I should be in bed right now getting sleep, but I must say one more time a big thank you to all who contribute to better simming and to enhancing performance. My experience keeps getting better and better, and I am haven't bought a new piece of hardware for well over a year now. A year ago I could say, under most conditions including very heavy scenery density and weather, I was getting maybe 92% of perfect performance, ie had adequate frames rates, minimal stutters, good IQ. Then came along the past 2 month's worth of 'tweaks':Prior to the recent changes:FSLimiter.exenHancer 8xSAdded in the past 2 months:Changed processor priority to HIGHUsePools=0In game AA and AF and nHancer 8xSHIGHMEMFIX=1SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=9872430AffinityMask=14These changes have moved FSX now to 98-100%%, truly, everywhere, and with decent payware AC. Flying into Seattle at dawn in weather can bring down raw frames to the low 20's, but its still super smooth.And the payware scenery and aircraft: really nice stuff. Amazing stuff, really!Anyway, many thanks again,Noel

:( Always nice to see a happy camper!:--))

I Concur!!! ******* and his many tweaks have taken my simming from a enjoyable time to a whole new level of entertainment!!With a stutter free and FPS friendly system I'm now getting a true sense of SPEED that I was never attaining in FSX before!

I'll add my thanks to the list.I suspect that tweaks are only part of the improvement - they work best, I am sure, with new hardware - it's taken a few years to see h/w that will run FSX nicely at high detail, but to be fair ACES always said they hadn't built a "now" sim back in late '06. I wonder what we'll see in another 18/24 months time. Looking forward to it.I recommend a look at the Orbx forums, where there's an interesting demo from their top guy, who deletes Fsx.cfg and then flies a detailed airport with a "virgin" cfg, zero tweaks, at 40 - 60 fps with no stutter, in PNW. He concludes that with the right hardware, FSX can run tweak-free. Of course, his video card currently would run me about

I recommend a look at the Orbx forums, where there's an interesting demo from their top guy, who deletes Fsx.cfg and then flies a detailed airport with a "virgin" cfg, zero tweaks, at 40 - 60 fps with no stutter, in PNW. He concludes that with the right hardware, FSX can run tweak-free. Of course, his video card currently would run me about

I have said elsewhere on these forums that I've had amazing results by using your tweaks, ******* - so nothing I said was "anti tweak" - I love them!I just think that as hardware improves, we see great leaps forward with FSX "standard" - and that has to be great, for all those (probably a great majority) people who just want to run a game out of the box, with no tweaks. It'll be great if a newbie installs FSX, sticks all sliders right, and gets 40fps with a PMDG 747 at FSD's JFK - without tweaks! Mind you, not many newbies would have all that gear... :)

I've tried different tweaks but I keep going back to my "old" nickn settings. They just seem to work best with my hardware/software/payware setup. It is good to see others benefiting though! :(

I can run PNW with no tweaks and it will run perfectly fine too... i don't think it is fair to compare PNW with a top Payware Plane + VERY DETAILED Airports (such as FSDT kennedy/Chicago) plus Heavy Weather AND something like Aerosoft Chicago/New York cities into the mix, now create a video of that with no tweaks, even with the same hardware, you expect the results to be same? they CAN'T! because the conditions are completely different.I respect each and everyone's opinion on FSX 'tweaks' however, 'tweaking' FSX is no diffent from tweaking any other software. I usually need to configure MySQL databases, Apache Web Servers or even streaming servers and tweak them accordingly to match the available hardware capabilities, using a 'default' config file is COMPLETELY out of the question if you want to make the most out of your hardware and serve millions of concurrent users, some times you even RECOMPILE the software with architecture specific flags.. why is this any different with FSX? it is not... I don't know who this 'top guy' is or his background, but his opinion is as valid as mine, and I respect it thats what makes our hobby so wonderful ;) anyone is free to try what they think is best for their particular setup and if they have success with it and are happy with the results, then thats great!!

Nothing fair or unfair about it - a comment - nothing more. Other than feeling the need to justify tweaking, your point is?

I have said elsewhere on these forums that I've had amazing results by using your tweaks, ******* - so nothing I said was "anti tweak" - I love them!

No worries, in fact the comment was not pro or anti tweaking, just a comment, nothing more, nothing less.... ;) some guys (obvioiusly you are not one of them) get all defensive and confrontational when discussing this topic, they are always looking to pick a fight, like little kids :)

Two things that I have picked up in various forums recently that have improved my FSX experience are:1. Changed the FSX.cfg file to more accurately display ASE weather per a post in the Hi-Fi forum (not a recommendation by Hi-Fi). All I know about it is that it worked for me.MinVarTime=80MaxVarTime=802. Downloaded and installed Edit VoicePak to speed up ATC messages.

