DX10 Scenery Fixer-Controller; all those FSX.CFG Settings?

[Kronovan 14]

I was using Steve's free DX10 shader fixers on Win7 Ultimate 64 with terrific results with FSX:SE. Either when I upgraded to Win10 or replaced my Video card, I lost in-cockpit shadows. So...wondering about the status quo of Steve's fixers, I discovered an updated and more feature rich version was being sold online again and bought the DX10 Scenery Fixer and Cloud Shadows patch without hesitation. I now have terrific shadow and lighting effects in my cockpits again and the sim overall.

Something I've noticed, is that when I access "Fsx Settings" from the DX10 Fixers Controller's menu, there's a lot of FSX.CFG settings, some of which I wasn't aware of. Some of them I've set, but over half are blank. I just upgraded from a GTX 680 w/2 GB DDR3 to a GTX 1660 w/6 GB DDR5, so I'm thinking I might need to set some of these or change them, but the "Avsim Basic FSX Configuration Guide" I originally used for my FSX.CFG tweaks didn't mention them. Meanwhile, a graphic of that FSX Settings form is in the DX10 Fixer manual, but no explanation of what the settings actually do?

I'm hoping someone here can give me some feedback.

These are what I have set in my FSX.CFG:

CPU Manages Buffers (UsePools=1)  (enabled/selected)
Graphics Texture Bandwidth = 4096
Texture Bandwidth Multiplier = 80
LOD Radius = 4.500000
High Mem Fix (grayed out, but set as "HighMemFix=1" in [GRAPHICS] section of FSX.CFG)
ProcessorAffinityMask  (enabled/checked)
Core1 (enabled/checked)
Core2 (enabled/checked)
Core3 (enabled/checked)
Force VC Shadows (enabled/checked)

I'm not sure why Core0 isn't checked under processor affinity masks - is that correct or a mistake?

These are the settings that are not currently set in FSX.CFG:

GPU Manages Buffers (UsePools = 0) (disabled/deselected) Should it be enabled instead of CPU Manages Buffers for a more capable Graphic card?
PoolSize = NOT SET
Reject Threshold = NOT SET
Display TextureMaxLoad = NOT SET
Swap Wait Timeout = NOT SET
Max Async Batching Jobs = NOT SET
Fiber Time Fraction = NOT SET

I don't have a powerful CPU or motherboard: i5 2500 @ 4 x 4.33 Ghz, socketed onto a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Sandy Bridge-DT XE (unfortunately a CPU and mobo replacement are currently a possibility.)

Any info or suggestions as to whether I should make change/tweak some of the FSX.CFG settings, would be much appreciated.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Kronovan

[SteveFx 258]

I would ignore most of  the settings that you list at the end as I am unconvinced that any apply to the DX10 engine - but who knows - if you want to experiment then feel free.

Display texture max load and the texture bandwidth multiplier are believed to form part of some equation to limit texture loading.

Your affinity mask is set to not run FSX on core 0 - some people believe that this is a good idea- others believe that it doesn't matter on a 4 core processor (i5) but does matter on an 8 core (i7).

[Kronovan 14]

1 hour ago, SteveFx said:

I would ignore most of  the settings that you list at the end as I am unconvinced that any apply to the DX10 engine - but who knows - if you want to experiment then feel free.

Display texture max load and the texture bandwidth multiplier are believed to form part of some equation to limit texture loading.

Your affinity mask is set to not run FSX on core 0 - some people believe that this is a good idea- others believe that it doesn't matter on a 4 core processor (i5) but does matter on an 8 core (i7).

Thanks for the feedback Steve.

I was experiencing some terrible performance after upgrading to my GTX 1660. It turns out that Ground_Shadows=1 was set in my FSX.CFG - could have sworn I'd disabled it. I wouldn't have noticed, if it wasn't for the DX10 Scenery Fixer's diagnostic finding and flagging it.  So thank you for thinking to build that into the Fixer's Controller applet. Disabling ground shadows improved performance considerably.

After typing my earlier post, I did recall there was mention of CPU Manages Buffers vs GPU Manages Buffers in the Avsim FSX config guide. After finding and reading that section again, it suggested that allowing the GPU to manage buffers for more recent gen GPUs might be a better approach. So with a video card now that's gens newer than my CPU and motherboard I enabled it. WOW what a difference! Features in my scenery that were previous frame rate killers can now be enabled without a single dent in performance. I get a constant  30 fps (Vertical Sync is set to 1/2 refresh rate in my Nvidia Inspector FSX profile) even when rollin my wheels along the roofs of skyscrapers in cities for which I have enhanced scenery. 

The explanation in the Fixer's manual about anti aliasing was very helpful, as it allowed  me to make my Nvidia Inspector profile settings symmetrical to the fixer's AA setting; currently set to 8xCSAA.

I've still got a few issues, i.e. my instrument panel texture sometimes disappears when popping out of my plane for an external view when flying within my ORBX EU Wales terrain. That hasn't occurred in any other regions, including those within my UTX Canada terrain coverage. It seems to happen more often when it's raining and cloudy and for longer when the both are heavier - that texture always does eventually reappear. I'm using Active Sky Next with the Scenery Fixer and have it checked in the 3rd Party menu. As well as TrackIR and Orbx FTX Regions.

Anyhow, I'm very happy with the look and performance I've managed to tweak out of FSX:SE. The DX10 Scenery Fixer is an excellent tool that really helped me get there.

[SteveFx 258]

That’s good. Some people have reported lags with texture loading when switching view that seemed to  relate to precipitX.

[Kronovan 14]

I don't own PrecipitX, but did notice it for free at the ORBX storefront. I mostly do bush piloting with floats and amphibs, so a lot of what PrecipitX has to offer doesn't have much appeal to me. I'll resist the temptation to download yet another freebie.  😎