New To The FSX Forums

[delta_lima]

Hello everyone! First time on the FSX forum ...

I have a new system :woot:ok ... nicer than what I had. It runs FS9 wonderfully - all maxed, out, 50 fps. What do you all expect my experience with FSX be? Would it be worth getting FSX? I'd be running a 70's era version of my Silver Wings FS1958 install (and that's assuming Silver Wings runs on FSX).

Anyway - here's the system - what do you all think?

Dell Optiplex 360
Intel Pentium Dual Core E220 @ 2.40 GHz, 3GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT w/ 512 MB RAM
Windows XP SP3 (on a downgrade key, also have Vista preinstalled).

thanks!

dl

[harleyman]

Hi..And welcome to the FSX forums......

I think that if you clean the system up some and use some config file tweaks,you will do fair with FSX on that system.....Probably not full right sliders....

You just need to try and see..Some people have better luck than others....

[stansdds]

My computer will run FS9 at 50+ fps consistently, but there are still the little pauses as scenery loads.

I run FSX at only 24fps (I can go higher, but the fps fluctuates wildly), but it is much smoother and does not seem to suffer the pause problems of FS9.

I'd certainly like to run FSX at 50+ fps, but 20 to 24 and silky smooth is actually more pleasing to the eye than 60 fps with drops down to 20, pauses, and stutters.

[Bjoern]

Intel Pentium Dual Core E220 @ 2.40 GHz

Honestly?

That system is okay for an adequate FSX experience (don't expect too much though), but the CPU is actually for the recycling bin. Okay, it's a dual core, but one hell of an inefficient, hot running electricity guzzler.

In case you want to upgrade that system further, go for the CPU first.

[Daube]

Honestly?

That system is okay for an adequate FSX experience (don't expect too much though), but the CPU is actually for the recycling bin. Okay, it's a dual core, but one hell of an inefficient, hot running electricity guzzler.

In case you want to upgrade that system further, go for the CPU first.

I agree with the above comment.
The computer is OK but the CPU is too slow.
Aim for something around 3Ghz, the more cores the better.

[MCDesigns]

Hi DL, welcome , make yourself at home!!

As for that system running FSX, really depends on your expectations. The autogen and the environment (advanced water shaders, higher res textures, denser objects, etc) in FSX has so much more going on that in FS9. Couple of things to keep in mind, the normal autogen setting in FSX is the same as the maxed setting in FS9 as far as density goes. Also keep in mind, FSX may display less FPS, but is very fluid at lower FPS, unlike FS9.


Best of luck and let us know if we can help!

[delta_lima]

Thanks folks - great help.

I'm leaning toward just running FS9 for now, given my current upgrade dollars spent. I'd love the moving carriers, and nicer eye candy, but I'm figuring that a maxed out FS9 experience may be better than a hamstrung FSX experience.

That said, if I decide to, is it wiser to get all the upgrades (Acceleration, etc.) or just the base install (gold, premium?).

thanks!

dl

[Panther_99FS]

DeltaLima,
If you get real desperate for FPS', AVSIM has some re-sized autogen trees & buildings that seem to help out folks :)

[heywooood]

Thanks folks - great help.

I'm leaning toward just running FS9 for now, given my current upgrade dollars spent. I'd love the moving carriers, and nicer eye candy, but I'm figuring that a maxed out FS9 experience may be better than a hamstrung FSX experience.

That said, if I decide to, is it wiser to get all the upgrades (Acceleration, etc.) or just the base install (gold, premium?).

thanks!

dl

you need the Acceleration addon to get the carriers...and its the Gold edition for the added scenery and the Goose and Maule.

You might as well get that new Gold edition since it has everything in one package (or whatever they tcall the latest Complete FSX deal)

As far as FSX working on your rig - everyone has made some adjustments - it simply comes down to what you can find file wise and .cfg tweak wise to make it work on your rig - and then settling on the best settings in FSX and with your drivers etc...

FSX is a major fiddlers fantasy...if you just want to install and fly FSX you will be challenged - if on the other hand you like to fiddle and fuss over all the elements of a program and PC functionality, then FSX is a dream come true.

Don't be worried about what some people say about your rig though...just get the full FSX and get to it - you can always upgrade your equipment later.

key files for you are the reduced trees, and reduced clouds -
key .cfg tweaks are the autogen building and tree adjustments (lower the count- there are sites that explain it all clearly) as well as the Texture Bandwidth Multiplier and possibly the BufferPool tweak and there are a few others.

getting your ingame settings right for your rigs horsepower is important

and looking at video driver utilities is a must.

[heywooood]

gratuitous screenshots follow:

my rig is a P3.4g dual core on an Asus P965 platinum mobo Zotac 8800gt 512 GPU 2gigs RAM and I get by

[harleyman]

Nice shots Heywoood....:applause:

[heywooood]

thanks Harleydude - its mostly REX and GEX enhanced... and I finally switched WideAspectView to=True (I have a modest widescreen monitor and didn't even know about this .cfg line) and increased the TBWM to=70 which is the optimum number for my rig apparently...

