Anyone out there play Flight Simulator X?

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zamardii12

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So, I bought FSX: Steam Edition during the summer sale and while I enjoy it the obvious bothers me; the performance. I know there is an enormous community of folks out there that support this game but just installing and running the game it runs dog slow. Everyone says it's CPU intensive but I should have no problems with my rig. Does anyone have some tips or perhaps community config files/tweaks/guides on how to make the game run and look decent? I maxed out all the settings at 1440p but it runs below 30fps the whole time.

I also see a bunch of texture packs out there for terrain and all kinds of stuff, but I can't imagine adding anything to this game if it already runs like this stock.
 
zamardii12 said:
So, I bought FSX: Steam Edition during the summer sale and while I enjoy it the obvious bothers me; the performance. I know there is an enormous community of folks out there that support this game but just installing and running the game it runs dog slow. Everyone says it's CPU intensive but I should have no problems with my rig. Does anyone have some tips or perhaps community config files/tweaks/guides on how to make the game run and look decent? I maxed out all the settings at 1440p but it runs below 30fps the whole time.
I also see a bunch of texture packs out there for terrain and all kinds of stuff, but I can't imagine adding anything to this game if it already runs like this stock.
Click to expand...

I own the older, non-steam copy, so I can't really comment on the specifics too much, but it does definitely require little bit of tweaking to get it running smoothly. Your PC spec's look good though, so I'd just go through the basics in the suggested guide and then work from there.
Be aware too of applying GPU driver settings for AA and filtering, vs using the application level settings. i.e. don't apply both & test which offers you the best in game FPS. I recall a couple of the game's environment settings hard a big effect on FPS too. So there's a few settings you'll need to check and work through to optimise it.

Focus on the graphics & general cfg tweaks settings in that guide from Armenius - work through them and test the the FPS in game.

I did purchase and use high resolution textures and models for a specific geographic area in the country I live in and it was a big improvement from the stock content, but I got the game running nicely before doing that. So don't be dissuaded - you just have some tweaking to do first.


Armenius said:
Have you looked through the PC Gaming Wiki page?
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Microsoft_Flight_Simulator_X
Click to expand...

I think that's a good guide to start with.

These days I'm using X-Plane 11 as a non-military simulator which runs pretty well, but I am tempted to reinstall FSX occasionally. Mainly to fly around the high res NZ content I have.
 
Armenius said:
Have you looked through the PC Gaming Wiki page?

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Microsoft_Flight_Simulator_X
Click to expand...

muz_j said:
I own the older, non-steam copy, so I can't really comment on the specifics too much, but it does definitely require little bit of tweaking to get it running smoothly. Your PC spec's look good though, so I'd just go through the basics in the suggested guide and then work from there.
Be aware too of applying GPU driver settings for AA and filtering, vs using the application level settings. i.e. don't apply both & test which offers you the best in game FPS. I recall a couple of the game's environment settings hard a big effect on FPS too. So there's a few settings you'll need to check and work through to optimise it.

Focus on the graphics & general cfg tweaks settings in that guide from Armenius - work through them and test the the FPS in game.

I did purchase and use high resolution textures and models for a specific geographic area in the country I live in and it was a big improvement from the stock content, but I got the game running nicely before doing that. So don't be dissuaded - you just have some tweaking to do first.




I think that's a good guide to start with.

These days I'm using X-Plane 11 as a non-military simulator which runs pretty well, but I am tempted to reinstall FSX occasionally. Mainly to fly around the high res NZ content I have.
Click to expand...

Appreciate it and will definitely take a look. It doesn't appear to have in-game graphics settings suggestions based on FPS hit, but I will definitely try the tweaks listed there. I wish every game had the guide I find on Reddit for Witcher 3. Someone posted in detail and in a list ALL the individual graphics settings and even provided individual metrics for each if change on how much it'll hurt your FPS. So like for terrain detail in FSX in would list "3-5fps hit" or whatever. However for FSX I imagine it's a lot more difficult to predict/scale that performance because it's so CPU intensive from what i've read.

Also, muz-j have you heard or considered trying Prepar3d? It's software developed by Lockheed Martin and it looks fantastic compared to all the others out there. The graphics look great too as well as the optimization for a smooth experience evidenced by the YouTube videos i've seen of gameplay. I was considering getting it over the other offerings out there such as X-Plane 11 or Aerofly FS2.


http://www.prepar3d.com/
 
ahh in the options you can manually set it to run anywhere from 30-100 fps

target frame unlimited is the slider your looking for slide to the right for max FPS :)
 
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Basically the core program is very old. It can't take full advantage of modern hardware. Don't expect over 30 fps maxed out. This is a sim so 30 fps isn't a huge problem. The best way to get it to run smoothly is to lock your screen at 30 hz and run vsync with target fps set to unlimited. Also performance is most improved by clockspeed. So overclock your processor if you can 4 Ghz+ is pretty much a must..

There are other huge limitations such as it being a 32-bit program. Addons like custom scenery, texture packs, and payware aircraft will eat up virtual address space fast and can make you run out of memory and crash.

