I have started to do this more. I have scenery settings files that are optimized for different enviroments (rural, urban, water), different times of day, and different altitudes. Right now I haveBalancedBalanced with light bloomLessonMaxNightWaterLesson tones down the scenery for smoother FPS during lessons (when Rod is asking you for the third time to increase your bank rate, you don't want any stuttering). Though Balanced is pretty much OK for lessons on my system.If I'm way up high, or want a nice screenshot, I try Max (everything maxed).If I'm gunkholing in the Bahamas, Water (highest water setting, more boat traffic).I'm sure there are more settings files that could be made for more situations.Of course, if you're into total immersion or realism, you probably don't want to jump out and load a new scenery file. But it works for me.

That is probably the #1 most unnoticed feature of fsx.I have different scenarios for different types of flying-scenic, mountain, water, ifr, etc. After all-if flying in heavy ifr with lots of low clouds that tend drag down performance but also conceal the scenery-do you really need autogen, light bloom, ground shadows and all those other visual effects that eat frames on when you can't see them? On the other hand-flying in rural areas with good vfr weather-time to crank them all up.How nice to change from one to the other with a click of a button.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

Yes, I have a variety of settings that I call up depending in the moment or the need. Like Geof I like to balance the settings to suit the weather, rather than the style of flying, with the exception of helo work which I always do at treetop height so tend to favour the autogen. If the vis is really low, then who needs 3d clouds? You can't see them anyway, so they go, along with the shadows and bloom and all the fancy lighting effects. But you need those clouds for gliding work, so off goes the autogen and down goes the texture res and mesh. etc. etc.The major disappointment with this excellent new feature is only that, despite all that, it still only picks up on a select few fsx.cfg lines and you can't make adaptive use of all the other tweaks.Allcott

I do this... Infact I was thinking.. that there should be a way of setting a profile...that the system (FSX) seemlessly changes it as per the settings.rule 1. Night/Dawn/Dusk/ = Bloom on... but lower the autogens..rule 2. Geography (coordinates) (photscenery) set FPS to to 20 otherwise unlimited.rule 3. Altitude.. at 5000...here is the profile. at 10,000 here is the profie.Rule 4. Weather or visibily :)Manny

Manny, this was the front-end menu system I suggested when FSX was first revealed - it would be of far more benefit to far more people than having the slider system - allow the sim to optimise itself, based on broad-stroke instructions from the user from a menu system that allowed you to set preferences before loading the sim.As Geof and others have shown there is ample justification for pulling the plug on autogen if you fly high, and use the 1m texture resolution. Flipside, down low there would be no point having 50 mile vis when you can only see about 12-17 miles to the horizon anyway. It doesn't matter what the METAR reports, the sim should compensate. At night, lower the mesh and the res, simplify the clouds, boost the light sources.Making this an integral menu should allow these optimisations to take place in real time, without a pause.SP2 ACES? Allcott

This is a fantastic idea. SP2? Heck it should be in SP1, but only if it won't delay SP1 any longer .... which it would .... so SP2 it is!Now that was a waste of typing ;-)Gary

Alcott,Yeah.. I kind of remember and then I think TDragger mentioned that they have incorporated somthing in FSX. OFcourse that was the option to change the configs and save different versions that you could load. MAnny

I proposed this when fsx came out but if I recall one of the developers responded that this would require a complete rewrite and would not be possible in the patch. It does seem though that a "smarter" rendering engine that would on the fly adjust scenery configs for best performance/looks would be the best way to enhance performance /looks of the sim.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg