Reverting to RTM - ? photo scenery patch

[STUART_H 12]

I am thinking of reverting to FSX RTM (from SP2) to try and see if that improves the problem I have with my lowly single core 2.4 ghz AMD ATHLON machine with textures not being able to keep up with the aircraft - ending in a mushy mess. Having read several posts on various forums, it would appear that ACES made changes to the texture loader in SP1/SP2 to better support dual core cpus, but that single core cpus actually perform better with RTM.However, I recall that MS/ACES released an early (per SP1) patch to resolve certain issues with RTM and photographic scenery. Only problem is that the patch no longer seems to appear on the MS Insider web site, and I was wondering whether anyone can provide me a link to where I might be able to download this patch?Cheers,StuartH

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

I can guarantee you that reverting to RTM will worsen your situation.There were substantial improvements in RTM frame rates when Microsoft released SP1. Less substantial improvements with SP2. (I develop missions on a single-core Intel P34 3.40 Ghz).Your problem is that your CPU is not up to the task. Nothing is going to change that basic fact. However, you do have options ... reduce sliders to eliminate all traffic (air/land/sea) and autogen. Reduce Scenery Complexity to Sparse.You should get decent performance at that point, although it won't be very pretty without all the eye candy. But that should get you through until you upgrade your box.

[STUART_H 12]

Kevin,I fully appreciate that my CPU is not up to running FSX with full eye-candy. I have already turned off autogen, reduced AI to almost nothing, reduced water to 1xHigh, tried running at texture resolution of 5m and 2m, Scenery complexity=normal, and although I am getting FPS in 20-30s (even on the ground), the sharper textures just do not keep up with an aircraft doing over 100 knots when flying. So flying jets just ends up with mushy blurred textures.I am aware that FPS may well go down with RTM, but thought it worth trying to see whether the change in texture loading introduced in SP1, may actually be causing my issue. I could cope with a few FPS lower, if it meant that textures kept sharper.How do others feel that are still running FSX RTM ?Cheers,StuartH

[Guest firehawk44]

I don't recall any photographic scenery being released when FSX was first released but any patch released prior to SP1 should have been rolled into SP1 and that's why they probably took the first patch down from their site. If your photo scenery is MegaScenery, there are certain settings recommended by Aerosoft techs which makes this scenery look better. SP1 resolved issues with the default scenery textures and enhanced the overall performance of FSX so I think you're making things worse going backwards. There was a patch released soon after FSX was released but it was not developed by Microsoft. This patch can be downloaded from the AVSIM Library and is entitled fsx_modified_terrain_cfg.zip. This was developed by Richard Ludowise and Luis F

[STUART_H 12]

Thnaks Jim,There was an issue related to black squares occuring in photo scenery (probably previously FS9 photo scenery like VFR UK). I managed to find an setup.exe via google, so could try that if I do go back to RTM. I am aware of the modified terrain fix which corrected land masses occurring in rivers if I recall.I think what I shall try, is to do it in stages, since I don't have a DX10 card (and its c**p in FSX anyway) or use the MS multiplayer I am not gaining much with SP2, so will roll-back to SP1 and try that first. Then roll-back to RTM and see what the difference is. Worst comes to worst I can always reinstall SP1.Thanks again,StuartH

[scott967 62]

the patch was distributed as FSX_patchsetup.exe and AFAIK, only replaced terrain.dll.scott s..

[McCrash 3]

At least use SP1.

[1mikel151 71]

since I don't>have a DX10 card (and its c**p in FSX anyway)I know several other simmers that run in DX10 mode and it looks outstanding and they get better performance, so that statement is false.You might need to look at your hardware more than whether you have SPs installed or not. I am running acceleration on an Athlon 2.4 and I have most settings mid to high, autogen at normal and locked at 30 and it does quite well outside of big cities.Regards, MichaelKDFW

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI-x16 / AMD

[Ray Proudfoot 8,927]

Stuart,Whilst I agree with others that your CPU is holding FSX back the problems of scenery turning into a blurry mess are almost certainly down to the graphics card and lack of GPU memory.When I bought FSX I had a lowly ATI 9800Pro 128Mb card and suffered the same problems as you describe. However, when I moved to a X1950Pro 512Mb (still AGP) it transformed the visuals and it was possible to fly low and slow with moderate settings and enjoy the views.What card do you have?

[STUART_H 12]

Thanks guys. Guess I should apologise for refering to the DX10 implementation as c**p, especially since I have nothing to go on other than some posts that I had seen.My graphics card is an NVidia FX7600 GT with 256mb RAM. I might consider upgrading the card alone to another AGP one with 512 mb, but am reluctant to spend out on just the card, especially if my 2.4 ATHLON single core is still going to be CPU restricted in FSX. I shall no doubt need to replace / upgrade my whole hardware within the next year or so, to get the most out of the next version of FSX when released. For the time being, I'll try things with SP1 or without, and see how I get on.Would welcome anyones comments that have rolled back or kept running RTM, as opposed to SP1?Cheers,StuartH

[Ray Proudfoot 8,927]

Stuart,if you can still pick up a X1950Pro 512 and the price is reasonable then consider it a short-term fix until you are ready to build a new system. Your Athlon could then be networked and used to run supporting software via WideFS. That frees up your main FS CPU to run FS and nothing else.I'd recommend you do not revert to RTM. SP1 improved things no end.Cheers,

[WarpD 824]

Just an FYI to toss into this briar patch... many developers are releasing aircraft/scenery which require SP2... some may even require Acceleration.The visual model of the aircraft will most definitely be affected if it's modeled for SP2 and you're running SP1.Your bottleneck is your system, it is not SP2 itself.

[STUART_H 12]

Thanks for the advice Ray.I have always been an NVidia user, and have never previously used ATI cards. How much different in performance do think would the X1950Pro AGP be compared with my existing FX7600GT 256mb? I have found an Novatech X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 AGP TV Out Dual DVI for GBP 57.48, which isn't too bad if there it provides significant improvement.http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?nov-950p5aOthers seem to be more arond GBP 100.00 !I don't have other hardware to network using WideFS, so could not take advantage of that.Regards,StuartH

[STUART_H 12]

Also what about a Sapphire HD3850 card with 512 mb v's FX7600 GT 256mb? This seems to support DX10 / & up to shader4 too.http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/Search...1652&CatId=2691Cheers,Stuart

[Ray Proudfoot 8,927]

Hi Stuart,I've been in the opposite camp. ATI for ages and only recently switched to nVidia. ATI has superior image quality but poorer performance in clouds where the 8800 reigns supreme. The more recent nVidia cards are probably as good as the 8800 but the latest ATI still lag behind the 8800s.On performance I saw no increase whatsoever in fps but as I was moving from a 128Mb 9800Pro running at 1280*1024 to a X1950Pro 512Mb at 1920*1200 I was pleasantly surprised to see no decrease in performance. FS is CPU bound so I wasn't expecting an increase. Don't be surprised if your fps doesn't increase but at least the scenery will be good and not a blurry mess.If you can get a X1950Pro for 57GBP that's a good deal. I paid 150GBP 18 months ago. If it gives you 12 months out of FSX that's not a bad price to pay.On the subject of DX10 I wouldn't worry as that requires Vista and a PCI-E card which your current system can't support. That needs a new mobo, memory and CPU.Cheers,