Trying to coax my 600Mhz to perform under FS2004 has been an experience indeed. However, I think I have found something that people have looked past and it definitely affects performance.That is dynamic weather. For most posts people talk on how 3d clouds or lack thereof affects performance, and I will agree. Yet I have had some dreadfully slow flights with hardly a cloud in the sky, so I decided to look. My Weather Rate of change was high. Remember, Dynamic weather is like AI traffic. The CPU must not only account for the planes in the are, but when the weather is dynamic, it must model the incoming systems. This takes quite a bit of CPU power that isn't readily noticed.By lowering or zeroing out the rate of change, you lower the CPU's load to generate the dynamic weather, and as a result, have some more power to render clouds.I have to admit, it does make a difference in my system, and by having "non-dynamic" weather makes it no worse than FS2002 in that case (0nly with better looking clouds). When my system gets upgraded, then we'll talk about setting some dynamic weather, but until then, I will lower the AI traffic, manually set my weather conditions and enjoy a much better looking sim than I have ever hadMy .02Will

Hmmm .. interesting. The dynamic weather system in Flight Unlimited III caused a pretty huge performance hit (versus essentially the same graphics from FU2). I've tried turning the dynamic weather in FS2003 from off to low to medium, and haven't noticed a huge difference, though I suspect it is the cause of a stutter now and then as it loads new clouds.Still trying to tweak this thing to the point where I am happy. Good fps, but can't get rid of the stutters.

I seem to recall also-if you are using live weather you should have the slider all the way off.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

Geoff, I recall reading in the Learning Centre that the dynamic slider works with all three types of weather setups: themes, real weather downloads, and user-defined weather. Maybe better to keep this slider on Mild. MS says that with the slider at the far right, changes in weather will start in 15-20 min. So I guess Mild value wouldn't stress the system much. Just speculating.

I beleive I am coming from the horses mouth on this-perhaps another beta tester can verify...http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

Hi, Yes dynamic weather slider works with ,themes, real weather downloads and user-defined weather. ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

I know it works-but I remember it being said that if you are flying with real weather conditions (e.g. 15 minute download) you will want to to the dynamic slider off-otherwise it will be generating (changing) the real weather.I could be wrong-but I remember that from some time back.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg