The FSX Super Tweak Thread

[CybrSlydr]

If possible, I'd like to take all the tweaks that are doable in FSX and post them in here as one easy to find place to get the most out of your game.

I guess to make things easier we could stick to a simple format such as...

Tweak:

Originally Posted By:

Installation/Execution:

I'll start the ball rolling in my next post.

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Easier installation of FS9 Aircraft in FSX.

Originally Posted By: DennyA

Installation/Execution:
1) Edit your C:\documents and settings\<yourusername>\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX\fsx.cfg file to add the following line under [main], at the end of the SimObjectsPaths list:
SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes
SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats
SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals
SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc
SimObjectPaths.6=Aircraft

2) Create a folder called Aircraft in the root of your FSX directory.

Now planes that automatically install to an <fsdirectory>\aircraft folder will work without being moved into SimObjects\Airplanes first. For instance, you can just UnZip AlphaSim planes straight to your FSX directory.

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Gain FPS by Disabling Shader 2.0

Originally Posted By: Virtuali

Installation/Execution: Open display.cfg, find the line relevant to your video card and add this:

Shader20Plus=0

This will disable the shaders, meaning many things that are now done entirely with the gpu and that are currently impacting the fps a lot, will be disabled.

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Gain FPS by cleaning your system memory and using nTune (for nVidia Graphics Cards ONLY).

Originally Posted By: azflyboy

Installation/Execution:

nTune - The first is a nifty little utility from Nvidia called ntune (http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html (http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html%29)), which seems to give a pretty nice performance increase for a lot of people. What it does is act as an automatic overclocker by slightly overclocking the GPU or CPU to the point that the system either hangs up or reboots, then going back to the highest stable setting and doing the same thing for another part of the system (the program resumes tuning automatically when Windows reboots). In addition, there is also a manual tuning panel for those who are a little bolder than I.
The automatic tuning mode runs on either a 20 minute cycle or a three hour one (with the longer cycle being more precise), and after the 20 minute cycle, FSX doesn't run faster, but the framerate is much more stable overall.

WinCleaner Memory Optimizer - (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/wcmemopt.html) Is used to free up RAM. Although FSX can perform a similar function, WinCleaner works on systems with more than one gig of RAM, and also frees up more RAM than FSAS while taking far less time to do so. Although the program can cycle automatically every few minutes, it minimizes FSX when it runs, so I just run it after I start FSX, and then again every 30 to 60 minutes.
Running this gives me bit of a boost in framerates and does make FSX load flights considerably faster, since I free up about 150MB of memory when I run it.

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Terrain.cfg fix

Originally Posted By: rhumbaflappy

Installation/Execution: It can be found at AVSIM:

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php...ado&CatID=root (http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=&Name=+FS+X+modified+terrain.cfg++&FileName=&Author=Richard+Ludowise%2C+Luis+F%E9liz-Tirado&CatID=root)

It's most obvious change is that it rids the default sloping water polys of the rocky outcroppings that interfere with our displays. For example, Niagara Falls or London's Thames River don't look right with the default terrain.cfg, but are greatly improved with the fix we provide.

Another example is an entry that allows us to use FSX vectors to display the old CUSTOM ground tiles we made with the old resample.... which should allow us to again draw water, streams, roads, over photoreal.

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Installing the latest Graphics Drivers for your Graphics Card

Originally Posted By: -

Instllation/Execution:

For nVidia Users - http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

For ATi Users - http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Suggested Utility - Driver Cleaner: http://www.drivercleaner.net/

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Disable Preload for faster launch time

Originally Posted By: Moses03

Installation/Execution: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=121&topic_id=376193&mode=full

FSX tries to preload the default flight to
reduce load time once you click "Fly Now". If you
change settings or start location, the preloading process
starts over again. To disable it, add the following to the
[Main] section of FSX.CFG:

DisablePreload=1

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Gain FPS by eliminating ai traffic .bgl

Originally Posted By: grunau_baby

Installation/Execution:
1. Put all sliders concerning traffic to 0 (zero)
(I tried it only, but this alone won´t cure anything)
2. remove the folowing files from scenery/global/scenery - don´t delete them just shove them into another folder away from your FSX install!!!
- vehicles_aircraft.bgl
- vehicles_airport.bgl
- vehicles_land.bgl
- vehicles_water.bgl

Go and test a flight in a big city you´ve had trouble with before and take a look at the framerate!

