A Guide to, Getting the most out of the PMDG 777

[Nyxx 6,993]

Dawn Start T4 Gate 4

Just after push back with GSX ofc

 

Taxi to 04L for take off(always check with flightradar24 for runways being used)

Great flight, lots of low level mist/haze.

 

STAR LINNG5, so P3D had to load the airport in even though I was turning away again to go on a down wind leg.

 

Landed on CYYZ 05

Taxing in

 

Great flight perfect fps at both airports. No dings, No OOM's

 

CYYZ is a big thumbs up from me. LOD for this flight was my normal 4.5 if  I had a Ding or a OOM I would drop this to 3.5, I have to for Copenhagen. CYYZ passed NP. 

 

What an aircraft the 777 is, was using FS2Crew for this flight might go back to not using it. As its very automated anyway. It really is the pinnacle of airliner aircraft we can  buy, even after all this time I was thinking "what an aircraft it is".

 

Might buy Montreal or Boston as Rich says it looks a nice flight.

[ST1322 10]

Hi David,

 

Great guide. I have similar rig but with gtx970 and more ram. Anyway, I'd like to share with you my observations:

 

LOD

 

I recommend people with OOMs to reduce LOD to minimum 2.5. Personally I see no reason going higher. If you have ASN on, sky is cloudy you don't see terrain anyway. When you land you are busy managing the cockpit and following atc. Reducing from 4.5 to 2.5 gives me ca 400 VAS. That's huge.

 

UT2

Many people use this add on which is great. I found that when I open second window to view AI it can cost me about 400 VAS. That's huge toll. If you have OOM never do that. It will kill your flight.

 

CYYZ

I don't have FT yet. I'm using modified afcad by Ray Smith. While GTA area is huge on VAS, huge. I eats more than LAX and EGLL

 

Very often people complain on OOM and don't take into consideration how much vas certain adons take. UT2 for example takes about 300 VAS. I reduced to 75 and got it down to ca 200 VAS.

 

My adons used

1. FTX Global, Vector, Open LC EU;

2. FTX Australia with all major airports + New Zealand;

3. FTX NA regions. Here I stop after global was released

4. Many Aerosoft airports - most enabled now but sometimes I disable.

 

After applying your tweaks I found that "missing" 500 VAS I sometimes missed (ok 200 for real as 300 is a security barrier).

 

And I'm using FSX. Wil move to prepared once it turns 64bit - if ever. FSX in DX10 with fixer works fine for me.

[Artur Munteanu 1]

 

 

Don't use DX10, I know some people say it help with VAS but when i tried it with the fixer on by two screens it was a mess. IMO DX9 is the safe way to go.

Just as I thought! Totaly agree with you. Why using something wich is not native for FSX? FSX didn't born with dx10 on 10 october 2006 (release date). The dx10 libraries comes out one month later in 30 november 2006.

Thanks

[curbz 22]

great job with the guide David, very useful.

 

A possible addition... in P3D changing COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1 to COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=0 gains a few more FPS with a marginal decrease in the VC quality.

[Raven9000 272]

Just as I thought! Totaly agree with you. Why using something wich is not native for FSX? FSX didn't born with dx10 on 10 october 2006 (release date). The dx10 libraries comes out one month later in 30 november 2006.

Thanks

That's why it's called DX 10 "Preview"...

 

Also, it came one month later to you, not to the Microsoft developers...

[Artur Munteanu 1]

 

 

Also, it came one month later to you, not to the Microsoft developers...

 

That's why fsx has been implemented for dx9 and not dx10, because the dx10 didn't exist on consumer when fsx cames out. And what arrive at the games developer was only some part of the library of dx10, and that's why was call "preview", it was not even a beta version of dx10. Is like when some aircraft developers put on a preview" of they're product: you can watch a video, but you cannot use it...

[Fi5kuS 57]

You can say what you want, but if you pair FSX:Steam and DX10 (which is really not that difficult to set up, again - read the manual!!!), you are close to the holy grail of VAS. To be honest, I don't know why I switched from it to P3D 2.5 where VAS usage is horrible, at least for me.

[jcomm 5,939]

While I did agree with most of the suggestions in the OP, I really can't agree regarding the "dangers" of DX10.

 

For me the Fixer did miracles in terms of visual quality and crispness, stability, fps, and no OOM or strange artifacts, but that's probably because I do not have an ATI card but rather a Nvidia one ?

 

OTOH my experience first with P3D v1.2 and the V2 ( which I actually returned ), was a total disappointment :-/

[Artur Munteanu 1]

You can say what you want, but if you pair FSX:Steam and DX10 (which is really not that difficult to set up, again - read the manual!!!), you are close to the holy grail of VAS. To be honest, I don't know why I switched from it to P3D 2.5 where VAS usage is horrible, at least for me.

If you read more carefully my post, I never talk about FSX SE!

On FSX SE insider FAQ it say:

"Is DirectX 10 or 11 supported?

FSX: Steam Edition will work on DirectX 10 and 11 although it remains primarily DirectX 9. As with the original FSX release some limited DirectX 10 functionality has been added"

Of course it works better with dx10, they have added some new library!  

Again: I was talking about FSX box edition (2006 release) with SP2 or Acc. pack.

[RudiJG1 172]

While I did agree with most of the suggestions in the OP, I really can't agree regarding the "dangers" of DX10.

 

For me the Fixer did miracles in terms of visual quality and crispness, stability, fps, and no OOM or strange artifacts, but that's probably because I do not have an ATI card but rather a Nvidia one ?

 

 

 

Agree and I'm running in DX10 with boxed FSX Acc. No issues, no problems, and with appreciation for David's guide to getting the most out of this wonderful 777. Thanks.

[Nyxx 6,993]

Your welcome Wayne, happy to help and thanks for taking the time to post.

[Raven9000 272]

If you read more carefully my post, I never talk about FSX SE!

On FSX SE insider FAQ it say:

"Is DirectX 10 or 11 supported?

FSX: Steam Edition will work on DirectX 10 and 11 although it remains primarily DirectX 9. As with the original FSX release some limited DirectX 10 functionality has been added"

Of course it works better with dx10, they have added some new library!

Again: I was talking about FSX box edition (2006 release) with SP2 or Acc. pack.

I think you need to polish up those reading comorehension skills.. see where it says "as with the original fsx release"..? They didn't add any magic "anything", that was already there from the start.

 

They started out with some dx10 support, buggy and incomplete, with the plan to complete/improve later, because hey, patches right?

 

 

Btw, great guide! Any such one for the NGX?

[frits1992 0]

David,

 

Just want to thank you for you're thorough manual. I just bought a new computer high end, and I was still having problems with my FPS. I was reading you're manual during a flight in the 777 from SBEG (Manaus brazil) to San Francisco. I implanted the settings that I could without crashing the sim and now my frames are hitting 30 fps already!!

 

I do have one question. I have a i7 Extreme processor (6 core), do you know what the setting would be for me at "affinityMask" to use all of my 6 cores?

 

Here are my specs:

 

Intel Core i7 4960X / 3.6 GHz 6 core

16 GB memory DDR3 1866

Sapphire Radeon R9 295X2 GPU 8 GB DDR 5

2x latest samsung SSD 1 TB

 

Again thank you for you're effort to make the best flight sim planes out there great to fly!!!

 

Regards,

Frits van Laarhoven

[Nyxx 6,993]

Thanks Frits.

 

About your 6 core. I will point you to the best man I know on the topic.

 

PM him

http://forum.avsim.net/user/227433-stevew/

[frits1992 0]

Hi David,

 

Thanks I will send him a message.

 

Frits.