Graphics Configuration Options Help

[jp1018 0]

Does anyone know how to more precisely configure the graphics options in Flight? I've tried the Flight.cfg but I don't know what ALL of it does. For example, if I put my scenery quality on max, I get low fps but awesome water reflections....what if I want the water reflections but not whatever else the Max setting adds? Are there any ways to more percisely configure this?

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

There are 2 different possibilities depending on how you set a variable in the configuration file:

 

Custom = 0

This means your in-game settings are the only ones used. So, you should use the Options panel exclusively.

According to the developers, at the release of Flight:

 

Maximum settings are available under the following conditions: You have 3GB or more of physical RAM AND you have either a 64-bit OS, or a 32-bit OS with the /3G switch turned on. We highly recommend everyone runs with a 64-bit OS if they can as it gives Flight access to up to 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB. The /3GB switch for 32-bit OSes will give Flight access to 3GB instead of the normal 2GB, which is enough to run maximum settings but it could cause problems with older programs.

 

Flight is large address aware, but it needs to be enabled by both the application and the OS for it to work.

 

Not all of the settings have a "Maximum", I believe "High" is the highest it will go for texture quality and weather.

 

For those trying to get the best performance\visual trade off here are the differences between high and maximum:

 

Shadow Quality: Maximum will render scenery and autogen into all shadow cascades (effectively things have shadows farther). This has a very small visual difference, but a pretty high performance cost.

 

Sharpness: Maximum just increases the anti-aliasing amount over the value in High. This has a large impact to GPU work.

 

Scenery Density: Maximum increases the airport, acenery and autogen load and draw distance. This has a negative impact to load times, and performance but can make a fairly big visual difference.

 

Scenery Quality: Maximum increases the terrain lod radius (basically the distance higher res textures are loaded). This negatively impacts loading times, and can will also put more load onto your CPU while flying around.

 

Please note that this may have changed after the release version:

 

If you are running on Maximum settings, we increased the water reflection quality so it will definately put more load on your machine. You may have to drop some of the settings to High to get similar perf to beta.

 

You should see clouds, terrain, autogen and scenery all reflecting on Maximum settings now. For Medium and above settings we also increased the resolution of the reflection map, rewrote the water shader with a different lighting and reflection model and the wave and bump map parameters were tuned a bit.

 

 

Custom = 1

For people wanting to play with their graphics settings if you open Flight.cfg go to the [Configuration] section and change Custom=0 to Custom=1 it will unlock the rest of the graphics options in the Flight.cfg instead of overwriting them when you start the game. You can set the value back to 0, or click "Reset to Defaults" on the graphics screen to go back to using the built in values. While Custom is set to 1 the graphics options will be disabled to show that they are not being used.

 

It is a good idea to save a copy of your Flight.cfg before modifying it. If you delete the Flight.cfg file in the event of running into problems it will erase your career progress as well.

 

I don't know if there is yet a comprehensive list of all the graphics options - just give it some time and somebody will put one together eventually.

 

Oh, and I just want to add something concerning the LOD Radius value - in Flight, it is set to 3.5, but be careful! According to the devs, a setting of 3.5 is more than the max setting of 4.5 in FS X.

 

Best regards.

Luis

[jp1018 0]

Thanks, this is really helpful!

[EastCoastGuy 0]

Thanks, especially for the /3G tip! I also disabled the Vertical Sync -- makes a big difference in stuttering on my system.

[crusaderuk 1]

It is a good idea to save a copy of your Flight.cfg before modifying it. If you delete the Flight.cfg file in the event of running into problems it will erase your career progress as well.

 

If you do run into problems which require you to delete the Flight.cfg file, you can still retain your progress providing you add the following two lines to a new Flight.cfg file (which you can create as a .txt file with Notepad and then rename to Flight.cfg)... Be sure to create a new Flight.cfg with these lines BEFORE YOU RUN THE GAME

Two lines are:-

 

[GFWL]

ProfileMode=1

 

Now you can run the game and Flight will see these lines and rebuild all that is missing from the Flight.cfg without loss of your progress.

 

PS. You will lose any customisations that you had prior to deleting your Flight.cfg (such as Graphics/Sound settings etc)

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

Hi

 

"Maximum settings are available under the following conditions: You have 3GB or more of physical RAM AND you have either a 64-bit OS, or a 32-bit OS with the /3G switch turned on. We highly recommend everyone runs with a 64-bit OS if they can as it gives Flight access to up to 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB. The /3GB switch for 32-bit OSes will give Flight access to 3GB instead of the normal 2GB, which is enough to run maximum settings but it could cause problems with older programs"

 

This is actually incorrect the /3G switch gives access ONLY in a 32-bit OS to 3GB of Virtual (Process) Address (VAS) space nothing to do with Physical RAM installed.

