I'm not a programmer at all so what follows may sound stupid : did someone try a UTF-16 skeleton file + Orbx entries vs a UTF-8 one ? That might show if UTF-8 is an issue.

Can you tell me how big is the FTX/ORBX only default.xml file Vs. the FSX Accel default.xml? are BOTH utf-8 encoded? did you DOUBLE CHECK? (Save As) again as UNICODE (for UTF-16 encoding) or UTF-8 (for UTF-8 encoding). Remember, when you 'Save As' you have the option to 'choose' an encoding (it is just under the field where you enter the filename)

Default acceleration file 7.23mb encoding=16.Default FTX/ORBX file 11.3mb encoding=16default.xml file (ftx/orbx) after encoding for UTF-8 5.62mbYes I made sure that I selected unicode and changed the header to utf-8 before saving the populated ftx default.xml file.So even though the re-coded file is smaller ftx and indeed gex prefer the other format.Bryan.

I'm not a programmer at all so what follows may sound stupid : did someone try a UTF-16 skeleton file + Orbx entries vs a UTF-8 one ? That might show if UTF-8 is an issue.

I can test, but it shoudn't be an issue. As long as both the actual file encoding and the header encoding atribute match FSX will be able to read it. Probably you rememeber that after installing FSX for the first time you are prompted to install something called 'Microsoft XML Parser 4.0'. that component is responsible for 'reading and parsing' the XML files in FSX. So, the issue here might not be parser related, but more to do with the actual FTX objects that are included in the Autogen/default.xml file. The above tests show that 'quantity' of objects is not an issue, but probably the objects themselves. I would have to ask Holger about the fudamental differences of FSX default autogen vs the one PNW installs. I am definitely not an expert on autogen matters, Holger is.

I can test, but it shoudn't be an issue. As long as both the actual file encoding and the header encoding atribute match FSX will be able to read it. Probably you rememeber that after installing FSX for the first time you are prompted to install something called 'Microsoft XML Parser 4.0'. that component is responsible for 'reading and parsing' the XML files in FSX. So, the issue here might not be parser related, but more to do with the actual FTX objects that are included in the Autogen/default.xml file. The above tests show that 'quantity' of objects is not an issue, but probably the objects themselves. I would have to ask Holger about the fudamental differences of FSX default autogen vs the one PNW installs. I am definitely not an expert on autogen matters, Holger is.

Yea the problem would be in the XML Parser.  I never had to target a specific encoding but if I did it would be UTF-8.  It is nonsense.jja 

Update:I created a default.xml which only contains entries for the region code 'B' (North America) and that includes The PNW area.I created ANOTHER default.xml which includes ALL entries, except REGION B (I renamed it to '_B')The default.xml file that ONLY CONTAINS region 'B' is only 284 KB, a tiny file, yet, the performance was terrible.The default.xml file where I renamed region 'B' to '_B' is almost 12MB big (in UTF-16) yet, the performance was second to none, outstanding!!The 'problem' is in the REGION B section, it is NOT the XML parser, I will now proceed to test the region B by 'blocks' to see which class or classes have the most impact on stutters. (I will first clean REGION B of all the stock FSX entries and leave only the ones for PNW)

Sounds interesting, look forward to the results of your test.Bryan.

Sounds interesting, look forward to the results of your test.Bryan.

To All:Mistery solved :) however, out of 'courtesy' and before disclosing what I did, I will first contact FTX directly so they can look at the problem first.The good news, is that after applying the FIX, things are 'EXACTLY' the same (performance wise) as to when I had no default.xml file! so, if you were excited, and then got discouraged, I suggest you stay tuned for news DIRECTLY from FTX :)Ohh.. and there is no autogen supression AT ALL! ;) but... better to wait 'official' confirmation. Hint: it had nothing to do with encoding!

In another 24 hours, it might turn out to be a major breakthrough after all.

