I already have the PMDG 737 and it by far seems to be, for me, the most bug ridden plane I've got.  The frame rates don't so much take a hit (steady around low 20's on the ground of KSFO or Heathrow) as much as the textures "skeletonize" frequently.  Sometimes when coming out of a flight, the rotating plane screen will be blank, sometimes in a flight the textures will just disappear and on one occasion, my computer froze.

 

I'm not by any means trying to smear their work, in fact I've been tempted many times by their MD-11.  My question is, how will it compare, system resources wise?  Is there a good chance I'll likely have the same issues with that product as well?

 

I have the Majestic Dash 8 and it is by far the best plane I have.  Smooth frames, no odd issues but to be fair, it did freeze once over the Atlantic while coming back from St Maarten.  Otherwise, flawless.  FPS are at round 30+ in the same situations.

 

I have of all things an Alienware M14x with an i7 quad core at around 2.4 g, 6 gigs of ram and GT650m (?) about 1.5 g.  You'll forgive me if I'm not terribly familiar with the proper terms.

 

I tried *******'s tweak and while it did actually help by the flights seeming to fair better in regards to no weird textures, loading flights and coming out of them often crashed the whole program half the time.

 

Ultimately, my main question is how do you think the will MD-11 fair in comparison to the 737?

 

Secondary, I personally don't care much for having a super detailed (or any for that matter) exterior.  Is there any way to easily remove the exterior modeling to free up some resources?

 

Chris

Btw I see even on PMDG's own intro manual that they suggest using the HIGHMEMFIX = 1 in the graphics section of the fsx.cfg file.

 

Is this suggestion present under the MD-11 product?

 

Likewise, what program can I open this fsx.cfg file with?  It doesn't seem I currently have the right program to do so.  I can give adding it manually a shot instead of using the whole kitten kaboodle that ******* Altuve had sent me.

The PMDG MD-11 is an older release so I daresay it does not have some of the improvements to docing that were introduced in the NGX. It is a little heavier in the frames, but not by much. I get 25-30 at EDDF in the NGX and 20-25 in the MD-11, but if I didnt have the FPS counter active, I would not notice the difference, they both run smooth.

 

Having said that, the MD-11 is by far my favourite aircraft ever made by PMDG....it has a "soul"....it is almost alive....it will bite you if you do the wrong thing. Great fun.

It sounds like your system is struggling with the PMDG 737NGX, from the symptoms you describe (such as the skeleton etc).

 

Have you tried lowering your settings to see if you can find a sweet spot?

 

The MD-11 is about 15% easier on frames than the 737NGX in my opinion.  But I don't know whether that will be enough to give you performance that you'll be happy with.

 

By the way, the PMDG 737NGX really isn't "bug ridden" at all.   Clearly, you currently have issues with it on your system, which is frustrating, but It is an extremely stable and mature piece of software, for most users.

 

To open the FSX.CFG .......... you don't need special software, you can just open it using 'Notepad', a basic text viewer that comes with all versions of Windows since XP.     The first time you open the FSX.CFG just right click, choose "Open with..." then choose Notepad from the list.

 

In answer to your last question, yes you can remove the exterior model by removing the following line from the model.cfg file for hte aircraft :-

 

(example is for 737NGX)

 

normal=PMDG_737_800

 

So remove the above (make a back up first!) and just leave the 'interior....' entry.

 

Good luck.

The 737 is great; a utilitarian workhorse.  The MD-11 is panache itself: a quirky, eccentric character, full of soul...a living breathing thing.  

I hate to be the bearer of bad news again, but for the same money, as it is still expensive addon, you can get graphically up to date addon. The PMDG 737 is miles ahead with its immersion factor as it is built to satisfy today's demanding customer with its remarkably fine VC. MD-11 is five years old and it shows.

Btw I see even on PMDG's own intro manual that they suggest using the HIGHMEMFIX = 1 in the graphics section of the fsx.cfg file.

 

Is this suggestion present under the MD-11 product?

