How exactly does scenery load?

[newtie 533]

Hi all-

 

I've got a question about how scenery loads in FSX. I typically fly on the west coast. Does FSX load KJFK, KFLL, ATL etc. in addition to everything else in the scenery library, or does it load that scenery when I get into a certain distance or something along those lines? I'm thinking about unchecking all airports/sceneries that I know I will not be close to when saying flying from CYVR to KSFO.

 

Also I noticed another thing regarding this process. On my very first FSX load, it takes a while to load FSX and all the scenery which is fine. When I close FSX and restart to begin another flight at a later time, FSX loads twicw as fast. What's happening here? Where is FSX retaining or writing this info that speeds load times the second time around?

 

Thanks,

Mark

[meshman 109]

...or does it load that scenery when I get into a certain distance or something along those lines?

This.

 

I *think* first load of the day is longer due to indexing of files. Subsequent loads notice that and skip that part.

[Jim Young 2,356]

There's a neat program on the Internet called Process Monitor - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx that shows everything being loaded during startup of FSX.  You'll be surprised at what's being loaded.  I'm flying here in the USA all the time and I see areas overseas being loaded.  Once FSX has loaded successfully, just click on the Process Monitor and then hit the Ctrl-E keys and that will stop all loading so you can go back and analyze it later.  It would be nice if it would just load those areas shown in your flight plan.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[anthony31 63]

FSX - Settings - Scenery Library - Empty Scenery Cache on Exit.

 

You should have this unticked.

 

Not sure where FSX keeps this scenery cache though (I imagine in a temp file on your hard disk) but when you restart FSX that is why it loads quicker the second time you run it.

[quantumleap 1]

FSX only loads in the scenery files for the areas you are currently flying in, so unchecking items in the FSX Scenery Library for areas you are not flying in will not help you at all.

 

Also the most likely reason that FSX loads faster the second time you load it during the day is that you are on a Windows OS like Vista/7/8 which has the "SuperFetch" service. What this does is keep executables resident in RAM if that RAM is not needed for something else so that the next time you use it the program loads from the cached version in RAM and not from the hard drive.

 

Jeff