FSX settings advice please??

tonymadge · Post by **tonymadge** » 23 Feb 2007, 23:16

Ok Horizon supplied me with FSX for Â£30 and its installed and registered. Fired it up and with basic settings (default) I wandered at slide show pace over the desert..well thats what the UK looks like in FSX :shock:
Now I really need to pick the brains of the FSX admirers, I have heard you say how good it is so please with a set up like I have listed at the end what sliders and settings should I use please to get acceptable performance. I will NOT be adding anything other than Horzion Generation X scenery for the UK once it is working...
I wonder as well in FS9 when you hit "s" you cycle through cockpit, VC, tower and outside. The same for FSX except it misses out VC...unless you manually select it in the views menu..is that normal??? seems crap to me... The intial look of the menus seem confusing and cluttered compared to FS9 plus I could not see that "previous flight" in the saved menu as in FS9...Am I expecting too much before I even start

tips gratefully accepted, I know I have knocked FSX but now I have bought it I want to give it a good shake down before I decide if I was too hasty in my condemnation in earlier posts.
ok my spec

AMD64 3800 CPU
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe moatherboard
1GB Corsair Extreme DDR Ram
200Gb hard disc
300Gb hard disc
Nvidia GT6000 128Mb video
Nvidia GT6000 128Mb Video
(both capable of SLI but not used in that config)
Creative Audigy sound
Windows XP Home Edition

Cheers Tony

Post by **Trev Clark** » 24 Feb 2007, 09:28

I know I have knocked FSX but now I have bought it I want to give it a good shake down before I decide if I was too hasty in my condemnation in earlier posts.

No, you were correct in your condemnation Tony! I thought CFS3 was a load of crap..............until FSX!

When you install the Horizon scenery, follow their instructions, to the letter. I get a good 18FPS with this installed, until I get near a default airfield (or what MS think an airfield is), and it then stutters to about 10FPS whilst my PC renders two measly RW's and a tower that does not match the photo scenery at all in position!

I can run the default FSX scenery, but (to me) it looks unrealistic after living in my France VFR and Flight Zone FS9, which is smooth and realistic.

Post by **DaveG** » 24 Feb 2007, 09:53

If you press "A" while in cockpit mode, it will cycle through 2D, VC, and other pre-programmed views. You can do the same in spot mode to get fixed spot, flyby etc.

Have a look here: http://ops.precisionmanuals.com/wiki/FSX_FPS_Guide for some goos tweaks.
I found the "FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=x" tweak made the most difference FPS wise, but it does make the blurries worse, which is probably not great for VFR scenery

basys · Post by **basys** » 24 Feb 2007, 10:00

Hi Folks

Tony -
Recommend familiarising yourself with the changes by looking at the learning centre.
Views are cycled with the following keys -
S cycles types, cockpit, external, tower, etc.
A cycles within the above types.

As for FPS, suggest -
Saving your current display settings config.
Then clicking the reset to defaults,
then work out which items you really require.
If using autogen, please note max in FS9 = sparse in FSX,
both place 600 objects / km.

For a quick test you could try mine
suitable for GenX on my low spec machine (P2.4, 1GB, Radeon9000 64MB)-
Display Settings config file

Edit
Crossed post with DaveG.
EDIT Insert
Try FSX Tweak Guide

EDIT Delete/ignore
The link posted is quite an old doc,
and does contain some incorrect info.
Try The Bloody Beginner's Guide to Realistic Flight Simulation

Setting to greater than 0.33 (the inbuilt default)
will improve on any blurries.
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.33

I personally use 0.66

Also you should limit your FPS,
as this allows the sim to update scenery, etc,
rather than just concentrating on flight dynamics.

HTH
ATB
Paul

Edited to avoid misdirecting followon readers.
I'd gotten two PDFs confused.
Apologies
Paul

Sl4yer · Post by **Sl4yer** » 24 Feb 2007, 11:01

I'm probably one of many who took advantage of Horizon's offer, to get all the VFR scenery and FSX deluxe for Â£75. And I must say I'm presently surprised!

