3D Night Lights - Experience X FS2004

[WingZ 547]

Yes, and you get so used to 100fps, that when the ugly coding hits, it drops dramatically to...90fps or worse! :lol:

It is noticeable no matter what, no excuse for bad coding.

 

No matter... I am so smug that I have skipped over two entire generations of computer upgrade for the first time in 25 years, there is no way I want to pay for an expensive computer to see 100fps in FS9.

 

The next flightsim rig I buy is going to have completely different requirements because hopefully the next flightsim is going to have completely different requirements!

(And it probably won't run under WIN XP either!)

[FLEX1978 373]

Ah I see well perhaps I shouldn't have used the words 'bad coding' I actually meant the differance between Fly tampa's efficiant coding compared to some freeware that looks great but It is still heavy on frames.

 

One thing I do love about FS9 is that with modern hardware you can use some 'less efficiently coded' scenery and it still runs perfectly. definitely something I cannot do on my older rig.

 

I honestly believe FS9 was meant to be run on these high end rigs, FSX although it runs well, still needs that extra something before you can run it as well as FS9

[WingZ 547]

Agree... The hotter the computer, the better!

I wish I could find that wonderful graphic from Microsoft that tests "Your Computer" against the requirement for the then-soon-to-be-released successor to FS9.

It showed my computer (Yes the one specced under my avatar) waay over to the right from the minimum, and certified as "OK".

 

Anyway this isn't going to degenerate into a performance argument over the various sims, I trust!

You have to do whatever gives you satisfaction, and i am totally satisfied with my Flight Simulator, can't believe all the stuff that pops up for it every so often... and seems to run better and better! (Think Gutersloh, here)

[Appliance 51]

Couple of months ago I upgraded to a Haswell system. Still only get 30fps (locked at half the refresh rate of my monitors) but do notice more smoothness in cloudy skies ... yes!

 

What does kill FS9 performance is poor alpha channel implementation, 32 bit textures for 'superior' results and 1024 cloud textures. Dispense with those and you have a lovely smooth sim. As Microsoft designed it in fact!

[ematheson 19]

What does kill FS9 performance is poor alpha channel implementation, 32 bit textures for 'superior' results and 1024 cloud textures. Dispense with those and you have a lovely smooth sim. As Microsoft designed it in fact!

 

Right - but unfortunately, that is not what is slowing my sim. It's geometry doing me in. I use 256 clouds, I've resized all my AI textures to 256 as well, I've aggressively converted all my scenery to DXT3 and then checked the Alpha Channels - and I do the same thing for my planes, too (minus the resizing) - but I still don't get the high FPS I would like.

Admittedly, with an unmodded stock install of FS9, I get about 50 FPS in the Cessna, but that's it - 50 FPS - 65 if I look straight up. That's not enough overhead to run all my AI at an AES airport in the crowded european locals where there are so many large airports close together... In fact, that's really the main reason I don't use that stuff. I don't have power to run all the PMDG 737 at Heathrow with AES like some of you do in FS9 with such ease. That'd crash my computer - or at least get no more than 2 FPS.

 

FS9 is not some miraculously old software any goober can run - it's still a serious thing and my little laptop struggles sometimes. I would use a better machine if I could afford it, but I'm a broke college student. 

[Appliance 51]

 

 

It's geometry doing me in

Not sure I entirely understand.

 

Can I suggest before running FS9 you get rid of  temp files, Internet cache files etc. (CCleaner does a good job and is free,)  shutdown all unnecessary programs/services (many free utilities can do this) de-fragment your memory - ALL after a fresh reboot.  You won't get better performance but you will increase overhead and should see improvements in smoothness too.

[ematheson 19]

I already do these things. But performance dives as polygon count increases. Simply put, not all modern systems can handle fs9 perfectly and even now, 100 fps has a whiff of myth for some of us.

disk speed may be a bottle neck as well. My sim is smooth and attitudes free except during initial load of ai textures... for instance, flying into maiw nas whiting creates severe stutters while all the textures for the Texans and goshawks load, but is smooth afterwards.

[Appliance 51]

Ok ... but we have taken over this thread, which is impolite.

[FLEX1978 373]

Ok back on topic.. Has anyone tried it? I owned the FSX version and it was very good but hard on FPS, I switched over to FTX global which had better 3D night lighting with no FPS hit.

 

This does seem like a good option for FS9, the freeware version doesn't allow you to edit the lights

[alcanallen 0]

I can`t understand why folks bump up FPS to stupid numbers all you need max as far as i`m concerned is 30 tops!

[AndyPaul 11]

I have always used the free version from the Russian avsim site. Works with UT and covers the whole globe. Absouletly stunning. FPS? We are talking about FS9, I could run the worst coded scenery and still get 100FPS!

Dp you have a link to this free version?

[FLEX1978 373]

Dp you have a link to this free version?

http://www.avsimrus.com/f/fs2004-effects-and-addons-46/animated-evening-and-night-highway-34218.html?action=download&hl

 

It also works very well with UT night lights around Europe

[NJFlyer606 2]

Be careful with this addon. I installed this a few days ago and am now running into problems.

 

I wasn't too impressed and tried to uninstall. The uninstall did not remove the files from my FS9 folders. I did use the backup tool in the program and restored but still found the files in my FS9 folders.

 

I'm also having problems with my autogen bridges now. They only partially show up. For example, a road bridge across a river only has a few segments now, not the whole thing. This is the case for global autogen bridges, (regular, rail bridges and highway bridges). I hope I can fix this without a whole reinstall of FS9.

[gibaba 0]

Well! Our product does not modify bridges, streets or highways. Probably you already had this problem, or installed another addon that caused the problem. But anyway, since we received your email and we are analyzing the case.

bracket
beetleprint

[NJFlyer606 2]

You are correct.  This program does not modify the acutal streets or highways.  For roads or rail tracks crossing water, those bridges are controlled by autogen.  And from what I understand, this program uses autogen to place the lights.  Perhaps some things got mixed up along the way?  Could possibly be a setting in terrain.cfg hopefully?  Would make my life much easier

 

I appreciate any help you can give.  Thanks in advance.