GFX

Thanks everybody for your kind words. It is a dream, and dreams come true SOMETIMES!I know some of my wishes are feasible using the SDK, but not without a mission. What I want is a full integration into the FS engine, so everything I described will happen unscripted. As part of the internal FS "REM - Random Event Generator". Randomness, accompanied by realistic flight modeling, provides the near-perfect flight experience that we all search for.THAT integration would be a great addition to FS. I think the mission system is the first step towards achieving that level of realism.FSX is already a great product, a great accomplishment by ACES. Performance-wise it runs quite well on my old 6600GT with sliders set at medium. Graphics-wise it's noticeably better than FS9 in so many ways.So, IMHO I think that current FS performance is adequate, considering the HUGE amount of work needed to generate the terrain, and control all other simulation aspects.Thanks again, and keep your dreams alive ;)

WARNING: VERY LONG POST BELOW, if you don't feel like reading please skip to the next post. Thanks.Okay, where do I begin?Allow me to stray for a while and describe my version of a perfect FS dream...I double-click the FS1x icon, the game loads straight into the simulation engine. The UI shows the waiting lounge next to the boarding gate (at my local airport, all rendered in 3D of course), I can move around and watch the traffic from the windows. The airport announcements and background airport noises are mixed with a mellow, light-headed, lounge music of some sorts.The time/weather outside matches the time/weather at my local airport. The menu is displayed to the left side of the screen (hidable), I choose whether to stop and stare at the stunning outside airport traffic environment (for like 2 hours or so), or choose to create a flight from the menu.My customized selection from the menu is reflected (real-time) in the lounge, and my chosen airplane is standing ready at the gate, when I'm ready (and FS is done loading) the gate doors open, I walk to the jetway (or tarmac) and hop into my aircraft.My perfect semi-robotic copilot greets me with a smile, and briefs me on the weather situation and the route information for my flight. If I click on him/her, a menu pops out and lets me choose which tasks I want him/her to handle, and possibly, a choice to simply kick him/her out of the plane and take control of everything!ATC gives the clearance, or maybe delay me for a couple of minutes while the runway and/or taxiway is clear of super-smart AI aircrafts. The push-back vehicle comes at my order and I can control the direction of the push-back via the rudder control.While taxiing to the runway, I watch the trees sway according to the winds. I can see puddles of water on the taxiway from yesterday's showers. The grass is wet too! The intelligent airport ground vehicles will WAIT for me to cross their road.If the taxi is taking a long time, my copilot (if he/she's still there) will crack jokes about it to lighten the mood a bit, and will call the cabin to make an announcement (of some sort!).After takeoff I start to climb into the puffy-smoky-milky clouds.From here on, there will be 2 possible scenarios:1. I continue all the way to my destination, get the landing clearance, and (if I'm lucky) be number 4 or 5 for landing! I can see a faint line of airplanes ahead on final as they each land in line and perfectly separated. I can also see other aircrafts taking off from the parallel runway, and planes on the ground waiting for takeoff.If I make a perfect landing, my copilot should compliment me for it, and, preferably, I get a round of applause from my passengers!2. I discover a fuel leak, and declare an emergency. The tower will give me a high-priority landing clearance on the nearest runway. I go to spot view and watch the fuel dropping from my left aux fuel tank! Engine number 1 quits on me, so now I have a power imbalance. The new-and-improved-high-fidelity flight model will reflect this in a very tough, real, and sarcastic way.I have the option to hand the plane over to my copilot because I -for some reason- forgot the emergency procedures. So I just sit back and watch -and learn- the whole landing process. However, I am a confident pilot and therefore will attempt the emergency landing myself, I struggle with the plane to get it back on the ground, my copilot is screaming all over the place, filling the cockpit floor with sweat (and something else!). I touchdown slamming my back-right tire into the runway, blowing it off to pieces, but luckily the flight model will keep the plane on its feet distributing the weight to the other tires. Emergency vehicles rush to the runway and follow me while rolling after touchdown. The plane stops and the doors open, people will slide out while I make sure everything is safe and shut the plane down.In both scenarios, I get back to the gate lounge, to find my company's representative waiting for me with a flight summary at hand. I see lots of statistics for my flight (Max. speed, max. G force, distance traveled, damage inflicted, passenger overall satisfaction based on my performance, number of times crossed passenger comfort levels, approach & landing evaluation, etc...).So, there I am, back at the gate, I can see the sun setting in the horizon, and the tarmac/taxi lights are turned on. I keep on watching for an hour, and then, when I'm all exhausted, I click on the Exit sign hanging above the door to my left, and get back to my happy desktop (preferably without a BSOD).It's a dream, and it's a long one! So I hope it gives you an idea of my wish list. However, I'd like to add ALL aforementioned wishes to my list, especially:- Cloud shadows, better weather transitions.- Realistic water, and sea waves.- Real HDRL effects.- Bump mapping for airport textures.- Improved ATC & AI systems.- Even better autogen.That's all I can think of right now.Thanks for your patience & sorry for the long post.