 

Likewise, what program can I open this fsx.cfg file with?  It doesn't seem I currently have the right program to do so.  I can give adding it manually a shot instead of using the whole kitten kaboodle that ******* Altuve had sent me.

take a look at this vid, it might help you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CamkeD1AhJ0&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL5ROzH49SRwu7a2CZFz3qR_3Htk1ZMkeA

Lol... there is so much in that video that I would challenge and disagree with, as a long term ATI user.   

 

As always whether it's Ksta, NickN or Froogle being revered, none of these guys can give a user a categoric, universal 'fix' for FSX performance.

 

Getting stable performance from FSX is a long journey of trying lot's of things and landing on a combination of the ones that work for you.

 

This video suggests use of Supersampling mode on ATI cards;  Supersampling on ATI cards looks beautiful, the AA is remarkable and is better than any nVidia AA configuration that I've seen IMHO ....... BUT....... at a huge FPS cost!!  (around 10 FPS on my system).

 

The most scientific that video get's IMHO is telling uses to enter the [HighMemFix].... that's about it.

I like the MD11 a lot. I have very slightly better performance in it than I got in the NGX.  The plane has so much soul, personality and character, she's a real joy to fly. I find the NGX to be more of a clinical, generic kind of experience. Not that the NGX is badly made, cause it's not. Its one of the best engineered addons for FSX. The MD11 is perhaps slightly worse engineered, but the experience of flying her is amazing. I highly recommend her

So far the HIGHMEMFIX by itself seems to have worked in my testing. As much as the attempt was appreciated, the rest of the modifications in the bojote tweak seems to have been causing some other undesirable issues. I'll keep on testing this small tweak.

 

That said, has anyone experienced the skeletoning or crashing with the MD11?

The HIGHMEMFIX=1 is a vital FSX fix that should prevent the skeleton issue with basically any FSX plane.

 

Only crashes with the MD-11 I have experienced were caused by corrupted user-defined panel states (not the default states).

 

So no "real" issues specific to the MD-11.

Btw I see even on PMDG's own intro manual that they suggest using the HIGHMEMFIX = 1 in the graphics section of the fsx.cfg file.

 

Is this suggestion present under the MD-11 product?

 

Likewise, what program can I open this fsx.cfg file with?  It doesn't seem I currently have the right program to do so.  I can give adding it manually a shot instead of using the whole kitten kaboodle that ******* Altuve had sent me.

notepad, or any other text editor of your choice

 

I already have the PMDG 737 and it by far seems to be, for me, the most bug ridden plane I've got.  The frame rates don't so much take a hit (steady around low 20's on the ground of KSFO or Heathrow) as much as the textures "skeletonize" frequently.  Sometimes when coming out of a flight, the rotating plane screen will be blank, sometimes in a flight the textures will just disappear and on one occasion, my computer froze.

 

I'm not by any means trying to smear their work, in fact I've been tempted many times by their MD-11.  My question is, how will it compare, system resources wise?  Is there a good chance I'll likely have the same issues with that product as well?

 

I have the Majestic Dash 8 and it is by far the best plane I have.  Smooth frames, no odd issues but to be fair, it did freeze once over the Atlantic while coming back from St Maarten.  Otherwise, flawless.  FPS are at round 30+ in the same situations.

 

I have of all things an Alienware M14x with an i7 quad core at around 2.4 g, 6 gigs of ram and GT650m (?) about 1.5 g.  You'll forgive me if I'm not terribly familiar with the proper terms.

 

I tried *******'s tweak and while it did actually help by the flights seeming to fair better in regards to no weird textures, loading flights and coming out of them often crashed the whole program half the time.

 

Ultimately, my main question is how do you think the will MD-11 fair in comparison to the 737?

 

Secondary, I personally don't care much for having a super detailed (or any for that matter) exterior.  Is there any way to easily remove the exterior modeling to free up some resources?

 

Chris

 

 

The Majestic q400 is great on the frames because just about everything is run outside of FSX.  I stay locked at 30 no matter what in that plane. I know your not going to want to hear this but I suggest building a desktop if you want to go all out with FSX.