improving graphics???

. disable some background programmes that are running this frees up system resourses.

.Install the latest Graphic drivers for you video card

.Overclocking on a graphics card (If done carefully) can help improve a graphics card performance. If your graphics are intergrated this is'nt advisable.

.Not sure if this improves performance, but the latest 9.1 update should be installed

.Worth reducing the 'Autogen' in the settings because it wont effect quality, but less buildings and trees are placed. This would help FS run better and smoother.

Only way your going to see a substancial benefit is with a new graphics card I'm afraid. 🙂

Flyer4000 wrote:

.

.Overclocking on a graphics card (If done carefully) can help improve a graphics card performance. If your graphics are intergrated this is'nt advisable.

what exactly do you mean by this? (haha sorry im only 16 and im not too sharp on computers)

The best way is to contact Microsoft direct via their support website, and give them your specs. They will be able to give you the best set up for running FS9. It's also free!!

Anonymous wrote:

Flyer4000 wrote:

.

.Overclocking on a graphics card (If done carefully) can help improve a graphics card performance. If your graphics are intergrated this is'nt advisable.

what exactly do you mean by this? (haha sorry im only 16 and im not too sharp on computers)

I thought people your age were sharper at computers

Only kidding 😂

If your graphics is ATI or Nvidia then there are places on the internet that have overclocking tools. Basically overclocking is pushing a cards Clock and memory speed beyond what they are at stock (when you bought it). Software I have used tests the new setting to see if the computer is stable or not. Its a good free performance boast, but pushing a card too far could potentially ruin hardware. If your graphics are intergrated like Intels solution then I would'nt advice adjusting any settings.

If you don't know what overclocking is, I strongly suggest you don't do it.
You can (read "will") cause serious & irreversable damage to your system if you tweak too hot. I suggest you bust open a piggy bank or just turn the display settings down.

omgttfs wrote:

If you don't know what overclocking is, I strongly suggest you don't do it.
You can (read "will") cause serious & irreversable damage to your system if you tweak too hot. I suggest you bust open a piggy bank or just turn the display settings down.

Sound advice

My system has had a massive boast from overclocking, but you are right it does come with risks.
I was testing overclock settings for my AMD CPU, but I got greedy and tried my luck at overclocking some more. I nearly destroyed my machine because it refused to boot. However I was lucky because after many attempts my system happened to boot and I was able to correct the settings in the bios. Although my AMD CPU is still overclocked from 2.2Ghz to 2.4Ghz, but I wont be trying luck again thats for sure 🙂

Anonymous wrote:

hey i was wondering what i could do to improve graphics and overall smoother running of FS9 (and i know that buying a graphix card is the best but i just wanna know what i can do without having to spend money). So if you could help that'd be great

Have a look at this ➡

INSIDE FS9
==========
1. Set visibility (vis) to about 30mi/48km - that's the real world and this single adjustment will a) make FS2004 textures look much nicer and realistic, and b) Give you back lots and lots of FPS
2. Avoid large amount of cumulus clouds - they eat FPS. Create a new weather theme which looks nice but avoids those. If you must use real-world weather then get Active Sky 6 and install their 128x128 DXT3 MIP cloud sets - perfect solution
3. Slide MIP down to 4 - no need for more than that on your 6600GT
4. Slide LIGHTS down to 6
5. Slide 3D cloud density to 50%, will still look great
6. Turn off lens flare (pilot's sunglasses don't have lens flare
7. Turn OFF anti-aliasing inside FS9
8. Set to Trilinear filtering always
9. Run FS9 in Full-screen mode at the same resolution as your desktop
10. Lock your FPS to 25 - seriously, you won't notice anything higher and it really does help. At the worst set it to 30FPS, but I never run it that fast, because PAL video runs at 25FPS and 3.5 billion people can't be wrong eh? Movies in the cinema run even slower.

Optional
11. Optional (disable the autogen library by renaming the fs9\Autogen\default.xml to default.xml.OFF - this will make very little visual difference to your flying but gives back FPS also.

Leave everything else maxed out.

YOUR VIDEO CARD
===============
1. Set to AA to 4XS (anything else is overkill if running = > 1280x1024)
2. Set AF to 4
3. Set Sharpness to +1 (this will make FS9 visuals look spectacular)

YOUR WINDOWS XP
===============
1. Not running XP? Buy it, install it with SP2
2. Shutdown about 40-50 services you don't need. Grab a program called FSautostart, which will do this for you with tips on each setting. I have 1024MB RAM and when I start FS9 I have 860MB free. Trust me, it makes a huge difference to performance.
3. Turn OFF any programs in the tray you are not using. This includes Anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-anything. Also turn off all those silly tray icons like quicktime and countless others. They are all consuming CPU cycles and the Anti-virus will most definitely interfere with FS9 performance.

BLURRIES
========
The most common thing that can ruin your flight experience is a case of the "blurries". I see this in so many screenshots, and it's completely avoidable.

Here's a few rules to follow:

1. If you are flying low (below 5,000 ft) (not slewing), keep your ground speed around 120Kts

2. If you are slewing (not flying), always tap Y to go back into flying mode so the textures can be reloaded in your immediately area. So (a) slew to the position, (tap the 'Y' key and fly for a bit to let the textures catch up, tap 'Y' again and just slew back to the best position for the shot.)

3. Make sure your section of your fs9.cfg file has these last 3 entries in the section:

TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19 (20 for 38m mesh, 21 for 20m mesh)
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=3.500000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4