How To Doctor Your PC For Better CFS2 Performance

By "Mad" Max Merlin, FlightSim.Com Combat Flight Simulator Editor

Do this, and you will probably see a significant improvement in overall performance when flying CFS2 whether offline or in multiplayer missions.

The tips described in this article assume that you have advanced knowledge of Windows and can handle making changes to your Windows Start-up located by running the MSCONFIG program (START-RUN-MSCONFIG). If this all sounds like Greek to you, stop here and do not proceed.

Also, if you are running Windows XP on a new system, stop here. This is not for you.

Important note: These performance tune ups are specific to the Windows 98 SE operating system and may not apply to every system or those running older versions of Windows 98 or 95. DO NOT APPLY TO SYSTEMS RUNNING WINDOWS XP, WINDOWS NT OR WINDOWS 2000.

Also, you are on your own with these tips. Every system is different in the Windows world. So there are no guarantees that this will work on every PC. If you are not experienced at maintaining your system, do not proceed. These tips worked for me on my system and are offered without any additional tech support. You are on your own if you decide to make any changes.

The system I tested them on is a moderately powered rig using a DSL connection and included:

• Dell Dimension XPS700T Computer with an Intel Pentium 3, 700 MHz processor
• nVidia GeForce 256 video card with 32 MB VRAM
• 30 GB IDE hard drive
• 3Com 10/100 Ethernet adapter
• ViewSonic 19" monitor
• Logitech Wingman Extreme 3D flight stick with Thrustmaster Elite rudder pedals
• Windows 98SE operating system

There are three general areas where you can improve performance:

1. System tune-up
2. Firewalls
3. Use of voice over IP (VOIP) communications such as Roger Wilco, Team Sound, BattleCom, or Microsoft GameVoice.

System Tune-Up

OK, try all this on a day when you have lots of time and patience. The hot sweaty work will be worth the effort but take your time and do not cut corners.

1. Turn off any unnecessary programs while running CFS2. Load the minimum number of programs in your reg tray. Maybe just video and sound driver, antivirus (no firewalls), joystick driver, etc. Keep your resources as high as possible. check it using My Computer (right click), Properties, Performance. You want nothing less than 80% with no programs running. If it is below that, turn off unnecessary programs loading on startup. Then check resources again.

2. Defrag your hard drive. Use the Windows utility for this. It makes a tremendous improvement. Defrag monthly if you add and delete lots of files. Do not compress your hard drive. This is a very troublesome process and actually slows down system performance. If your drive is filled up, back up and remove files or get a bigger hard drive.

3. Upgrade your hard drive. If you have 10% or less drive space overhead (divide remaining free space by the total storage available) your system is in dire jeopardy and will perform very poorly. Never get below 10% drive overhead for a large hard drive with 20 GB or more of storage. Problems start happening when you get below 20% on small hard drives less than 20 GB.

4. Upgrade your video card. nVidia works best and new cards are very inexpensive. They are a great value relative to the performance boost you get. nVidia GeForce cards are now available with 64 and 128 MB of VRAM. "Mo' VRAM mo' betta'."

5. Tweak your CFS2 settings. Go with minimum graphics in multiplayer. Use settings 2 or 3, tops. Turn off ground shadows. If you have a high performance PC, a Pentium 4 faster than 1 GHz, ignore this. Those monsters need to set the exact opposite, maximum graphic settings or they slow down. If you have one of those computers, you're probably running Windows XP. So why are you reading this? Do not use these tips on Windows XP systems.

This screen shot shows you the image quality settings that would be the maximum for best multiplayer performance with a moderately fast, 700 MHz, Pentium 3 computer. If you still get laggy performance, try setting the graphics to #2 Overall Image Quality.

6. Remove and reinstall CFS2. Only install the sceneries, objects, aircraft, effects, etc. that you actually use. Having a huge hangar, massive scenery and other databases slows performance. Be sure to back up all your add-ons so you can easily re-install those you want to keep using.

