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Guest Seahawk82

Where is it?

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Guest jimhetzer

I just got my copy of FSX today. And I really don't see why I bought it. #1. Where are all these amazing graphics? Everwhere I fly it's those same images that were on 2004. I bought fsearth. But running it on dual monitors just makes each blink as they refresh. Like right will update, then left screen then right screen. I am running with 4GB's of RAM on a Pentium 4 core duo. Radeon X1800 Crossfire. And I have fast Seagate drives.#2. Dual Monitor. I want to use dual monitors like you see where the screen is split down the middle. I seen in many places people talking about enable dual monitors. But I can't find the option. The software didn't come with a manual. You can go online and look but I havn't found an answer.#3. If I run in undocked mode, and I place things like the clock, Radio, GPS, etc.. on a second monitor. How do I get it to stay there when I restart?#4. Load time is terrible. I am running with the default settings, and loading takes about 3+ minutes if I change cities. And it's all just those same graphics from 2004.#5. I think I got screwed on FSEarth. Look at this image.. http://fsearth.fsutil.com/6a.jpg How does that work? I can't get the guages on top of google earth, and I can't get it's data behind in FSX.I download the new tree's and clouds patch so they are both smaller.But it really didn't help. Any ideas here?- Jim

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Guest Valkyrie321

You have two video cards that are in SLI mode, you will not see a performance increase by changing the resolution sizes of the trees/clouds. Your video cards are for the most part taking care of all of that.The amazing graphics are there, I notice them, most everyone else notices them... if you don't, then I don't know what to tell you. Simply saying "the graphics are better" won't cut it.Dual monitors is not an option that can be configured within FSX itself. Those functions must be set up through the drivers/software that came with the video card. As for keeping those instruments in those locations, again FS doesn't within program support them (to my knowledge), so you will have to put everything where you want it. I expect that having two monitors WILL degrade performance FYI.As for FSEarth.. #### if I know. I don't have that program.It sounds as if all your issues are issues with undocuments/supported features that FSX has never controlled (for that matter most programs either.) Those features and issues deal with refresh rates and video drivers/software, and are NOT an issue with FSX.

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Guest jimhetzer

Of all my friends and co-workers I have the fastest computer of all of them. What do other people do who arn't running a core-duo and fast harddrives when you need to change plane or city? Me I go and play guitar. Otherwise, I have to sit here for 3 mins while they load, and both of the screens blink back and forth. Constantly.God, this is so frustrating. This system cost me $4000 and I can't run a flight sim on it. 2004 ran fine. FSX is too choppy to use. I have went thru and made all the tweaks I could find. My video card driver is up to date. Bio is updated. Did a defrag.Worse thing is that I can't return this thing. I waited a year for this. I should have stuck with my $30 2004 Flight Sim I think.Anyone?- Jim

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Guest Valkyrie321

The loading? If you can't sit through 3 minutes of loading to fly hour long flights I think you need to reconsider your hobby. Seriously, 3 minutes isn't all that bad. Sure, it does take a long time to load all of the information, but consider what is actually being loaded into memory.Your issues with the second screen are NOT FSX's fault and rely strictly on your hardware drivers/software. It sounds like you need to up the refresh rate and/or seek an answer elsewhere, but it is NOT controlled by, nor should it be, by FSX.Your issues are mild compared to the hardware requirements that people are having to cope with. Myself, I run the program fine with a Radeon 1900XTX with 512MB video ram, AMD 3500+ and 1 gig ram. I get 17+ FPS over major cities with graphics pretty high for the most part. I am sure your system is doing a LOT better than that.

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Guest jimhetzer

>You have two video cards that are in SLI mode, you will not see a >performance increase by changing the resolution sizes of the >trees/clouds. Ok, I will restore the old ones back.>The amazing graphics are there, I notice them, most everyone else >notices them... if you don't, then I don't know what to tell you. >Simply saying "the graphics are better" won't cut it.Did you run 2004? Are select cities done in high res while others are not? I am flying around Cincinnati. The only different between 2004 and X is one building downtown. >Dual monitors is not an option that can be configured within FSX >itself. Those functions must be set up through the drivers/software >that came with the video card. But I thought that was one of the "Big Issues" with FSX that it had improved dual monitor support. >As for keeping those instruments in those locations, again FS >doesn't within program support them (to my knowledge), so you will >have to put everything where you want it. Each time? There is no save window location or anything? Like in Notepad or any other windows app. Where it will save last location.>I expect that having two >monitors WILL degrade performance FYI.I see all these people online running 2, 4, 6 monitors. How does everyone else do stuff like that? >It sounds as if all your issues are issues with >undocuments/supported features that FSX has never controlled (for >that matter most programs either.) I am not sure why you are saying that... Restoring window locations is one of the first additions to Windows 98. It's standard within the windows Gui even today. As for the multi monitors this product was pitched as having improved dual monitor support. Which I can't seem to find. Poor loading time is most definately within FSX.>Those features and issues deal with refresh rates and video >drivers/software, and are NOT an issue with FSX.My card is 100% supported by FSX. There are no updates. I am current. So these people who run with like four monitors where gauges are on the bottom, and they have a cockpit view. These people have to sit that long to load a city or plane then manually undock and move each gauge individually? I know that is how it was in 2004. I wonder why no one asked Microsoft to fix a bug like that.- Jim