>It is a game but it also depends on how you approach it. If>you use a high quality add-on aircraft and treat it and the>world as though you were flying for real then it is a>simulation.>>If you actualy want to know whether FSX is high-fidelity>enough to be used as a simulation then the answer would have>to be 'yes' because its modelling surpases earlier simluators>from at least some of the aircraft manufacturers.>>It is all in how you approach it. In my opinion :-)>This subject has been bugging me too for a long time, but I'm convinced that it depends on how you deal with it.. That's all.

I have to say SP1 is working like a charm!!I'm getting the well-deserved performance boost, and the promised slider nudge to the right, even with my moderate Pentium-D 805..I really want to thank everybody at ACES, you've done a great job.Keep it up & thanks again.

Hi everybody,I wanted to nudge this topic to give you all an update on FSX performance with my new system..At first glance the game chose a low setting for my system on the first run, and the game was running fine except for some stutters..Anyway, after tweaking & fiddling with the sliders I reached a reasonable situation with the following settings: Everything is maxed except: no light bloom, autogen set to sparse, scenery density set to normal, water effects set to low 2.x, cloud draw distance set to 128km, cloud coverage density set to medium, airline traffic 15%, GA traffic 10%, airport vehicle density set to high, land and sea traffic all set to 10%...I'm getting a great performance from FSX! Around 20 FPS all around, except around heavily detailed cities & airports..My tweaking revealed the 3 most FPS-killing settings:1) Enabling light bloom eats up 3~4 FPS.2) Autogen takes out another 3 FPS.3) Water effects on max 2.0 takes about 4 FPS.Obviously they're all shader-related. So, it's probably my VGA who's making the bottle-neck here..BTW I liked FSX, and the new mission system turned out to be a winner this time! I really liked it! Thanks ACES!Let's hope the new SP1 delivers the performance increase we're all looking for. I just can't wait to see the results.I'd like to re-thank everyone who helped me with my system upgrade.Peace.

YESIt's a must-do, DX10 threw (backward compatibility) out the door, and so should FS.Thanks

>I want to see people chilling out in>their backyards heating up the grill and police directing a>traffic jam around an accident and little league baseball>games. I want to see kids getting off school buses and guys>fishing in rowboats. That's what I want.Did you try SimCity 4 Rush Hour?! It has EXACTLY everything you want! And guess what! You can fly planes too! How convenient! :-hah

Hi there,I did a system upgrade a month ago, and I had almost the same parts of your current system. I replaced them with a Pentium D 805 processor and a Geforce 6600GT PCI-E card. I had great results, and a HUGE performance boost.. Check my thread for more info:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...16830&mode=fullI strongly suggest you drop the FX cards out of your list. They're not worth it anymore. If possible go for the Geforce 6 series, a way much better solution.But anyway, you'll need one of the Geforce 7th generation cards to fully squeeze that CPU.. I think the Pentium D 805 is way cheaper & also recommended IF you plan on upgrading to Core 2 sometime later, so you may as well want to check your planned mobo for Core 2 compatibility.Hope this helps.Good luck.

Well, that's a let-down for their new (worldwide coverage) theme.. Anyway, I can't and I won't blame anyone for this because i'm not even sure if they had this fix -in reality- before April 2005 or after.. And because apart from that little problem, the airport looks accurate enough for their first (international-themed) version. Next version (FSXI), however, should have this fixed, or else they'll have to remove that 'international' badge from the cover IMHO.. :-outta

I hope that database includes the new 5L runway entry at OSDI.. The whole runway has been reconstructed and they established a new parallel taxiway too. The airport had only 1 exit/entry point to rwy 5L/23R in FS9, and AI aircraft were going 'through' each other all the time!In reality -according to GEarth- that problem has been solved. FSX???Would you please verify that for me? Anyone?!Thanks ahead..

I'm using WinXP x64 and it runs great on my rig (see signature). All the drivers are there (except the Creative SB Live! 64 bit driver is a beta version).Most 32 bit applications are running fine, FS runs without any issues, but I can't tell you about the performance difference because I bought a new system with that OS.Here are some of the issues I had after upgrading:- Beta driver version for my sound card, not WHQL signed.- Old antivirus didn't work. Bought a new 64 bit version.- Winzip & Winrar didn't have integrated shell menus. I solved this by downloading new versions, and they're both running normally now.Overall, I can feel that the system is more stable now, and communicates well with the CPU, using it more efficiently.That's all.Best of luck with your new system!Kinan

>Weather:>Sight distance = set full left>Cloud draw distance = 40ml/64km>3-D cloud percentage = 80>>Cloud detail:>Detail clouds = On>Cloud coverage density = MaximumWhat was the weather theme for that flight? If there's a lot of clouds in the sky and the density set to maximum this might be affecting your framerates.>Hardware:>Target frame rate = 30>Display resolutions = 1280x1024x32 >(same setting on 19" CTR Monitor)>>Render to texture = On>Transform and lighting = On>Anti-aliasing = On (when off I have problems in panel)>Filtering : Bilinear>MIP mapping quality = 5>Hardware-rendered lights = 7>Global max texture size = MassiveTry turning off anti-aliasing from Flight Simulator settings, and enable it from your video driver's control panel. This has been know to improve performance a bit. AA also has a negative impact on framerates when the sky's full of clouds.And switch to Trilinear filtering for better visuals, and maybe better performance. Also switch on Trilinear optimisation in the VGA's control panel. There are many options there that could help improve performance, just try tweaking these settings until you get the best performance.Best of luck.NOTE: There seems to be something wrong with your memory configuration, Dual-Channel memory configuration requires that "the total size of memory module(s) installed per channel must be the same (DIMM_A1 + DIMM_A2 = DIMM_B1 + DIMM_B2)". Taken from my mobo's user manual. I don't know if it's applicable on all mobos. But it's worth checking.

It appears that I have some headroom when en-route, but anyway the FPS are locked at 30 which look more than enough to me.But I'm really questioning that threshold temperature value, 145 degC??!! I could easily cook an omelet on the GPU!!I think nVidia knows what's best for their GPUs. So, I'm getting this topic out of my head for the moment. The VGA should be more than enough until DX10 VGAs pop up..

Thanks for the info NAS.Oblivion was my first shot at RPGs. And to be honest, I didn't really like this game! I loved the concept though; being free to choose and play on your own pace..But it appears this game didn't fit on my pre-fabricated rule: If there's blood and gore involved, it ain't worth it.As for my issue, it's still the same, although I've already tried to remove the case panel and expose the side to a big room fan, but it didn't work out, only dropped temps. by 2~3 degC. No big deals.And I also noticed that the VGA core is running pretty hot; 65 degC at idle! Reaching for 80+ degC when busy!! The threshold temperature set in the drivers is 145 degC.. Is that normal?? And do you have any idea on how to change that threshold value?? The installed drivers version is 91.31.I'm still looking for a replacement HSF package, and found this model the other day: http://www.glacialtech.com/product/socketT_5600_PWM.htmPlease tell me what do you think of it.I'm still trying to find that Arctic Cool Freezer. So I didn't make a decision yet.And FYI here's another bunch of game tests results:- SimCity 4 Rush Hour, running at 1280 * 1024. Large test city, population 200000. Runs pretty smooth, stutters a bit when moving around the map. Had to turn off AA & AF because they ruin the visuals. Other than that, it's a perfect 10!- Another FS2004 test: Heathrow to Charles-De-Gaulle flight. POSKY B767. All sliders maxed except: autogen and scenery complexity set to very dense, 80% AI traffic with lots of PAI packages installed, high 3D clouds density at 80%. No AA or AF. "Cold Fronts" weather scenario.I was getting 15 ~ 25 FPS around Heathrow, solid 30 FPS after takeoff and all the way to France, went back to about 20 FPS after landing at CDG. A very good result in my opinion. More than I was hoping for.Anyway, I've tried FS2004 with AA set to 2xQ & 8x AF with minor or no impact on framerates.Absolutely stunning performance for this huge amount of heat I guess!!

First things first:I would like to appologize to NotASenator for writing a wrong name. It happened because I've had no experience whatsoever with the other 3 games you mentioned. I didn't even hear of any of them. I bought this game only because I was curious to try it, with all the puff&bluff this game has had across the web, I just had to try it. So, sorry again. And no, you're not insane. I'd say you were just 'emotionally shaken' :-boom . But don't worry, you'll stabilise soon ;-). I would've done the same if I were in your place. It's annoying, I admit it.OK, now back to the subject. It appears that i'm certainly standing on the hot side. The case has a side air duct located right above the CPU to get the fresh air inside directly to the CPU's heatsink. Will it be better if I remove that duct and put a new fan there instead? It will be a fan-on-top-of-fan situation. I don't know if it's effective, because the fan I have here takes the air outside the case, while the CPU fan gets the air inside the heatsink. Is that a good situation?I have another question here too: the OS I have is WinXP Professional x64, but it reports that only SP1 is installed, even though there is a "Security Center" and "Windows Firewall". Does that mean there is no SP2 for the 64 bit version of Windows?I've tried removing the side panel and aiming a big room fan straight at it. With my old processor, I really HAD to do that! And no I didn't laugh, I know that feeling. But actually i'm ready to do anything to protect this new CPU. I've had enough troubles with CPUs. All are casued by heat issues.Anyway, i've seen other users having the same issue over at Newegg, here's a link to some user reviews:http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingRe...A=0&Type=&Item=N82E16819116001&SortField=0&SummaryType=ALL&Pagesize=50&Page=2Looks like most of them are having some heat issues. That's why I said it wasn't a surprising issue before. So I guess i'll be needing a new heatsink purchase soon. Meanwhile, i'll try my best not to overload this thing! Although i'm sooooo tempted to do so, if you know what I mean :-).