You Can Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!!

[MikeAdamo 51]

Hi all,Well, my tweaking of FS9/COF/FS2004 has ended and I'm happy to report that I managed to have everythig I wanted enabled with excellent results. I've got the 3-D clouds and great, sharp looking textures. I HATE to seem like I'm gloating and not wanting to share how I managed to get things right but, home responsibilities take priority :-) I will be posting an in-depth report on what I did step by step with pictures and all so please be patient and if it helps only 1 person, it was worth my while to type and format everything up. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow morning!!!MikePS - I just Gotta include a shot! :-)FPS 18 locked at 20http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/28828.jpghttp://www.members.shaw.ca/madamo/boeingsig.jpg

[Geofa 108]

Good news-glad you got it tweaked!I have to say- history often puts it all into perspective.Up until fuIII I don't remember a sim ever having sliders-the sim basically came as it came-and there were less complaints about performance.To my recollection-fuIII was the first sim with sliders. I like probably everyone else installed it -took the default settings and was amazed. Then I discovered the sliders screen-turned it up to the max to see what the sim could do-and was even more amazed-though my computer turned into a slide show. However, after seeing what the sim could do after maxing it out I was of course not satisfied to keep the sliders where they should belong-the wisdom of the fuIII programers to make a sim that could grow with the future was thus turned into a negative. I personally believe that was the downfall of fuIII-what a shame.Of course every other simmer went through the same process-then the tirades of-this $%( sim doesn't run well, and I paid good money for this sim-I should be able to run it at what it is fully capable of came out.Eventually-I believe the sliders caused the downfall of fuIII-and possibly put the most imaginative flight sim team of all time out of business-a real shame!Since then-all sims have come out with the sliders-technically correct-but making the same mistake of simmers maxing them out and thus destroying perfomance.I have to say with fs2004 there are such a myriad of selections between the program and your default video driver that it is truly overwhelming and confusing! Now we are past the maxing everything out but overwhelmed by what to do!Thus my contention that perhaps there should be included (or a great idea for a utility) "presets" that would optimize the sim for given situations-ifr ,vfr, scenery, weather etc.-tweak all the settings automatically for the type of flying you do.Anyway-look forward to your settings-after 6 months of use I am still experimenting! Considering your initial complaints you must have discovered a sweet spot!http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Fiveholer 0]

Mike, if you are like me and had the 3D clouds eat your CPU's lunch and have now figured out a way to have 3D and maintain good FPS, I, as I'm sure there are more than a few, AM VERY INTERESTED! It boggles one's mind to see someone with almost half of your system specs being able to use the 3D clouds and you can't I'll stay tuned, thanks!http://sgair.net/mike/banners/danny_small.jpg"Da King's gone mad wit power, he's gonna eat da chort!"- Coach ZIntel P4 2.4GHz - Asus P4PE Mobo - Crucial 512MB PC2700 DDR - 64MB Leadtek Winfast Geforce 3 TI200/Det. 44.67 AND Dell Inspiron 1100 Notebook - 2.2Ghz Celeron

[Jimmy Angel 19]

>Up until fuIII I don't remember a sim ever having sliders-the>sim basically came as it came-and there were less complaints>about performance.I'm a former flight-unlimited'er as well. Fantastic sim, but of course the performance issues resonate with what we are hearing about FS2004. In particular, the weather engine in FU3 was very demanding, and I was never able to get it to run very well in heavy clouds. I'm having the same experience with FS2004, though it does seem easier to find a compromise in FS2004 that works well.I agree that the settings and driver options quickly get overwhelming. I really want to fly ratehr than tweak, but I can't help myself.One thing I wish FS2004 included was some capability to quickly change some detail levels using the keyboard. Heavly clouds ...? Just hit Ctrl-C to cycle from high 3d cloud percentage to low 3d cloud percentage. Clearly, there are some settings that require a reload of the terrain, but there are others (such as clouds) that get processed directly from the menu without a reload, so I suspect it should/could be possible to assign some key combinations to change those. Many sims I have flown, including FU3, had this capability, and it made it easier to switch to different detail levels depending on the circumstances.Imagine, as you suggested, if we could even set up detail macros for particular situations (heavy weather, low and slow VFR, heavy irons, etc.) That would be pretty cool.

[Guest bradley]

Awesome...BTW, where could I ge that plane?I like the looks of that one.

[Steve Cannell 4]

That's a great idea Geof. I think it would make a very useful utility.Steve