After installing the VFR (and following the setting instructions exactly, as Trev says), I get the locked 30fps nearly all the time. Thats on a P4-3000, with an old Radeon 9600XT.

The scenery looks stunning. It is a tremendous advance over the FS9 stuff - it is actually possible to follow roads at very low levels now. There are some blurries, but over say 700 feet, everything is fine. I might tweak some settings to see if it can be improved further.

On the downside, the default FSX stuff isn't a great leap forward from FS9, and the bugs in the Horizon scenery are pretty basic (particularly the crappy install). But they're working on fixing everything. I'm very pleased to have made the upgrade.

James

tonymadge · Post by **tonymadge** » 24 Feb 2007, 17:50

Many thanks for all the tips hope to play with it later next week when I have some time. I will let you know if it is staying or ebaying

Paul K · Post by **Paul K** » 24 Feb 2007, 18:11

tonymadge wrote: I will let you know if it is staying or ebaying

Now there's a phrase I'll be borrowing a lot!

tonymadge · Post by **tonymadge** » 25 Feb 2007, 21:11

Ok on the upsaide I like the water, I like the way it blends the horizon in.
What I find galling is that out of the box on a decent spec system ( one that outweighs their minimum spec) its sh*t. I have tried various settings and followed the links, I even downloaded the aurogen files that are smaller. I still can't get it smooth, when I look left or right in 2D Cockpit view I get the panel for a few secs over the view. I find the bloody thing slows every time you look left or right, I find the menus crap.
Oh and that wonderful PDF of ideas from Marten Weber... I read it then took myself outside for a damned good beating, how dare I complain about FSX when I can't be bothered to spend x amount of pounds to get it to run right. I am sick to death of folk saying how good it is and then they turn round and point out what a whizz bang system they have got, well excuse me but I have a damned good powerful unit and it don't work for me!!!!!!!
I find that there is something drastically wrong with a "game" that states it will run on X Y Z but really needs a computer on steriods to do anything resembling performance...
I have advice to folk who want to check their aircraft designs or repaints..DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY get the free demo and check them on that, trust me it is as crap as the real thing :curse:
I am considering contacting trading standards as MS have sold me a dummy a white elephant a dodo.
I have not even opened Generation X VFR scenery yet and probably wont. I wonder if I can get a refund as I bought it cheap but its still an expensive way of filling up a hard drive!!!
Anyone who says that it is better and runs smoother than FS9 are in the emperors clothes syndrome, I admit my faults and state I was a looney tune to buy this sh*t oh talking of looney tunes..the sky painted straight from the Hanna Barbara studios...#
So there you have it folks I bought it I am rightfully allowed to say it is a waste of money unless you can afford the system to run it.
Oh and the sliders settings tried them at various stages ...nothing to cheer about on that level either.
Anyone want to buy it from me

Post by **Trev Clark** » 25 Feb 2007, 22:21

Wonderful Tony, I could not have said it better myself.

Every few days I go back to FSX to have another try and leave it with a bad taste in mouth. If anything is going to kill this hobby, it is FSX. I even find the flight models rather unpleasant and 'lumpy' to fly, maybe this is realistic and I am a crap pilot with a more realistic sim, but it is no fun, all the same.

The whole sim give me the feeling I used to get with the Hanna and Barbera cartoons of Tom and Gerry. The early ones were great, later in the late 1960's they did some with really bad artwork, this is how I view FSX.

To my mind, it should look like Flightzone or France VFR does on FS9, that runs at 26 FPS and looks great. With the same settings on FSX I can get 19 FPS but it stutters for all the time, sometimes for a second or so. That survey MS did a couple of years ago (and they ignored), said that above all, we simmers want good FPS and smooth gameplay.

Sl4yer · Post by **Sl4yer** » 25 Feb 2007, 22:26

Tony,

Please give the new VFR a go. It's tremendous if you fly around the UK a lot. (I do, often low!). I've just had a go around the Lake District in the UKMIL Jag, and it's many times superior to what FS9 can do with the old VFR scenery.

Admittedly, if you don't fly much over England and Wales, FSX isn't a great (or any?) inprovement over FS9. The border with Scotland has never been clearer!

James