>Matt!>>You just gave me something to do this night instead of going>multiplayer and ruining an otherwise amenable experience for>the others....;-)>You shouldn't need to redo the autogen ground textures. Those are the ones that take a while to process. All the others should go real quick.Matt

Thanks Matt great site and work.

I just thought I would say, that tonight I ran all of these batch files (after of course backing up everything) and I did before-and-after frame comparisons using the exact location, time of day, aircraft, etc. settings.Everyone's system is different, but *IN LIMITED TESTING ON MY SYSTEM* I didn't notice any quantitative improvements. I even defragged after these changes, and rebooted between each test. I can't say enough, this is very limited testing, and on my specific hardware. Your mileage may vary:EGLL Baseline = 18.7 fps (baseline means all stock textures)EGLL with runways 25% = 19.0 fpsEGLL with above, plus taxiways 25% = 19.4 fpsEGLL with above, plus specular = 18.4 fpsEGLL with all (clouds, bump, etc.) = 18.6 fpsFPS was the only quantitative thing I could use to measure it with. Subjectively, seat-of-the-pants, I thought the sim panned a little smoother with the reduced textures, but it could just be me. Certainly it was not a massive difference. And definitely more testing is needed on my part.For my system, the #1 tweak remains the modified Autogendescriptions.spb file.And also for my system, the #1 frame killer is the default.xml file. I think a 5 meg xml file is a lot for any program to parse. I question that design choice. But I digress...Comments on the above?? I thought I'd throw it out there for all of youse guys to digest. :) And please...others try it too and post here.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

What does Bump and Specular means. What is the function of these files?? Werner

My guess is most of these texture reduction tweaks would be most helpful for lower end systems. Each one may not show much difference but using all of them seems to help a bit. But as you said, there are several other tweaks that do a lot more. I'm definately not making any claims that any of these will give a major increase in frame rates.Matt

Matt,just to express my gratitude for all your work!!!!Results with the batch files you've been producing exceed my expectations, and made FSX an even greater joy for me, and certainly many others!!!THANK YOU!!!

Hi, I looked at your page, and didn't see the instructions for where you place your batch files. Do you run them from the desktop?Thanks,Mitch R.

Hi Mitch,The instructions are about halfway down the page (make sure you're in the "FlightSim tweaks page" or whatever it's called). I'm at work, so I'm trying to remember what I did.Create a temp folder in your main install directory of FSX (by default C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesMicrosoft Flight Simulator X).....call it "Texturetemp" or something. Make sure you back up your original texture folders (I believe there are 3). Place the batch files and the tools NConvert and the ImageTool.exe from the SDK into the temp directory you created, then execute whichever batch files you want to use.Make sure you have a good 4 or 5 gigs of free space on your drive, and be sure to let the batch files finish the conversions completely. I think the batch file for converting the ground textures takes the longest, but most of them should finish quickly depending on your PC specs.Good luck, and if I made any mistakes in my instructions, someone please correct me. I did it late last night so I could have missed something....GG

Thanks for the response!I'll give it a go. FSX is starting to turn around. I now can have AUTO Gen on low and still pull off 10 FPS on the ground and 18-22 just after take-off.Let me tell ya...this is a far cry from what it was right out of the cellophane!Like 3-5....I remember wanting to celebrate with FS98 if I got 7-10 fps near about landing on my 1998 Pentium 200. Just for a fun note, my Pentium 200 system cost me nearly $5,000.00 and it couldn't even handle '95 or ' 98 anywhere near 30 FPS!!!!I'm no apologist, but FSX out of the box mixed with a few ten minute tweaks simply blows away in performance what the stick-man 'FS98 gave me with that $5,000.00 thrown at it.I'm content to run the thing throttled. The quad core or some single MHz monster is just over the horizon.Thanks for the batch files, and your efforts. Much appreciated. To you, and to all the tweak publishers.Mitch R.

>My guess is most of these texture reduction tweaks would be>most helpful for lower end systems. I think so. I guess my system is good enough that the resize doesn't make much difference to it. I really did think panning (from outside) was smoother, but I will have to fly some more to get handle on it.>much difference but using all of them seems to help a bit. >But as you said, there are several other tweaks that do a lot>more. I'm definately not making any claims that any of these>will give a major increase in frame rates.>No but it's worth a try. And it might help lower-end people, as you said.What would really be nice, is if I could find a default.xml file that gives good results. I have not tried the two you have on your page. But I did disable the default.xml file, and man, we're talking 40+ fps in FSX, and smooth too. But the drawback was too much for me, as I am an autogen junkie I guess.Why a 5 mb default.xml file?? That seems outrageous to me. And the performance hit that file exacts on the system is disturbing.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>What would really be nice, is if I could find a default.xml>file that gives good results. I have not tried the two you>have on your page. But I did disable the default.xml file,>and man, we're talking 40+ fps in FSX, and smooth too. But>the drawback was too much for me, as I am an autogen junkie I>guess.>>Why a 5 mb default.xml file?? That seems outrageous to me. >And the performance hit that file exacts on the system is>disturbing.>>RhettThere are several other default.xml files out there that should help quite a bit without taking away everything. But if you want to see 10 different gas station models and all the transformers, powerlines, etc., then there is going to be a hit. I don't usually fly very low so I don't miss the gas stations at all. But I don't want to give up the trees either.Matt

>>There are several other default.xml files out there that>should help quite a bit without taking away everything. But>if you want to see 10 different gas station models and all the>transformers, powerlines, etc., then there is going to be a>hit. I don't usually fly very low so I don't miss the gas>stations at all. But I don't want to give up the trees>either.>>MattOther than the two modded default.xml files on your site, do you know of any others? Where are they?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

for the autogen buildings, which files do u back up?

>for the autogen buildings, which files do u back up?You should backup your entire FSX/Textures folder and the entire FSX/Scenery/Global/Texture folder.Matt

Hello,Matt,Thanks for all this.