pastorpilot

I turned off every other application (via msconfig) and still have the pauses. ... I regularly do a "name defrag" with O & O Defragmenter version 8.5. ... I have two drives, one reserved for FSX. It is a Seagate 300 gig 7200 rpm drive about 3 years old and am not able to quickly find further documentation on it. It is right at one half full. ... I am using and E6700 Core 2 Duo running at 3.6 ghz. ... I watch the performance monitor and never get close to using all the physical memory. I'm thinking my problem may be the drive itself. Where can I find information on how to adjust the BIOS settings for the drive if that is my problem? I've never done any work on the HDD in the BIOS. Thanks. Steve

Hi Bob, Thanks for info. I wish I knew how to check my hard drive situation/controller etc. Yes, I was wondering if it was something mechanical with the dirve. I have FSX on its own drive, a basic 7200 Seagate 300 gig ... not a raptor or RAID or anything like that. Its about 3 years old. I've been having this problem for a long time ... like 2 years. I finally got fed up with it.Pretty impressive signature, you have. I am a real world little airplane pilot, but I earned an ATP one time from the director of the Purdue University Flight Program. That was just in a light twin, though. Also my amateur call is N4PP. I am near Indianapolis, and my wife and I are vacationing in Colorado for about 10 days after Sept. 18.Thanks again for your reply ... If there is a link anywhere to how to check out the drive situation, controller, etc. I'd appreciate it.

Thanks so much for some good suggestions, guys. CoolIP's suggestions look good ... but I don't know how to follow them. I can use the windows performance monitor, but not being a techie, I don't know how to follow the rest. I'm not afraid to go into the BIOS as when I overclocked, but I know nothing of HDD access and AHCI. Also don't know how to see which files are being written in the 1/2 to 2 second pauses.vgbaron's thoughts seem valid as well. I have about 20 things that are running on startup according to the msconfig program I'll work with that. I'd like to stop them all, but I'm not smart enough to know if there is anything on the startup that will cause the computer not to boot. I'll work on this one. I wouldn't think so. So far as services ... are services a potential issue here, or are they just memory eaters? I shut down about 11 as per NickN's instructions for tuning Windows XP ... mine professional version, 32bit. But there are still about 108 of those running. And I don't have a clue as to which are critical. I used to use FSAutostart in FS-9 to shut down applications and services. I downloaded a little program named "game booster" and it shuts down a mixture of about 25 aps and services.Ian'spoint about the page file is not an issue, I don't think. Of course XP32bit will not run more than about 2.75 gigs memory even with the "switch" activated. But I have never gotten "0ut of memory" error messages. I don't think it is going to the page file, but I will run the monitor while FSX is in window mode just to be sure.

Actually, years ago ... maybe a full year before FSX was released, Microsoft released picture indicating that such effects and similar ones [such as "God" rays] would be part of the simulator clouds and sun. The lead developer explained to this forum that many things were cut from the original plan and left lying on the floor for future editions [which, of course, are not forthcoming because of the closure of the studio]. It was months after the simulator was released, that the same misleading pictures remained posted on a Microsoft website. Finally they were deleted. If any developers could work something out like that, I would "woof it up" with you in a heartbeat.

Thanks Glen, I agree completely. I really appreciate you sharing that file with me. I may well use it. But still, I'm almost certain, that someone had a file modification to make the sun smaller. Anyone out there have that ... or remember??

Thanks very much, "glen1958." I downloaded that file, but I have not installed it yet. In the screenshots, the sun looks MUCH better, but I can't tell for sure if it has been reduced in diameter. It doesn't look like it is, to me. Do you know if it shows up smaller, as well? If so this would be the perfect solution. I would like a nice looking sun with the rays, but S M A L L E R at the same time.

