I had not thought about this issue for a while, but I discovered it again last night and it is time to solve it. I have all four of RealAir Simulations aircraft (SF260, Decathlon, Scout, & Spitfire). I can run all but the SF 260 with perfect smooth sim performance and frame rates up in the 40-60FPS range in the VC view for each aircraft. The SF260 shows steady frames pushing 60FPS, but I get frequent little stutters or hiccups with it (in turns or aggressive maneuvers in particular). I tried locking my FPS at 35 and then at 25 to see if there was any change, but I got the same result. When I get the stutters/hiccups there is no change in indicated FPS. It is almost like FS9 is playing catch up and loading something. So why would I have impeccable performance with the Spitfire and semi annoying performance with the SF260?! I can run the Spit all out and never see a remote glitch for a whole flight of aerobatics. I am using all default repaints and no alterations of any kind to the aircraft. Are the textures in the SF260 different or is there some other difference between the older and newer models that might trigger some kind of issue on some systems? Maybe I just need to do a clean install of that aircraft.Any thoughts?P4 3.22GB 400DDR Dual ChannelNvidia 6800GT 256mb

I have found two things that may help stop microstutters like what you describe, some of which are dependent on how the panel was programmed.First, are you using a Pentium-4 with hyperthreading enabled? With some gauges, there seems to be a lot of thread start/stop/swap activity, which forces lots of L2 cache faults in the CPU...the constant swapping of the L2 cache can cause microstutters. Forcing FS9 and its subordinate threads to run on a single virtual CPU will stop that swapping. You can do that by turning off HT in the BIOS and rebooting, or you can use the imagecfg utility to write a processor affinity mask that restricts FS9 to run on one vCPU, or you can use the Task Manager to set the processor affinity for the current session. There's lots written on all this elsewhere.Second, the PCI latency settings in your PC may be allowing the video card to grab an enormous and inordinate share of the PCI bus' access to the CPU. The default latency setting for most new 3D cards is the max (248), with everything else on the PCI bus running at 32 or even 16. There's a nice little freeware utility called LTCYCFG2 that allows you to reconfigure the PCI latency settings...I use 64 for my nVidia 6800Ultra and 32 for everything else. This setting killed all of the regular microstutters I was seeing.RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Washington, DC

I only own the SF260 and therefore cannot comment on the performance of the more recent RealAir models. After reading your comments I am inclined to think the problem lies in texture loading. As you are turning rapidly the computer is fighting to keep up with the change in textures and in addition maintain the textures involved in the VC of the aircraft you are flying. Why I think this may be the issue is that I also have Aerosoft's Katana which has something in common with the SF260, a glass canopy that is textured and reflective. The Katana is even worse because it is more detailed with animated vents, this will even cause a long loading time when changing views in the 2d panel or switching over to the VC. This kind of design makes for multiple polygons that have to be handled by your graphics card and take up space otherwise used for ground textures and the rest of the VC. Could be wrong but these two aircraft are the ones I most frequently experience the same problem you describe and the Katana is known for this because of it's highly detailed, reflective canopy.Zane

Hi .... ? (sorry but I don't know your name).From what you describe I would try setting gauge quality to "LOW" in your FS2004/display/aircraft menu. This usually smooths out the movements and you'll only see a very slight decrease in gauge sharpness.Kind Regards,Rob Young www.realairsimulations.com

Thanks Rob, Zane, & BobI just found it odd that I can run the Decathlon, Scout, and Spitfire with super smooth results while the SF260 was giving me a hint of trouble. Don

Hi Douglas,The Spitfire performs exactly the same with gauge quality high or low, because the gauge implementation by passes the normal graphical settings in FS2004. It only takes a few seconds to set gauge quality to low, or back to high again.Kind Regards,Rob Young

In general, I find the SF260 performs better for me than any of the other RealAir planes except the Spitfire. In fact, I get pretty spectacular performance from it. However, I find that I get some stutters with pretty much any plane when I start doing really dramatic aerobatic maneuvering. If I'm planning to really throw the plane around a bunch I generally turn the AI and Autogen down or off and set the weather to "clear". Also, you might want to play around with the TEXTURE BANDWIDTH MULTI setting in the fs9.cfg file. Alot of people recommend setting it to 200 or 400 but I find setting it to 80 seems to be sort of a sweet spot for my system and anything much higher seems to cuase problems...

Hi Bob:With respect to your ideas about 'microstutters' - how in the world did you figure out that with some gauges there seems to be a lot of thread start/stop/swap activity which forces lots of L2 cache faults in the CPU? I am completely dumbfounded about how anyone could make this determination. Can you fill me in please?

Wow!I just Emailed Rob with the EXACT same situation you describe.My Spitfire flies silky smooth. My SF.260 stutters.For a workaround, I lowered the Frame Per Second from Unlimitedto 20FPS. I found that 25/23/22FPS still caused the stutters.But, 20FPS made everything smooth.Here's what I wrote to Rob ------Interesting experience I've just had with the SF.260. Now, with the SpitFire, I canmax out everything, and all is smooth. I fly the 260, and in the VC, I get extremestutters (when turning). Here's the kicker. In my older PC, I would get about 15-20in the VC, but I'd never get stutters. That older PC had an nVidia 128MB 5200 AGPcard. It was a 1.7GHZ, 768MB RAM system. Not too bad. Now, with my NEW PC(a Dell) it is a 3.2GHZ HT, 1GB RAM, and the latest nVidia 256MB 6800 PCI express.For the first time, I can MAX out everthing in FS9 and I can get on average 30FPS.This is truly an awesome new PC. Everything flies smooth as silk. But, again, with the 260, I get stutters (only in turns) that I've never seen in my older PC.Very strange. I tried changing the VC gauges to low quality - no difference. I played with the gaphicscard anti-alias and ansitropic values - no difference - stil get the stutters. The one workaround is to change the Frame Rate display from Unlimited to20. If I change it to 25FPS, or 22FPS, I still get stutters - no as bad - but they'restill there. However, if I change to 20FPS - all is smooth as silk - just like all theother planes. Once again, I never experienced this level of stutters in my old PC, and I would neverexpect them in the newer PC. JerryG

My apologies. I just re-checked and setting the VC cockpit guage quality to Low does indeed eliminate the stutters! I'm flying with Unlimited FPS and average about 38FPS (again with ALL sliders maxed in the sim).JerryG