Any simple advice on the Graphics settings?

[iainso]

I've just got a new Graphics card (8800 GT) and and and trying to get the best out of FSX on my PC (core2duo). I've been searching this forum and have not been able to find any succinct advise on the FSX graphics parameters and tuning them.

Can anyone point me to a good thread that explains these settings such as mesh resolution, light bloom,...?

I did find a thread on tuning FSX by a NickN, but it wasn't that easy to follow and didn't really explain what the parameters were.

[ppgstf]

Good luck on this one. Once you have found out what all the settings actually mean you then have to decide where to position the slider for maximum effect......and that's where it gets more difficult.

You have heard the saying "One mans meat is another mans poison" well getting the settings just right for your PC is a bit like that. What is a great set of settings for one PC may not be any good at all for another even if the two PC's specs are similar. It really is a question of patience, start with the sliders mid range (depending on what your PC specs are, you haven't said) and work from there.

Like I say, good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[Hicks]

For nVidia cards I'd recommend downloading and learning to use nHancer. Just do a search for it.

James

[RyanbATC]

yeah, get nHancer
http://www.nhancer.com/

And make a profile with 8x AA and 16x AF, you'll see the radio buttons in the program. It's really easy

Once you find nHancer try Nick N's guide, just take the time to read through it, it will be worth it

[iainso]

Thanks for the advice.

Just fiddling with the settings I find I can have many of them at maximum, and still get good frame rate rate of over 30 (I used Rio as a test location while I was doing this: mountains, sea, urbanization).

The ones I notice the biggest improvement to scenary with are the two mesh options: complexity and resolution, I've got these both set to maximum (what actually is the difference between these, the manual doesn't really make it clear?)

Also Anisotropic filtering and Anti-Aliasing work a treat in improving the experience.

Some of the options that seemed to make little or no difference to appearance or performance were:

Global Texture Resolution (on first panel, where frame rate and resolution settings are)
Screen Resolution (I couldn't see any difference between min and max settings, except in the Alt menu at the top)
Texture Resolution

Other ones that I've reduced from the maximum - because I couldn't see any benefit of having them at max:

Scenery Complexity (set to 'normal', has all the main landmark buildings, but not too cluttered)
Auto-gen Scenary (Set to zero, I really didn't like these crappy looking trees and buildings)

With these settings I could get a frame rate of around 60 in Rio, but I set this to a maximum of 30 because that seemed fast enough. The landscape moves smoothly when manuevering, but I do notice that the detail of the scenary takes time to load.

Funnily enough when I tried a test flight from my home airport (Southampton, England), the frame rate struggled to get over 15, and it's relatively flat here compared to Rio. Any ideas why this would happen?

Next step is to try nHancer!

[hurst21uk]

I've just got a new Graphics card (8800 GT) and and and trying to get the best out of FSX on my PC (core2duo). I've been searching this forum and have not been able to find any succinct advise on the FSX graphics parameters and tuning them.

Can anyone point me to a good thread that explains these settings such as mesh resolution, light bloom,...?

I did find a thread on tuning FSX by a NickN, but it wasn't that easy to follow and didn't really explain what the parameters were.

I have a 9500GT which I believe is similar to your card.

This helped me out no end -

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_fsx_techtips.html

Very useful info.

[tigisfat]

Here's some simple advice:If you fly jets, turn autogen down or off keep your scenery dense. If you fly low and slow aircraft, turn autogen up and your scenery density down.