Friends, This was addressed a couple of years ago, or so. But I can't seem to bring it up on the search engine. I'd love to reduce the circumference of the sun. I think its been done, but I can't find the post(s). Does anyone know? Thank you, Steve

Thanks very much, Peter. No, unfortunately, that is not it. This comment was not in his well known Set-up topic on SimForums. I was not about performance, but stutters. I'm all but certain that this comment by Nick was more recent than that. Maybe not. But in any event I cannot remember whether it was Nick's own thread or a comment he made on another one. The gist of it, as I remember was that such and such a tweak [turning something completely off, I think] could result in a stutter reduction -- not an FPS issue, just a little better smoothness. I read it last week and forgot to bookmark it, and now I can't remember.Edit: I think you may be right after all Peter. Thank you. Here is the paragraph I was looking for, I think:"Cars are the primary perf killer. Ships and boats do present more for the system to deal with but most can run ships and boats between 15-25% without any problems. Cars on the other hand will create micro stutters in some areas depending on the hardware and addons like UTX must be used with caution due to how they can change car traffic behavior with their updates. Their UTX USA 1.2 update added cars to all side roads and in order to make that work they had to deal with a bug in FSX which removed the ability of FSX to take the footprint of cars off the system with the slider set to ZERO, therefore with UTX USA/CAN you must DISABLE ALL moving traffic in the UTX configuration tool to check or eliminate the source of micro stutters related to car traffic. If you find your sim smooth with it DISABLED in UTX then you need to evaluate CAR traffic use with your hardware."I'm going to experiment with this.

Thank you very much for the reply Ryan...Yes, I use the frame limiter set at 30 fps.Any other ideas?

For a couple of years I have been plagued with momentary pauses and I haven't been able to connect it with anything specific. I'm not talking stutters here. I can be in any configuration and the whole sim may stall for maybe a half second to one full second and then it goes on. On rare occasions it might lock up. I realize that no one can diagnose something like this specifically without knowing the whole set up. I'm just wondering if anyone has suggestions on something that may have worked for you or where you would suggest looking.I don't have a signature set up, but for what its worth, I have many addons including GEX,FEX (don't use), REX, lots of FTX stuff, ASX, way too many planes, no third party AI program, lots of things too numerous to remember or list right here. My system specs are low to mid ... three years old. E6700, NVidia Board, 8800GTX card, 4Gigs of Ram with XP 32 bit and the switch in use for more memory use, I think that's the important things. Thanks for any suggestions, Steve

I've tried different things in the search engine. I don't know if it was here or on SimForums. But Nick posted about something you can turn off in UTX that he discovered (I think fairly lately)was a stutter source in FSX. It was not one of the traditional things, like turn back sliders, etc. It was something specific in the UTX panel that needed turned off, I think. This is not about performance hits ... this one was addressed a stutter source. If anyone remembers, could you please give me the link? Thanks, Steve

Thank you for your response. But for the technically challenged, does this mean the appearance of Sim-Savvy and MegaSceneryEarth are about the same? Thank you for your explanation of how to "toggle" between PNW and Sim-Savvy. Does your comment about disabling the Washington and Oregon Scenery to use FTX PNW mean that Sim-Savvy photo scenery is divided into states in the Scenery Library? Can't remember if MegaSceneryEarth has seasons or not?

Hi Geof ...Went to the site and that is impressive ... FINALLY Indiana!! Yea!! Question ... How does the resolution compare with Megascenery Earth and is it easily layered below things like FTX PNW, etc.Hope you are well ... feel free to answer by PM if you prefer. Steve

Thanks, all. Excellent info/tips. Now to find time to apply it all. I just downloaded the file from the Orbx forum. Can't wait to work on it when I have time.

Did I read on the forums that in FSX it is impossible to simulate true solid IFR in the clouds. With previous versions I could be solid IFR and break out at Decision Height or Minimum Descent Altitude if I had the ceilings set properly. What is the best proper way to set the weather to simulate true solid cloud until break out into the open on descent?If this can't be done, then the sim is not helpful for simulating real approaches unless you just black out the entire outside window.Thanks ahead for the info.Steve

Hi Peter, and others ...I've been wavering on this one because of my Track IR-4. Like you, a RW pilot, but NOT like you, meaning, not very computer savvy ... I was concerned from things I have read that EXDock may not be that user friendly. Your excitement is contagious, however. Is it easy to get it up and running, guys?And Peter ... I STILL enjoy, believe it or not, FU-3 raindrops once in a while. :( Good to hear from you and to knowing you are still flying. Steve

