Two configurations needed for FSX. Batch files or FSX Go?

[Ray Proudfoot 8,931]

I fly two types of aircraft in FSX. A specially tweaked PMDG 737-800 from FS9 and Concorde-X from FSLabs.

 

The panel I use with the 737 is very simple as the glass cockpit (Project Magenta) runs on a WideFS PC. So the amount of available VAS is quite high. This means I can set Autogen, Scenery Complexity and a few other settings near the max.

 

But with Concorde-X it does use quite a bit of VAS so these settings have to be lower to avoid running out of memory.

 

I could manually change these settings each time but I'm looking for a more elegant solution. One option would be to control how FSX starts by using a batch file with two options. On choosing either option the batch file would control the copying and renaming of fsx.cfg (and maybe scenery.cfg) so the correct one was active for the aircraft chosen. It would then launch FSX. I might even extend this to fsuipc4.ini as I auto-start certain programs through it.

 

The batch file would contain a pause command which would be active when FSX is closed. It would then restore the original scenery.cfg and fsx.cfg files and then terminate.

 

I hope all this makes sense so far. :wink:

 

I was searching for any utilities that might do this for me and found FSX Go. Would this suit my needs or is the batch file the best way forward? And does anyone else do this?

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

I'm using Simstarter for this, works very well and has a ton of useful functions on top.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,931]

Thanks. I've downloaded it and will see if it fits the bill.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,931]

I've had a read through the user manual and it looks perfect. Far more than I require but it covers all the things I need it to do. :Applause:

 

Thanks for the recommend. He even has a support here on AvSim. :smile:

[Ray Proudfoot 8,931]

This is a great program. I don't know why I haven't heard of it before. All set-up now for 2 configurations and a donation made to encourage the author.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

Hi Ray,

 

glad I could help. I started out with batch files myself, to eliminate cross-dll-incompatibilities. Additionally I used an external scenery library to limit FSX to only those sceneries I needed for the flight. Then I tried Simstarter and have been using nothing else since then. With a little extra work outside of the program I managed to get only those aircraft loaded that need the profile-specific DLLs. I like to think that all this greatly reduced my OOMs.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,931]

Hi nuitkati,

 

Yes, thank you for the recommendation. I have tried disabling scenery areas outside the area I'm flying but it's made no difference to available VAS. For example, disabling all my FSDreamTeam US airports when flying in Europe doesn't change anything. Oh, except if you disable KIAD the terminals disappear and you have to reinstall the scenery. Not good.

 

Do the number of add-on aircraft you have available really affect VAS? If for example I'm flying the B737-800 would I gain anything my disabling FSLabs Concorde-X? It's not loaded so how can available VAS be affected?

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

Hi Ray,

 

I think ( but may be wrong), that by leaving out complex airports on my flight path, the overall memory load is lighter. The other stuff only speeds up starting the sim, no other purpose. And I like to keep my stuff in order, so that no aircraft can be selected, that I didn't load the DLLs for.

 

As I said, it may be wishful thinking on my part that not loading superfluous scenery has any effect on VAS usage. The selective aircraft thing surely does not. But not all of the DLLs like each others company, so I try to load only what is absolutely necessary. Again probably wishful thinking on my part, but I seem to get a lot less crashes than in the old days.

 

Just an old habit of mine, to try and keep the machine tidy.

[flyinion 280]

If all you are doing is changing graphics options, you don't need anything fancy to do that.  You can save and load options right out of the settings menus.  I have multiple configs depending on where and what I'm flying and can load them in just a couple clicks and maybe 30 seconds while FSX reloads the scenery depending on what changed.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,931]

Hi nuitkati,

 

I think if you fly near a large airport your available VAS may well be reduced. For example EGKK-EGCC passes close to EGLL so disabling that may help. But I only have VAS issues when flying Concorde and I'm looking at SimStart to reduce my scenery complexity and autogen levels.

 

I have SSDs now so load times are great. And not having many 3rd party aircraft means it's more trouble than it's worth to disable default ones which may not be desirable anyway.

 

Photo-realistic scenery definitely affects VAS so disabling those ones will help quite a bit. I don't have any fortunately.

Charles. If you're referring to settings in FSX I'm well aware I can change them manually. I just want a better way of doing it and SimStart achieves that.

[flyinion 280]

 

Charles. If you're referring to settings in FSX I'm well aware I can change them manually. I just want a better way of doing it and SimStart achieves that.

 

I don't mean changing them manually every time.  I  meant that you can save multiple setting configs and load it each time you need to change the settings.  I've never looked at the SimStart thing though, does it automatically change your settings based on what aircraft you chose or something like that?

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

Hi Ray,

 

about the aircraft - I bought about 60 of those, so some sort of management was called for. I use the 9 profiles mainly to differentiate aircraft (props , jets w/o special DLLs, pmdg, aerosoft, captain sim, a2a, supertrafficboard, gliders, "others"). So every DLL/ settings combination is achieved individually and without interference. I did this by grouping the aircraft into different folders and Symlinking those (and the default) in the file system. Simstarter activates the correct symlink when starting the profile.

 

Scenery is controlled by the scenery sets (that I divided up by country and summer/winter), I set those up before each flight (if geographically needed).

 

Looking forward to the SSDs already, I'm all HDD. Just too expensive to switch right now.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,931]

I don't mean changing them manually every time.  I  meant that you can save multiple setting configs and load it each time you need to change the settings.  I've never looked at the SimStart thing though, does it automatically change your settings based on what aircraft you chose or something like that?

 

How do you load FSX using the required configuration file? Batch file? Once I'd seen what SimStarter can do it was an easy decision. Suggest you take a look here. http://aviation.pero-online.de/

[Ray Proudfoot 8,931]

Hi nuitkati,

 

I can see why you need SimStarter. You're making good use of it. :smile:  My needs are quite different. Just a 737-800 for most flights and Concorde-X when I feel the need, the need for speed!

[flyinion 280]

How do you load FSX using the required configuration file? Batch file? Once I'd seen what SimStarter can do it was an easy decision. Suggest you take a look here. http://aviation.pero-online.de/

 

I load FSX and once I'm in the cockpit I go to the menus and the popout that has "graphics, general, sound" etc. on it also has a "save" and "load" option.  I just use the "save" option to save specific configurations and then if I need to load something different than the current settings I just use "load" and choose the right cfg file.  It's not a full config though with all the various tweaks that can be applied.  It only save mostly the graphics settings you can change from within the sim plus a few bonus things like the texture size setting (1024, 2048, etc.) and any changes to texture bandwidth multiplier (40, 80, 120, etc.). 

 

So yeah, it is a manual thing in that it won't change the settings and load the sim in one click.  It's also not as manual as going into the graphics settings each time though either.  If you want some screenshots of what I'm talking about I can show you when I get home from work.