I should be in bed right now getting sleep, but I must say one more time a big thank you to all who contribute to better simming and to enhancing performance. My experience keeps getting better and better, and I am haven't bought a new piece of hardware for well over a year now. A year ago I could say, under most conditions including very heavy scenery density and weather, I was getting maybe 92% of perfect performance, ie had adequate frames rates, minimal stutters, good IQ. Then came along the past 2 month's worth of 'tweaks':Prior to the recent changes:FSLimiter.exenHancer 8xSAdded in the past 2 months:Changed processor priority to HIGHUsePools=0In game AA and AF and nHancer 8xSHIGHMEMFIX=1SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=9872430AffinityMask=14These changes have moved FSX now to 98-100%%, truly, everywhere, and with decent payware AC. Flying into Seattle at dawn in weather can bring down raw frames to the low 20's, but its still super smooth.And the payware scenery and aircraft: really nice stuff. Amazing stuff, really!Anyway, many thanks again,Noel

LOL! I don't know how many times I felt that I had mastered FSX and it came back to bite me in the a$$!Anyway have fun and I'm sure that we are making progress toward a new standard configuration.jja

Two things that I have picked up in various forums recently that have improved my FSX experience are:1. Changed the FSX.cfg file to more accurately display ASE weather per a post in the Hi-Fi forum (not a recommendation by Hi-Fi). All I know about it is that it worked for me.MinVarTime=80MaxVarTime=802. Downloaded and installed Edit VoicePak to speed up ATC messages.

Hmm.. interesting, I think they go in [Weather] correct? its probably linked to the dynamic rate of change.. making MIN and MAX the same I guess allows for consistent weather changes, but not sure, I'll give it a test some time tomorrow! thanks Art!

Well I would not call myself the 'top guy' LOL! I just run the company. The true top guys are the amazing developers on our team who create such cool stuff.I am not an anti-tweaker, nor will I go out of my way to criticize anyone who likes to tweak. It's every hobbyist's prerogative and indeed, the very nature of an enthusiast to tweak. So all power to you guys that do and get good results.My position is that I always try to keep my hardware maxxed out to current-gen PC specs, whether through upgrades or new machines. I believe that a well tuned OS and the right hardware is all I need to enjoy FSX. I have on occasions tried some of the tweaks which are getting folks excited recently but they inevitiably always led to instablity and frustration. So I stopped tweaking completely about 18 months ago and now just focus on using the sliders in FSX indexed to my hardware. Now with the GTX 480 I really don't need to worry about the sliders anymore and just lock FPS to 25 FPS for cities and large airports and 40FPS for urban and rural areas, and enjoy the sim.With the i7 + GTX 480 + TrackIR 5 + EZCA + ENBSeries + nVidia 3DVision goggles it's just amazing how it all just works without tweaking, and it gives me pure enjoyment. I could not have dreamed of this level of immersion even back in 2006.I think that those who are pro-tweaking need to be a little less 'defensive' when there is a counter suggestion that a no-tweaks approach is also an alternative. If you spend too much energy on trying to justify your position about tweaking, it will just cause ill feeling and tension on various forums. Let everyone do as they please and let both schools of thought coexist in peace. Pro-rants about the merits of OS tuning and tweaks does nothing but make those posters appear to be a bit obsessive I'm afraid.

why the picture of Hugo Chavez *******?Jordan Coolins

Hmm.. interesting, I think they go in [Weather] correct? its probably linked to the dynamic rate of change.. making MIN and MAX the same I guess allows for consistent weather changes, but not sure, I'll give it a test some time tomorrow! thanks Art!

Another vote of thanks here, *******. You should get some kind of Avsim medal for these contributions - maybe a free lifetime membership!My old sim has never been so fluid, so sharp and so realistic. I reckon - this time - it's as close as it gets! Now you need to figure out how to get a crowd of John Venema's "Bob's" to walk around his fantastic FTX PNW scenery. :( :( AffinityMask=14UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=26TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40TextureMaxLoad=9SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=0FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.25UsePools=0RejectThreshold=102400ForceFullScreenVSync=1SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=1693458479TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024HIGHMEMFIX=1 // bojoteALLOW_SHADER_30=1SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=9872431STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=1024SmallPartRejectRadius=2LOD_RADIUS=4.500000MIN_DETAIL_TEXTURE_LEVEL=21MAX_DETAIL_TEXTURE_LEVEL=21