FS9 - improvements/freeware/other

[Techy111]

Jim.....out of interest and sheer human kindness i want to ask you a question ? Do you have PCI E Slots on your motherboard? If yes then drop me a PM because i have a X1600SE (so so card) to give away to a worthy soul..... Never used...

Tony (it may help ? )

[DaveB]

Not sure what your problem is there Jim. I only run an XP3200+ (non-64) and although I run 3gig of ram, this has only been a recent addition to try and get FSX to run better (which it doesn't.. not that I can notice anyway). It's only been the last couple of months I started re-using the XP3200 in favour of my XP2400 and that was only because the PSU failed. The XP2400+ mit ATI9700pro runs FS9 more than adequately on 1gig DDR400 ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[forthbridge]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the offer, much appreciated - but I have a Compaq system at the moment, and through bitter experience I have learned to leave well alone - even tho it should be plug and play, I did a mates' machine recently (extra RAM and a new graphics card) - and ended up needing to hunt for an updated BIOS and do a clean install of windows, even tho his machine was less then 18 months old!!!!

My machines' kicking on for two years old now, so an upgrade is due (fairly) soon..... :drinkers:

Dave: I get the point there, and I am struggling to get round the issue. It has been running reasonably well until the last day or so. Ive re-installed and defragged, and I am now using simple clouds. Some possibilites may be: my low and fast Hunter escapades (definitely) - and I think the machine has an issue with turbulence - if the A/C bounces a little, the terrain (depending on where it is) can sometimes need to redraw a little too quickly for my machine.

But even when flying medium and slow - take hawaii for instance - (remember as well it is the default scenery) I can have a 'good' one, then all of a sudden the terrain goes to 'basic' textures and stays like that until I reset the flight :brick:

The framerates tend not to be a problem, except every other flight, they are terrible particularly when on the takeoff roll.

With clear skies it is fine mostly, but obviously, weather (even simple clouds) is a reason for having FS9 (amongst others ;-) ) - so I'm a wee bit miffed.

No doubt, there will be something somewhere I've missed in the setup that will help - if only I could figure it out!

[DaveB]

I don't think there's a PC on the planet that can handle DG's Hunter at low level mate ;-) I'm sure that defragging helps but I'm one of the philistines that hasn't defragged the PC since I built it. Perhaps we've both grown slow together so I don't notice it I've never had a pc that can run FS9 (or any other FS for that matter) with the sliders fully right to a level of smoothness I'm happy with so these tend to get backed off until I am happy.

Something doesn't sound right with your setup though. Wish I could put my finger on a possible problem but there are just too many variables

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[forthbridge]

HI Dave,

Yip, backing off the sliders and even with autogen completely off, something is not quite right. I am only getting between 10 and 12 FPS over open water - what is really weird is that (Fooling around at Kahului) on takeoff, looking out the side of the cockpit, I only lose about 2FPS along the runway with the detail there and the hills in the background - 9.5 FPS vs 11-12.5 over open water! :brick:

[forthbridge]

:roll: :brick:

Something's still awry. In the ETPS hunter, a 270 kts flyby over London from Heathrow to City, (with autogen back on and reasonable results) gives between 4.5 and 32 FPS - in fact I had 32 FPS over the Millenium cash-bucket, and past Canary Wharf right into City, and respectable framerates otherwise - I then has a shot in the default Piper cub, and the framerates were virtually identical throughout the flight. Got the odd scenery wash out, but it always came back this time. Cockpit views tend to snarl things up a little (although still got good results). The Cub was getting a right buffeting, but framerates stayed at 32.9 until I landed at City. I cannot understand ho I can get 10FPS over London - and only get the same over open water!! :brick:

** Note on the framerates: while the sime gave 32.9 FPS - this looked quite appalling in spots - dodgy reading? (Looked better at 15 FPS) - although in parts the higher figure was smoother - but not 'twice as smooth'.


EDIT: Which (Water) is a prime candidate for replacement textures - as I don't recall the Firth of Forth Pearlescent blue - and TBH the water textures are actually worse (default) than FS8 IMO)

Is there some garbage running on my system I don;t know about? (other than windows)??

[DaveB]

Hi Jim,

I'm hoping that DanKH reads this as he recommended a set of water textures (which I now use but can't remember the name of) and they're free ;-)

Certain things don't change in FS9 and all the others too. Flying from say.. LHR toward London City and your framerates are always going to be low if you have Autogen turned up high enough. Ground texture redraw is always going to be longer in the Hunter than the Cub due to the shere complexity of the Hunter against the somewhat simplistic Cub model. Put simply.. if you're heading toward any major city and you experience a ground texure lock out.. the more complex the model you're flying, the longer it will take for the ground textures to re-focus. Flightsim will reach a point where framerates have no baring on what you see and this is one such situation.

Core x 4 users of FSX will probably be happy with how FSX runs (on the right OS) but FSX is already running with Core x 8 (although the general public are not privvy to x8 chips).

Oh dear.. this could go on forever couldn't it. I wonder if you're not expecting a little more than is possible :think: FS9 should run.. with the sliders at.. say, 50%.. equal to and exceed what was/is possible with FS8 at a much higher setting.

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

Aquarama is the one I use and I think that may be the one Dan recommended.

I can't give the exact filename but a search should find it on the usual sites

Water difference :roll: it makes too

Garry

[DaveB]

Cheers Garry.. that's the one. aquarama.zip .. available at Allnodes and avsim ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[DanKH]

Yes, thats it ;-)

I think the latest version is

aquarama_189700.zip