Tips needed on how to make an old computer perform in FS2004

[davidvoogd]

#1 Don't say buy a new computer because I can't afford it lol!

Ok I have a fairly old system and I absolutely love FS2004 and I was wondering if anyone had tips on how to get some better performance out of the sim without sacrifising the goodies like the absolutely amazing 3D clouds.

Here are my specs...
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Intel Pentium 3 800MHZ
512MB SD RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (just bought it hopeing to boost framerates but that didn't work, just allowed the sim to look prettier, more on that after.)
Creative Soundblaster Audigy (allows the sound to be at high without fps hit, sounds great)

One thing I noticed is that at sparse there is more autogen scenery than at medium on fs2002. I really wish microsoft would allow a lower setting of autogen. Does anyone know how the FS9.cfg file can be edited to allow this?

Another thing. I bought a Radeon 9600 Pro in an effort to boost my framerates. With my Radeon 64MB I ran the sim at 14-18 FPS. Now it runs from 16-20FPS. I was able to boost all the textures and hardware effects. It has now occured to me that what is killing my FPS is the 3D objects, my processor can't handle all of them. I am going to try cutting out the autogen scenery but the 3d clouds must stay. I have them set to draw in at 30 miles, maximum coverage (not being able to have overcast skies is ridiculous), 40% 3D clouds. I set it to 2D clouds only and they looked about the equivalent of high res fs98 clouds. Why couldn't Microsoft have left the option of fs2002 clouds integrated into the new weather system for simple clouds instead of these jokes?

Does anyone have some tips on how I can get some higher framerates out of my comp without killing the 3d clouds? All I want is 20-24FPS consistently so control input can be smooth. I can't afford a new processor as it will require a new motherboard meaning I would need new ram as well so that is out of the question for now.

In the end I can't complain too much I love this sim it is far more realistic (you can do spins :) ) and the weather system is amazing (even better now that the real world weather servers are up to date, only about a 3 hour delay now, can't expect much less considering the processes involved). But I would just like to be able to fly smoothly like in fs2002.

[pmgebroff]

This program eats a ton of power. What you have to do is really minimize a lot of stuff to increase the frame rate. autogen, scenery compexity, global text ect. I found out if you minimize or disable a lot of the stuff you are not really going to use you can increase your frame rate. It really depends what you want to do. Myself personally on my system I was able to run the frame rate at max power but it is not much different than running it at 15-20 fps. Basicly I am more into Acft performance than scenery so I minimized a lot of the scenery stuff. If your not really into looking at trees autogen is the first one to go it eats alot of power anyway for something minor. good luck

[davidvoogd]

I disabled the autogen and it did help. LOL sometimes you have to remember it is a flight sim not a pretty looking scenery sim. I think I will put some of the sliders for textures down too. It pisses me off that the Radeon 9600 I bought didn't help that much. I may return it. What I am currently after is perserving the beautiful 3D clouds to at least 30% at 30 miles and max coverage.

Also any pointers for getting performance from the Radeon 9600?