Stop tweaking FS2004 and fly !

[JSACKS 0]

OK, after 3 weeks, I am nearly there. I've adjusted everything back and forth. These are the settings that work well for me on my PC (spex below):Terrain mesh complexity=80Terrain texture-HighTerrain detail land & water=ONWater effects=None4 boxes in SCENERY tickedSpecial effects=MediumScenery complexity=VERY DENSEAutogen=DENSEGlob Aircraft quality=HIGHVC cockpit gauge quality=High3 A/c boxes tickedGlobal wx quality=CustomSight distance=80 milesCloud draw dist=60 miles3-D cloud %=80Cloud detail=Detailed cloudsCloud coverage density=HighTarget FPS=24Res=1600x1200x32T&L=TickedMIP mapping=4Hadrware rendered lights=8Global Max textures=MassiveSystemDELL P4, 2.53 Ghz, 533 Mhz FSB1024 RDRAMTi-4600nVidia 45.23 (really good drivers--stable)DirectX9.0bDual DELL branded monitors, 21" CRT and 19" LCDMS FFB2 stickPulling back clouds and autogen helped a lot. Turning off FSAA raised fps dramatically. FSAA is still much sharper and fps are good when high up but once hitting clouds, fps can drop horribly, to 7 to 14. With FSAA off, however, I average 19-21 fps in heavy clouds.My add-ons so far include some MelJet 744s and 777s, the FFX/SGA DC-10, the YS-11, and the Project Airbus A320. All work well with similar frames to the default a/c. I use default panels only at this stage but customized sound files for all the add-on a/c.FS2004 works well now. It is smooth most of the time, fluid and also gauges work well with no delay because the h.p. available far exceeds 24 fps in most situations. If I set the fps slider to UNLIMITED, I get 35 to 45 in SPOT view with clouds and terrain in view, and 55 to 105 in higher alt flight, depending on the viewing angle. So 24 fps seems a fair cap given the dramatic processing demands at low altitudes, on approach, into busy airports over busy cities.Hope this helps others!Thanks to all here for a huge, helpful exploratory dialogue during this crazy period.JS

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, I have bought my New Shift-Z Simulator, but I really don`t care about the smothnees with lower frame rate, All I want to have is my magic red number and I really don`t care about flying.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

[Hakkie 0]

Chris!!! :-xxrotflmao

[Guest Fortress]

You mean this thing flies as well??!!!! God, I love those little Easter egg things. Heh, MS - always full of surprises ;-)Cheers,Paulhttp://www.strontiumdog.plus.com/sbird.jpgOfficially licenced by British Airways plc for use of name and logo[p]AMD XP2800+ Barton, Gigabyte GA-7NNXP nForce2, 1Gig Crucial PC3200 DDR 400MHz, Gainward 128 MB GF4-4200, SB Audigy, 3 x WD Caviar SE[/p]

[Guest Hacksaw]

I haven't had a frame rate problem since I quite pushing the shift/z keys:-grnmd

[TonyB 1]

"Stop tweaking FS2004 and fly!"That's excellent advice I have been following myself over the last couple of weeks. It's a lot of fun to turn of the old frame counter and just enjoy the program for what it is. I like to check in with the forums here to see what's new and going on, but sometimes the forum is more of a negative than a postive. Despite the fact I have been having a blast with FS2004, when I read about all the problems and complaints I start to wonder if I shouldn't be having as much fun as I am. There must be something wrong with me, my PC or the sim if I am actually enjoying it!By the way, what's your high score in the sift-Z sim? ;)Tony

[JSACKS 0]

My peak fps has been 110 in the default 744 at FL310 over the Caribbean, in cleark high alt skies, looking upwards from under the belly at normal zoom factor.JS

[Guest hoohah]

It only took me about a day to get my framerate where I like it. I've locked it at 17 and I get 15 most of the time. The sim looks good, is smooth, and I get to fly my beloved FSD aircraft with RealityXP garmin, ActiveSky and RadarContact - display settings in the medium to high level.In fact, I'm kinda glad I haven't bought a new hot-rod setup yet. The only thing I've lost from fs8 is AA. AA settings of 4x and 4xS look great, but they drop my framerate to below 12 (my lower limit). Anything less than 4x and AdvDisply and FSNav flicker/disappear.Should I be this satisfied with an AMD 1.3 Gig, 768 Gig of PC133, and a 64Meg GF4 420? Should I feel guilty? Whatever - I'm flyin' instead of ######in'

[Guest RichD]

Yep turn off the frame rate counter and fly. Once I realized that I can't turn on AA with my TI4200 everything else fell into place. My settings are very similar to yours except I have AutoGen turned up a little higher. I did turn on the frame rate counter yesterday after I installed FSGenesis landclass to see if there was a hit. No hit so now the counter is off and I am flying again. Great sim, great fun.Richard

[JSACKS 0]

At the end of the day, I don't think the frames are really that important but they do serve as a useful validation tool for tweaking when performance dips and you get stutters which a lot of folks have had with FS2004 out the box. I flew FS2002 with the frames off 99.8% of the time, turning the counter back on if the smoothness of the image became degraded to see what I might change to make it smooth again. There are folks running FS2004 at 7 fps who swear that it looks fluid. Looks are everything, I guess !Anyway, it's better to fly than to tweak and so we're all getting happy (or happier) as we find out what our PCs can do.JS

[Guest cw1011]

Frames are not the best measure for me - I am far more concerned that textures are "popping" appropriately. I'm still wondering just how the frame limiter works in this sim. I seem to get better texture popping with my slider at unlimimted, than pegged at 20, where it normally stays. That's about it though. Sim runs fine as long as I don't try to re-size a window in "windowed" mode.Colin

[Guest]

Amen!

[Guest]

>Hi,> I have bought my New Shift-Z Simulator, but I really don`t>care about the smothnees with lower frame rate, All I want to>have is my magic red number and I really don`t care about>flying.>>Well said. That's indeed the attitude of the average framerate junkie, of which there are far too many.Microsoft should remove that counter (and remove the option to read the fps from DirectX except in the debug version).Would mean a big reduction in the number of bogus complaints.

[JSACKS 0]

Colin:I too have found that the UNLIMITED setting can also be helpful. I am still undecided about setting it to UNLIMITED vs. a cap because of this "popping" phenomenon. JS

[Guest]

I noticed in the FAQs that there is a way to add an average frame rate counter in FS9. I wonder if there is a way to delete the FS9 stock frame rate counter?Tim