I did it and my framerate went from 7-12 to 17-28, so there´s the bug somewhere. If you put the sliders up without the files the sim will stil work fine, but again a fps-hit. It´s a wicked combination of traffic-generation and files that causes the trouble!

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Setting Priority of FSX to High

Originally Posted By: txnetcop, HeyMOE, Leafhopper

Installation/Execution: Start the game and then hit the key > control-alt-delete< go to processes, scroll down till you see FSX, right click at select high

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Installing lower resolution autogen files for better performance.

Originally Posted By: HeyMOE

Installation/Execution: Name: ijt-auto.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kdl/main/83/ijt-auto.zip?$) Size: 7,795,799 Date: 11-19-2006 FSX Resized/Reworded Autogen Textures. Resized and reworked files that will allow the use of autogen objects on slower computers and significantly increase frame rates. By Ian Thatcher. http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/new12.htm

[CybrSlydr]

Tweak: Resized Vegetation Files

Originally Posted By: hey_moe

Installation/Execution: Images related to this file:
resvegetationtexfsx-2.jpg (http://library.avsim.net/sendfile.php?Location=AVSIM&Proto=file&ImageID=145088)
File Description:
This release includes resized default Vegetation textures for FSX. All plants and trees within FSX are textured with these files. Textures with dimensions of 1024x1024 were rezized to 512x512, and textures with dimensions of 512x512 were resized to 256x256. Cutting its filesizes from 683kb to 171kb, and 171kb to 43kb. Some textures were slightly sharpened to maintain its detail. Small textures were not resized and are not included in this release. All resized textures have mip-maps included and are in DDS format. Resized textures decrease loading time and increase framerate (FPS). IMPORTANT: Please read ALL documentation included.


Filename:resvegetationtexfsx.zipLicense:Freeware, limited distributionAdded:11th November 2006Downloads:337Author:Bart DylkiewiczSize:877kb

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxscen&DLID=93480

[CybrSlydr]

Bump! :)

Feel free to add to it folks - let's keep all our wonderful tweaks in one central location - easy to find that way! Especially for the new folks. :)

[Ken Stallings]

I've been thinking about this concept. I think it earns a sticky! :applause:

[Stickshaker]

Tweak: graphic settings

Originally posted in: PC Pilot, issue January 2007

Installation/execution:

In ‘settings’, set target frame rate to unlimited, disable aliasing, select simple clouds.

There are more hints in the article, but these work best for me in terms of cost (graphic detail) versus performance (FPS gain).

[Dain Arns]

I'll second the motion to make this a stickified thread, please. :wavey:

Nice to have all the tweaks in one spot, thanks Cyber for the hard work! :applause:

I really have not had a chance to sit down and tweak FSX yet. But this weekend looks good, since it looks like the Arctic outside the window right now, and the roads are a mess. Looks like a good time to stay inside and tweak. :icon_lol:

[CybrSlydr]

This is far from all of them. :D

I only went back through the first 35 pages of forum threads when I did this.

Plus, I've not gone to any other forums and searched.

That's why I'm hoping more people like Stickshaker will contribute. :)

[Panther_99FS]

Autogen Density

Add the following lines to end of the [TERRAIN] section of the .cfg
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=4500
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=3000

These are the default settings for how many buildings and trees appear in each FSX scenery cell. I personally have not changed these, however I’m including the tweak here for those with lower end systems to try out.
This sets the maximum number of autogen objects you’re going to see with the slider at Extremely Dense (full right). It’s a multiplier on the entire slider, so if you lower or raise these numbers it will affect all settings on the slider, not just the maxed out one.

[rhumbaflappy]

Tweak: Altering the default.xml

Posted By: rhumbaflappy

The default.xml file...

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Autogen\default.xml"

... controls the display of random auton in the sim. This file can be simply renamed to 'default.xml.original' to deactivate it. The result is no more random fast-food joints, churches, etc... and much better framerates.

But, by simply deactivating the file, many xml trees are also deactivated, leading to a great sparseness in the sim.

