Just an interesting observation. FS Navigator which from a functionality point of view does the same if not more than the GNS 530, even with a docked window in view, absolutely NO FPS hit what so ever. I guess the gauge developers need better, more efficient tools.Hats off to the FS Navigator development team. Barry

>functionality point of view does the same if not more than the>GNS 530,I am not saying you should not congratulate FS Navigator team but comparison with GNS530 is rather strange. FS-Nav is a product that has its niche market. But last time I checked nobody flies a real airplane with FS-Navigator on board ;-)On the other hand GNS530 in FS9 is a 100% realistic simulation of its real-life counterpart. But only when you get it from Reality-XP - but of course.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

Yes I will concur with you on the realism aspect. But the container in which it runs in maybe the problem. If FS Navigator ran as a gauge, it would bog down the performance as well.But maybe Reality XP needs to look at the HOW side of what the FS NAV team did, in making it its own DLL and coming in from the Module side seems to be more efficient. Right now I can view FS NAV in a window completely independant of the Panel. Which for those of us trying to squeeze every FPS we can, it is efficient.Just a thought, would like to hear feedback on what others think!And if there was a device that had all of the features of FS NAV for a real A/C, GARMIN would be out of business :)Barry

Following up your cross posting at the Reality XP forum:Just an interesting observation Barry, the Wx500, which from a functionality point of view does the same if not more than (well, this is a unique solution), even with a docked window in view, absolutely NO FPS hit what so ever.Hats off to the Reality XP development team!FS Navigator is a different solution than the Flight Line 530XP. They don't offer the same. In one case, you have a navigation tool which provides navigation information integrated in the FS environment, on the other case, the Flight Line 530XP, you have the closest simulation of the real world GPS device available today.In one case, the goal of the product is to offer Navigation Information, on the other case, the goal of the product is to offer a simulation of a GPS working and behaving like the real world counterpart.I would suggest that if Navigation Information and function is the information you need from a navigation oriented product, FS Navigator may probably best suited for you then.Here is what Reality XP is specialized in:Reality XP provides leading edge training and simulation solutions for consumers, professionals and businesses. Our flagship products are Flight Line Avionics Apollo

Jean Luc,First, in no way am I indicating that Reality XP GNS 530 and other gauges are written incorrectly, etc. I really think Reality XP's add-ons are a great piece of work, expecially when it comes to realism. But when I display the guage (Like the default GPS 500 in FS) the FPS rate drops. It does this for the the Flight One C 441 panel as well. I am using the Parhelia in Tri Display mode, which is just awesome, but it is FPS aware because of driving the expanded view: 3078 x 768. Couple that with the other drains on FPS, and then you are stuttering. For landing you really need 16-20 FPS otherwise it takes the reasonable control factor / realism out of the experience.To me it is just a question of container. All I know is that based on my obervations the FS Navigator is also doing some pretty intensive stuff, like displaying the WORLD in a drill down interface. I am just recognizing the effort because it doesn't provide any loss of FPS, while doing some complex operations. Maybe it doesn't have all the Excess Baggage that comes with gauge development, I am not a Guage Programmer so I don't know.I am sure Reality XP has exausted all methods for optimizing its products. I just think that FS Navigator for what it does is efficient!Thanks for your explanation, it was excellent and very informative.Barry

Jean Luc,Update:I am going to look at the arrangement of my gauges since they and do some investigation as to what other factors maybe impacting FPS. It maybe because of the expanded view area and the placement of the gauges. I will totally agree that there are many factors. I'll report back to both forums my findings.Thanks!Barry

Hi Gary,I'm glad you have found my post informative and insightful! I agree with you, these are very complex subjects which requires "hands-on-coding" experience to better grasp the real implications and the intrinsincs of the FS plateform!Let us know about your discoveries and the Matrox video card!

Hi Jean Luc,Well, here are my findings:Currently I am flying in pretty mild weather. With the Parhelia card and the format being 3072 x 768 I had to reduce the size of the C 441 (other aircraft panels) main and sub panels to make the them fit in the center display. Two of the sub panels, I moved to the left and right display areas. Now the size of those two panels may be a little bigger than what comes out of the box from Flight One for the standard displays.For those of you that don't know what the Parhelia is, it is a card that supports three monitors (I have three 21" monitors). So I basically have my Scenery Window with once super size of 3072 x 768. Which means about 66% more area visible on my main Scenery Display Window. Pretty much my range expands my 9 and 3 o'clock position so I can see aircraft that the standard configuration would typically have to change views for.For the amount of Scenery Area it has to update, the card does pretty well. I do have to scale some of the sliders back a few knotches so it stays in the 18-20 FPS range.So what I really need to test is maybe reducing the size of these two sub panels and see if that helps the FPS. So it could be a combination of the panels being larger graphic wise and spread out over a larger area. I wish the A/C developers would be more display aware and set the screen accordingly. Many handle up to 1280 x 1024, but beyond that it all has to be retro-fitted (resized).So I guess at this point I have to amend my statement regarding the effect of the FPS with respect to the GPS (FS and Reality XP). But I am flying in a pretty desolate area, and there is not much the GPS has to do in terms of updating airports and waypoints in the display.I'll see what happens when I approach more congested area. But then there will probably be more A/I traffic as well.Kudos to FS Navigator and to Reality XP for great products!I'll update this thread with more discovery.Take care!Barry

"FS-Nav is a product that has its niche market. But last time I checked nobody flies a real airplane with FS-Navigator on board ;-)On the other hand GNS530 in FS9 is a 100% realistic simulation of its real-life counterpart. But only when you get it from Reality-XP - but of course."Hi MichaelI totally agree and don't try to use FS-Navigator as an unrealistic GPS substitute, meaning I don't have it display or follow my aircraft. What it does for me is provide me with quick and easy access to almost any navigation information I need, for the whole world. If I could afford a full set of Jeppeson (sp?) charts it would certainly be more realistic but FS-Navigator seems to be the next best thing, and compliments a realistic GPS nicely.David

>Hats off to the FS Navigator development team. Just for the record, there is no "FS Navigator development team." The program was developed by one person, Helge Schroder, who seems to have disappeared over the last few months...

In all thins nonone has mentioned that the choice of video card probably has the biggest effect on update rates outside of the sim coding itself. The Parhelia, while offering the three-screen solution for multiple display work, is actually a pretty poor gaming card according to all the benchmarks I've seen, and you would probably get better results with an AGP/PCI combination.In the near future, Nvidia will release their SLI solution under PCI Express, enabling the most modern cards to be combined for huge benefits to multi-screen gamershttp://www.nvidia.com/page/sli.htmlAllcott