Another thread highlighted the possibility to disable Shader model 2.0 pixel and vertex shaders to get "FS9" like performance with FSX.Two options were mentioned: 1) globally disabling shaders 2.0 and above using the RivaTuner software 2) hacking display.cfg in the Flight Simulator X folder by inserting this under the entry for your graphics card:Shader20Plus=0UseShaders=0Following that, some people experienced all-white runway and taxi signs as well as glitches regarding wing flex on some aircraft models. Other people could not even find the appropriate section in display.cfg because their graphics card was not listed.In this post, I am going to elaborate more on the possibilities that you have with display.cfg and how to add a section that matches your graphics card explicitly. We are also going to use settings that WILL keep your signs readable and the wing flex working while still providing some performance boost. Ready for this?First of all, see if your graphics card model is already listed. If so, that's fine - but if not, we are going to add a new section. First, you need to find out the PCI manufacturer and device ID for your particular model. Open your "System" Control panel and activate the Device Manager under the "Hardware" Tab. Expand the "Display Adapters" tree, select your graphics card and use the right mouse button to open the context menu. Select "Properties". Select the "Details" tab and look at the string presented below. It should look something like this (this example is for my Geforce 7800 GS AGP)PCI/VEN_10DE&DEV_00F5&...Look at the 4 letters and numbers following VEN_ and DEV_. These identify your particular hardware. So I created a new entry in my display.cfg in the Nvidia section right after the first (generic) NVidia entry. Notice that I copied the 4 letter vendor ID right after the first leading 0000, and the device ID right after the 0000's following the colon. So this section will only match your particular Gfx card.;----------------------------------------------------------------------; NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS (AGP);----------------------------------------------------------------------[000010DE:000000F5:nv4_disp.dll]Shader20Plus=13UseShaders=1So what about this number following Shader20Plus ? Why the 13?It is a number that specifies the maximum permissible shader model inside the simulator. I got this from a (largely ignored) post in another thread suggesting to put a "10" here. This posting suggested that this is not simply an on/off switch but actually specifies a limit for the shader model version. Such version specifiers are often used in DirectX API programming - so his post actually made sense to me (being a programmer). A 10 would specify shader model 1.0 or lower (actually 1.0 is considered deprecated now and has been superseded with 1.1). I know most Nvidia cards support shader model up to 1.3 - Their 6xxx series DirectX 9 compatible cards also support 2.0, some GeForce 7xxx series cards even shader model 3.0ATI is slightly different in that respect that they support up to model 1.4 (all DirectX 8 based gear, e.g. Radeon 9200 and 9500) and 2.0 beginning with Radeon 9700, 9800 Shader model 3.0 is available in all the X series cards from ATI.So if you own nvidia, put 13 into Shader20Plus. If you own ATI, put 14 into Shader20Plus. I am not sure if Microsoft actually has 1.4 optimized shaders but we might as well specify the "right" shader version anyway.Leave UseShaders at 1, otherwise you would lose Vertex shaders that will be used for wing flexing and other animations. Now that we limit ourselves to shader model 1.3 or 1.4, you should set your water detail to "High 1.x" to get at least some water effects with shaders.You should have working runway signs, working wing flex, a generally an improved simulator performance now. It made the thing actually playable on my 7800 GS AGP model. I hope this guide was useful to you. Please report if this works for you.

Thanks for the tweak I now have everything working like normal and at FS9 performance.I was totally dissapointed with FSX DX9 default performace and hope it will keep getting better, Vista,DX10,.ect.Thanks again for your tweaks and all the other tweaks here your help is greatly appriciated.Thanks again,Jerry

For those adding a new graphics card to device.cfg: Let me stress that your graphics card's Vendor and Device IDs can only consist of digits 0-9 and letters A-F (so called hexadecimal notation). Do NOT confuse the digit 0 with the letter O, that would prevent things from working.

Forgot to mention what works now1. runway and taxi signs2. wing flex3. bridges4. cockpit glass textures5. wheels on airport vehiclesThis is just what I know about may be more fixed?Thanks againJerry

Can't this just be placed in fsx.cfg? Seems to work fine.Randall

>;---------------------------------------------------------------------->; NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS (AGP)>;----------------------------------------------------------------------Hey, this is great. I was one of those folks without an entry in the display.cfg, so this post is timely. Thanks!I have one question, however. How is it you devolve the "name" of the video card to put into your display.cfg file (in your case, "NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS (AGP))?In my FSX.cfg file, my video card gets listed twice (ostensibly because I use two monitors). These are their names:[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce 6800 .0][DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce 6800 .1]So would I enter either of the above (e.g., "NVIDIA GeForce 6800 .0")? Or should I simply enter the above without extra space and the ".0" or ".1" delimeter?Just trying to find out what will work exactly.Thanks again for a very great post, well summarized and explanatory!

HiThis is what the string is for Device Instance IdPCIVEN_10DE&DEV_0091&SUBSYS_81D41043&REV_A14&243D7BD0&2&0070Not sure exactly what substring I should use as it does not look similar to what you are describing.would anyone care to give me some help? ThanksBob

space that line out a bit morePCI VEN_10DE & DEV_0091 & some more insignificant stuffvendor ID is 10DEdevice ID is 0091so you end up with;----------------------------------------------------------------------; Your graphic's card name here (doesn't matter). It's a comment line;----------------------------------------------------------------------<000010DE:00000091:nv4_disp.dll>Shader20Plus=13UseShaders=1And regarding the other question: This has to go into display.cfgin C:Program FilesMicrosoft Flight Simulator X and not intothe FSX.cfg.Also beware: these <> brackets should actually be square brackets,but the forum software messes this up royally.

I don't think the name in display.cfg matters at all. it's a commentary to improve human readability only. The graphics card name FSX lists is likely taken from the DirectX API and cannot be changed easily.If you have one graphics card for both monitors, a single entry in display.cfg should suffice - it affects both outputs of that single graphics card.

And I have one more thing to add. How would you know what driver DLL to specify for your particular card?With Nvidia under Windows XP it is most likely nv4_disp.dll.[000010DE:000000F5:nv4_disp.dll]For modern ATI cards, I think the driver name should be ati2dvag.dll[000010DE:000000F5:ati2dvag.dll]For all other manufacturers, the main driver file name can be looked up with a tool called DXDIAG.exe (if you are lucky you already have it in C:WINDOWSsystem32). Otherwise it ships with the DirectX SDK.The main driver file name is listed in the "Display" tab under "Drivers" on the righthand side.Oh, all entries should be in square brackets, not these brackets < >.Did the forum change my [ ] into < > ? Duh... yes!

HiHope this helps this is what I did as explained by cbuchner1Your Device Instance Id:PCIVEN_10DE&DEV_0091&SUBSYS_81D41043&REV_A14&243D7BD0&2&0070You just add 4 0's before the 10DE and 0091 and then the nv4_disp.dllYou would end up with this if you have a Nvidia card:000010DE:00000091:nv4_disp.dllThis is what I used for my Nvidia 6800:;--------------------------------------------------------------------; NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (PCI);--------------------------------------------------------------------000010DE:000000C1:nv4_disp.dllShader20Plus=13UseShaders=1Hope this helps, it's not that hard if I can figure it outThanksJerry

Thanks for the feedback.

What is REMOVED when using the SM 1.3-1.4 level setting?(Just want to check to prove that it is in fact working for me!)DIrections followed, entry added to display.cfg for my 7900 GT/GTOI have bloom and 2x Max water enabled, and they still show up as expected. You may probably wonder, "Well, duh - you have them enabled", but I think the shader model 1.3 restriction would pull them out. Unless they are 1.3 compliant effects! Can someone shed light on how we can prove the 2.0 --> 1.3 shader tweak above is actually in effect?-Greg

I have the same question. I saw no performance increase after the instl at all.Tom

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mg video card. I assume that the following entry in the display.cfg should be modified:;----------------------------------------------------------------------; ATI Radeon 9800 ; ref#16973;----------------------------------------------------------------------[00001002:00004E48:ati2dvag.dll]Disable=1[00001002:00004E48:ati2dvag.dll.1]MinDriverRev=6.14.0010.6344AntiAlias=1Disable=2I have determined from the DirectX Diagnostic Tool that my main driver is the ati2dvag.dll. In this portion of the cfg file there is an entry "Disable=1". What does this entry do and should I leave it?I also have a second question. My computer vendor has just replaced my Radeon 9800 card for the second time. The replaced card was only four months old and went bad after I had made some tweaks to FSX. These tweaks included changing default.xml to default.bak, adding and changing the values of TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_....... and using the ATI Tray Tools to modiy the shaders. Do you think that any of these tweaks could have harmed my card?Thanks,Dan