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Guest jimhetzer

First off. I'd like to say thank you to you for taking your time to answer my newbie questions. Like I said I am one the first day of FSX.>Seriously, 3 minutes isn't all that bad. Sure, it does take a long >time to load all of the information, but consider what is actually >being loaded into memory.If I could see a difference then 3 mins is fine. But this is the same senery that was in the 2004 version and that took seconds. I don't know where the extra data is going. It's just the same bitmap image pasted on top of terrain. Also, I think that in my pursuit of higher quality terrain I am changing cities too much. If I could find one that looked like some of the screen shots I've seen I would just fly there then the 3 mins+ is nothing. >Your issues with the second screen are NOT FSX's fault and rely >strictly on your hardware drivers/software. I am not sure which issues you are thinking are related to the second screen. A program handling the placement of it's "child" windows is the responsibility of the parent app. That is within microsoft's standards of GUI programming.>I am sure your system is doing a LOT better than that.I think something else must be going on here. If people are running with much less and they are happy with it. I can't imaging someone sitting down and enjoying this app in the manner it runs on my PC. There has got to be something else wrong here. I am going to try to reinstall.Thanks again.- Jim

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Guest jimhetzer

I forgot to ask. Do you run full screen? Is there anything that I need to definately change from Default in the config of the app?- Jim

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Guest Valkyrie321

>Did you run 2004? Are select cities done in high res while>others are not? I am flying around Cincinnati. The only>different between 2004 and X is one building downtown. You may not see a large improvement of the city itself, however the buildings themselves should now have reflections along with high resolution DXT5 textures. This isn't to mention the better looking clouds, water, autogen and land textures that are used along with better aerodynamics. Everything was built from the ground up regarding this, so roads should be more VFR friendly to use as navigation landmarks etc. I can't specifically say much for Cincinnati because I don't fly there, but the areas that I frequent (Alaska, Washington and the Caribbean) look MUCH better than they used to.>But I thought that was one of the "Big Issues" with FSX that>it had improved dual monitor support. Perhaps it does have better support, but most programs themselves do not have options within the program to adjust these settings. These are done with the Catalyst Control Center in your case (or equivalant).>Each time? There is no save window location or anything? >Like in Notepad or any other windows app. Where it will save>last location.I supposed you could attempt to set the gauges where you want them in dual monitor mode and save a flight, making it your default. It "might" keep those settings, but I wouldn't know for sure. You will only know if you try it, but I would surely give this a shot.>I see all these people online running 2, 4, 6 monitors. How>does everyone else do stuff like that?I myself don't, and I personally don't know anyone that does... Most people that do however do run into issues, as with most other things. It will require you to ask people who definately know how these things work. I would do a forum search for Dual Monitors, check FAQs and whatnot.>I am not sure why you are saying that... Restoring window>locations is one of the first additions to Windows 98. It's>standard within the windows Gui even today. As for the multi>monitors this product was pitched as having improved dual>monitor support. Which I can't seem to find. Poor loading>time is most definately within FSX.Poor loading time IS within FSX, but that is a limitation of the program and today's hardware. It may get better, but I can't predict the future. Just remember that when it loads it is loading thousdands of autogenerated buildings, textures, airports, AI planes/boats/vehicles etc, weather data, and a plethora of other items. These things can take time.>My card is 100% supported by FSX. There are no updates. I am>current. Didn't say you were not :) Perhaps having two monitors also increases load times, but I can't say for certain. I know some people around here would know though.>So these people who run with like four monitors where gauges>are on the bottom, and they have a cockpit view. These people>have to sit that long to load a city or plane then manually>undock and move each gauge individually? I know that is how>it was in 2004. I wonder why no one asked Microsoft to fix a>bug like that.Like I said, I don't know what to tell you. I don't do this thus I don't have these issues. I can only assume that by rendering that much more information between two screens can take up to double the normal time for a single monitor, at least that is what logic would tell me... but I can't be for certain.

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Guest Valkyrie321

>First off. I'd like to say thank you to you for taking your>time to answer my newbie questions. Like I said I am one the>first day of FSX.Not a problem bud. We are supposed to all be here for each other.>If I could see a difference then 3 mins is fine. But this is>the same senery that was in the 2004 version and that took>seconds. I don't know where the extra data is going. It's>just the same bitmap image pasted on top of terrain. Also, I>think that in my pursuit of higher quality terrain I am>changing cities too much. If I could find one that looked>like some of the screen shots I've seen I would just fly there>then the 3 mins+ is nothing.It depends on how you fly and where you fly. For me, I probably wouldn't see a difference unless I had changed texture resolution to 2M and had autogen to normal. Anything less and it might look like FS9 with high resolution textures. With the new water textures, amazing terrain textures, subtleties in immersion like boats and reflective glass off of buildings, I could see perhaps how some people don't see a large difference. Fly in a few of the missions, you may be surprised at what you see.>I think something else must be going on here. If people are>running with much less and they are happy with it. I can't>imaging someone sitting down and enjoying this app in the>manner it runs on my PC. There has got to be something else>wrong here. I am going to try to reinstall.The important things that may help are NOT going to be the texture resizes from what I know. The important tweaks you should be looking at are the fiberframe and poolsize tweaks, and even those may have limited results because of the high end system you run.Question, what is your frame rate and are their any issues with stuttering or frame rates so to speak?

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Guest cwright

Jim, sorry to hear you're having problems. But if you don't see any improvements over FS2004 then something is seriously wrong. Take the generic ground textures. The FSX resolution is four times higher which means it shows sixteen times the amount of data. Be sure to set the resolution to 1 meter. The ground textures are staggering. If you're not seeing a big texture resolution improvement over FS2004 then something is definitely very wrong.It's not completely clear whether you're getting these problems with dual monitors or not. I would strongly suggest getting FSX working properly first in single monitor mode and then take it from there.There are several tweaks that can improve performance greatly (they probably doubled my frame rates and it's very smooth). Even with the tweaks FSX can look spectacular.I don't have a particularly fast hard drive and it's certainly not de-fragmented but I get load times around a minute. I would regard three minutes as unacceptable. Just bear in mind that FSX must load far more data, for example the high resolution ground textures.Don't give up. FSX should run very well on your system. Just find a good compromise with the sliders and consider checking out the tweaks. There's lots of discussion of tweaks on this forum.Good luck. Believe me, FSX is worth it.Best regards, Chris

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Guest Valkyrie321

I started thinking about the impact of a high end system along with dual monitors... this is my conclusion, and I would like to hear what others think.1) Having the scenery/autogen/etc sliders to even higher values than what most people like myself use probably means more load times because of higher texture quality and more models to create.2) Having a second monitor means that images are being drawn twice, or at least twice as much is being drawn, than before.These two things alone could be causing the issue.... with that said I wonder if throwing another gig at the issue might resolve some of the load time issues as well as stuttering, but then again something tells me that you are fine in the RAM dept.

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Guest Seahawk82

I am running FS9 on two computers (AMD X2 4400+, 2GB Corsair ram , Sata drives) each computer with two 7800GTX video cards feeding (7)seven monitors, 5 monitors for outside wiews and two monitors for the instrument panel.look over at the "Wideview" site for all your multi screen issueswww.wideview.it/ I have been reluctant to move over to FSX but under FS9each screen saves and reloads for each flight in their proper place,Load times are "normal" maybe less than a minute, (non FS issue you must tweak Windows XP to run only what you really need).I wonder if FSX will be able to give me what FS9 already happily gives me...mostly full sliders and average of 20-30 FPS on all screens.Allan "Seahawk"

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Guest LAzerxxx

Jim, To get your instuments on the scond monitor you have to:1: Go into windowed mode. {Alt+Enter}2: Open the instrument you want to move.{F1-F9}3: Right click on that instrument (sometimes you might not get the action window popping up if you click on the center of some, so right click on the edges).4: Select {Undock Window}.5: Move instrument to second monitor.6: Repeat for all instruments you have room for and still be able to manipulate the controls as needed.7: Go back into Full Screen mode {Alt+Enter}8: Resize all instruments so they fit your screen. (Sometimes they willbe ovrlapped, jut re-select thm and they wll show up on the second monitor).I have to do this everytime, it's a litte bit of a pain, but worth it n the end, as I don't have to constantly switch from VC to 2D.Now about your system tweaks, go over to the PMDG suport forums and look for Ryans tweak list. If memory serves me well, it is a pinned topic, so it should be near the top. I have heard many people say that his tweaks are spot on and that yo will et some pretty awesome frame rates afterwards, especially wth the system you have, I mean look at mine and I ran the demo pretty good.

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Guest jimhetzer

Seahawk, that is the type of system I am looking for. I run 4GB of Cosair Ram and SATA HD's as well. My frames do studder. I have tried between 17 and 30 FPS. And I have gotten the same results. I think there is something else doing this to my system. I am going to beat on it tonight. I am really thinking I should uninstall and reinstall something just doesn't seem right.Big thanks to everyone for the help!- Jim

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