FSX-SE Just a personal musing of FSX:SE

[spilok 1,136]

P3D V4!

[Donstim 109]

I would have thought, as a Forums Administrator, that you would have been aware of the many posts about FSX-SE's improved VAS handling (well, not exactly accurate, but I'll get to that in a minute) over the boxed FSX version.  You are right that there is a very severe VAS restriction for any 32 bit piece of software when faced with the demands of complex aircraft/scenery/weather in the midst of high def textures.  The boxed version of FSX made that restriction even worse by holding on to every bit of scenery you fly near, making flight time a very good predictor of OOMs.  What FSX-SE does that is different, in my understanding, is that it releases scenery details from the cache when it is a certain distance away.  If you watch a VAS log in FSX, free VAS just keeps shrinking throughout the flight.  In FSX-SE, however, free VAS will shrink, but will then recover as scenery details are released.  No more sure OOMs after X hours of flight!

As I've said in each post and in the beginning of this one, this does not fully resolve the OOM issue as FSX-SE is still a 32-bit piece of software and hence VAS is limited.  But it really does help, and for me at least, makes it much easier to complete a long flight in a complex aircraft (FSLabs A320/PMDG 737NGX) with complex airport and general sceneries (Orbyx, Blueprint, FlightBeam, FlyTampa, etc) with AS2016/ASA2106, on VATSIM.  I don't dread hearing that FSUIPC ping..ping nearly as much.

I've never been one to care much about frame rates.  I limit mine at 32 and am happy above 20-25 for takeoff and landing at complex airports.

[Bjoern 1,157]

On 9/14/2017 at 11:55 PM, SAX702 said:

Would you be willing to list this process with details?  Or, were you following instructions you found elsewhere? 

The only thing I can provide is pointers and only under the following conditions:

1) I've done this procedure exactly once after FSXSE's release and never again. Time kills memory.
2) You'll dig yourself out again if you screw up because I sure can't help you if MajesDGnado and Ultimate Global Genesis stop working as I do not have any of these (well, except UTX).
3) Steps one, two and three are the most crucial ones since they are your tickets back to FSXMS. You know what this means.
4) Self-motivation to use web searches in case of doubt, a high degree of common sense and enough courage to try to figure out the use of certain tools on your own.

 

So, assuming a rather simple installation and that FSXSE is installed (ideally not iin the default Steam library in C:\ProgramFiles (x86), but just about anywhere else) and works, the first thing to do is editing the registry.

First, back up relevant FSX configuration folders by making copies of them. You should know which ones. If not, stop right here, never proceed and look for instructions on how to replace FSXMS with FSXSE and start from scratch with all your add-ons. I'm serious.

Second, you'll need to run TweakFS' FSX Registry Utility (https://www.tweakfs.com/store/free_tools.php) and point your FSX registry path to FSXSE's installation folder. (This process can be reversed any time by pointing the tool back to the FSXMS folder.)

Third, set FSXSE's "Coexistence mode" to "Off", which means that the registry entry for FSXMS is used (which now points to FSXSE's folder). Instructions are here (the relevant part starts at "The registry editor..." and ends at "Close the Registry Editor"): https://steamcommunity.com/app/314160/discussions/1/490123832541365433/

Fourth, in the scenery.cfg, exe.xml, dll.xml replace any occurrences of the path to the FSXMS folder with the path to the FSXSE folder. Notepad2 or Notepad++ are great tools to use for this since their "Find and Replace" functions are much more powerful than Notepad's. This can also be done in the fsx.cfg for entries for non-default SimObject folders, although I do recommend to start over with that file, if only for the tweaks.

Fifth, copy over all nonstandard folders and any other folders containing add-on related stuff from your old FSXMS folder to the FSXSE folder. A side-by-side comparison of both folders may be necessary to identify what's custom and what's not. Mind edited default files, such as terrain.cfg or suneffect.cfg, so also compare by date. Replacing any default.dll and .exe files in FSXSE with ones from FSXMS will net you a FSX installation Darwin Award.

Sixth, start FSXSE to see if the path adaption procedure worked (no Scenery.cfg errors, popups requesting permissions for modules, etc...), then close it again and work the fsx.cfg. Stay away from tweaks unless necessary. FSXSE needs almost none.

And that should be it. Once thoroughly tested and deemed superior to FSXMS, you can delete the old installation.

 

 

23 hours ago, Mikelab6 said:

I am not 100% sure, but I think the FSX-SE can't run at 1/2 refresh rate. The box version can run it at 1/2 refresh rate of your monitor.

Both FSXMS and FSXME can be run at half refresh rate, but only when in full screen. Windowed mode is limited to whatever refresh rate the desktop window manager uses.

It's one of the tweaks I've been missing a bit since moving to Windows 10, but on the other hand, windowed mode has much better ALT+TAB behavior.

[David Vega 348]

Thank you Bjoern.  

David

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

On 9/14/2017 at 8:30 PM, Mikelab6 said:

I am not 100% sure, but I think the FSX-SE can't run at 1/2 refresh rate. The box version can run it at 1/2 refresh rate of your monitor.