Indeed my friend ;) you a psychic too? tomorrow this thread will get interesting ;)

The default.xml file that ONLY CONTAINS region 'B' is only 284 KB, a tiny file, yet, the performance was terrible.The default.xml file where I renamed region 'B' to '_B' is almost 12MB big (in UTF-16) yet, the performance was second to none, outstanding!!

This sounds useful. So for someone like myself, who only flies in "Greater Europe" (Europe to the Urals and including the Med coast, Canaries, Madeira, Azores)(, I could simply rename all those regions I don't need?Later:

I suggest you stay tuned for news DIRECTLY from FTX

Ah. I don't have any FTX scenery, so I suppose there's no benefit in me doing any editing after all, even Unicode to UTF-8?RegardsPete

This sounds useful. So for someone like myself, who only flies in "Greater Europe" (Europe to the Urals and including the Med coast, Canaries, Madeira, Azores)(, I could simply rename all those regions I don't need?

Hi Pete! the above was only part of a testing procedure (experiment) to isolate autogen classes within a region in order to track a glitch in one of them. What you saw above was simply a skeleton file (which, by the way has a BAD format, I just realized that now) used for 'debugging' purposes. So, this post doesn't have anything to do with 'tweaking' and/or any recomendations about adding or removing from a file, so don't even touch your default.xml much less remove anything! I've also found that the file (default.xml) encoding doesn't have anything to do with XML parsing performance, even when it is huge. By default that file is in UNICODE, yet it contains 'mostly' ASCII chars, so obviously by making it UTF-8 the size is reduced in half, anyway... this was also determined to be completely irrelevant because, I finally found out what I was looking for and contacted FTX about it. and yes, Size does NOT matter.Here's the region MAP including letters just for reference:

Here's the region MAP including letters just for reference

That's useful! Thanks!Pete

Hi *******,Had a quick question. If I jumped the gun when you first started this thread, and made changes to the default file. I did back up the original XML file beforehand, so putting back the backed up XML file will restore things back to the way they were , correct? I just want to make sure I didn't mess up my FSX istallation. Things seem to run fine, but I wanted to make sure. Thank you for all you do for the community. You really are very generous with all of your knowledge. :)Warm regards, Jeff

Hi *******,Had a quick question. If I jumped the gun when you first started this thread, and made changes to the default file. I did back up the original XML file beforehand, so putting back the backed up XML file will restore things back to the way they were , correct? I just want to make sure I didn't mess up my FSX istallation. Things seem to run fine, but I wanted to make sure. Thank you for all you do for the community. You really are very generous with all of your knowledge. :)Warm regards, Jeff

Not to jump on ******* toes, but your answer is YES, just put the orig back and all will be back as before.

Hi *******,Had a quick question. If I jumped the gun when you first started this thread, and made changes to the default file. I did back up the original XML file beforehand, so putting back the backed up XML file will restore things back to the way they were , correct? I just want to make sure I didn't mess up my FSX istallation. Things seem to run fine, but I wanted to make sure.

Hi Jeff, correct. But an even better solution (if you have FTX products) is to open FTX Central and 'activate' the North America region. It will copy a fresh default.xml to your autogen directory. So, there is really nothing to worry about.I would suggest ANYONE that made the change I suggested to 'revert' it back. Stand by and monitor this thread for the 'official' recommendation. it *WILL* provide the benefits of eliminating stutters and improving overall performance WITHOUT the autogen supression.

Hi Jeff, correct. But an even better solution (if you have FTX products) is to open FTX Central and 'activate' the North America region. It will copy a fresh default.xml to your autogen directory. So, there is really nothing to worry about.I would suggest ANYONE that made the change I suggested to 'revert' it back. Stand by and monitor this thread for the 'official' recommendation. it *WILL* provide the benefits of eliminating stutters and improving overall performance WITHOUT the autogen supression.

*******, will this only help FTX users?Thanks, Jim