You could have 1GB or 192GB of Physical RAM installed and you would still have the same amount of VAS. nor would the amount of RAM affect or be affected by the /3G switch.

If you set this in a 64-bit OS (if it works) you will REDUCE the VAS available to MS Flight from 4GB to 3GB - not a wise move, AND it will also affect all system apps, dlls and drivers.

Bottom Line: You should never turn on the /3G switch on in a 64-bit OS.

The /3G switch DOES NOT give any access to Physical RAM - totally incorrect. How could it, as the 3G switch points to a virtual area where the OS loads MS Flight into to protect the OS in case of an error.

I ask the OP to edit his post to reflect these facts. :Peace:

Regards

PeterH

[basys 4]

Hi Folks

 

This is actually incorrect

<snipped irrelevancies, as its unrelated to what the OP said>

I ask the OP to edit his post to reflect these facts. :Peace:

Free Spirit -

You're lucky its free, but maybe try imbibing less of it.

 

Maximum settings are available

under the following conditions:

 

You have

3GB

or

more

of physical RAM

 

AND

 

you have

either

a 64-bit OS,

or

a 32-bit OS with the /3G switch turned on.

 

 

 

We highly recommend everyone runs with a 64-bit OS if they can

as it gives Flight access to up to 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB.

 

 

 

The /3GB switch for 32-bit OSes

will give Flight access to 3GB

instead of the normal 2GB,

which is enough to run maximum settings

but it could cause problems with older programs.

 

 

 

You also missed the citation -

According to the developers, at the release of Flight:

 

 

 

HTH

ATB

Paul

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

_Paul

_{It is still incorrect as a 32-bit OS (Win 7) can address up to 4GB of Physical RAM and my point is that you and Luis seem to be confusing RAM with the VAS and that is what the /3G switch affects NOT the RAM. The /3G switch is part of the OS which has nothing to do with Physical RAM and we need to make that point clear. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx}

_{If Flight is a 32-bit app then it will run OK in a 32-bit OS which will have support for up to 4GB of Physical RAM. Flight doesn't detrermine how much physical RAM is accessed that's up to the OS.. It will also have access to 4GB of VAS (via the OS) but 2Gb of that is used by the System (Kernel) and leaving 2Gb for Flight minus the VRAM. Now apply the /3G switch and Flight can now use up to 3GB VAS minus VRAM leaving just 1GB for the System. In a 64-bit OS Flight can access the full 4GB VAS (MAX for a 32-bit app) without a significant impact of the VRAM or giving any to the system. So setting the /3G switch in a 64-bit OS will LOWER the VAS from 4GB to 3GB. So Luis is wrong when he says "64-bit OS if they can as it gives Flight access to up to 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB" because Flight already has access of up to 4GB of RAM in a 32-bit OS but it ONLY has access to 2GB VAS. That's where I see that confusion arises and that's what I wanted to make clear.}

 

"Free Spirit" I tried to change my AVSIM monniker and somehow I copied 'free spirit" in instead of "pedantic pete" and yes I do imbibe. :Kiss:

And now I can't change the wretched thing so I'm stuck with "Free Gordon's Gin" for ever.

Regards

PeterH

[basys 4]

Hi Folks

 

Phil -

I think I can probably safely say

both Luis and I understand the physical/virtual memory differences.

 

 

 

The key point you're still missing

is that the italicised text

is a direct quote from the developers,

i.e. Microsoft.

 

Think of it as an non-technical explanation for numpties.

 

Explaining the base hardware and OS prerequisites

for "Maximum" to be listed

in some of the OPTIONS - GRAPHICS listboxes.

 

 

 

P.S.

re: AVSIM monniker

Don't know if it was tongue in cheek

but you can change your DISPLAY NAME, (onece per 180 days).

 

"Free Gordon's Gin" - heaven. :Party:

 

 

 

HTH

ATB

Paul

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Free Gordon's Gin, I'll go for that!

 

I grew up in New Jersey, so English is not my native language. :LMAO: But, from what I understood, the quotation from the developers is pretty clear and helpful. As for the confusion between VAS and RAM, well, just start drinking the gin and soon you won't worry about it!

 

Best regards.

Luis