Hey all,

 

Currently reinstalling FSX on a new rig. Is Venetubo still a good way to get a decent FSX.cfg easily? Or has it been replaced?

This seems to be the FSX configuration bible now, and for good reason...

IMHO and experience, Venetubo/Bojote Tweaks Site is still by far best for those using an ATI card, and Word Not Allowed's guide (above) is perhaps better all round for nVidia users.

 

But I would encourage all users to try both, and use what works best!

I'm against it as it throws in tweaks in your FSX config that could cause you more problems and you'll have no idea which one is causing it. It's a nice service though that one can try and could provide the best performance. Just be aware it is not the 'holy grail', the 'magic bullet' to allow you to run FSX at full speed ahead with all sliders set to the right. If you are going to use a tweak, you should have some basic understanding of what that tweak does. Word Not Allowed's Guide provides some of that explanation and where it goes. NickN, a FSX expert and Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) also has an excellent guide on Setting Up FSX and Tuning It - . The link posted by Fatback in post #2 will work but Word Not Allowed also has a website where this guide is posted and kept up-to-date - . I'm not sure if the other link posted above is kept up-to-date.

Best regards,
Jim

I wouldn't advice Venetubo because it does things without you knowing what it does. Nothing beats manual tweaking. And btw nowadays you only need very few (real) tweaks. Venetubo adds and edits way too much stuff imho. Of course you can give it a shot and simply remove the cfg when things go wrong or not as good as you hoped.

 

I'd also advice Word Not Allowed's guide.

Well it works for me. Kostas has a great forum post going which gives fantastic explanations of why this or, why that.... but what I've found... and no disrespect to those who write them... is that many of the tweaks are about getting better visuals without compromising the performance on systems that should (and clearly could) produce better. Whereas what I'm looking for is finding a compromise between "OK" visuals, and acceptable FPS and smoothness so I can enjoy the experience of flying a high end add on aircraft, on what is admittedly a mediocre system. For that reason... I stick with *******... its quick, its easy, it works, and without it, the likes of the PMDG NGX or J41 would be unflyable.

I'm against it as it throws in tweaks in your FSX config that could cause you more problems and you'll have no idea which one is causing it. It's a nice service though that one can try and could provide the best performance. Just be aware it is not the 'holy grail', the 'magic bullet' to allow you to run FSX at full speed ahead with all sliders set to the right.

 

Wise words from Jim indeed.

 

BTW, Nick N has updated his advice. It can be found here (3rd post from the top on page 3): http://www.simforums.com/forums/different-scenarios-different-settings-thats-how_topic41798_page3.html

I think it still is a good and stable starting point. I've followed the other guides too but, to be honest, none of them made it into my cfg in full. With Bojote's free service, offering an automated tweaking, a beginner can achieve great results.

 

The explanation on the values are stated on his site but may come in rather cryptic at times. However, since the main program and its dependencies haven't changed since years, the finds are still current and as dependant on personal preferences as ever.

 

It may be a good idea to read into all available 'guru' sites and guides as non of them may show the best solution but all of them allow you to find it. :smile:

The only tweaking I have done to my FSX is Venetubo, and FSX runs flawlessly. I recommend using Venetubo and then forget about tweaking and start playing. ^_^

The logical thing to do, is to delete your existing FSX.CFG and then start FSX, to generate a new, completely standard, fresh one.

 

Then, make copies of this as required and try both Bojote's (a.k.a *******/Venetubo) tweak site, and Word Not Allowed's and Nick's Guide, comparing performance and your satisfaction with both.

 

And use the one you prefer. :wink:

 

It is moot to state that any one is better than the other, as clearly either can work better for each user, depending on their equipment. In the past, when running nVidia, Word Not Allowed's guide gave better performance. Today, as I use a ATI card, Bojote's tweak service give me 40% more frames and buttery fluidity.

 

But run each of the tweaks on a totally clean FSX.CFG, otherwise comparisons become invalid, and conflicts can occur.

 

Happy flying! (...and tweaking!) :smile:

Thanks for the replies - The problem I am having is when I try to manually tweak the .cfg file, nothing is there!

 

For example, I seearch poolsize or affinitymask and those variables arent in the cfg?

I seearch poolsize or affinitymask

Some entries get edited, others are new and not present in a default fsx.cfg. Maybe that's where the confusion starts.

Yes, that's right.

 

Neither [bufferPools] nor [AffinityMask] entries are in any standard FSX.CFG that FSX creates - they are modifications that need to be added.

I tried all existing guides on 3 different systems, and Word Not Allowed's guide is incredible. It's hundred years ahead any other guide and It's much better than venetubo or Nick's guide.

Now I find funny that someone can have doubts about this, but you can't know until you try

I found with my 3GB video card that I got many OOM errors with bp=0. With Nicks recent bp settings I do not. This is due to DX9 mapping the gpu memory via the FSX address space.