DTG is working on Flight Sim World which is a 64-bit version but it's in early beta and third party support is completely absent.

Lockheed Martin released a 64-bit version called Prepar3d V4 which is new but in a stable release. Not totally backwards compatible with FSX but a lot of scenery does work.

But don't expect much over 30 fps maxed out in either of them.
 
Flight Sim World seems like a good general aviation sim if you dont mind low and slow.

There are ways to get some sceneries and aircraft in FSW, I tried but the one airport I went for first had both the proper scenery/buildings but at the same time had the ugly default buildings as well, So its not perfect.

I would have loved to see FSW have sloped runways.
 
Funny how you say that about the Steam Edition. You've obviously never played the older one. Now that was a shitfest for performance. My advice is not to chase the settings. At the stock max preset you should have no issues with fps (at least this was the case last time I booted it up). If you start taking your sliders arbitrarily to the max beyond that, you will run into issues. It's still the best all-around sim out there, but not in terms of visuals. You have so many options once you get bored of FSX that look way better, but if you're just biting your teeth on the flight sim genre, it's still the best place to start, though not for the visuals, I tell you.
 
zamardii12 said:
Appreciate it and will definitely take a look. It doesn't appear to have in-game graphics settings suggestions based on FPS hit, but I will definitely try the tweaks listed there. I wish every game had the guide I find on Reddit for Witcher 3. Someone posted in detail and in a list ALL the individual graphics settings and even provided individual metrics for each if change on how much it'll hurt your FPS. So like for terrain detail in FSX in would list "3-5fps hit" or whatever. However for FSX I imagine it's a lot more difficult to predict/scale that performance because it's so CPU intensive from what i've read.

Also, muz-j have you heard or considered trying Prepar3d? It's software developed by Lockheed Martin and it looks fantastic compared to all the others out there. The graphics look great too as well as the optimization for a smooth experience evidenced by the YouTube videos i've seen of gameplay. I was considering getting it over the other offerings out there such as X-Plane 11 or Aerofly FS2.

http://www.prepar3d.com/
Click to expand...

No it doesn't give you much idea of how settings effect FPS. I can't say I've seen many games that do (none spring to my mind that I've played).
I was meaning test the FPS impact of settings through trial and error. Real world FPS is what's important. I use Rivatuner's Statistics Server on-screen display - with MSI Afterburner and I find that works well. Map the OSD to a hot-key and you can toggle it on and off as you choose.

Yes I have heard of Prepar3d, but no I haven't played it.
Given Lockheed Martin's background though (I've read a lot about them over the years) I would imagine the flight dynamics are probably very, very good.
I can't really tell you which to buy. If I personally was considering, I would make a judgement after looking at reviews that compare the alternatives. Prepar3D also seems to have a good refund policy: http://www.prepar3d.com/support/refundpolicy/
The license options for it (http://www.prepar3d.com/product-overview/prepar3d-license-comparison/) make me think it has more of a professional focus than perhaps being aimed at casual gamers. Given the price difference vs X-Plane 11 () I would just make sure you're confident it's what you want before handing over your money. So read and watch plenty of reviews, but I suspect the product is very good quality (from what I've seen and read on it).
 
fightingfi said:
ahh in the options you can manually set it to run anywhere from 30-100 fps
target frame unlimited is the slider your looking for slide to the right for max FPS :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I believe that setting toggles dynamic detail changes to maintain the frame rate, which is something I personally really don't like in games. I like my graphics settings to be consistent and I'm happy to optimise a game to make it run properly.
 
JasonPC said:
Basically the core program is very old. It can't take full advantage of modern hardware. Don't expect over 30 fps maxed out. This is a sim so 30 fps isn't a huge problem. The best way to get it to run smoothly is to lock your screen at 30 hz and run vsync with target fps set to unlimited. ...
Click to expand...

I agree with most of what you say, but I don't agree with locking your refresh rate to 30 Hz. Sorry that's too low. I tend to aim for FPS closer to 60. In FSX I'm confident I'm getting in the mid 40's to 50 FPS, but it's been quite a while since I played it.

I don't really see the point in restricting FPS to 30 though. I'd prefer it was a min of 30 in the most dense environments and went higher in areas where the terrain & detail allows higher FPS.

Everyone's different though.
 
30 fps normally irritates me for any other type of program/game, but in these sims it's actually quite smooth. Yes I can tell the difference and yes 60 fps would be ideal. But the drops between 60 and 30 fps causes stutters and it isn't smooth at all. So in the case of these flight sims I find 30 hz @ 30 fps to be the smoothest option until we have hardware or performance optimized software that can sustain a constant fps around 50 fps or so. Word is the i9 7900x is close to being able to make this a reality in Prepar3d, which can make good use of extra cores. Keep in mind these framerates I'm talking about are with custom scenery (Flytampa EHAM for example is brutal) and payware aircraft in the virtual cockpit (PMDG Boeing 777 is well balanced but demanding). If you stick to default scenery and planes 60 fps is mostly possible in less dense areas (though NYC area is pretty brutal).
 
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