Using this file...

http://webpages.charter.net/ludowr/FSX_default_xml/rhumba1_XML.zip

... will allow the random trees to show, while eliminating the random buildings.

Deactivate the original default.xml as above. Rename the rhumba_xml file as 'default.xml' and place it in the Autogen folder. Much better FPS, and looks quite nice with the trees.

Dick

[Moses03]

Thanks Cybr. Much appreciated. :engel016:


Moses

[Panther_99FS]

Posted by ""Greggerm" at the AVSIM forums;
--> http://members.cox.net/spambait/FSXTweakGuide.pdf (http://members.cox.net/spambait/FSXTweakGuide.pdf)

[N332DW]

Tweak: re-setting BIOS AGP Graphics Aperature Size
This one has only been mentioned in 1 forum
and I beleive only applies to Users of AGP graphics cards

Go into the Bios -
under chipset (for my bios)
locate: AGP Graphics Aperature size
-insure it is set the the size of your video memory

~mine was set to 64 by the factory but i have 256Mb
setting it to 256 gave me an incredible 11 fps increase

[raymohel]

That would be very useful my FSX runs at 7-15 fps even with a XT1900 512mb card
Ray:wiggle:

[shermank]

I'm not sure this is much of a tweak, as it is a filing suggestion. I have downloaded certain files from this tweaks list. I place them in my folder FSX TWEAKS, with sub folders inside. for instance, I created a RHUMBA folder and downloaded and unzipped the xml file. then, using note pad, I copy blocked the text in this thread which applies to rhumba, and saved it in the same RHUMAB folder so that I know specifically what it is and how to use it should I ever need a reinstall.

sherm

[shermank]

Go into the Bios -
under chipset (for my bios)
locate: AGP Graphics Aperature size
-insure it is set the the size of your video memory

~mine was set to 64 by the factory but i have 256Mb
setting it to 256 gave me an incredible 11 fps increase[/quote]

A common rule of thumb is to set the aperture to half your video card memory rather than matching it. In fact, I have an nvidia with 513 mgs of ram...I tried a 256 setting only to discover that 128 works better for me. In other words, as we all know too well with our hobby, a lot of it is trial and error....:-)

sherm

[Pepere]

Hi,

I found a site that gives some good tips to help fps

http://fsx-tweaks.4t.com/ (http://fsx-tweaks.4t.com/)

Try the Texture tweaks............

[blobs]

Hi
like most people Ive tried to improve my sim with any and all tweaks with little or no success! Ive come across one in an old microsoft book and tried it.
It worked!!! for me. Its good in FS9 and FSX. for a system of my size.
I have a clean install of FSx and added the SP1. The only other things that has been changed are TreeX and water_final.Both from avsim.
____FIX for WINDOWS XP ONLY.________
The Fix is to force XP core files to remain in ram and not wander into the page filing system. This has allowed me to gain better control of the sim and to keep control of my limited memmory.
"FSX" I get little or no frame increase that I can detect but with the limited rates I do get, The sim runs really well. Flight around JFK. with ground aircraft and moving ground traffic all on 6 FPS. No more lockups or slowdowns.
"FS9" A definite all round improvement in all departments..
No adverse effects found on any part of the system.
RUN-REGEDIT- HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\
Memory Management. Modify DisablePagingExecutive DWORD value to 1
Thats it. Please be careful remember its the registry you are dealing with.
Backup first. I will take no responsibility for any damage.
Blobs
Good Luck I hope it works for you!!
P4-2.8 .1G 3200 ram An ATi 512m AGP. Sata Hd.

[blobs]

I've had some encouraging results from the tweak in other posts and all that have needed to use it have found some benifit and some really good results. It is a genuine microsoft Xp tweak. It is unlikly to vastly increase fps but it will return a lot of stability and cure a lot of nasties that people seem to be suffering. If that DWORD value 1 is already there this has been added at some time in the past.
All the best. Blobs

[Panther_99FS]

Thanks!

[errmail]

I did this and it made a HUGE improvement in gameplay. I left fps locked at 20, but with this mod, I was able to move both the scenery sliders to the "normal" position and increase my resolution to 1600x1200 with extremely smooth gameplay and no stutters or drops in fps, even whilst panning around my most fps-hungry bird 360 degrees. The fps stayed locked right at 20 and the panning was very smooth. So now the sim not only looks much better because of the very high resolution I can run, it is more stable and smoother with more scenery items.

