My First Official Windows7 Flight

[FAC257]

After watching and reading all the input about Windows7 and FSX over the last many weeks, I decided to take the plunge.

Originally I was going to wait until this fall and build a new Windows7 purpose built sytem and upgrade to the new OS all at the same time. The more I though about doing it that way and with the availability of theW7 RC, it made less and less sense. I decided that I'd try to go through the new OS growing pains over the next several months. By the time it's officially out I figure I'll have a better handle on exactly what sort of system upgrade I may need, if much of anything and what software may need to be replaced.

I started collecting the correct Windows 7 drivers for this old clunker several days ago and then on Thursday I went for a full reformat and upgrade to W7.

So far I'm even more pleased than I thought I'd be.

FAC



Tampa to Pensacola in the Goose with W7 as my co-pilot.......

[Lionheart]

Awesome to hear FAC.

:applause:


Bill

[RyanJames170]

cool im doing the same here
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[Dangerousdave26]

My Beta is due to expire in 12 days and I am getting ready to load W7-RC. So far for my old rig it has been great. Just a few minor hickups here and there but most of those I had in XP.

:icon29:

[FAC257]

I just landed at Pensacola a few minutes ago and I'd have to say that went really well.

I have FSX & Acceleration, UTX, XGraphics and ASA already back in FSX and the average FPS during the whole flight stayed right about exactly the same numbers I was getting in XP. If anything I may have seen a slight increase in performance, but that's probably like washing your car windows makes it feel like it drives faster. :)

FSScreen shot utility up and running also.

The only thing I have left to do over the weekend is to reload my hanger and sceneries and this thing will be back up to 100% ready to go.

I thought my older peripheral hardware was going to give me a few headaches, but W7 found good drivers for anything I didn't have before the format.

The only piece of software I'm leaving off on purpose is my commercial defragger. I want to see how W7 does on it's own for a little while before I make that decision.

FAC

[FAC257]

Dangerousdave

Mine is a very first generation FSX purpose built system and so far it's handling W7 far better than what I was expecting. It actually seems to be less boggy than my aging XP version of this same hardware combo.

Nice thing about the W7-RC is that it doesn't expire until after the commercial release. Hopefully that means no backwards movement during the whole transition.

I'm really enjoying this. I loved XP to death, but was also getting really tired of looking at the same old thing for too many years. Time for a face lift.

FAC

[crashaz]

good call FAC! I think you will like it! :wavey:

[SkippyBing]

FAC, did you go for the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Win7? I went from XP 32bit to 7 64bit and I got a definite fps improvement and a massive reduction in loading times, of course that won't work if you've only got a 32bit cpu.....

[FAC257]

I went 32 bit at least for now.

I'm not real convinced yet about 64 bit. Not just because of W7, but it just seems that over the years folks using 64 bit systems seem to have more issues than benefits when using flight sims compared to the 32 bit folks.

I still very open minded about being convinced otherwise though over the next several months. :)

FAc

[FAC257]

Well isn't this the coolest thing! :applause:

You can adjust the master volume for individual applications straight from the Task Bar.

I'm doing my first W7 Accusim flight with the B77 today and was tinkering around with Teamspeak at the same time. At first I was sort of bummed because the interior sounds on the 377 were acting funny. Then I found this mixer panel by accident while exploring. Problem solved!

One of the things I was a little concerned about before the switch was a supposed problem with the X-Fi cards and W7. Makes me think now that it may have been a bit of whining before learning. :)

One of the drivers I made sure I had in hand before the format were the new W7 drivers for the X-Fi.

FAC

[txnetcop]

I went 32 bit at least for now.

I'm not real convinced yet about 64 bit. Not just because of W7, but it just seems that over the years folks using 64 bit systems seem to have more issues than benefits when using flight sims compared to the 32 bit folks.

