I run my autogen maxed out and havn't noted any bugs regarding system performance while it's being run and I don't have a top of the line comp either. System is smooth even in turns with autogen on or off. The only performance problems I have is when I'm running those wonderful clouds then I'll get hit with a 10 to 14 fps hit even with autogen off and sliders pulled back. I just need more comp to run the clouds but I'm waiting for the 5gig+ processors. This system will do for now since it runs FS9 so smoothly except when in heavy cloud. FS9 runs autogen far better than FS2002's on my machine.SkullyP4 1.4 512 mb rdramGF4Ti4200 128 mbSoundblaster PCI 512 Win XP

Well, in my belief there WILL NOT be a patch what so ever the ms employees posting here has made that clear. I for one have kept fs9 just to say I have it but went back to fs8.In my belief there is an autogen bug were it concerns the reloading and holding on to textures for an extended period, leak possibly no one knows, I mean no one knows. And even if it was discovered it would be flamed ad nauseum on here anyway. I remember cfs3 and everyone defending it to death.I feel fs9 is another cfs3. But oh well. MS lost another future customer!

No way, No how, is FS9 another CFS3 lol. MS should give those of us who purchased CFS3 a healthy credit towards our next MS purchase. Now that was some bad performing autogen plus the multiplayer performance and realism effectively killed it and IL2 assumed the throne of WW2 combat sims. Just look what happened to the MS ZONE combat action compared to IL2. They should have developed CFS2 further instead of that radically changed and poor performing CFS3. They should have a relook at the Crimson Skies engine as that had great possibilities for a WW2 sim. Ran like a rocket and looked great.FS9 is Superb and is on another level compared to FS2002. Is it perfect? Of course not but patch or no patch, it is by far the best thing going and I can realistically fly any plane I want, anywhere in the world and look great while doing it baby! :-coolSkully

I dont think there will be a patch.Alot of people who have these problems are a minority. Alot are cause by addons that people have installed that are causing problems.Issues with 2d panels and flashing video are for video card manufactures to deal with in their drivers.. really there is nothing major wrong wiht the basic package..we didnt see and upate for 2002, we only had 1 for 2000 and i cant remember for 98 but i think there was 0

>The autogen issue is simply one of too many polygons for some>systems to tolerateHi Dick! I think there probably is a problem with autogen. I recently did some tests.... I flew over a town with lots of autogen (autogen on max) and then flew directly on over the hills. As I approached the town frame rates were good, typically 20 FPS. As I flew I watched the available memory. It continually fell in an approximately linear fashion. By the time I had reached the hills it had fallen by about 100 Mb, which is 20% of total memory! When I reached the hills and the town was shrinking into the distance, frame rates were maybe 30 FPS. However, when I looked back at the town they collapsed to about 5 FPS! After setting autogen to zero and then back to max both the memory and frame rates were magically restored to normal. I also flew over LA and then out to sea. The same thing happened. When I was far out to sea, and hardly any buildings could be seen, frame rates when looking back were again about 5 FPS. And then, in a single step, the memory and high frame rates suddenly returned. This strongly suggests that FS is not removing distant autogen in a controlled and orderly fashion. I then removed the xml file. Of course the frame rates were higher because there were fewer autogen objects. But exactly the same problem (falling frame rates and falling available memory) occurred. I think the only sognificance of removing the xml file is that the total number of objects is reduced and that the same basic effect can be achieved simply by reducing the autogen setting (removing the file boosted frame rates somewhat more than reducing the setting from max to the next notch down). Is it a bug? Probably. But it is a defect and many people have reported it. I certainly hope there will be a patch. By the way, I noticed another problem that showed up in quite a few screen shots before FS2004 was released. With water effects enabled, the coastline texture is badly damaged, with the edge having a blocky or sawtooth effect. This looks really ugly. I would certainly like to see this problem fixed in a patch! But overall I am extremely impressed by FS2004. In some circumstances it can be stunningly beautiful. Best regards, Chris XP2400+, 512 Mb RAM, Win XP, ATI 9200

There was a long thread on the "autogen bug" a few weeks ago. In response to JimiC's work, I did some testing and did, in fact, confirm that a potential problem exists in some unusual (and largely unrealistic) conditions. The post is back under the heading "FS9-the facts" and details my testing results and system specs.In a nutshell, the file default.xml in your autogen folder generates some additional autogen eye candy as you fly. If you fly a normal route, point to point, you will never see a problem. If you fly repeated (as in 3-4 or more) circuits around a very dense scenery area, the autogen scenery will continue to build up in your memory cache, eventually causing framerate stutters in slower machines. It is not clear what is at fault. I speculated that there is not sufficient time on one or two passes over a given area for the autogen scenery to develop completely and that repeated passes continue to build up so much autogen scenery that the computer can't handle all of it efficiently and framerates suffer. On my 3.2Ghz system with 2 gigs of RAM, I saw the RAM cache grow from the usual 500 megs up to nearly 800 megs during a repeated circuit in the KSEA area. If I fly a normal route, the cache stays around 500 and seems to purge normally. Since my framerates are locked well below "unlimited", I did not see any degradation on my machine, but I was able to cause stutters on my 700Mhz 786 meg box under similar conditions with lower slider settings.It would be interesting to test this further in a couple of ways:Fly circuits around a major airport to build up the cache load, then fly away from the area and see if the cache returns to normal size.Fly one pass over a major airport area, take a screenshot of the autogen scenery, then fly several circuits to build up the cache, and take another screenshot to see if there is additional scenery being displayed, or if the cache is simply not being flushed.The solutions, if you think it's a problem, are several:1) Fly realistically. It is not realistic for a 747 to be flying touch and go circuits around KJFK, or a Piper Cub either. Fly your practice circuits at rural airports, as in the real world.2) Make sure you have sufficient RAM to handle the scenery demands. Anytime you run out of RAM, the scenery is cached to your HD which will cause a momentary pause (even on an 8 meg cache 7200 RPM drive) as large amounts of RAM are retrieved.3) Disable your default.xml file in the autogen folder and forget the barns and restaurants.For most of us, this is not, and will never be a problem during normal flying.MDavis