I missed those from my earlier readings of NickN's outstanding tutorial posts - now FSX is like brand new again.

Point to the original poster - FSX can be configured to work well enough on most rigs - but you do have to make concessions and you do have to work at it.

I get good smooth FPS in the default GA planes and a few high quality addons, especially Carenado's and Tim Conrads fine works
just about everywhere in the FSX virtual world - but I stay away from the most highly detailed urban areas for the obvious reason that my FPS gets whacked by them. You can make it work on your rig and find excellent airports and scenery to fly over, no problem.

[codeseven]

thanks Harleydude - its mostly REX and GEX enhanced...

Geez Heywoood, those are beautiful screenies and all thats just REX and GEX for scenery? Nice.

All those Addons are enough to make a guys head spin. I'm surprised they can all be lumped together and still work. I'm trying to figure out myself which scenery Addon(s) to get. Sounds like each one brings it's own features to FSX and combined make for the 'full' experience.

Some of those listed look familiar from store shelves like Fry's or Best Buy but from what I gather others have to be downloaded from the net with an option to also get a disc in the mail.

Maybe what would be a big help to newer simmers would be to have a Poll listing all those Scenery type Addons and have folks vote on which ones they use then you could add up the top 4 or 5 and install them. I'd like to see the same kind of Poll for aircraft but the list would be much too long.

[cheezyflier]

DeltaLima,
If you get real desperate for FPS', AVSIM has some re-sized autogen trees & buildings that seem to help out folks :)


you wouldn't happen to know what i could use as a search term to find them, would you? if i can just get a tiny bit more, i may be able to have atc and weather at the same time

[heywooood]

Geez Heywoood, those are beautiful screenies and all thats just REX and GEX for scenery? Nice.

All those Addons are enough to make a guys head spin. I'm surprised they can all be lumped together and still work. I'm trying to figure out myself which scenery Addon(s) to get. Sounds like each one brings it's own features to FSX and combined make for the 'full' experience.

Some of those listed look familiar from store shelves like Fry's or Best Buy but from what I gather others have to be downloaded from the net with an option to also get a disc in the mail.

Maybe what would be a big help to newer simmers would be to have a Poll listing all those Scenery type Addons and have folks vote on which ones they use then you could add up the top 4 or 5 and install them. I'd like to see the same kind of Poll for aircraft but the list would be much too long.


I agree - a listing of the most popular addons for scenery and atmospherics would be great...

I use REX (payware) for the atmospherics and GEX (payware) with the latest GEX enhancement file which really improves the night lighting on the ground.

in addition I use FS Water Configurator (freeware) and a few bits and pieces of XGraphics (payware).

I have FSGenesis mesh underneath it all - its good for mountain contours but the lousy sunken or plateau effect airfields are a downer and it doesn't address the hard sharp angles and ruler straight shorelines in FSX

I bought UTX but no loner use it as it adds too much urbanish blight and removes way too many trees - plus it lays streets across existing roads and through buildings and parks etc. and just looks too random if you will
I did like the improved shoreline textures like the sandy beaches and rocky shorelines...but it didn't improve the shape of the shorelines either (those straight lines and sharp angles that FSX unfortunately has everywhere) so there was no reason to keep using it.

I would like a program that at least bends and rounds off the sharp shorelines if possible - I just don't like the photoreal and google earth stuff enough to apply it - but I dunno if its possible to do that.

Still FSX looks better than anything else around....so far

[guzler]

I'm running a 2.4Ghz single core, 2Gb RAM, 8800GT 512MB, and whilst I suffer blurries in FSX, the game is smooth now. I am using the cfg tweeks advised on here, lower autogen texture resolutions, UTX, WOAI traffic, lots of other stuff.

You won't be dissapointed. I am running 20FPS and happy with that, its smooth.

[heywooood]

you have a good card - did you add the [BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=15000000

to your FSX.cfg ? add it at the end of the file

Also - check TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULTIPLIER=try 40 - then try 70 then try 80 one at a time

chances are that will help reduce the blurries

you can also go into you camera.cfg in the main FSX folder and remove the 'nearest tower view'
do it like this:

[CameraDefinition.007]
Title = Nearest Tower
Guid = {60BC0819-BD04-4AF6-8954-8FC8AA3545FF}
Description = This is the description of the tower view.
Origin = Tower
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
Track = Track
ShowAxis = No
AllowZoom = Yes
InitialZoom = 8.0
SmoothZoomTime = 2.0
ShowWeather = Yes
XyzAdjust = FALSE
Transition = No
ShowLensFlare=FALSE
Category = Tower
ClipMode = Tower
NoSortTitle = True
CycleHidden=Yes // added <----------add this line exactly

FSX struggles with this view as it has to instantly redraw a completely diferent view and all of the terrain and scenery in that view in an instant
...most hardware cannot keep up with that demand and instead 'dumps' the textures completely - then slowly recovers provided you don't cycle through the views again whilts it is recovering

[Bjoern]

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=15000000

Waaaaaaaaay too high for a 9800GT!


Try something between 8000000 and 1000000, DL.