FS9 Optimisation

[Firebar]

I'm having to re-install FS9 (and everything else for that matter) onto my system after a virus attack and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for the best settings for me. I've never seemed to be able to run fs as fast as people with equivalent systems, managing a measly 20fps max. Any suggestions on setup are welcome.

Spec:

Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz
1024 MB RAM
NVidia 6200LE Graphics card (256 MB)
150 GB HDD (partitioned)

Any other details needed?

On another note what is the best AI around for the 1970s/1980s? I've decided I'm bored with the modern era.

Cheers
M

[hey_moe]

That all reall depends on what ya have running in the back ground and what tweaks you are using to get the speed. Your system is stong enough to get good frame rates.

[Firebar]

Generally not a huge amount running in the background, Just McAffee and A program for my internet plus Messenger. I currently have 47 processes runing of which the majority are system, internet and anti-virus.

[r678idtyj]

47 is a lot! Generally, as long as you can actually sit down and focus on FS for the duration, you should really stop processes you don't use. A/V will slow down accesses as it checks everything on the fly. Also, a lot of windows services can safely be turned off, esp if you don't have a real home network.....right now my machine runs 22 processes and that includes the internet navigator, winamp a defragger and a p2p program.

Good luck!

[FengZ]

yup, 47 is EXTREMELY high. The average can be well within the low 20s...including virus scanner, firewall, video drivers, etc.

i have 16 default processes running, and 6 "external" processes running (stuff not installed by XP). So 22 is pretty normal.

-feng

[Firebar]

yeah, but to be fair when I said 47 I was reinstalling stuff too. It's better than yesterdays 75 right before I got blue screen of deathed for the 3rd time.

There is a way to disable processes which you don't want to initialise on startup isn't there?

[Dangerousdave26]

I was given this information for my recent rebuild

It is some terrain tweeks.

It comes from another forum and you may well recognize some of the names.

Read over it carefully and then make the appropriate changes to your FS9.cfg. Remember to back it up before making any changes.


Re: The "Fuzzies"
Postby JonPatch on Mon Dec 22, 2008 1:23 am
Here's a summary from Holger, taken from FSGenesis forum archives. He is referrring to parameters in FS9.cfg. If you don't know where to find or edit that file, let us know.
In order to maximize the detail/sharpness of ground textures it's a good idea to use terrain extended textures. Below is a summary of what these parameters mean and what values are possible. However, if you're using photoreal scenery (such as MegaScenery) you should turn off extended textures and reduce visibility to 30 miles or so. That is because without extended textures FS needs to load about 5000 texture tiles but with extended textures the number jumps to about 20,000!

There's still a lot of debate what exactly those parameters mean and what units they have but here's what I compiled from various sources and, IMO (!), makes sense:

TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
* that's easy: ON/OFF switch to load higher res textures beyond the initial "ring", which extends to about 40 miles

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000
* apparently, values can range from 0 to 9.99 and higher settings will be ignored
* extends the use of the highest detailed mips (sharper textures) within the inner circle; lower settings means less than 40 miles and higher settings up to the 40-mile max.
* changing this value doesn't seem to make much of a visible difference

TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.500000
* same range of values as above
* extends the use of higher maps for the outer circle(s). Supposedly, "1.5" reaches to ~70mi and "9.9" to about 100mi
* careful!!! A setting higher than 3.9 can lead to "texture tearing" (blue slivers) in the mid- to far distance when high-res mesh is used. Some add-on mesh files - like some of mine - provide additional "buffer" mesh files, which prevent those blue slivers even at settings >3.9

TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4
* range from 0 to 8
* is tied to TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS and defines the max. mip level to be used for the outer ring(s), that is the sharpness of the outer ring textures
* I never noticed much difference between 0 and 4; no changes at all when >4

In summary, the TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS parameter appears to be the one with the biggest visual influence.
Oh, and TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT apparently determines the speed or priority with which ground textures are sent for processing to the graphics card.
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Re: The "Fuzzies"
Postby Dieter on Thu Dec 25, 2008 10:48 am
Hello,
there is another important point to pay attention to:
MAX_UNLIMITED_VIS=
This factor is automatically and always changed to 96560 whenever you do a change in FS2004 settings, whatever value you had before!
Realistic value for landscape is 64000.
By the way, following values are recommended by Germany's well know "Texture Pope" Jobia.
(Holger will know him for sure)
He published his intensive studies in his "texture bible" - sorry, about 500 pages all in German.(http://www.jobia.de/)
His proposals are:
MAX_UNLIMITED_VIS=64000
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024
MipBias=8
[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=0.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=200.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=4.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=2
By the way, I'm really no texture specialist, just a user, depending on specialists' experience and I don't want to start a new discussion. These settings are excessively discussed in all forums since the appearance of FS2004. In the end, everybody has to find his best values.
Greetings
Dieter
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Re: The "Fuzzies"
Postby BC_Holger on Thu Dec 25, 2008 11:03 pm
Hi guys,
Joachim (Jobia) is correct in that the maximum values for TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS and TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS are 4.0, not 4.5 as I had posted. Similarly, TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS does only reach to 4, not 8.
Thus, the settings I use are:
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=4.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4 (as Joachim has shown in his document, this value makes no difference if the first two are set to the maximum 4)

Different from Joachim's suggestion I set
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=90.000000
and
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=20
The former is the Mesh Complexity slider value and it has been shown that a value of 100 (percent) has a disproportionate impact on frame rates while any values above 70% or so make no visible difference in the sim.
With TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL at the default 19 the highest resolution that terrain mesh can resolve is 76-m spacing (LOD9). Most of my projects - as well as lots of other add-on landscape files - use 38-m spacing (LOD10), which is why I tend to use TMVL=20. The maximum value of 21, on the other hand, can lead to visual problems with terrain shading (large blocks instead of accurate shapes).
Cheers, Holger


My system

P4 3.0 GHz
2 GB Ram
Nvidia 7800 GS

I run at a smooth 25 fps with no problems. All scenery and trerrain sliders to the right.

Good luck

[Firebar]

Wow, Its running luverly at the moment, although thats just neat with no addons or extra aircraft.

[modelr]

Firebar, go to CalClassics.com for some great 50s-70s ai and scenery.

[Firebar]

ty for the cal classics idea, hjg will also get a look in.

What I'm really looking for is 1980s UK scenery, especially airfields, I know there are a number out there ie V-Force era Waddo etc but I'm looking for more.

Cheers
M

[dandog]

Of course, there's FS AutoStart. Shut down what you do not need while simming. Small free program that works well. Just remember, if your not sure, then do not let FS AutoStart shut it down. Worst that can happen is you restart your machine and a all programs are running again.