I thought that the Frame Limiter was to be set at "30" or some other smaller figure. Like to LIMIT the frames. So what gives here with the UNLIMITED setting?Also, how would you rate your overall smoothness and stutters, Scott? ... as the post above mentioned. Also wonder if you used 32 bit system before Win7 64? If so did that help the smoothness? ... and ... I'm assuming two drives ... one for FSX and one for the OS?I appreciate the time you spent on this testing and sharing it with us. Many other vaiables could be considered as you intimated ... such as traffic, etc., but I find what you have given helpful to me.Thanks much,Steve

Thanks for saving me the grief, guys! I love my FTX and GEX ... guess FScene is for FS 9 and back.

Before I buy FScene4 on today's PCAviator's special deal ... I need to know:If I install it will it overwrite all of my FTX, GEX, UTX, landclass? And if I can install it safely without destroying what I have, does it appear in the Scenery list where I can lower the priority below my other previously installed third pary textures.My goal is to liven up the world that is not FTX/GEX/UTX etc?Is that doable? I need to know before I buy.Thaks ahead of time for someone's prompt response!Steve

Well the the Default AI Traffic is now operating. I received a reply from JustFlight support. Here is their words and the fix, should anyone else encounter this same problem:Go into this folder: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Scenery\World\Scenery Rename the file,

Thank you for the suggestion. I did find the TrafficAircraft.bgl file. There was no such ".off" or similar extension on that file. But I DID find a 2kb file named Traffic_Avalon.bgl.off . I removed the .off extension and fired up the sim and still no AI Traffic. I was wondering. Does anyone know where the flight plans for the AI traffic are stored. There is an FSX/World/Scenery/World/Flights folder, but the Flight folder is empty. Nothing there. WAIT ... I turned on "hidden" files and the folder is full of files. An example is of a file name is, the first one: BRU0014A. There is no file extension. I counted and there are approximately 1200 files in the folder. Could these be the right files? I mean, could there be left over files from Traffic X. I'm not even positive that these are the flight plan files for AI traffic, but it makes sense as many as there are. I would no know how to verify if they are for the default AI traffic or leftovers from TrafficX.Any other suggestions?

Jim, Thank you for your kind reply. I followed your thoughts and I deleted the Just Flight Folder with the main TrafficX folder that was in the root FSX folder. I also found a TraffixX folder in my SimObjects folder. I deleted that. The USEnglishBig.gvp file in the fsx/sound/ATC folder had the right name so I didn't bother that.My FSX .cfg folder has this listing now:[Main]User Objects=Airplane, HelicopterSimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\AirplanesSimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\RotorcraftSimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehiclesSimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\BoatsSimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\AnimalsSimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\MiscSimObjectPaths.6=ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAI_AIRCRAFTStill no AI air traffic. There are plenty of ships and airport vehicles and auto traffic, but I still do not have the AI air traffic.If you have any further thoughts please let me know ... or anyone else for that matter. Thank you very much.Steve

Friends,I got tired of Traffic X bogging my 2 year old system down. I did the uninstall per the manual which is use Add/Remove Progams in the Control Panel. Somehow the trafficaircraft.bgl in Scenery/World/Scenery is still not working.Also I have the FTX AI traffic module form Orbx enabled. When I open the control panel for that I cannot remove Tick mark from the box that says "FSX Dfault Traffic (diabled). I keep clicking and it won't let me remove selection.The only AI traffic change I made was to uninstall Traffic X. I've tried and I can't get a response yet from JustFlight tech support, but of course it is the weekend.For what its worth, my FSX .cfg still has these lines:SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\AirplanesSimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\RotorcraftSimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehiclesSimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\BoatsSimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\AnimalsSimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\MiscSimObjectPaths.6=SimObjects\TrafficXSimObjectPaths.7=ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAI_AIRCRAFTThanks for any help in advance, Steve

That's IT!! Thanks so much, AlainGood flying!

Friends ...Might anyone have today's PC Aviator "Deal of the Day" link? Its the one for the Megascenery Earth Grand Canyon for only $7.Forgot to copy it before I left home and it ends at midnight tonight. If you want, just e-mail me at scbrown@mw.net.Thanks so much,Steve