If I do a fresh boot with minimal services running, I would have to say my experience could be described pretty much exactly as yours Ryan. It is very easy to make the distinction between stutters and low FPS. I'm guessing I may be close to unified as possible, but as I say a chat is in order.Noel

Hi I would like to support other comments. Mike is a pretty smart guy. I had almost given up on getting smooth graphics from my notebook after trying all of the tips and suggestions in this forum and others. Its very difficult when you are starting from a pretty flaky beginning with a 1.6Ghz Centrino and a 16MB ATI Radeon Mobility (7000). Trying to get high frame rates is not an easy task and I regarded 15FPS with all the sliders to the left as pretty good going. Of course I could never use 3D clouds or Traffic or the sim turned into a slideshow. After four hours with Mike, I have still only have 18-20 FPS, but its silky smooth and ALL of the sliders are hard over to the right - including 3D clouds, autogen scenery etc. I get the best view from the cockpit that I have ever seen with this notebook and 100% Traffic also. A word of caution though. Don't go doing what I did to try to improve things. Just changing one setting (of the very few available on my video card), caused the machine to lock up completely. That's how finely tuned Mike left it. For my efforts I received a well earned rebuke from Mike - so I learned my lesson. Right now, I have just completed a 7hr 50min flight with the CitationX and JetLine4 gauges with real world weather and it was as smooth as silk - no stutters, just great scenery and the FPS counter turned off. PS I have worked with PC's for over 20 years so I am not a complete dummy when it comes to setting one up. Could I have done this on my own - well no. Somethings you just have to know about. Was the fee to high - well no, I don't think I would work for four and a quarter hours for $60.

Hi Jim,"One thing I am pretty curious about is just what software you are not allowed to have installed and are required to get rid of in order to go through with the system unification."......wondered how long it would be before someone asked this question. It is a somewhat sensitive area, but my belief is that Michael does not wish users and non-users of his service to go away with the impression that he is actively discouraging the use of certain software under any circumstances. For those same reasons I cannot make any specific comments other than to say that for the purposes of his 'system unifying' exercise and any effects on the performance of FS2004 in terms of the hogging of valuable resources, there is, as was my experience, a very suitable alternative. Having witnessed the results I can certainly understand why he would be reluctant to proceed if the prospective user of his service dug his heels in at this particular first fence. In your case, suffice it for me to assume that there is a strong likelihood that you will be all too familiar with this particular problem area and will have taken decisive / corrective action a long time ago.Again, I have to say that it costs nothing to have that preliminary chat with Michael. I thought, like Noel, that my system setup was already in pretty good shape, but I soon discovered that so much more can be done. For example, I would never have believed I could run smoothly with MS's default **clouds, with all scenery sliders hard right, 75% UT at Tacoma (previously 20% tops) and with AAx6 (previously x4) and AFx16 (previously x8). Pretty amazing really, but this exercise does serve to illustrate how much more can be extracted from our existing systems without necessarily having to adopt the relatively crude tactic of looking for solutions to performance issues in unnecessary hardware upgrades. I venture to suggest that those of you with the latest graphics cards, >3gig processors and fast memory modules plugged into the latest MoBos will feel very happy after this process is completed. I am delighted with what has been achieved, you are likely to feel ecstatic. A sound investment in anyone's book!Best Regards,MikeP4 2.4GHz (400FSB), 1Gig PC2100 DDR Crucial, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (Omega 2.5.36b), SB Audigy (5.12.0001.0443), Hyundai ImageQuest Q17 17" TFT LCD 20ms Monitor (1280x1024x32), Gigabyte GA-8IRXP MoBo, Ultra-Quiet PSU 400W, WinXP Home (SP1), DirectX 9.0b, AGP Aperture = 128MB-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**On the subject of clouds I have made a few further modifications to my installation which seems to work well as I don't like the default sky appearance (far too blue for the UK) - you might like to try this combo: First install the default FS9 Clouds (all except the 140 sky_*.bmp files), thenChris Willis (FSW)HiFPSv2.zip (cumulus dxt3, cirrus dxt3), and finally Nils Danielsson 2003fs9skytext.zip (140 sky_*.bmp files)... what a difference - now looks soooo real :)N.B. Archive also contains FS9 defaultsAs always many, many thanks to their respective authors.Cheers!Mike------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Mike,Thanks for the reply. I also use Chris Willis's clouds, but the 32-bit version. And I also use fs9skytext.zipJim

Mike, does everyone who signs up sign a NDA, or is the hush just out of consideration for the service? One can't help but notice the poverty of content when it comes to people discussing the actual SU process. Noel

There is no NDA. I'm not commenting on the actual technical specifics of the procedure out of respect for FS-GS's business, that's all. There's things that I do in my own business that I wouldn't want potential competitors to know about, and I know it's the same way with Michael.

Hi Noel,"does everyone who signs up sign a NDA, or is the hush just out of consideration for the service? One can't help but notice the poverty of content when it comes to people discussing the actual SU process.".....I bet most of us who have used the service would dearly like to help all our friends out there. My belief is that the advice given is based on exhaustive research, is carefully tailored to each individual system and consequently has value that can be regarded as being unique to the end user. It would be relatively easy to spill the beans, so to speak, but such advice taken out of context and given without due regard to the myriad other variables involved could prove useless and may, in fact, prove to be counter productive, if not harmful. We are all aware of tweaking tips that, when applied, proved to be valueless. That is not to say that such well meaning advice has no merit - clearly good results were noted on their systems and those of others - yet equally we are all too familiar with the expressions of disappointment by many who have applied such tweaks to their own systems and found no benefit at all.By now you must be aware of the almost universal approval of this service from those who have gone through the process. That alone must tell you something about the person who is at the helm. To me it demonstrates a growing sense of understanding and loyalty felt by the end user to protect the interests of FS-GS and what they are endeavouring to represent to their customers. This is not achieved by threats or coercion, but by an honest and knowledgeable straightforward process of detailed explanation. In a nutshell, Michael's approach inspires his customers to respect the fact that such knowledge was hard won after many years of extensive testing and experience and not just simply gleaned from trawling the forums. At the risk of repeating myself, I can only encourage you to contact Michael for that preliminary discussion before making your decision. There are already several respected names who have used the service and seem pleased with the outcome. We may take a pride in our efforts to tune our systems as best we know how, yet few would deny that we know everything there is to know. Nobody is suggesting that FS-GS have all the answers, but their track record thus far suggests they come pretty close where FS2004 is concerned and I applaud them for managing to package this knowledge as a marketable commodity.Mike

Mike, good words. As I mentioned, I am inclined to go for the prelim discussion. I have to find a block of time to donate to this. Hopefully the knowledge gained will be worth the time and cost. By the way, I mean to ask this question: now that you and others have been through SU, can you do the analysis and tweaks yourselves now? Could you do it on another machine? This is the most important consideration to me. Fortunately for me I have great perf currently in FS. But again, the knowledge could be worth it if it could be used to do my own re-tunes in the future. I think without this, it's a no-go for me.Noel

Hi Noel,"Could you do it on another machine?".....I doubt it very much. If the machine was built to mirror my existing system exactly, then maybe... assuming, that is, I can remember all the details of the procedure accurately.I have a couple of friends who live nearby and are almost as obsessed with FS as I am. Over the years I have helped them out a great deal, but this is a different ball game altogether. My fear would be that without the necessary background knowledge and in depth experience I would be applying changes to their systems that turn out to be quite inapproprate and unhelpful. It's all about balance and fine tuning methods tailored to match the system to which they are applied. That's why Michael needs to know details of your system build and how it is setup now before he advises you whether or not the process will turn out to be worthwhile. I tell you, it gave me a great feeling of satisfaction, knowing that I must be doing something correctly, when I heard him say with confidence that I could expect, at the end of the exercise, to run with all sliders to the right and max driver settings! Frankly, I admit I had my doubts. That week between the initial consultation and my scheduled appointment passed agonisingly slowly. I experienced emotional mixtures of anxiety (fearful of having to dismantle an existing stable and somewhat complex setup with which I was pretty content) and the excitement of anticipation borne from what was to come if his confidence turned out to be justified. As you have probably gathered by now, I was not disappointed ;)Go on, go for it! It's really the only way you will find out for yourself!Cheers!Mike

Hey guys, I think it's about time I bowed out of this discussion.I'm certain all that needs to be said to reassure those folks amongst you who may still be hesitating has now been said. I don't believe I have anything more to contribute and I certainly don't want to be accused of hijacking this thread which, quite clearly, is attracting a lot of interest.Mike :-wave