I still very open minded about being convinced otherwise though over the next several months. :)

FAc


If you are talking FSX only the benefits are not much greater with 64bit, I use both 32 and 64 Win7, but with other games there are some definite advantages that use the extra RAM as 32 bit limit is 4GB. FSX could care less I can run almost as fast with 2GB as 4GB with the same eye candy turned on-FSX is weird, but I love it. However if you are going to use Vista or Win7 why restrict one's self to only 32 bit especially if you have an i7Core system that utilizes 6GB and more to great advantage.
Ted

[FAC257]

Hi Ted

Down the road, when I actually do a full system rebuild. I think your right, that it wouldn't make much sense not to take advantage of what's sure to be the norm in 64 bit.

This old thing I'm flying on is a first generation Striker Extreme with an E6700 as a motor. It'll overclock very easily to a 3.33, but I usually leave it alone as it does just fine with FSX at stock speed. I'm not sure any of my hardware on this thing can count as high as 64 anyway. :)

Right now with W7, I'm running both my 8800GTSOC graphics card, Nhancer and FSX at exactly the same settings as I had with XP and there seems to be virtually no difference in the FPS numbers. If anything I'll give a slight nod over in the W7 direction.

One obvious difference that I've seen is that with my XP software I got better FPS in Windowed Mode and slightly better graphics. W7 seems to be just the opposite. I'm getting significantly higher FPS full screen and the graphics are slightly better.

All still very early theories still as it's only been an official W7 flying machine for the past 24 hours. :)

FAC

[Meso]

Hi FAC,

I run FSX on windows vista just fine. although some issues once in a while with DX10 preview i get better performance in that mode than dx9 mode. It has some disadvantages like the taxiway lines flicker a lot and from the tower view the lines on the runway are drawn through the aircarft. Did you test it in dx10 preview or did you stick to dx9? i pretty much like the water effects and as said above the overall perfomance in the air.

kind regards,

Meso

[FAC257]

Hey Meso :)

I've got a non-DX10 capable video card so I've never be able to test that feature.

FAC

[rdyoung]

Well isn't this the coolest thing! :applause:

You can adjust the master volume for individual applications straight from the Task Bar.

FAC

Indeed it is the coolest!! Thanks for the tip. I do a lot of exploring and experimenting with a new OS but I might never have picked up on this one. It works with my on-board sound and the volume level setting for FSX is remembered and used the next time I run FSX -- bonus.

Regards.
Rick

[rwmarth]

The volume adjuster for individual apps was available in Vista too fyi :bump:

[FAC257]

Yeah, I'm figuring that many of the neat things I'm running into are Vista carry-overs of sorts. But it's all new toys to me. :)

FAC

[Lionheart]

Does 32bit Win7 allow you to run more then 4 Gigs of RAM? Will it run 12 Gigs for instance?

[rwmarth]

4gb is the max allowed for in 32bit architecture in any OS... at least as far as I know.... 64bit on the otherhand, allows you to use over 17 billion gb of ram. But as of now Windows currently only allows up to 128gb I believe (at least for Vista though win7 probably as well... now if you can find a motherboard that supports that!)

[Meso]

Hey Meso :)

I've got a non-DX10 capable video card so I've never be able to test that feature.

FAC

Are you sure? i have a 8800GTX which is dx10 compatible. But that could be indicated by the X. My brother has a 8800GTS and is also dx10 compatible...

kind regards,

Meso

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[FAC257]

Meso

I'm was still running XP before I installed Windows 7.

XP only went as far as DirectX 9. There was some sort of DirectX 10 hack utility or work around for XP but that's not something I would have tried.

The DirectX 10 preview mode needed to also have Vista.

Update:
I just realized with Windows 7 I have the DirectX 10 preview button active now in FSX. I just tried turning it on and it made things look pretty aweful. I'm going to have to play around with that to see what part of that puzzle I'm missing.

FAC

[Headwind]

I just took the plunge to windows 7 since I didn't have much installed with fsx at the moment. I like it so far but I have a question. Even with the power settings set keep the monitor from never shutting off it still does. Are any of you having this issue?

[Dangerousdave26]

FAC

What version did you get with W7-RC?

The Beta version had DX11 installed.

