FS9 - A feature missing that might've been nice

[John_Cillis 2,406]

One thing I think that causes people to believe they have poorer performance, is that for a given scenery density setting, airport detail is generally higher than it was in FS2002. Taxiway signs, curved taxiways, etc....they certainly add to the "ambiance" of FS9...So, it stands to reason that reducing the slider would "replicate" the smoothness of FS2002? Well yes, but with a sacrifice. If you reduce the slider all the way, not only are the airports reduced in detail, so is the general scenery. Someone who wants to see a detailed downtown Phoenix, as an example, but also wants a smoother airport approach given say, a lower end system, has to make a tough decision.Suggestion for FS2006--a detail slider for airports, independent of the general scenery density. Such a feature would allow the best of both worlds--detailed city environments, but smoother approaches into airports. Perhaps selectable options (i.e. disable taxiway signs, curved taxiways) will allow users to better fine tune their systems...Thoughts?Regards,John

[Guest wathomas777]

I have the ultimate feature. It is the slider-max patch.The system takes a snapshot of your system, determines what settings are most likely to provide you with a consitent 20FPS (or as high as possible). Then it sets that as your system default, and moves all of the sliders to the right. THAT WAY everyone, regardless of their configuration can brag that on their system they are running full sliders right with full weather and traffic, and won't be subject to slideritis. :-) You just don't tell the poor slob that sliders right on a 600Mhz machine is a bit different than sliders full right on a 3.6Ghz machine.......After all, we don't REALLY care what it looks like as long as we have full sliders right with 20FPS right?????

[John_Cillis 2,406]

LOL....That's a good one.... Could you imagine the befuddlement that would cause?:-beerchug

[Guest wathomas777]

Seriously though...I agree.I don't particularly like the "difference" in detail between say KSEA and KPDX (Seattle and Portland) so I would much rather keep max complexity on my cities and country side and then dial down some of the useless stuff at the airports (such as utility trucks and jetways) since all the airports don't have em. Also, what would be nice is a version of the frame rate optimizer released by LAGO for FS2000 that allowed you to set a MINIMUM frame rate and the system would do all it can not to go below that threshold. Thus I could set say 15FPS as minimum and as it pops below that, It will start turning off features (such as distant mesh and clouds. The utility could also allow me to assign a priority list of what things get "sacrificed" first and what are the "last" to go. Even perhaps something that would allow me to say "protect" something. For example, if I am pulling into KORD, and I drop below 15, then the optimizer would start pulling away detail, starting out at my max visibility and working inward. Now, if I HATE blurries, I can protect texture LOD so that if all else fails and everything else is set, I can allow the approach to proceed at below my set value, but keep my texture LOD.Such a program would well be worth the expenditure.

[Guest Kurt]

The airport details seem to come on at different settings at different airports, making it even more difficult.KORD jetways-very dense,vehicles-ext.denseKJFK jetways-very dense,vehicles-very denseKDEN jetways-very dense,vehicles-denseKurt M

[Guest Ray CYYZ]

They did that a long time ago, it's the locked frame rate setting. The only problem is that people forget about it.Set it to 0, then tune FS. THEN set it back to hold your tuned scenery. :-lolPlaying with sliders when you have locked the framerates (which is automatically disabling things behind the scene to attempt to give you the desired framerate) is really rather pointless.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

The locked framerate button does not automatically disable things to maintain the lock, although it did in CFS2 (may be what you meant). In FS2002 and FS2004, its main purpose was/is twofold--to make the fps "consistent" so the sim doesn't appear to stutter. What I mean by that is a sim buzzing along at 25 fps, then dropping to fifteen, would appear stuttery to some. By locking the framerate to something closer to the low end, perceived fluidity is greatly improved.Sometime after release of FS2002, it also started circulating that locking the framerate allowed resources to be used for texture clearing, etc.... Casual observation seems to make this appear true. But it's hard for me to test--ever since I upped my RAM and changed to a 128 meg card, I rarely catch either sim blurring, even if I remove the lock.There is an "Auto LOD" flag in the FS2002/FS9.cfg file, but it seems held over from CFS2. I have never seen the sim adjust display density to accomodate the framerate, regardless of the lock. Also, many users would want it at their discretion what gets sacrificed. I'd argue that most of us here are far better at determining what we'd sacrifice for better performance vs. some "intelligent" logic that did it for us.-John

[Guest wathomas777]

That's it. I don't want intelligent logic to do it for us, but I want it to be done automatically.I would like a utility that lets me set a value, then gives me an option to allow me to prioritize what features get compromised and what order it occurs. But once I set the priority to the way I like, it, then I can fly and know that regardless of the approach, the sim, will try and keep me as smooth as possible. And if I have any "sacred cows" I can also tell the system to never disable that feature.It would be a great add-on.

[Guest JonP01]

>Suggestion for FS2006--a detail slider for airports,>independent of the general scenery density. Such a feature>would allow the best of both worlds--detailed city>environments, but smoother approaches into airports.Good idea John, and I was thinking of this myself, although maybe not for the same reasons. In my own case, I've actually turned my airport detail up in this version to "normal" to take advantage of the extra detail, especially the taxiway signs which are lots of fun (although not quite right in some places - hopefully the BGL compiler SDK will help out here). Consequently there are some scenarios where I wouldn't mind keeping a check on city detail because I'm pushing things with the airports in the vicinity. But,as you say, we are talking about two sliders, so the user can freely choose his or her preferences.

[Johan_Dees 84]

Utility.. hmm, something that for example removes the taxisigns when the plane is 50ft or higher. During the flare you wont need the signs yet, but 10 seconds later they come in handy. No need to display them too soon. May improve fluidity.There are of course many things what could temporary be lost during the approaches. The utility should be a .dll file with a menu what shows the options, where one could drag them to a priotity list of what is discarded first.Who can make such thing?Johan[A HREF=http://www.phoenix-simulation.co.uk]Phoenix Simulation Software[/A]-----http://www.people.zeelandnet.nl/johdUnofficial PSS Website

[lmponte 0]

Well, I'm a bit suspicious with my comment, as taxiway sign do not really affect my system's performance.Anyway, I guess a program that would adjust display options within FS in order to maintain a minimum framerate would be a very good idea. This is an idea for future FS utilities.And BTW, no, the framerate lock does not adjust display options to maintain a desired framerate, neither does the Auto_LOD=1 flag in the fs9.cfg.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/35111.jpg___________________________________________________ Lu

[Guest The Ancient Brit]

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[John_Cillis 2,406]

"And BTW, no, the framerate lock does not adjust display options to maintain a desired framerate, neither does the Auto_LOD=1 flag in the fs9.cfg"Greetings LuisThat is something I already said in my reply somewhat earlier in the thread... There were one or two options carried into FS2002's cfg and also into FS9's cfg that were active in CFS2, but inactive in the two civilian sims. One was Auto_LOD, which worked in conjunction with the target framerate. Now that a scenery reload is required even when changing scenery density, these functions would no longer work--not without disturbing the sim/simmer in flight.Taxiway signs may or may not hit your system--there's no real way to measure it in FS2004, because the only way they can be removed is by lowering ALL of the scenery detail. But even if taxiway signs don't degrade performance, there's other features that may when around airports. I think that's been a common complaint among those with lower end systems that airport performance is a bit worse...which is natural since even the most simple of airports has more detail.Personally, I'd rather have the taxiway signs. Rare that my performance (even with maxed autogen, thanks to the posted tweak) drops below 20 when AI is turned off. I've yet to load up FS2004 with AI friendly aircraft, but default AI at a busy airport will of course drop my fps into the single digits.-John

[Guest Charlie]

Flight Assignment - ATP was a great program and I wish I still had it. I spent many more enjoyable hours flying it than anything Microsoft has produced since.I don't remember that feature you speak of, though. It would have been handy with my 286.Charlie