My Frames Per Second really take a hit when flying at nigh time. Yes, I have several addons that make my scenery more complex. I use Ultimate traffic, Ultimate terrain and BirdsEyeView. However, there is a big differecne between day time and night time. After I landed at KDTW, I stopped and loode out the 2D panel. At night I had 6 FPS. Then, using FS9, I changed the time of day to 12 noon. I then had 24 FPS.Do you too see this type of hit? Is there any one setting I should turn "down". Most of my display setting are set towards the top of the scale.Thanks,Jim

Try turning off the Night Lighting Effects in Ultimate terrain, and see what happens//

>Do you too see this type of hit? Is there any one setting I>should turn "down". Most of my display setting are set>towards the top of the scale.Try turning off:-"Add Residential Lights"-"Add Tunnel Lights" (more realistic as well)Try also turning down a bit some of the FS9 video settings, for example "scenery complexity" or "autogen density", so as to free some resources for the complex Ultimate Traffic night lightning.Marco

the latest updates for UT USA & Alaska/Canada give you less of a hit at night. Turn off residential lights to see how that works before you get rid of them completely

At night FS has to draw / create and texture every single object it does in the day time - then go back and add another texture - the light map - to everything which has lights. It must also change the visibility for each individual object based on the darkness.The way it's been explained to me is that at night FS can usetwice as many textures as daytime for complex sceneries.While we see less detail because of the dark screen - the computer and monitor have to do significantly more work - thus lower FPS.There are ways to minimize the impact - as shown above.I've found in busy areas I lose almost no visual impact / effect by dropping the Display complexity two levels.

That's an interesting take on the subject of night textures. I always prefer to fly at night cause i get better framerates. Here's me thinking black is the new black.