Look for dxdiag.exe in C:\Windows\System32

Run it and see which version it is.

DX-11 will be or is at least on mine compatible with DX9 hardware.

Dave

[FAC257]

Dave

I have the RC that says "Evaluation Copy Build 7100" in the lower right screen. The start-up screen tells me it's an Windows 7 Ultimate copy. There were several updates through the "Windows Update" just after I finished installing it on Thursday evening.

It is running on DirectX11. I was under the impression before I ever got to the actual OS installation part of my plan that W7 was going to by-pass the experimental DirectX10 completely and go directly to DirectX11. That's why it never dawned on me to look for that DirectX10 Preview button in FSX. I'm thinking that's probably also got something to do with why FSX looks pretty awfull when I click that experimental preview button. :)


Headwind
I've noticed the same thing with the monitor going to sleep. I've gone through all of the regular places I know to deactivate power saving features, but yet it still puts the monitor to sleep after some period of time. It like it has ESP or something as it's never gone off while I'm in the room, but if I go out to walk the pup or tinker around the house it'll shut itself down. The one thing I don't think I've seen yet, is it shutting down while I'm flying a long haul. I can't remember seeing it power down while I'm in flight???

One thing I'm wondering is if Windows7 is smart enough to know something about my monitor that I don't. :)

I was incredibly impressed when I first went to check on the status of my hardware just after the initial W7 installation. It knew exactly the model numbers for several pieces of my peripherial harware including the newer of my two Samsung monitors. It recognized my older Samsung monitor also but, but not by exact model number.

When I went into the Device Manager out of post-format habit, W7 already had everything up and running except my TrackIR. It knew what it was but just didn't have any drivers for it. In W7's words, it pretty much said "Hey, you have a TrackIR installed and your going to have to go get those drivers youself." :)

With XP, it knew the drivers for something was missing but it had no clue as to what it was.

FSX/W7 related:
One thing I found unusual with FSX and W7 so far is in the process of manually adding custom scenery. There is an extra click of the mouse needed. Everything is normal from opening up the Scenery Library to hitting Add New Scenery and then pointing to the correct scenery you want to add. Normally once the proper scenery info shows up in all of the correct info windows, you hit okay and that new scenery is automatically added to your scenery library stack. With W7 when you hit the okay button the scenery library then opens up that actual scenery folder so that what you see in the Scenery Library screen is the actual sub-folder labeled "Scenery". You have to right click in the middle of that screen and then the scenery gets put in the library stack.

It took me a little bit to figure that one out by accident. It was a little frustrating at first because the normal procedure wasn't working and anything I tried that made sense didn't work. :)

FAC

[Headwind]

thanks for the heads up about your monitor situation. I'm not really sure whats up with it either because it was shutting itself off after about 10 minutes or so and then all the sudden the screensaver starting working the way it was suppose to. Beats me.. :173go1:


I haven't tried FSX on it yet however I did try Race Drive GRID on it last night and it play that extremely well. It's actually the best that I have seen that game. The graphics are cranked all the way up and 16x AA and AF and it's running like a scalded dog. FSX will be my next install here.

[FAC257]

I'd did some FSX graphics quality experimenting yesterday while flying.

I'm using the Nvidia 186.18 Win7/Vista drivers on my 8800GTSOC.

I kept going back and forth between the Nvidia Control Panel, Nhancer and the graphics settings in FSX. I started by using the complete settings as per NickN's info which I had been doing for quite some time. I found that following his advice on fsx.cfg edits and Nvidia, Nhancer and FSX graphics settings gave me the very best I could get out of my XP/FSX install.

Things worked out differently at the end of the day. I've taken Nhancer out of the loop and am just using NickN's fsx.cfg edits, the Nvidia Control panel and FSX settings to get the best quality graphics so far. At this time FSX is looking better than I was getting pre-Win7.

The one FSX graphics benchmark test I've been using for ages uses the RealAir Scout Package 2007 taildraggers. The one issue I always had with them was with the smaller detailed stripping along the sides of the aircraft. Before I started using Nhancer there was nothing I could do to make the stripping on the sides of those aircraft look like anti-aliasing was working. The stripes always had the jaggy saw tooth look. The odd thing is that these were the only aircraft and paint schemes I had that issue with. With Nhancer and being able to turn on High Dynamic Range (HDR), those same stripes and paint schemes became razor sharp and looked fantastic.

Currently I've got crystal clear and razor sharp stripes on my RA tail draggers without having to load up Nhancer.

Now who's to credit with that I'm not sure. Too many new things in the mix between the new OS, new vid drivers, etc. The bottom line is that FSX looks as good or better than before and I've got one less background app (Nhancer) eating resources.

FAC

[Dangerousdave26]

Again this is the Beta version I have for a few more days but I think i found where the setting can be changed in Two places.

Go to the control panel

Look at all items

Find the Power Options icon and click

My setting is for Balanced settings click change plan settings

I changed the monitor to never and sleep to never and saved settings

Navigate back to the section you were just in.

Now find the line that reads change advanced power settings click it

This pops up a window scroll down the list and find Display.

Even though I saved the changes this section has the monitor shut off value as 120 minutes. I manually changed it to Never. Now they all match.

Try that and see if it works for you.

[FAC257]

Dave

My setting in that spot already matches. I found something interesting in that area though. In the Power Options screen under Advanced Settings there is an option for "Change settings that are currently unavailable".

When I activate that, it adds a new power setting in that same drop down menu you are talking about, under the "Sleep" section called "Allow Hybrid Sleep". Currently even though all the other settings we've mentioned say "Never", under the Hybrid Sleep section it is still "On".

The other item I'm also wondering about is that under all of these very same power settings areas I still have the system set so that "On Battery" can still shut the monitor and system down.

Hmmmmmm?

One of my favorite parts about getting a new operating system is exploring and learning.

FAC

[Panther_99FS]

Very promising news! :applause:

Once Windows 7 is officially released, I'll hopefully be up & flying "soon"....:kilroy:

[Headwind]

I just got FSX installed with acceleration as well. So far I'm impressed to say the least. I have all sliders full right running at 1600x1200 with 8xSQ AA and 16x AF. No tweaks at all in the cfg and it's running great. Very few "pops" or stutters that I have seen as of yet. I've got a AMD 6000+, 9800gt, and 2gigs of ram under the hood.

Is it just me or did the problem with the blurries seem to go away out of the box with no tweaks???


http://www.oc77th.com/headwind/w7test.jpg

http://www.oc77th.com/headwind/w7test1.jpg

http://www.oc77th.com/headwind/w7test2.jpg

[FAC257]

The only graphics performance fsx.cfg edit that I'm using is the "TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=80" edit. Everything else being handled by the Nvidia Control Panel and FSX settings.

Here's a pic from a new W7 software compatibility and stress test. :)

W7
XGraphics
ASA
A2A Mustangs
FSHost session
TeamsSpeak
FSScreen

Things went really well except for one small FSX glitch I created by my own fiddling around.

FAC

[FAC257]

Wooo Hoo! Finally got all of my payware aircraft back installed in the new OS with just a few dozen scenery sets left to plug in.

I've also managed to get all of my other non-flight sim stuff loaded successfully into W7 also so far without a hitch.

The one program I mentioned I was holding off on was my commercial defrag program. Really a nice defragger, but a serious resource hog. While doing a little digging to learn today, I ran into this article. At first glance it leads me to think that a commercial defragger may not be all that neccesary anymore. Windows may finally have figured out how to defrag itself correctly. :)

The one thing I did run into last night by accident and then read today in this article is that the new Win7 defragger will defrag multiple drives simultaneously. I thought I had really screwed up last night because I had the defrag window open and had all of my internal drives highlighted and hit the button. I watched amazed and a little worried as it did indeed defrag every drive at the same time.

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/01/25/disk-defragmentation-background-and-engineering-the-windows-7-improvements.aspx

FAC