Hello MDavis,I remember you were pretty skeptical about there being any bug at all. I'm glad to see that you have discovered there does seem to be a problem. I noticed the problem that this bug manifests itself in the first week after I installed FS2004 and stated the problem in several posts. But I wasn't given much attention. It wasn't until JimmiG came along(not JimiC) and started really hammering about it and came up with a test scenario that further scrutinization occured. Now, with the following statement I am hoping you won't be so skeptical right off the bat.I can assure you that I notice this problem with making one single pass over a city and then turning right around and going back in the direction that I just came from.This can also be a neccessity in real life if you have a failure resulting in an emergency situation and need to return to the airport you just took off from ten minutes or so ago. And JimmiG's test was made to expliot the the bug in such a way that what I experience in my above post would be revealed, with ONE single pass and return.There has even been very recent posts by users frustrated by what I think is caused by this bug.Check this out, it only has three posts...http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...topic_id=149123What this person describes is what I experience as the problem, only I noticed it as I stated above, one pass over a city and then turning around. It leaves me wondering what many other folks out there who don't visit this forum are experiencing performance-wise without getting a jury rigged fix. I can't imagine the type of experience as described in the post being made to work that way 'by design' unless MS just wanted to tick us off.Sincerely,JimHello Tower, I need clearance Clarence. Roger Victor what's your vector?

No autogen problems here. I run with the slider 2 positions left of max. Get more detail that I did with FS2002 full right.Richard

Hi Chris.My discussions with JimmiG went over this a while back. I think we both observed the autogen is added to the memory load upon it's first visual appearance in the viewport... but is released from the memory at a distance that exceeds the visual display. That would be the extent of the bug. Fly out to sea far enough, and you can observe the memory being released in a chunk with TaskManager. This is also reflected in the FPS, which will quickly perk up when the release threshold distance is passed.That's all speculation, but is the only explanation I have. maybe MS will explain it someday, but I doubt it. I'm sure they believe the sim is displaying and releasing autogen as they designed it. A bug?... perhaps just a design decision. It would be nice if autogen were released at the same distance they were visually obtained.Each viewport has it's own memory load for autogen. The load is exaggerated when you zoom out, as more objects are added to the viewport. Zoom in and framerates increase as there are fewer objects in the viewport. That would reflect the function of system memory and the CPU's ability to calculate the display. Faster CPU, bus, and memory should relieve this problem. Leaving the front display at 1.00 or even altering the CFG file to display 1.25 would ease FPS worries.My system is fine with JimmiG's default.xml rename fix. Without it, big cities can bog down a bit. In a year or so I'll upgrade my computer again, and I should be able to dispaly the full glory of the chicken shacks, mini-malls and barns.Dick

Well, you don't have to fly an unrealistic scenario to make the problem appear, but apparently, it's rare enough for most people to never notice it. Simply flying over a big city and then turn 180 degrees will usually cause a noticable drop in performance. Having "bouncing betty" vector you all over the place for an approach will usually trigger the slowdowns.Cities, as well as medium rural areas contain a lot of xml defined objects. Forested areas don't suffer from this as no trees are defined in the default.xml file.I have not seen excessive memory allocation that some report. It usually stays around 400 megs or so. Those who experience memory leaks may want to check for faulty scenery/landclass installations (NO textures folder!!). I don't think it's a matter of autogen beng kept in RAM, I think autogen is mostly eating CPU cyccles even though it's not being displayed. It's certainly not a problem of too many polygons for the system to handle, as framerate always starts out fine but decreases over time. Will probably leave it at that and spend more time with my other hobbies (and other sims).I'm sure Microsoft is aware of the problem right now, but I'm not as certain they will bother fixing it.

BUMP:-lol

I'm going to save this post to my HD. That way I can give it to the boo hoo bunch to copy and paste when FS11 comes out.Save them a little time.:-lol

>BUMP>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>:-lol LMAO:-lol

Me too! :-beerchug

I'm going to save this post to my HD. That way I can give it to the boo hoo bunch to copy and paste when FS11 comes out.Save them a little time.Good idea, George. It's the same with each release. As predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.Greg