This (imho) is The Most Needed Add-On

[Guest]

Hi all,With all the discussion about what settings are best for MY machine, where to set all the sliders, all the different display cards, what driver to use, fs9.cfg entries, and so on, it occurs to me:Yep, there is no one combination of settings that is best for every PC.BUT -- for any given PC there IS a combination of settings that would cause FS2004 to run at its best on THAT machine. And the lovely irony of it all is, here we all are reduced to exchanging messages back and forth: did that work for you? Yes? I hope it works for me. Oh damn! Anyone else know how? On and on ad nauseum.It seems to me this is basically a mathmatical and programming problem. Compare a large number of variables to determine the best values which will produce optimum results for a given PC. Why can't a person or group of people write a nice generic add-on for FS2004 that would determine the optimum settings for each of our PC's? Couldn't the right program enable us to use our computers to solve the problem -- rather than slogging through message after message of 'did this work you you? why didn't it work for me? Is such an add-on reasonable? It certainly is needed! Or is my ignorance showing?-Rick

[Geofa 108]

Great idea!I also already proposed one that would also let you boot up fs with sliders set for your particular type of flying...e.g.ifr-all sliders to minimums except weathervfr-photo-all sliders turned up for photo shotsvfr normal-sliders turned up for eye candy but weather downaerobatic-weather turned down-scenery downuser customized-lots of other settings one could preprogram with various sliders settings.With of course reference to your particular system/video card to achieve such performance....When starting the sim-like windows xp-a bunch of icons-select the type of flying you are in the mood for-all sliders set for maximum performance for that type of flying.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Guest odog]

yes, just something simple would do. Where you could set up a variety of slider settings and save them for easy retrieval for your given situation, good idea guysjoe

[vector 7]

GeoffI see two problems here.Firstly, everyone's idea of ideal aerobatic weather, for example, is not going to be the same. Secondly, there might be problems for those people with "funny" combinations of hardware or tweaks.But having said that can't we achieve the same sort of thing right now? Set the sliders etc to a combination of whatever you want to achieve a particular type of flying environment, say aerobatic conditions, and save the flight with a suitable name like "aerobatic". Then all you have to do is load your particular pre-set conditions and reposition to another airport if you wish.Of course, this does not please those who want everything done for them already or don't want to put any effort in themselves but then .... :-)David

[MartijnPleines 0]

Geof,Actually, that wouldn't be so hard to set up even without resorting to programming. You could set up FS normally for each, I suppose you could even specify an appropriate situation to start with too, and then exit and save the resulting FS9.cfg under a different name, such as 'IFR.cfg','VFRphoto.cfg' or something, then make a couple of batch files (IFR.bat,VFRphoto.bat, etc.) that replace FS9.cfg with the appropriate cfg file before starting FS, and have a shortcut to each batchfile on your desktop. Just a thought...Best,Martijn

[Geofa 108]

I could be wrong-but I don't think individual slider positions are saved with saved flights. The post below looks like the way to go.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Geofa 108]

That sounds like it could work.It also sounds like it would be pretty easy for someone to create an outside interface to do this transparently.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Guest]

Many of you have responded with ideas that pretty much echoed what I was thinking off.As to the question about what abount the individual who has a 'quirky' hardware combination, I would think it would be irrelevat to this proposed add-on. The add-on would make no such 'judgements' about the quality of the installed hardware, it would simply crunch the numbers to determine what settings are best for that system. And as several have pointed out, the add-on could offer the user a choce of several settings for flying under various conditions.-Rick

[Guest UweR]

Hi Geof, no, the settings aren

[Guest]

Geoff,I guess what I'm envisioning is somethink to take the guesswork out of the process. Yes we can now set the sliders as we wish for various flying situations, but it involves a lot of hit and miss guesswork.What I'm thinking of is say, to be able to tell the program:Ok, I want to fly a DC-3, time of day is dusk, cloud cover is medium, location is KORD orI want to fly the Cessna, time of day is noon, weather is medium rain, departing New Orleans for Baton Rouge....and the program would set ALL the sliders to the optimum positions for your individual PC. It wold provide you the best frame rates your PC can acheive under the specified conditions. -Rick

[Guest wathomas777]

I don't buy it.....Flight Simulator already does that. It analyzes your system, your video card and the like and sets the sliders for you. These are the default settings. And yet, we immediately go and throw them out the window. First to go....Resolution. Next, Scenery complexity and Autogen. Then we jack up taffic and clouds, and then after we have gone nearly full left on everything and notice poor performance, we make a slight tweak to the left and expect it to wash out.....What, I set my Mesh to 75, that should even everything else, right?I don't get it...I set color depth to 16, why hasn't everything balanced out?The problem is that one persons idea of acceptable is not anothers.For instance, I have no problem shooting an approach that occasionally drops to 8 FPS. I don't mind flying at 13 to 15 FPS. And if I am in cruise at 31000 feet, as low as 6 FPS with a very detailed hard deck doesn't bother me. The only time I really have a hard spot is when I am maneuvering on approach or takeoff and I have 6 to 8. Thats hard to live with...There are others that if the FPS goes below 20, they have a coniption.The sliders are all about balance, and each man, must find his own balance, grasshopper.

[Guest]

This thread seems to have lost its way a little, it started with the idea that a 'program' could be developed that would use a formulae, crunch some numbers and produce a compromise set of settings, then focused on saving and starting FS9 with different configs which we painstakingly developed etc.Surely MS have already coded this 'simple program' to work out the best settings, that's what the target frame rate is for. As the last author stated - each has to find his own balance.Of more interest would be a service that allowed a 'test' or standard flight to be used as a benchmarking tool. Each standard flight would involve the simmer flying in a predetermined area, say one with heavy weather, one clear skies, standard Cessna, standard spot plane settings etc. This way we would have a standard set of 'flights' to compare our results against as we change settings, it would also help with the 'I get 50fps on a PII' statements!

[Dark Moment 0]

Meigs, oh Meigs, just where are you?I miss your scrapers, lakefront too,Whenever I looked out from my 'plane,I saw Chicago and that blimp (again).You were the way to start each day,To test all settings: Up and Away!Now my wee Cessna's at SeattleAnd the forums are full of endless prattle.:-beerchug :-beerchug :-beerchug :-beerchug Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg