Possible new 'tweak' for FS9

[Dirk98 354]

IMHO, it could be more meaningful to this discussion if you would please define what you regard as meeting the criteria of "modern hardware system and modern drivers installed and set up correctly", and what you regard as "quite old hardware". :( GaryGB

Gary, Jim is doing amazing job answering zillions of various questions in HiFi's section of the forum. ASE is a critical part of my MSFS experience, so if you you'd like I could answer these trivial msfs questions to you. Just let me know. :( Otherwise, I think I know what Jim meant, of course, 3Gb switch is a must for the modern hardware on a 32-bit syste. I'm on a 64-bit and I change the header of fs9, everyone who still flies fs9 does it these days. All other tweaks are less important, or at least are not as important as they used to be in 2004-2006.Cheers,Dirk.

[psolk 3,040]

Gary, Jim is doing amazing job answering zillions of various questions in HiFi's section of the forum. ASE is a critical part of my MSFS experience, so if you you'd like I could answer these trivial msfs questions to you. Just let me know. :( Otherwise, I think I know what Jim meant, of course, 3Gb switch is a must for the modern hardware on a 32-bit syste. I'm on a 64-bit and I change the header of fs9, everyone who still flies fs9 does it these days. All other tweaks are less important, or at least are not as important as they used to be in 2004-2006.Cheers,Dirk.

Totally Disagree... Install vanilla FS9 and your add-ons even on a high end system and the default values loaded into your .cfg will leave you with an absolute mess. FS9 had no idea about the HW we are running today when it was released. Go in, make your known tweaks (takes 5 minutes) and voila, FS9 comes to life again. There are some tweaks that will always be necessary if you want a crisp, blurry free FS9 regardless of your HW.

[ghiom 2]

After having done a few flights, it seems to me that the DefaultTextureCount= tweak has some adverse effect: random Blurries and increased chance of CTD upon landing...Instead, the other tweaks seem to have a positive effect.BTW, can someone explain what DETAIL_TEXTURE= impacts?ThanksGhiom

[Hooopes 0]

Sorry, my specs are:1GB ATI Radeon HD 45502.33/4 gHz Intel Core 2 Quad6GB ramWindows 7 SP1 64-bit4gb patch installed for the FS9.exe but I'm not sure what you mean "set the FS9.exe LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag via the "4 GB Patch" as described above ",...I just ran the 4 gb patch on that exe is all.Overall, I notice that the sim does not have the reload the textures as often or as frequently...which is great!, It was always disappointing to switch from a cockpit view to the outside and wait several seconds before anything would appear on the ground in detail.I'll run some more tests/variables of what is working best and what doesnt seem to matter later on tonight.

[MrEd 0]

Thanks very much for the tweaks Gary and other pros here. My fps is much higher, graphics are crisper at all ranges, and I have no micro-stutters. However, it appears that I lost my beaches using the new terrain cfg. Is there any way to adjust the terrain cfg to load them again. Maybe someone has a cfg they could post that leaves the beaches.Thanks Eddie

[hmar 0]

Thanks very much for the tweaks Gary and other pros here. My fps is much higher, graphics are crisper at all ranges, and I have no micro-stutters. However, it appears that I lost my beaches using the new terrain cfg. Is there any way to adjust the terrain cfg to load them again. Maybe someone has a cfg they could post that leaves the beaches.Thanks Eddie

Nice to hear the changes have effects. However, changing the numbering of the [texture.xxxx] suppresses these textures. In contrary to my supposition a link between "TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024" in FS8.cfg and the numbering of these textures, doesn't exists, so when you change the numbering, the "vector" roads and lake and river "beaches" doen't appear any more, but it helps for a smoother FS. It is a helpfull but not elegant modification for flying in Photoreal scenery (Tileproxy or FSEarthTiles ...)Rgds,Hugo

[twasono 3]

Hi Gary,Thanks for the tweaks. I tried today and the result is pretty amazing.The difference that I able to feel was that now FS becomes smoother than before. No more micro stuttering. :)Usually if I change view ("s" button) to the Virtual cockpit, or to the external view, the FS always slowly loads the textures.But now it is only slow for the first time. The next view changes I made was very fast.I guess, by modifying the TML (TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD) parameter, FS now fully utilizes our Video RAM (VRAM).But, I am not sure about DT (DETAIL_TEXTURE) paremeter impact to the FS. Could you be more elaborate on it?Is this parameter mandatory to your tweaks in a whole?PS. And one more thing. After I changed DT to "2" and then run the FS. After I exit the FS, I checked that the DT parameter value was reverted back to "1". (I did not change any setting within the FS, only load the aircaft, fly, and then exit)Regards,Tri

[MrEd 0]

Hi Gary,Thanks for the tweaks. I tried today and the result is pretty amazing.The difference that I able to feel was that now FS becomes smoother than before. No more micro stuttering. :)Usually if I change view ("s" button) to the Virtual cockpit, or to the external view, the FS always slowly loads the textures.But now it is only slow for the first time. The next view changes I made was very fast.I guess, by modifying the TML (TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD) parameter, FS now fully utilizes our Video RAM (VRAM).But, I am not sure about DT (DETAIL_TEXTURE) paremeter impact to the FS. Could you be more elaborate on it?Is this parameter mandatory to your tweaks in a whole?PS. And one more thing. After I changed DT to "2" and then run the FS. After I exit the FS, I checked that the DT parameter value was reverted back to "1". (I did not change any setting within the FS, only load the aircaft, fly, and then exit)Same here. Mine reverts to 1. I just overwrite the fs9.cfg before I start the sim. Pain in the &@($*, but at least we can fly with the setting.Regards,Tri

Nice to hear the changes have effects. However, changing the numbering of the [texture.xxxx] suppresses these textures. In contrary to my supposition a link between "TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024" in FS8.cfg and the numbering of these textures, doesn't exists, so when you change the numbering, the "vector" roads and lake and river "beaches" doen't appear any more, but it helps for a smoother FS. It is a helpfull but not elegant modification for flying in Photoreal scenery (Tileproxy or FSEarthTiles ...)Rgds,Hugo

Understood hmar. I'm getting a new pc this year, so then I can hopefully fly with roads beaches more fluidly.Thanks again.Eddie

[Guest BRISTOL86]

I click on the "General" tab, made sure "Read-only" is checked next to "Attributes" and clicked applied. Now when I try to run FS9 I get a error message saying "Flight Simulator cannot run from a restricted user account and will now quit. Please log on using an administrator account a restart Flight Simulator.I use Windows 7 so maybe that's why I am getting that error. But the wierd thing is I am the only one that uses my computer so I have all UAC (UAC is User Account Control for those that do not know) settings off.I guess I will have to have the FS9.cfg file minimized when I run FS9 if I want this tweak to work.

Joseph - I'm having this too - very frustrating.Martin

[GaryGB 10]

Hi All:Sorry for the delay in getting back to this thread... it's been a rather busy week. :( I must say it's good to see continuing feedback to this thread providing increasing details that might help us further build the FS9 end-user knowledge base for these "test tweaks". :(

BTW, can someone explain what DETAIL_TEXTURE= impacts?Ghiom

I am not sure about DT (DETAIL_TEXTURE) parameter impact to the FS. Could you be more elaborate on it?Is this parameter mandatory to your tweaks in a whole?PS: And one more thing. After I changed DT to "2" and then run the FS. After I exit the FS, I checked that the DT parameter value was reverted back to "1". (I did not change any setting within the FS, only load the aircraft, fly, and then exit)

IIUC, "DETAIL_TEXTURE=" is a parameter which is normally not seen in a "default" FS9.Cfg; it has to do with a Detail1.BMP texture file used to artificially add "noise" to certain terrain textures to impart perceived 'detail', and control some aspects of their display.NOTE: This file (and texture mechanism) may work somewhat differently in FSX... where that parameter is not "hidden".Presently, it might be best to regard this parameter as "investigational", and having more to do with FS9 appearance than with performance / FPS. :( FYI: FS9 "may" enable / disable processing of [fs9 install path]\Scenery\World\Texture\Detail1.BMP (HYPOTHESIS... this needs more testing !):1.) "DETAIL_TEXTURE=1" means "Detail1.BMP file present, enable processing of noise layer when rendering specified terrain textures"2.) "DETAIL_TEXTURE=0" means "Detail1.BMP file NOT present, disable processing of noise layer when rendering specified terrain textures"IMHO, Since FS9 'acknowledges' this parameter and opts to re-write it to a 'preferred' or 'default' value... suggests it's a valid FS9 parameter. B)

4gb patch installed for the FS9.exe but I'm not sure what you mean "set the FS9.exe LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag via the "4 GB Patch" as described above ",...I just ran the 4 gb patch on that exe is all.Overall, I notice that the sim does not have the reload the textures as often or as frequently...which is great!, It was always disappointing to switch from a cockpit view to the outside and wait several seconds before anything would appear on the ground in detail.I'll run some more tests/variables of what is working best and what doesn't seem to matter later on tonight.

Since you "ran the 4 gb patch" on FS9.exe, "that is all" ...you need to do to set the LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag for that FS2004 application in 64-bit Windows.PS: Hope we might see more of your results here when you get another opportunity to post. Here's hoping more dedicated FS9 enthusiasts keep up the good work testing and sharing their results with others here ! B) GaryGB

[GaryGB 10]

Oops... duplicate post (I'm seeing a lot of server lag and SQL crashes here at AVSIM forums the last few days !) :( GaryGB

[Hoang 108]

Oops... duplicate post (I'm seeing a lot of server lag and SQL crashes here at AVSIM forums the last few days !) :( GaryGB

Yeah it occurs to me too and state that it is my SQL that's going wrong,not AVSIM :(

[psolk 3,040]

Hello everyone,Initially I was a bit skeptical, but tested these tweaks nevertheless. The terrain.cfg tweak for me just had adverse effects (the cockpit view suddenly turned very bright, like an overexposed photograph, at about 2500 ft and this had nothing to do with the weather). So I changed 1261 back into 238. The tweaks of the fs9.cfg however brought substantial performance improvement on my humble system (AMD Athlon 3200+, nVidia 7900GS 256 MB, 2 GB Ram, using REX, GE PRO, AS 6.5). After a few flights (IFR) I definitely see better framerates, no blurries and almost no stutters at all (one or two small ones were radiotraffic related). Overall the sim seems to perform smoother and faster. I will continue testing, but it looks as if we have a revolution here. After all, for many years we have been made to believe that one should tackle the stutter problem by setting TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_ MULT lower than 400, and now it emerges that one can (or rather should) set it 64 times higher! I’m very pleased with this thread, thank you all, and I'm looking forward to more of your tweaks Gary :( . By the way: Lowering the MAX_UNLIMITED_VIS to the value suggested in this thread may work well when flying VFR at low altitudes, but my experience is that when cruising with ‘heavy metal’ at FL300 or thereabout, max visibility ought to be not much lower than, say, 70000. Otherwise the horizon looks a bit weird.Kind regards,René

I have max visibility set to 95960 in my .cfg and it is perfect for 30,000 ft plus.... Been using it for years and it is ideal...Going to try the 2 fs9.cfg tweaks on a 12 hour flight from TLV-EWR to see how it deals with extensive memory load situations...-P

[psolk 3,040]

I have max visibility set to 95960 in my .cfg and it is perfect for 30,000 ft plus.... Been using it for years and it is ideal...Going to try the 2 fs9.cfg tweaks on a 12 hour flight from TLV-EWR to see how it deals with extensive memory load situations...-P

Just an update...Did almost 13 hours straight from Tel-Aviv to Newark from an Add-on TLV to an Add-On EWR yesterday with AES, UT-EU, UT-USA, FSGenesis, ASE, and REX with the two fs9.cfg changes with no obvious adverse affects. No CTD, No introduced Blurries, no issues.Now with that being said I am not sure there was any real difference in the sim, I did notice like others there is no more delay when switching views, textures "may have" been a bit snappier but nothing night and day that was a game changer.I am still incredibly grateful to th OP for their due diligence and sharing... Without guys like GB and ******* in the FSX world we would never know the true potential of the sims that is there to be unlocked!

[pgaudet 0]

Hoping this thread doesn't die off.Anyone else try it will good results?GaryB anything else for us to try?Thanks