Saturday, March 3, 2007

VFR Flight & Frame Rates

I built a new sim box recently (see specs at first post in this blog) and was bummed to see that while at KPDX, with Flight Scenery's KPDX package installed I was getting horrible frame rates. I'm talking 12fps on an Intel Core 2 Duo! Also, I hate blurries, which occures when you are flying and you see blurred textures in the distance that pop sharp when you are close.

I was changing an option in the fs9.cfg file called TEXTURE_BANDWITDH_MULT=30

30 is the default. Some put this up to 400 to remove blurries but then can get some shuttering, etc. I took mine to 400 and loaded FS9.

Suddenly while on the active at KPDX, my fps dropped to 1fps. I knew something was wrong.

I started looking up the option I changed and for one, noticed I had it twice. Once listed under [DISPLAY] and then once under [TERRAIN]. Both with different options and I remember specifically a post saying put it in [TERRAIN] and leave the one in display alone. Well, terrain was already 400. 

At this point, a light came on and I realized I was only running FS9 version 9.0. I had not updated. I grabbed the 9.1 updater:

Download Here:

And installed. For one, this fixes a memory leak with auto gen. That alone is a killer. But while doing this, I did some more research and came across this post stating to be what you want your cfg file to look like if you fly VFR in prop engine planes:


Naturally not all fs9.cfg files will work for everyone, but I dumped this text into a text file and loaded it.

AMAZING! KPDX full 19.6 average fps!

If you want to see what KPDX looks like (and note the top left FPS is 19.6, locked at 20fps) check out these shots from the sim;


I've zipped up the fs9.cfg file, exactly as it's listed on that site above (minus the comments). Download it directly here:


(Remember, always make a back up of your own fs9.cfg file!)

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W
Coral Airlines, N324CR
Pilot ID: 908853

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