...and don't be surprised if your system cannot handle these settings - LOD_radius default max is 4.5. I personally like 5.5 - but anything above that starts eating into systems performance and adds memory footprint

I agree with that up to a point. Depends on the system running FSX. Mine is nothing special. If you have enough system memory (at least 6 gigs. I use 8.), have the CPU (I'm using just an i5 but it's clocked to 3.2GHz), a decent GPU (using an older ATI 4770 HD with 512mb of Video RAM, again mid range hardware) and use CFF Explorer - or have FSX Accceleration, and you fly in a relatively low traffic area, then a LOD=9 will have very little to no impact on frames. At least that's been my experience. On marginal systems I wouldn't do a 9, but my mid-range system handles it pretty well. Just to give an idea, I'm running FSX with: Active Sky EvolutionUltimate Traffic IIUltimate Terrain USA and Canada with 1m terrain texturesFS Genesis terrain mesh worldwideCountless WOAI, UGA, HTAI, and other add-on GA AI traffic at 100%100% Autogen, custom and global100% Ship traffic50% Leisure boat traffic25% Vehicle traffic0% Airport vehicle traffic (all the free downloaded AFCADS I use from AIG and Smith Graphics already adds tons of static vehicles and objects) If I fly into KSFO during heavily congested peak hours on a cloudy day, the lowest fps hit seen is 10. If the weather is really bad the lowest hit might be an 8. However, I'm usually averaging between 18-25 fps over the course of a flight, and for me that is more than acceptable, considering the settings. Naturally, if I kick back the LOD to 4.5 or 5.5 then performance skyrockets, but most of my flying is up in the flight levels over mountainous terrain and using LOD=9 creates some really great visuals, especially at a distance, with absolutely no blurries at all. Every texture you see is sharp. Moreover, FSX fps performance goes up once you're up in the flight levels anyway, regardless of what settings you use. I guess it depends on personal preference. Some prefer all-out fps smoothness at the expense of graphic quality, and others want sharp textures and/or plenty of autogen and traffic while not quite rocking along at a consistent 60fps.

Agree! I like flying low and slow..

And I would suggest anisotropic to 16X (!) not much performance impact, big visual improvement. BTW, FSX will reset your LOD_radius setting to 4.5 if you make any in-flight changes..

I noticed that and thought that maybe it was due to going into Settings. What kind if in-flight changes are we talking about?ThanksAlan

If you go into Settings in flight and hit OK, FSX will reset the LOD_radius value to 4.5

Thanks. I guess I need to stay out of settings. Don't know why FSX would do that.Alan

You are outside the design limits that FSX had in mind when you increase LOD beyond 4.5 My "guess" is that FSX tries to protect you, the user, by resetting this value to something that isconsidered safe.

If you want to keep LOD 6.5 I recommend saving the config... you can do that from the FSX in-game menu. I have multiple configs... some for rural areas, some for big cities etc.

So saving inside FSX avoids the resetting of LOD as opposed to editing the FSX.cfg file?ThanksAlan

So saving inside FSX avoids the resetting of LOD as opposed to editing the FSX.cfg file?ThanksAlan

Nope, but you can save your new config settings (before FSX changes them back) and reload them in flight as needed. Alt Options Settings Save and Load

Nope, but you can save your new config settings (before FSX changes them back) and reload them in flight as needed. Alt Options Settings Save and Load

Yes, that is very handy, be careful though with loading the same file twice. Can't do it twice in the row. But you can save to the 2nd file, edit it, and reload in FSX. Very handy if you don't want to exit the sim inflight but want to make the change. I do most of changes via those saved configs.