Thx, I had this combination ... Guys, nothing to be taken away from you. Just to add a second model without all those graphical gimmicks behind the cockpit, to get better frame rates (beside all those hints in the introduction).

Patrick, The FSX engine doesn't draw the external model and stuff when you're in the cockpit and the VC is not drawn when you're in the 2D panel... it wouldn't make any difference if we did what you're asking. We tried it during development.

Curious how much improvement you saw making these changes.

Vin, I saw a huge improvement in performance from both resizing my external repaint textures from 4096 to 1024 as well as resizing the VC textures.As far as the VC textures go I resized the following. PMDG_NGX_Main_Panel.dds to 2048 X 512PMDG_NGX_VC_03.dds to 1024 X 1024PMDG_NGX_VC_OVHD01.dds to 1024 X 1024PMDG_NGX_VC_Radios.dds to 1024 X 1024I did all the External rextures to 1024 X 1024 including the fuselage, wings, tail, light maps, and speculars. Basically anything that was 2048 or 4096 was resized to 1024.I also went into the texture.common folder and did the same for the following textures and sized them all to 1024 X 1024.pmdg_737NGX_cabin.ddspmdg_737NGX_fuselage_1_bump.ddspmdg_737NGX_fuselage_2_bump.ddspmdg_737NGX_fuselage_3_bump.ddspmdg_737NGX_tail_bump.ddspmdg_747NGX_wings_bump.ddspmdg_NGX_misc.ddspmdg_NGX_misc_1.ddspmdg_737NGX_wings.ddspmdg_737NGX_fuselage_1_spec.ddsAll in all the biggest improvement was in texture loading when switching views and smoothness. As well as the fact that using the 4096 external textures gave me the skeleton plane when it loaded. For my rig those sized textures are just way to resource hungry and are frankly one of the reason I never buy McPhat textures since they are all 4096 and I dont want to spend the time resizing.In all honesty, I was surprised that PMDG didn't offer the liveries in both 4096 HD and standard 1024 size for those of use with older setups. Heck, to be honest, even if I was running a new i7 with 6GB of RAM or more, I would probably still use the 1024 textures to free up more resources. To be honest, the 1024's in both the VC and external are so well done that resizing to 1024 resulted in hardly any visible loss of quality on my rig. In fact I cant even really tell the difference except that it works a LOT better.If you need more info let me know.One other thing Vin. Would it be possible to turn off the wings in the VC view and by doing so could we save even more performance? Personally, I dont care if I can see the wings from the VC and if we had a way to toggle them on or off I would shut them off in a heart beat if it freed up more resources for my computer. I know that this was possible in the J41 and might not be a bad idea in the NGX.Sean Campbell

The plane is nice itself stock, with the tweak it's just a bit better, (10FPS increase on average)I've backed up my files and compiled them into an installer, It's nice lol I want to save the professional feeling of my Ngx! I'm sure this can stop some OOM warnings, since it's easier on the Computer.My computer is down as of now, so there is no way to get these files for you guys as much as I would like to I never thought I'd have to share this with anyone or I would of done so already, Sorry.To the people playing smart A words, while having an up to date computer is nice, and while everyone would love to have the best computer it is not as easy as it is for you, for me, money is a key ingredient in a good computer, one ingredient I don't have. For this we have to improvise.Honestly for me, it will take me another 2 years to meet up with you guys, I'm young and I have to provide for myself.

Thanks for sharing your results!A gain 7-10 fps is well worth it! Guy

Hi Sean, can u please make a test? can u just convert all the external + virtual cockpit textures to 2048? and see if there is a little improvement? if im not wrong the vc texture are 4096. i only need a 5 fps gain for have a perfect simulation with this amazing plane David Lee

