I am surprised that nobody has commented on this Blog from one of the MS Fsim programmers.===================================================================http://www.steve-lacey.com/Look under the entry for November 17th==================================================================Now - I note that there is a great variation is size of WAV files for all my a/c. I have WAV files that are only about 20KB - but I have others that go as large as 4-5 Megabyte.This is worthy of discussion.Barry

Barry,Thanks for the link. I knew one of the FS dev team guys had a blog but could never find it. I like the recent one also about the Render to Texture deal with DXT.

Just like everything else, if you want to improve realism by using more detailed (and larger size) files you'll pay for it with performance.I believe you can reduce sound file size by using the Windows Sound recorder (either make the sound sample shorter in length, or reduce the quality). I've been meaning to try it but haven't gotten around to it.

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!Agreed. Why?Merry Christmas, Donny:-beerchug

What he didn't note is that frame and audio stutters can also be caused by the cheap on-board sound chips on the mainboard that more and more users seem to be using nowadays. There chips are not designed to buffer sounds and certainly do not perform as well compared to a dedicated soundcard. A lot of developers, like PMDG, advise not to use on-board sound.Cheers.

>Just like everything else, if you want to improve realism by>using more detailed (and larger size) files you'll pay for it>with performance.>>I believe you can reduce sound file size by using the Windows>Sound recorder (either make the sound sample shorter in>length, or reduce the quality). I've been meaning to try it>but haven't gotten around to it.Actually, from a sound quality point of view - I have discovered that the largest sound files I have (all approx 4.5Megabytes) are simply the sound of the a/c gyroscope. I can easily do without a high quality version of that, if it were to improve any microstutters) Barry

I have a dedicated sound card -- but it is only a very inexpensive Creative card, nothing fancy like an Audigy. I don't know if it is any better than an onboard sounds system.Barry

As something of a sound enthusiast, with a home studio, I can assure you that there is nothing - nothing - in FS that should cause stutters in even the least remarkable sound card. It's only stereo waves, no surround sound, no direct EAX support, no fancy DirectX sound effects. Just bog standard stereo with average spatial separation. You can't even separate ATC from engine noises to feed direct to a headphone output, which is inexcusable for a modern game where audio is so integral to the illusion of flying - MS should have considered that simmers might want to use headphones even for FS2004 when they improved the ATC. Duh!So if the sound card IS causing a problem - and I know it does on some rigs, then the solution will probably be to upgrade drivers or buy a cheap inexpensive sound card. Very cheap. But some onboard sound solutions are actually better than many cheap soundcards and with their own chip have no impact on the main CPU, except to be properly integrated.But that is also the problem: Who knows what the next version of the sim will support? These blogs are great, but without exception they are providing insights into a three year old game likely to be replaced in six months. What we really, really need are some insights into what's COMING, so we can prepare hardware and software to suit. Native 64-bit support, native quadrophonic (minimum) or 7.1 sound support with EAX 4.0, support for SLI cards, support for dual processors and or hyperthreading. These are the things the blogs should be helping us to understand, or explain why they are NOT being implemented this time round. Simmers upgrade hardware to meet the new sim challenges, it's a fact. But this time round, and with the extra year of dvelopment time between version, the variety and capability of hardware is wider than ever before and it could be an expensive mistake to buy an SLI mobo with 2 SLI'd graphic cards if the new sim doesn't natively support SLI. Same with sound. Same with widescreen monitors. Same with a 64-bit OS or 4 meg RAM. There are many other items.Really MS owe the FS community more than a bit of bread tossing after their decision to change release schedules and not release CFS4. I'd like to think the blogs are an attempt to adjust to the changing situation, but they need to consider they are not doing enough. Now is the time to start leaking hardware configuration suggestions, not game details, just some well-rounded information on what the new version can and can't do.Allcott

Agreed Allcott, i could not have said it better myself..what I did experience tho is the fact that with a cheap soundcard or cheap onboard soundchip there is a fps loss of around 5, especially with more complex planes. If that has anything to do with large thirdparty soundsets (some more than 35 mb) or just the cycle time for the processor to process the sounds i don't know. I DO know however, after upgrading to an audigy ZS, FPS loss is minimal as the SPU (Sound Processing Unit) and the integrated buffers take the whole sound calculation cycles out of the processor cycles. Moreover, one of the best onboard sound chips ever to be implemented on a mainboard is the Nvidia "Soundstorm", but production for that has stopped and only older mainboards still have em. It has been rated as the best soundchip available and it even incorporates realtime Dolby Digital EN(!!!)-CODING, this means realtime (stereo)sound processing to dolby digital output.regards,Anthony

Allcott opined: "These blogs are great, but without exception they are providing insights into a three year old game likely to be replaced in six months. What we really, really need are some insights into what's COMING, so we can prepare hardware and software to suit." And I couldn't agree more. I really would like to replace my existing sim computer in the next couple of months, but with what? My gut feeling is that, just as with the past releases, there isn't going to be much, if any, cutting-edge technology with FS10. But, on the other hand, who really knows. I'd hate to build a box for all the latest-and-greatest and then find out next summer that we're still faced with the same old "stuff". Doug

>So if the sound card IS causing a problem - and I know it does>on some rigs, then the solution will probably be to upgrade>drivers or buy a cheap inexpensive sound card. Very cheap.>>>AllcottSound card problem? Try moving the card to a different slot and let XP sort out any IRQ conflicts. I found this tip here on these forums. Thanks guys - great improvement.Al

"I'd hate to build a box for all the latest-and-greatest and then find out next summer that we're still faced with the same old "stuff"."If I was a betting man I'd put a ton of money on all of us needing to throw more money at hardware... just as we always do with a new FS release. Nature fo the beast (gaming), I guess.Greg

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!I am just moving up to A Dell from an Emachines. Cost of Emachines $275. Dell $300. It belongs to my bro and runs the new Norway Scenery at 30 FPS- and I plan to lock at 15 anyway.Merry Christmas and a Survivable New Year:-beerchug

The "blurries" discussion on Nov 2 is very interesting. From reading that, I guess setting frame rate to "unlimited" is not a good idea.

Right on! I'm not spending a dime on addons, or hardware for that matter, until FS10 has been released, analyzed, and thoroughly evaluated on these forums. If it turns out to be worthy I will by an entire new, state of the art rig(probably Alienware), for simming only, with the best 24"+ wide screen LCD available.A year ago I bought a top of the line Dell with 2 gigs of ram, 2x10,000rpm hard drives, and an ATI Radeon X850XT PCIE Platinum Edition card along with the best 22" Viewsonic monitor available and was shocked and terribly disappointed to see that FS9 still produced occasional stutters and constant texture lags(I have very few addons)! It, for sure, is better than THIS setup, but nowhere near $5,000 better!!Scott