problem with my soundcard/soundcard drivers - a problem which is not at all related to FS2002 (it didn't work, darn it). My advice is to not load it until you have a specific reason to do so (application requirements, etc). And, of course, regardless of the appication requirements, until we all upgrade to DX9-compatible video cards none of the "new stuff" will be seen anyway (I'm really jealous of the guys who already have the 9700...sigh...).Trip

[vgbaron 3,504]

Known problem with SP1 - turn off AA in the sim - no need to use DX9 unless you wasnt to.hth,vgbcome visit us at http://www.flightadventures.com

[Guest]

Trip -I do have SP1 installed so that's apparently the major problem.I tried installing DirectX 9 (with a restore point so I could go back). DX9 didn't solve the problem on my setup so I went back to DX8.1 I flew around over Chicago for awhile with DX9 in, and I think the area where I get the sharpest scenery was less than with DX8. With DX8, flying Spotter Plane mode, the scenery is sharpest in the bottom 40% of the screen. With DX9 the sharpest area seemed to be only about the bottom 25%. Thanks for your suggestion anyway. It was sure worth a try, and with XP it's painless to go back.Warren

[Guest]

Funny things these computers. I'm sitting here with DX9 and the 29.42's loaded and don't see either problem you're encountering. But, if things were easy to fix we'd probably be bored to death :-) . Sorry that didn't work for you Warren.Trip

[Guest Stratus_Fractus]

I was going to switch to the 29.42s, but after installing, the driver was said to be 29.42 and WHQL signed, but Windows said 'the device could not start' in reference to my graphics card. The 41.09s work fine, but I'd be curious to try the 42s. Any ideas?