>If someone uses the service and then doesn't pay. Or, if the>information they give the customer is posted. They do indeed>lose money. The imformation that they have compiled took much>thought, time and knowledge. Also, when they spend 4-5 hours>with someone one on one, that is $$. This is not FSGS's only>activity. They also help some very major FS>developers/Publishers set up screen shots etc. for advertising>their products.That is kind of obvious but if they didn

If ever there was a problem in need of a solution, this is it -- these forums would not be nearly as busy without the stutters/poor FPS/poor visuals postings. Good on them for doing something about this.The only thing which amused me a little was the reference to Aerosoft's use of their services to create screenshots. i guess that I would like to see a warning on packages such as this -- "All screenshots here are produced on a super-computer, but because we were still not happy with the performance we paid professionals to optimise our system. Your results may vary."

I am passing this suggestion along to senior staff for consideration. It is a good idea and one we probably should undertake. And... thank you for the trust.

When my 2.9Ghz/Radeon 9700 Pro runs FS9, I get super smoothness as long as the weather doesn't become complex. I use PMDG 737 NG alot, and the combination of those aircraft and ActiveSky 2004, and a few other goodies, and therefore the hit is significant for sure. I seriously doubt any fine tuning will help this. It is just too much work for this system. Now when the weather is really light and the scenery is not overly complex, we are smooth as silk. Also, I am amazed to here numbers like "4 hours" to fine tune anything. Is this trial and error? Make a change, run FS9, make another change? What could possibly take 4 hours? What's really odd is how the variable weather, the dense weather, can be brought in in a completely predictable way except for using offline user created weather, which is then pretty predicatable as to its effect on performance and smoothness.Doubting Thomas!

Pardon my ignorance!A company (in this case Microsoft) brings out a product. People pay for it and then forums develop to help one another out on issues regarding this product. The company itself (in this case Microsoft) does not care a flying pixel to offer support on various issues regarding their product, for that you have to turn to forums and endless tweaks and fixes on the Internet.Then another company (in this case FSGS) comes out and offer help to get your flightsim smoothed out and for that you have to pay. All credit to FSGS for their initiative and entrepreneurship but shouldn't the company who developed and sold the product be offering this kind of help - FOR FREE ...?And now people who have been helped out by the second company, could not even share the help on forums like this. And all of this while the company (in this case Microsoft) can not solve their product's bugs, errors and customer support.All too strange. Or maybe my logic is failing me.Or do we not know the difference anymore between content AND contempt?Just asking:-(

>Pardon my ignorance!>>A company (in this case Microsoft) brings out a product.>People pay for it and then forums develop to help one another>out on issues regarding this product. The company itself (in>this case Microsoft) does not care a flying pixel to offer>support on various issues regarding their product, for that>you have to turn to forums and endless tweaks and fixes on the>Internet.>>Then another company (in this case FSGS) comes out and offer>help to get your flightsim smoothed out and for that you have>to pay. All credit to FSGS for their initiative and>entrepreneurship but shouldn't the company who developed and>sold the product be offering this kind of help - FOR FREE>...?>>And now people who have been helped out by the second company,>could not even share the help on forums like this. And all of>this while the company (in this case Microsoft) can not solve>their product's bugs, errors and customer support.>>All too strange. Or maybe my logic is failing me.>>Or do we not know the difference anymore between content AND>contempt?>>Just asking>:-(>>Well some good points but I think everyone wants to earn money on what they do anyway. And time is money. It would be quite hard to spend 4-5 hours with a customer and don

Size does count - especially when asking your system to perform. After consulting with my hobby pals (some of them real techies) and tweaking my old PC daily - experimenting this and that I finally had a long talk with my Lady and got her permission to shell out XXX dollars from our pension fund, and guess what; END OF TROUBLE!!!With my new system there are ZERO frame rate or other problems. I can fly everywhere - even above Mega Scenery L.A. - S.D. with all sliders (including 100% AI traffic) maxed. My advise, get yourself a supporting wife, or loving dad or a well paid job and have fun. a super system, with 2 monitors, will cost you about $3,500.Here is what I got for my money;Processor; AMD Athlon 64 - FX51Motherboard; Giga-Byte FA-K8NNXP-940, Dual Channel DDR400Memory; Corsair, 2 X 512 MB 400Mhz (total 1,024 MB)Video card; GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, 256 MB bufferHDD; Western Digital 200 GB, 7,200 RPM, 8 MB bufferCase; Thermaltake Xaser III lanfireSound card; Creative Blaster Live 5.1DVD burner; PioneerCRT Monitor; 17" for panel, CRT Monitor; 19" for view - with 25" x 19" fresnel lens (Edmund Optics)Home built Flight controller; Hagstrom card 72 operations, including 2 way flaps, 3 Goflight modules for a/p navigation and radio, 3 axis + 4 button controller for throttle and rudder,O/S; WIN XPSeev

