something about flight simulator x...

[Kimbo]

the standard version upon installation:
has 40 949 files
is 13.66gb
requires activation (ala xp)

[ronbo 613]

Also, you need a $3,000 computer to get 25fps.

[Acid8000]

I think I'll stick with Flight Simulator 98 then.

[ronbo 613]

Lots of free add-ons for FS 2004. About $25.USD right now, a pretty good deal.

[Acid8000]

Originally Posted by ronbo 613

About $25.USD right now, a pretty good deal.

I've seen it at around AU$80 at local shops.

[BKA]

What is it about the Flight Simulator series that the prices take forever to drop. I was lucky and caught the sale on FSX last week at Circuit City for about $48US. So far it runs pretty decent on the system in my signature.

[ronbo 613]

What is it about the Flight Simulator series that the prices take forever to drop.

Probably that there is no real strong competition for flight simulators. Microsoft has the flight sim market pretty well cornered.
That's great that it runs well on your computer. There are more and more tweaks to get it to run more smoothly coming out all the time.

[JimTram]

Would you believe my "over-the-hill" 875 rig gets ~25FPS. Of course my sliders are all set mid way. I am looking fwd to how it runs when I upgrade.

Originally Posted by ronbo 613

Also, you need a $3,000 computer to get 25fps.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by Acid8000

I think I'll stick with Flight Simulator 98 then.

I'm still running FS2000.



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win2000

[Acid8000]

FS 2000 lacks the 256 colour goodness of FS 98.

[ronbo 613]

Would you believe my "over-the-hill" 875 rig gets ~25FPS.

That's pretty good. I have a similar setup, if I was sure I could get 25fps, I'd buy it today.
I've been reading up on it, here's some of the more popular tweaks:

To disable shader for FSX go to your FSX directory and open display.cfg then search for your video card and add these lines :

Shader20Plus=0
UseShaders=0

On my ATI card I got the wet runways back using

Shader20Plus=10
UseShaders=1

Using ATI Tray Tool:
right click the tray tools icon in the taskbar:

Go to >Tweaks > Standard Tweaks> Direct 3d tab

Override Pixel Shader version to 1.0
Override Vertex Shader version to 1.0



If you guys want to max out your frame rates do the following :

-Reduce texture resolution to 50% for clouds, buildings and trees
-Rename default.xml to default.bak at AutoGen folder(It's in the FSX Autogen folder)
-Use this variables at fsx.cfg :

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=400
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=3000

You can try different values until you get a good frame rate.

Remember, to get FSX autogen down to FS9 levels, set:

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=600
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=300

Renaming the default.xml file seems to be the biggie.

[JimTram]

Thanks Ronbo - I will play with the tweaks. I am running the sim at 1024x which may be the reason I am getting ~25fps.

As you know, in real flight - there is stuttering all over the place!

Originally Posted by ronbo 613

That's pretty good. I have a similar setup, if I was sure I could get 25fps, I'd buy it today.
I've been reading up on it, here's some of the more popular tweaks:

To disable shader for FSX go to your FSX directory and open display.cfg then search for your video card and add these lines :

Shader20Plus=0
UseShaders=0

On my ATI card I got the wet runways back using

Shader20Plus=10
UseShaders=1

Using ATI Tray Tool:
right click the tray tools icon in the taskbar:

Go to >Tweaks > Standard Tweaks> Direct 3d tab

Override Pixel Shader version to 1.0
Override Vertex Shader version to 1.0



If you guys want to max out your frame rates do the following :

-Reduce texture resolution to 50% for clouds, buildings and trees
-Rename default.xml to default.bak at AutoGen folder(It's in the FSX Autogen folder)
-Use this variables at fsx.cfg :

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=400
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=3000

You can try different values until you get a good frame rate.

Remember, to get FSX autogen down to FS9 levels, set:

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=600
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=300

Renaming the default.xml file seems to be the biggie.

[ronbo 613]

I just got an LCD monitor so dropping to 1024 X 768 is no longer a viable option, that is one of my concerns.
Microsoft claims FSX is a DX9 game, yet many users can't seem to get even mediocre framerates, one has to wonder what the thinking is there. Plus, supposedly when Vista is used, there will be a 10-15% performance hit. How many average people are going to see the 1G CPU-256MB RAM minimum specs on the box and buy it as Christmas gift only to find it won't run on a computer that's twice as good as that?

[JimTram]

I did some tweaks as described in the PDF - I am now running at 1280x1024, and I am avr 30FPS. I did notice when you drop the resolution in games, there is no blockiness as with a desktop running on a non-native res.

Since I like to simulate flying at night and during storms. I am happy with the performance so far. The rain/water on the runway is dramatic!! Thanks for sharing the tweaks, it certainly helped me out.

Originally Posted by ronbo 613

I just got an LCD monitor so dropping to 1024 X 768 is no longer a viable option, that is one of my concerns.
Microsoft claims FSX is a DX9 game, yet many users can't seem to get even mediocre framerates, one has to wonder what the thinking is there. Plus, supposedly when Vista is used, there will be a 10-15% performance hit. How many average people are going to see the 1G CPU-256MB RAM minimum specs on the box and buy it as Christmas gift only to find it won't run on a computer that's twice as good as that?

[ronbo 613]

Jim-Bookmark this page. It has the latest up to date tweaks and info. Supposedly, they are about to come up with a hack that reduces the resolution of the buildings so you can fly over major cities without the framerate dipping into the single digits.
Keep posting your results. You're a great crash test dummy. I have a similar rig to yours; I've got 2G of memory(which should help with FSX), your Raptor is faster than the drive I've got so the performance should be similar. My LCD is a 1680x1050 20" Viewsonic.