Vin, I saw a huge improvement in performance from both resizing my external repaint textures from 4096 to 1024 as well as resizing the VC textures. As far as the VC textures go I resized the following. PMDG_NGX_Main_Panel.dds to 2048 X 512PMDG_NGX_VC_03.dds to 1024 X 1024PMDG_NGX_VC_OVHD01.dds to 1024 X 1024PMDG_NGX_VC_Radios.dds to 1024 X 1024 I did all the External rextures to 1024 X 1024 including the fuselage, wings, tail, light maps, and speculars. Basically anything that was 2048 or 4096 was resized to 1024. I also went into the texture.common folder and did the same for the following textures and sized them all to 1024 X 1024. pmdg_737NGX_cabin.ddspmdg_737NGX_fuselage_1_bump.ddspmdg_737NGX_fuselage_2_bump.ddspmdg_737NGX_fuselage_3_bump.ddspmdg_737NGX_tail_bump.ddspmdg_747NGX_wings_bump.ddspmdg_NGX_misc.ddspmdg_NGX_misc_1.ddspmdg_737NGX_wings.ddspmdg_737NGX_fuselage_1_spec.dds All in all the biggest improvement was in texture loading when switching views and smoothness. As well as the fact that using the 4096 external textures gave me the skeleton plane when it loaded. For my rig those sized textures are just way to resource hungry and are frankly one of the reason I never buy McPhat textures since they are all 4096 and I dont want to spend the time resizing. In all honesty, I was surprised that PMDG didn't offer the liveries in both 4096 HD and standard 1024 size for those of use with older setups. Heck, to be honest, even if I was running a new i7 with 6GB of RAM or more, I would probably still use the 1024 textures to free up more resources. To be honest, the 1024's in both the VC and external are so well done that resizing to 1024 resulted in hardly any visible loss of quality on my rig. In fact I cant even really tell the difference except that it works a LOT better. If you need more info let me know. One other thing Vin. Would it be possible to turn off the wings in the VC view and by doing so could we save even more performance? Personally, I dont care if I can see the wings from the VC and if we had a way to toggle them on or off I would shut them off in a heart beat if it freed up more resources for my computer. I know that this was possible in the J41 and might not be a bad idea in the NGX. Sean Campbell

Hi Sean, can u please make a test? can u just convert all the external + virtual cockpit textures to 2048? and see if there is a little improvement? if im not wrong the vc texture are 4096. i only need a 5 fps gain for have a perfect simulation with this amazing plane David Lee

I'm sure you'll see results, as I said before, sending them to 1024² is just as nice as 2048, hardly any change, most other aircraft use 1024, like the CS 757, still nice textures. It's easily over 5FPS improvement. I'm taken aback by the Cockpit detail in this bird though, and the days of photography in the real NG cockpit has really paid off.

Hi Sean, can u please make a test? can u just convert all the external + virtual cockpit textures to 2048? and see if there is a little improvement? if im not wrong the vc texture are 4096. i only need a 5 fps gain for have a perfect simulation with this amazing plane David Lee

David,I would but there are two things.1st - I dont think I can legally do that and send them to you since they are PMDG's property. Unless of course they gave permission for me to do so.2nd - Doing it the way I did it was VERY time consuming so I would have to decline. I'm sorry but doing it the way I did it using DXTBmp and GIMP took me a while since trying to do it all in GIMP would mess up some of the alpha textures. I had to manually extract the texture and alpha texture from DXTBmp, then load them seperately into GIMP, resize them seperately and save tem, then reload both the texture and alpha texture back into DXTBmp and save it. I really wanted to do it this way to avoid any error messing up the alpha textures or the textures themselves. It took so much time that I have only redone my American Airlines paint. If it's allowed I would be glad to share with you the 1024's I made and I bet you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference, especially in the VC. In fact I posted some FPS comparison shots in the Screen Shot forum today with the resized textures at FSDT's KDFW from both external and VC view and I was getting 25+ FPS, plus you can see how the VC looks in those pics at 1024.Sean Campbell

Unless you're runnig an ancient (by ancient i mean around 6600gt nvidia series) card, you would be lucky to get 1fps gain by removing all those details like stickers and fingerprints on mfd. The biggest poly and fps hogs are the 3D switches and mfds. Anything beyond the cockpit doors is clamped and not drawn while you're in the cockpit.

I do not believe that is 100% true :) The "INTERNAL" 3D model itself is very complex, and contribute heavily to the lowering of frame rates. ( You can demonstrte that by removing the Gauges.. and seeing that there is not an enormous rise in FPS .. The "INTERNAL" 3D model is still very demanding on your system.) But thats really just how it is .. you want a detailed complex aircraft, you pay the price in terms of what you need to run it at a reasonable rate. If your PC cannot handle it, then either get a better PC, or accept the fact that you are not able to use such a complex and PC System demanding product. Can PMDG make a simpler 3D model version without all the "Eye Candy" .. OF couse they "COULD", but not without additional cost, and everyone buying the product having to pay more, and WAIT LONGER, to cover that extra development. It is what it is -- Nobody is forcing you to buy it--- your life will go on just as well without it, just like my life goes on just as well without having my own "Real World" Citation 10. ( sigh: I have to MAKE DO with having a good friend with one -- which is even better !! ) Geoff Welcome to REALITY and the REAL WORLD.