7. As for Internet connections, DSL is best. Cable better, fast 56k dialup minimum. If your ISP is buggy, ditch them and go with someone else. Typical problems with broadband include packet loss for DSL and cable modem brownouts. Also, cable modems are all restricted to a mere 128 KBPS upload speed. DSL is not and you can get up and download DSL speeds as high as 1.5 MBPS. ADSL is a good bargain if you can get it. Service varies a lot on DSL so check with your provider. Dial-up service is so cheap these days you should not have to put up with poor service. Best providers are AT&T (dial-up and cable), XO (for broadband DSL), Earthlink (dial-up, broadband). This ranking may vary depending on where you are located. Don't waste your time and money on poor ISP service, no-name ISPs. Life is too short.

8. Get your phone company to check your circuits and possibly re-wire your house. It could be free. I don't know about the rest of the country but here in California, most phone subscribers pay a couple of bucks every month on their phone bill to cover what's called the "Wire Plan". Most people don't even know they have it. Under the wire plan, the phone company (SBC Pacific Bell in California) must maintain and even upgrade all your internal wiring from the phone network terminal (box inside your house where the outside line enters) to all the phone instruments. Most of this wiring is very bad, outdated, causes huge problems for Internet connections and is not DSL-ready. The old cabling is not shielded properly to prevent signal cross talking and EMI (electromagnetic interference from the phone signals passing through the wire). Often, you'll find jacks miss-wired. A real mess. The phone company will come in, clean it all up, re-wire everything FOR FREE -- if you have the Wire Plan. I had this done several years ago when I re-wired my home for DSL and a multi-PC Ethernet network. Check with your phone company. You may already be paying for a wire plan and not even know it. You might have to hound them a bit, depends on the phone company. In California, SBC Pacific Bell does the upgrade willingly and eagerly since it helps their overall system performance and better enables them to sell additional phone services to subscribers. The improvement will be massive -- especially if you are using a dial-up connection.

VOIP

The point here, pilots, is to have fun. If the games crash or lag, no one has any fun. So use, or do not use, VOIP at your own discretion. The freeware version of Microsoft Game Voice and the new version of Roger Wilco work great but ONLY when all the players are using broadband connections and the data compression is tuned up properly. So, those pilots with broadband should wing pair with other broadband users and VOIP to your heart's content.

Firewalls

If you want to use a firewall, just turn it off while playing and re-initialize it after the game.

ALL of the problems firewall users are having with The Zone, are a result of using a firewall while gaming. If you are OK with that, fine. Just bear in mind that you WILL suffer game crashes, lock-ups, inability to log on and more. If you want to improve your online gaming, turn off the firewall.

Firewalls are not needed for certain users.

Anyone who uses dial-up, 56k OR random IP DSL for Internet access does not need a firewall. 56k and random IP DSL assigns a new IP address every time you log on making it virtually impossible for you to be the victim of IP sniffing hack attacks. Firewalls for people accessing the Internet through these technologies are useless and just cause headaches. Take this from me, an industry insider with tech knowledge who knows what he's talking about.

This is so important that it bears repeating: Dial-up users are assigned random IP addresses every time they log on and this makes them less prone to IP-sniffing hacks. Only DSL, cable, and T1 broadband users who have permanent IP addresses and are always connected are at risk and might (emphasize MIGHT) benefit from a firewall. In any event, the ONLY firewalls that work well are hardware firewalls that are often built into your broadband router such as Netopia or Speedstream. Hardware firewalls can also be installed as a separate piece of network hardware between the DSL/Cable router and your internal Ethernet network or PC. They are expensive, but they work. The software solutions are all buggy and more trouble than they are worth. That includes Norton, McAfee and especially Zone Alarm.

The best protection you can have is to password protect all your peripherals on all the PCs on your network, even if you only have one PC connected to the Internet. Or, better yet, if you only have one PC, turn off sharing completely. Otherwise, password protect all shared PCs and every drive or printer or scanner that they share on your internal network. Then close any open ports on your system.

Go to http://www.dslreports.com/tools and run Port Scan which is an online check of open ports. The report will tell you what to do.

So, if you still insist on using a firewall while flying CFS2 multiplayer missions, be prepared to live with troublesome gaming performance. It is entirely your choice. I am offering this information as a means of saving you a lot of unnecessary aggravation. Frankly, I applaud anyone's decision to secure their PC system. Just want you to understand that you are not actually gaining added security by running a firewall with a dial-up Internet connection.