[Simeon S]

aus dem AVSIM-Forum...


"FPS KILLERS!!! THE GIANT THREE"
I believe that I am in agreement with most of you when I say that this is the most significant release of Flight Sim since Color.
That being said, there are Three major FPS killers for those of us with less than hot machines, that we need to tweak to find the sweet spot.

1. Scenery Mesh Complexity. Going from 0 to 100 percent has a BIG effect on frame rates. The mountains are more rounded from a distance and more diffused. This tends to get better as you approach them, as you near them, they get more detail. Up close, there isn't much difference in them. But from a distance, it's very noticable. Experiment with this setting and find the one that works for you. If you are simply into Mountains, crank this one up and sacrifice some of the other two.

2. AI Traffic. If you thought the last choice was tough, this one even is tougher. Once you've flown around in populated skys, the ability to scale back on this gets very difficult. But, it is necessary. 100% AI Traffic will kill even the most sturdy of systems. I find 50 Percent gives me adequate traffic without clogging up my system. If you are mainly into Heavy Iron, you can check the box for "IFR traffic Only" and possibly crank up the slider a bit since you are removing all the "sunday drivers" Finding the sweetspot on this is painful, but necessary.

3. Autogen: GADS! It gets worse!!! I thought trimming back on Mesh complexity and AI traffic were like quitting smoking. Phasing out Autogen is like quiting Smack! Autogen is a great asset, and it adds so much to the surrounding scenery. Of course if you turn if off, you'll see how big a bite this monster takes from your frames. Autogen is one of those habits you wish you had never taken up. Microsoft, acting like some perverse electronic crack dealer, provides autogen by default. Had it been set to zero, I may have found going back there easier. The default scenery is fantastic and there are more buildings in "extremely dense" mode than ever. However, Autogen adds that much more. I personally find extremely dense autogen to be distracting because of the frame rate hit, and what it does to my textures. By sliding it to the left (as difficult as it sounds) you can find some satisfaction in normal, and the trade off is worth it. Turning off Autogen completely will really give you some frames back, and guarantee you get pretty sharp ground textures at all times. But, as easy as that sounds, I'd rather chew off my left arm.

So there you have it. The big three. You can pretty much max out every other thing on the block. But you need to make some tough calls with these sliders, and if you are like me, you will always be going back and forth between these ones to find that sweet spot.

Good Luck and Happy flying.

(A NOTE: The Unlimited Visibility slider should always be set to 60. If you have it set to 150, or even 80, you obviously have frames to burn. The extra 20 to 90 miles of visibility you get is nowhere near worth the frame rate hit, as the textures that far off are often blurred. Most people I know would say that the "60" setting is a given. If you haven't moved this down yet, then you are just burning up Frames needlessly)



Happy flyin'

Simeon