Hi Sean. thx for the reply. if it take too long time no worry. i think that the best idea is create 2 texture packs for vc and external view: - 2048 textures pack: for people like me that just need a little bit improvement like 4 or 5 fps - 1024 textures pack: for people then need more improvement like 7-8 fps Davide lee

David, I would but there are two things. 1st - I dont think I can legally do that and send them to you since they are PMDG's property. Unless of course they gave permission for me to do so. 2nd - Doing it the way I did it was VERY time consuming so I would have to decline. I'm sorry but doing it the way I did it using DXTBmp and GIMP took me a while since trying to do it all in GIMP would mess up some of the alpha textures. I had to manually extract the texture and alpha texture from DXTBmp, then load them seperately into GIMP, resize them seperately and save tem, then reload both the texture and alpha texture back into DXTBmp and save it. I really wanted to do it this way to avoid any error messing up the alpha textures or the textures themselves. It took so much time that I have only redone my American Airlines paint. If it's allowed I would be glad to share with you the 1024's I made and I bet you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference, especially in the VC. In fact I posted some FPS comparison shots in the Screen Shot forum today with the resized textures at FSDT's KDFW from both external and VC view and I was getting 25+ FPS, plus you can see how the VC looks in those pics at 1024. Sean Campbell

Hi Sean. thx for the reply. if it take too long time no worry. i think that the best idea is create 2 texture packs for vc and external view: - 2048 textures pack: for people like me that just need a little bit improvement like 4 or 5 fps - 1024 textures pack: for people then need more improvement like 7-8 fps Davide lee

I'd do that.1) If PMDG allowed me (Besides they say they had plans to do it)2) If my computer was working3) Because I have no life outside of FS.

Hello PMDG team, is there a light version of the model planned for one of the next releases? I know you guys are very good and you have proven it very well on programming and modeling the 737, but honestly in the simulator I don't care about anything behind the cockpit door.Or such things like serial number on the sliding window ... The systems are awesome, but there is way too much detail in the model for a simulation. Kind Regards,Patrick

Patrick, Simply turn off the exterior model and just leave the VC model turned on if you want. I tried flying with the exterior model turned off to see if it would make any difference, but in all honesty when in the VC I saw no difference. The only difference I saw was obviously that when I went to spot view their was no a/c to see.Sean Campbell

This is as expected. Both Models are NOT "run" at the same time. You are "typically" running the INTERNAL model when you are INSIDE, or the EXTERNAL model when you are OUTSIDE. If you open another VIEW, showing the other Model, then expect a big frame hit. Geoff

If you need more info let me know.

Yes I do. How'd you do it? I thought ImageTool from the SDK can probably do this. So what do you use to resize them?

Yes I do. How'd you do it? I thought ImageTool from the SDK can probably do this. So what do you use to resize them?

I used both the freeware GIMP and DXTBmp, both of which can be found via google. I didn't use ImageTool because I didn't see an option to resize the textures, only to save them in a different compression.The steps are as follows. Manually extract the texture and alpha texture from DXTBmp, then load them seperately into GIMP, resize them seperately and save them, then reload both the texture and alpha texture back into DXTBmp and save it as DXT5. For the exterior textures I made sure to save them with mip maps, but when doing the VC textures I didn't use mip maps.Also make sure that if the original texture is DXT5 to save it in DXT5. Be aware than some of the textures, namely the VC textures are DXT1 so make sure you use the right compressions.Most important, make a back up of all your original textures before you start in case you mess up.Sean Campbell

All I do is use photoshop with a DDS plugin, and resize the files in 1/2 1/4 1/8 of the actual file size, then save them to a folder called texteresmall, then go to the Repaints I want to have lower resolutions, open texture.cfg file, and change texture fallback to texturesmall.

This release was intended to be system intensive and accurate and directed to simmers that was looking for exactly that.If you want a lighter version of the 737, just Google 737 for FSX and you will have plenty of options.