Hi Guys,I'm new to FE2004 as I just purchased it yesterday. I have a few questions that I hope you can help with.1. Noticed a strange observation that may be the normal functionality, but I wanted to check. On the Flight1 site under FE2004, I saw the information about how the "terrain detail" slider needs to be set at "land only", and the "water effects" slider needs to be set at "high." I normally don't set them this way, but I did once FE was installed.The installation went good. I ran with the default selections the first time around, and generated my sky, clouds and water. I tested using the default Cesnna at several locations, and found that not only did my frame rates drop, but by quite a bit. So, I opted for the lower resolution cloulds, and dxt format to make it better. It did get better, but not to my satisfaction (meaning I had better results before installing FE. I really like the way the textures look, but I didn't want to give up that much performance.As a last ditch effort, I changed my display settings back to how I had them before:- terrain detail sider set at "land and water"- water effects slider set at "low"All of a sudden my FPS shot back up to about the same as I had before, and even a little better with certain cloud formations. I did appear to lose the FE water effects though.Anyhow, not sure why the terrain detail and water settings had that much of an impact on the frames. If there's something I'm doing wrong, I would be happy to know as I really think these textures are great, and ad a lot of extra realim to the sim. At the end of my note I have posted my specs.2. Is there an official support site for FE20043. Have there been any updates since May 1, 2005?Thanks in advance for any help.JohnSpecs:Alienware Area 51 : 3.2ghz processor, 2gb RAMNvidia Gforce 5900 ultra 256mbAA set at 4 (from the card)AF set at 8 (from the card)Renter to texture turned on in FSFPS locked at 25

it is strange that you have this problem with water effects turned on, let me ask you this, when you say your fps are good, what is "good" and when you say they drop a lot, what do they drop to?your computer is faster then mine but I have the same video card you do and I use full size 256x256 textured clouds and my fps are usually very close to 25 (locked at 25) and thats with water effects on.I do have my AA set to 2xq and AF to 4.it's no secret that water effects do cause a fps hit but it shouldnt be that bad. I think there might be some tweeking of your system that could be done to boost your FPS, go tohttp://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_topics.asp?FID=2and post this there, it's the Flight1/FE support forum.

As Spooky said, you will get a drop in FPS with the water detail on high as the features that it renders takes a little more power. The reason you NEED to have the setting like this for FE is because it has new water textures/effects and they will only be seen with this setting enabled. By having it off you don't get the effects of the water part of FE.With your rig you should have NO PROBLEM with the water effects on, either you desire really excessive FPS or there might be something wrong with your rig.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

Hi there, yes the water effects set to high does cause the fps to drop a little. That said; in practical terms, when inland it will have no effect at all, and when over water and with no land you will get very high fps indeed.There are some problem areas like Seattle where there is a lot of land and a lot of complex scenery.Most the time though it won't be a problem.Also, I would say you are running a fairly high AF settings. 8 times would kill my fps and I've got a 9800 which hadles AA and AF very well.Personally, I use 2x AA and 2xAF and going higher would certainly kill my fps. On my older card, TI 4200 I was unable to use AA or AF at all as it totally killed my fps.with my 9800 I have no problems at all with water set to high and still get good fps.Peter

For me, normal FPS is around 24-25 as long as there are no intense cloud formations. When it dropped, it went down to 16-17, and sometimes lower depending on the angle I looked at.Thanks for your note. I took your advise and posted in the Flight One forum as well.- John

Thanks Peter. I will try to move my AA and AF down a notch to see how that does. Seattle was where the largest hit took place, and it was on land, not over the water. I know that Seattle has inherent problems, but I did notice other FPS drops inland at other locations.I know I can't have it all, just looking for the happy medium.- John

You are welcome John, thanksPeter