Yup that is the expensive way of solving it ;)

"Also, I am amazed to here numbers like "4 hours" to fine tune anything. Is this trial and error? Make a change, run FS9, make another change? What could possibly take 4 hours?"No trial and error. Much of the time is spent going through EVERYTHING on your system and verifying that all is well. If problems are found, they are corrected. This includes external programs, windows settings, virus scanners, firewalls, etc, etc, etc. Also, hardware is checked, drivers checked and tweaked as required, etc. All of these items can have an effect on FS performance in different ways.

Hey Mike. I too am a VERY SATISFIED user of FS-GS. Best money I've ever spent. Really awesome to finally get the performance on my Alienware and FS2004...ie: Everything maxed. Definetely, makes the flying a BLAST! Glad it worked for you as well. Just thought you'd like to hear from another user..instead of some of the negative stuff.Enjoy!Best,Dave

>Ley me guess, the poster is involved with the company... >This sound Hokey with a capital "H"...Buzzzzzzz. Wrong Guess! Thanks for playin.Next contestant.Best,Dave

>>by reading the info on their site I hardly feel comfortable>>paying for this.>>I too just went through this service and I too was EXTREMELY>skeptical as I was a consumer advocate for print publications>for years and this sounded VERY questionable but I was so>disappointed with FS9 performance that I gave it a shot. The>results speak for themselves. I have a solid system and only a>few add-ons but performance and quality STUNK. Now it's>fantastic. >>As far as what they do, it's a consulting service. They're>going to do something different based on every machine. For me>it meant moving FS9's location, making major changes to my>system setup, changing the way I was doing some things,>installing a couple utilities, removing some things that were>creating unknown havoc with my system and more.>>>i really dont know what they can suggest that would make it>>worth that much.??>>Think about this. The most important part to me is the>GUARANTEE the service and you DO NOT PAY FOR IT UNTIL IT'S>DONE AND YOU'RE FULLY SATISFIED. Why people have a hard time>grasping that is beyond me. FS-GS spent, at first (and more>later) 4-5 hours with me (that's not a lot per hour for this>sort of service) and, at the end, after I saw the clear>results they then said, "So, how do you feel about your sim>now?" My response was, "It's amazing. Night and day." So then>the question was, "Are you satisfied?" I said, "Absolutely,>how do I pay you?" That's how it went. I didn't spend the>money and then beg them to help me and get nothing in return.>In fact, I ran into another problem AFTER my service call and>they helped me with that for the initial fee. And yes, we all>could have lied and said, "Nope, not happy, sorry." But after>you see how it turns out, and it happens in stages so you'd>have to lie an awful lot, you can't help but pay them. Plus,>is that really the way you want to be? If so, are you the type>who also downloads pirated scenery or add-ons? The reason I>tend to be vague is I don't think it would be very fair of me,>OR TO ME, to have paid for the service and then to post>exactly everything they did for everyone else to benefit. You>want to pay ME? I'll send you some info. How's that? To rip>the service because you're not getting a free lunch just>doesn't seem fair to me.>>I haven't read the whole thread here but they're hosted of>SimFlight Forums and I've YET to read ANY post from ANY>customer who has not been absolutely satisfied with the>results. So think about that too. If this is such a>questionable service where are the unsatisfied customers?>These guys have been doing this for quite some time. >>All I can tell you is that I've been a network administrator,>have built my own systems since the early 80's, have tweaked>my systems endlessly to get the last 1% of performance out of>them and these guys knew FAR more about the FS9 performance>world than I could ever know. In fact, I would argue that I>made his job MUCH harder because I spent half the time>questioning everything he did! I also have a hard time LEAVING>things the way he did. FS-GS is probably MUCH better off with>less technical customers but they can also help technical>customers. And do not forget, this is what they do for a>living. Do you? I wouldn't tell you how to do your job. I tend>to assume if you do something 8-10 hours a day, every day, and>I don't, the odds are, you know more about that subject than I>do. The arrogance to think that just because you play Flight>Simulator a lot and know your system WELL, is just that,>arrogance and, to my view, if you've got it with respect to>this service then it's getting in your way just like it almost>did for me. As I said on the other forum, I had to eat a lot>of pride to try them but I'm damned glad I did in the end.>>As far as whether it's for you, talk to them. They'll talk to>you first, again, for free, and ask some very specific>questions. If they don't feel they can really help you,>they'll tell you that and you've lost nothing.>Agrajag....Man I couldn't have said it better myself! What a great post. I too have had to consult FS-GS(Micheal) after the initial consultaion...he was more than happy to offer assistance. Folks, basically if you use the service...you pretty much have continued support for your system as long as you don't make any significant hardware changes(motherboard) etc. Then even then, they are there to help if needed..albeit it may cost a fee; and it may not.Another caveat to the service I'm very happy about...I have a very smooth running system and programs..not just flightsim. And I don't worry about FPS..I don't have too. I have super fluidity when flying; so need to check framerates. Those that are expecting 60+ frames everywhere you fly....this is probably not going to help much. You can get those types of FPS's..but you'll probably get tired of looking at just blue sky all day The system unification has worked super for my machine(Alienware 51 3.0ghz 800FSb ATI 9800 Pro etc) When I'm flying around I have Ruud's textures, eddie dennies realscene or fsscene i forget. LAgos honolulu,RFP 2,Ultimate traffic..100% and real WX 2004 running external. Everything is smooth, don't know the FPS because I don't look. Don't need too, as long as everything is flying smooth I don't really care. Oh yeah, all my display sliders are maxxed. Exception being, ground scenery shadows(just don't care for them...although for testing had them on..no affect on smoothness. And my cloud distant draw is set around 60miles...visibility set around 40 miles..or is it the other way around. At any rate, I do have maxiumum on the clouds..just not distance. SO, again..I just have to say I'm one happy camper after using FS-GS. I've been tweakin etc on computers for several years; thought I was pretty educated as well..learned a lot! I don't have a computer background..fly proffesionaly for a living....but have always; and always will, enjoy flightsim. Thanks for listening.Best,Dave

The only reason your system run smooth is because you have a fps that is high enough to meat your standards on smooth flying. which means you get no dips to 10 fps or such. They are co related you know?Your eyes is very accurate in measuring the fps you get.For total smoothness you need a fps in games of 60 or more. At 80 fps it comes to a point where it

Ths is an interesting discussion.The service reminds me a bit of professional video calibrators. I have a widescreen projection TV, and I had it professionaly calibrated by a person who makes his living traveling the country and bringing out the best in RPTV's. A lot of people would think that this is a foolish expense, that there is enough information for people who want to do the tweaking themselves, but my experience was very positive and the difference was night and day. It gives you a feeling of comfort to know that the expensive TV looks as good as it can.This company seems to provide a comparable sort of service for computers. I tend to be pretty skeptical about it. I've been a comptuer hobbyist since the days of the Commodore 64, and I feel like I know my way around things pretty well. However, with my last machine, no matter how much I tweaked, there was always some frustrating occassional pauses or micro-stutters that ruined FS9 for me. So, despite the fact that my fps was good, it just wasn't that enjoyable or immersive to fly.I've got a new scratch-built machine now, and it runs pretty solid, but I'm tempted to try out this service just to ensure that my computer is all it can be. I will continue to watch their forums and reports here, and I might consider it once I replace the old video card that is currently serving as a bit of a bottleneck on my new machine (I am waiting for the next generation of cards).However, I currenly divide my time between FS9 and IL-2, so I'd want to make sure that the tweaks were benefifical to both sims (I can't wait for Pacific Fighters).Boy ... things were a lot simpler back in those commodore 64 days ....

One question I have is does he come to your house or does he do it over the phone? I'm in California.Thanks.