Improving Performance on non-FSX native aircraft?

[Alexraptor]

Heya all, been a while since i posted here :)
Having a blast with Windows 7 RC 1, FSX never ran this good.
Only problem im having is with non-native aircraft models.

My father who works for GoldenAir here in sweden recently brough home a copy of Flight1's ATR 72-500 that his workmate sent him when he was down in france at ATR on a training course on the plane.(GoldenAir recently got their hands on two ATR 72-500's)
Only problem is that while the plane is both for FS2004 and FSX its of course not FSX-native, so whenever i fly it it effectively cuts my performance in half down to 10-15 FPS vs the 25-30 i get with FSX native aircraft.

So i was wondering if anyone might know of any way of boosting performance on these non-native aircraft? As its not really enjoyable flying at a measly 10 fps.

[falcon409]

I can only tell you that in some cases that poor performance is related to a gauge problem. I have the FSX version of the ATR but I haven't flown it in a long time. I don't think it had any of the newer Glass Cockpit gauges, but errant coding for an FS9 gauge could be significant in FSX. Is this mainly in the VC mode or all the time?

If it's VC only, then go into your panel.cfg file and find the first section of VC gauges, for the ATR, I'd bet there are a bunch too. You can start at the top of the gauge listings and comment out maybe 4 or 5 and start FSX, load a flight with the ATR and then see if the FPS has changed. . .save the flight so it's the default by the way. If that fixed the problem, then you know one of those 5 is the culprit and you can start adding them back in one at a time until you find the offender. If those didn't do it, pull the slashes out of those 4 or 5 and go to the next group and so on until you locate the gauge or gauges that are the biggest drain on the fps and replace them.

Of course if that doesn't fix it, then it could be the poly count for the VC or something else in the model that's causing it. More than likely though it's a gauge.

[N2056]

There was a definite change in how model design affects performance in FSX. Poly count is not really a factor now. What IS important is how efficiently textures are used. It has to do with something known as 'draw calls', and most (if not all) FSX designers here have become very familiar with that topic :d

Unfortunately, that has a lot to do with why FS9 models eat frames in FSX. It's not something that can be fixed by an 'end user'.

[Alexraptor]

Well i was not looking at fixing it, just somehow to boost peformance enough on the game so that its flyable.
Would upgrading from a Dual core to a quad core doing anything at all for it?

[dswo]

Would upgrading from a Dual core to a quad core doing anything at all for it?

My experience, moving from Duo E6600 to Quad Q6600 at the same clock speed, is that quad helps with scenery blurs but not framerates.

[DennyA]

Honestly, the best way to fly FS2004 planes is in F2004. You can keep both FS9 and FSX installed on same PC, and FS9's not that big in today's terms. After much frustration with quirky FS9 ports to FSX, I reinstalled FS9, and all was well. When I see the occasional FS9 plane I want to fly, I just revert to the old sim. FS9's missing some of the goodness of FSX, obviously, but IMHO it's only good way to enjoy FS9 SDK planes. Great performance on modern hardware, no need to revert your FSX setup to DX9, etc.

[Alexraptor]

"Some of the goodness" is a term that does not exist when you you have HD addons such as REX2 and 60cm resolution terrain textures :p
FYI i do still have FS9 but i rather much somehow get it at least playable in FSX, as these days i can no longer stand FS9's grainy low-res scenery.
(What do you mean revert to DX9? i use DX9 all the time.)

[stiz]

What do you mean revert to DX9? i use DX9 all the time

In vista you can switch to a DX10 "preview", which FS9 planes cant be used in, so if you wanna fly a port you have to switch back to DX9

[Alexraptor]

I never use DX10 Preview as its a buggy feature even with a fair amount of FSX native content.