This was true on the ground, close to the autogen and buildings, as well as at 20,000 feet and in the cockpit.

An amazing tweak, the best I have tried yet.

But beware, you are fooling around in the registry and if you inadvertently change the wrong thing, you can create serious problems.

Be SURE to set a system restore point before attempting this.

I don't think this tweak itself can harm your system but making mistakes whilst you're in the registry can.

I am really enjoying FSX now, folks.:ernae:

[Naismith]

I have Vista and that same regedit line appears in it, I am soooooo tempted to try this tweak but too chicken, are there any braver than me out there? :eek:

[Snuffy]

Mine was already set to 1 in XP PRO.

[blobs]

The structure of Vista and XP are very different. I cant say it will not,
but I would not try it ! But hey if someone's done it I'd be very,very interested in the results., good or bad!

[blobs]

Message for errmail. I understand the tweak worked for you. I would be interested to know a little more about the rig you are using in order to find
similarities and differences and understand why some users already have the fix and if this has a bearing on pre or post sp1.
many thanks blobs

[DennyA]

TWEAK: Fly true FSX planes created with the FSX SDK, rather than FS2004 planes updated for FSX.

Flying a couple of different FS2004 planes with real-world weather around Seattle on a cloudy day, I was jumping between about 13.5 and 18 FPS. Switching to the Razbam Banshee or a built-in FSX plane gave me a steady 20 fps (where I had my frame rate locked).

[ZK-Brock]

All there are very useful, thanks:jump:

[HardCorePawn]

Just wanting to know if these tweaks are still valid with the release of SP2??

Is it still advisable to try these tweaks? or should I leave SP2 alone? :ques:

[txnetcop]

One tweak that is sure fire cure is Denny's. Fly only true FSX SDK aircraft for best results. Yes some of the tweaks will work but SP2 fixes most.
Ted

[Sprayall]

What kind of fps should we (or I) be expecting? With this system I stay at 21 fps about 85% of the time (even over something as dense as downtown Chicago). Should I be able to get better performance? Am I expecting too much by expecting more?

MY FSX SYSTEM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ 3.00 Ghz
3 GB RAM
Windows Vista Home Premium
32-bit Operating System
Integrated ATI Radeon X1250
Dedicated graphics memory: 256 MB
Total available graphics memory: 1407 MB
Shared system memory: 1151 MB
SETTINGS
global texture resolution: very high
tfr: 21fps
scenery complexity: extremely dense
level of detail radius: small
mesh complexity: 60
mesh resolution: 10 m
texture resolution: 7 cm
traffic tab: all sliders at zero
aircraft tab: very low
weather: very low

BTW
Setting priority to high seems like the best easy tweak I've seen so far.
Thanks so much Cyber!

[txnetcop]

What kind of fps should we (or I) be expecting? With this system I stay at 21 fps about 85% of the time (even over something as dense as downtown Chicago). Should I be able to get better performance? Am I expecting too much by expecting more?

MY FSX SYSTEM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ 3.00 Ghz
3 GB RAM
Windows Vista Home Premium
32-bit Operating System
Integrated ATI Radeon X1250
Dedicated graphics memory: 256 MB
Total available graphics memory: 1407 MB
Shared system memory: 1151 MB
SETTINGS
global texture resolution: very high
tfr: 21fps
scenery complexity: extremely dense
level of detail radius: small
mesh complexity: 60
mesh resolution: 10 m
texture resolution: 7 cm
traffic tab: all sliders at zero
aircraft tab: very low
weather: very low

BTW
Setting priority to high seems like the best easy tweak I've seen so far.
Thanks so much Cyber!

With integrated video you are doing better than expected
Ted

[Wayne]

This may sound really weird, but thus far I have had the best luck with no tweaks. Only a fresh fsx.cfg and make my adjustments within FSX on a very modest system I'm enjoying a steady 20fps locked. Maybe I've just been lucky so far, but most tweaks have slowed my setup down by about 10FPS.

Specs:
FSX SP1
CPU - AMD 4000+ 2.1
VISTA Home Premium 32-bit
2gb RAM
BFG NVidia 8500GT 512mb
320mb HD