Mike

I'm running 1/2 rate no problem.  Smooth as silk at 30 FPS.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

On 9/15/2017 at 0:15 PM, vortex681 said:

There were claims of double the performance over FSX for FSX:SE when it was first released but these seemed to be due to the "new install" effect. Once a few add-ons were installed reality kicked in. I've noticed a small improvement with FSX:SE but nothing that would cause me to encourage people to change if they already have a working version of FSX installed. In fact, when FSX:SE was first released someone from DTG said much the same thing.

I had the boxed for years...and after I ran FSX:SE with all the exact same add-on load...it was night and day in better performance, constant 30 FPS....totally like a new rebuild of the sim.  Apples to Apples.

[vortex681 806]

7 hours ago, Sesquashtoo said:

I had the boxed for years...and after I ran FSX:SE with all the exact same add-on load...it was night and day in better performance, constant 30 FPS....totally like a new rebuild of the sim.  Apples to Apples.

Glad it's working so well for you. But for most people there's only a slight improvement at best. Certainly less OOMs and maybe a little smoother, overall. I just wouldn't want to give anyone who's about to jump into FSX:SE from the boxed version the impression that they'll get a massive improvement in performance. When SE was released, there was at least one side-by-side comparison here on Avsim which concluded that there was little performance difference between them.

[eelb 5]

The big thing with me about FSX-SE, is that it freed a bunch of simmers that were hardware challenged for a decade, and stuck in FS9. You no longer need a super computer to fly FSX.

[mpw8679 428]

On 9/14/2017 at 6:55 AM, Sesquashtoo said:

Since deciding to try out FSX-SE, and in seeing how incredibly smooth it runs, and stays at 30 FPS for 98 percent of my flight ops....AND...how much I love the look of the water running under Steve's DX10 Fixer mods,  and finally, (this was so important to me,) for what I love to do in flight ops...that water taxi operations are life-like and need minimum throttle input to get moving, and to stay at real-world water taxi rate...well...not seen in either FSX Boxed, or any 32 bit P3D version that I have owned.

P3D v3.x bit the dust...was retired yesterday afternoon.  ORBX Central now has two entries....FSX-SE and AeroFly 2

Of course, my personal opinion, but in having run both of them P3D v3.2 and FSX-SE....the airport and telemetry (land-class/regions,Vector, etc) graphics from Orbx looks better, smoother, cleaner, slicker, under Steam's tweaked and cleaned up version of FSX, than what P3D gave me.

So....I run with FSX:SE, FSW (still a work in progress...), XP11, AE2, and will never delete, or not use; FS9.9999999

I think it is something to be said, that even when you have the space to let it sit...you are getting such usage and joy from an MS-based flight sim, that you can decide to delete an entire flight sim from your system.  In my opinion, that is saying a lot!

Cheers, and safe landings....

Post Edit:  I realize that I put this into the wrong forum...was wanting to put it into the FSX:SE/FSX Main Forum. If a Mod reads this...could you please transfer this into the target forum I had wanted to place it. This was my mistake...and thanks. :)

The O.P.

 

Where is this miracle setting u have enabled?

[vortex681 806]

On 14 September 2017 at 1:55 PM, Sesquashtoo said:

and finally, (this was so important to me,) for what I love to do in flight ops...that water taxi operations are life-like and need minimum throttle input to get moving, and to stay at real-world water taxi rate...well...not seen in either FSX Boxed, or any 32 bit P3D version that I have owned

Looking through the changes made by DTG to the boxed version (including the patches), there doesn't seem to be anything which would affect water ops - there were no changes to the core simulator functions: https://fsxinsider.com/fsx-steam-edition-and-boxed-fsx-what-is-the-difference/. I'm sure they would have mentioned anything which makes as much difference as you're seeing.

[mpw8679 428]

26 minutes ago, vortex681 said:

Looking through the changes made by DTG to the boxed version (including the patches), there doesn't seem to be anything which would affect water ops - there were no changes to the core simulator functions: https://fsxinsider.com/fsx-steam-edition-and-boxed-fsx-what-is-the-difference/. I'm sure they would have mentioned anything which makes as much difference as you're seeing.

I hope forum members don't take his feadback seriously.  Most of his posts are filled with false information. 

[mpw8679 428]

21 hours ago, Sesquashtoo said:

I had the boxed for years...and after I ran FSX:SE with all the exact same add-on load...it was night and day in better performance, constant 30 FPS....totally like a new rebuild of the sim.  Apples to Apples.

I find this very hard to believe.  What testing have u done to confirm your claim?

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

Mitch,

I merged your two similar topics together since they were basically on the same topic.

[vortex681 806]

20 hours ago, mpw8679 said:

I hope forum members don't take his feadback seriously.  Most of his posts are filled with false information. 

Were you referring to me when you talked about false information?

[mpw8679 428]

Just now, vortex681 said:

Were you referring to me when you talked about false information?

No I sure wasn't.  The OP