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the following information has been compiled from various posts in different forums. Please feel free to add infos to the list of common questions/answers for FSCOF/FS2004/FS9 - i will update continual.
Please remember - you make all changes on your own risk ! Always ->backup<- your files !
First of all - links to known issues provided by Microsoft:
Current Microsoft Knowledge Base Posts for FS9
Required Network ports for FS2004 Multiplayer
This article describes the ports that you must open to play and host a Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight multiplayer game through a firewall, a proxy server, a router, Network Address Translation (NAT), or Internet Connection Sharing.
Known FS2004 Controller issues
This article describes the known game controller related issues that you may experience when you play Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight.
Known FS2004 Video issues
This article describes the known video-related issues that you may experience when you play Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight. This article is divided into general video issues and issues that occur only on specific video hardware.
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- The Q&A Database - 
Q) Where is the configuration file now located?
A) It will be located in your personal Application Data folder. On Windows 2000/XP systems, this is located in \Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9\FS9.cfg (for Windows 9x users the path is \Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9\fs9.cfg). The Application Data folder is hidden, so you will need to enable viewing of hidden files/folders under the Folder Options in your Explorer.
SHAMELESS PLUG: You can get my FS9 Configurator to help view/edit this file and much more! FS9.cfg Configurator
Q) How can I turn off the Flying Tips?
A) This option is located under the Realism settings on the primary Settings screen. Open the Realism window. It is a check box in the upper right.
Q) How can I improve the look of the ground textures?
A) Open your fs9.cfg file, and modify the following lines:
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.50000
Q) Where are my saved flights stored?
A) For Windows XP users: \Documents and Settings\<User_Name>\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files
For Windows 9x users: \My Documents\Flight Simulator Files
Note: if there are several users on a Win9x machine there might be several subfolders in the folder path above
Q) How can I get good looking clouds and reduce the 2d clouds imposters?
A) Use Ms ultra high default setup +
-Set your clouds draw distant to 40 mil, clouds % percentage to 90/100%, or with the lower slider at the bottom clouds density to MAX.
-Higher system, clouds draw distant more than to 40 mil, clouds percentage to 90/100%, clouds density to MAX.
Q) How can I change runway light settings?
A) To get your runways configs light size add these line under fs9.cfg display:
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.0 //scales edge, center,end,touchdown,runways
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=1.0 // scales VASI lights)
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.0 // scales approach light bars
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.0 //scales RAILs and ODALs)
More the value is lower, more the light will decrease in size, 0.5, 0.005 etc.
Q) How can I make my DVC gauges look more crisp?
A) To make your DVC gauges look more crisp add these line under FS9.CFG [PANELS] section:
VIRTUAL_COCKPIT_TEXTURES_SCALE=2.0
This might not work on all video cards.
Q) The panning is too slow. How can I speed this up?
A) In you fs9.cfg file, look for the line
PAN_RATE=400
Change this to set your pan rate near 900.
Want to bypass the opening screen?
Make this change to the fs9.cfg.
<STARTUP> --Square brackets--
DEMO=0
LOADSIM=1
LOADWINDOW=1
SHOW_OPENING_SCREEN=0 Change this from 1 to 0
STARTUP_DEMO=
Want to see low/high/average FPS?
<MAIN> --Square Brackets--
Location=316,222,964,756
HideMenuNormal=0
HideMenuFullscreen=1
Maximized=0
Ave_Frame_Rate_Display=1--Add this line
Save the file and exit.
Q) How can I pan the outside view when in 2D cockpit mode?
A) Add this line in the FS9.CFG CONTROLS section:
PAN_IN_COCKPIT_MODE=1
Q) How do I turn off the red "brakes" messages?
A) Add this line in the FS9.CFG SIM section:
SHOW_BRAKE_MESSAGE=0
How to disable the AGP Texture Acceleration without disabled from the DirectX.
In your fs9.cfg, under your display graphics cards:
(DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X.0)
Mode=1024x768x32
TriLinear=1
TextureAGP=0 <------------------------- Add this line
What are the following settings in the section of the fs9.cfg file?
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=96.000000
This is a value from 0 to 100 that control the DEM radius (it is linear in area)
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000
This the lowest value used to calculate the DEM radius based upon the TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000
This is the highest value used to calculate the DEM radius
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19
This control the DEM resolution: 18 = 150m DEM, 19 = 75m DEM, 20 = 37m DEM, 21 = 19m DEM
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
This controls the terrain texture size. Valid values are 8 = 256x256, 7 = 128x128, 6 = 64x64
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=4
This controls the autogen density
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1
This turns on/off the gradient map (cliffs).
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
This turns on/off the extended texture ring
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=
This is the default radius in textures for all rings, default is 2.5
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=
This is the radius used for the inner ring when the extended texture ring is turned on, default is 4.0
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=
This is the number of rings to add when using extended texture rings, default is 1
When I am switching view, I get coloring popping texture (brown, red etc.) how can I fix that's ?
Fs9.cfg under:
(DISPLAY)
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40 <------------ to a higher value ex: 400
This setting controls the rate at which textures get transferred to the video hardware. Higher numbers will result in the textures getting to the hardware faster and avoiding "popping" textures when switching view but may increase stutters and require more physical memory on the video card (and some more, not recommended for video card with less than 128Mb).
Performance Boost
-Enable the T&L will increase your performance near 4 fps
-Antialasing
The Antialasing inside fs2004, will reduce alot your performance, uncheck from the fs2004 and only use the Antialasing from external tweaker or from your driver display setting.
Better performance in 2d panel mode and others area.
By disabled the AGP Texture Acceleration, your performance will increase specialy with 2d panel and others area. (You will not nead to turn of the AGP Texture Acceleration under your DirectX, it's the same function inside fs9.cfg)
In your fs9.cfg under:
(DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X.0)
Mode=1024x768x32
TriLinear=1
TextureAGP=0 <------------------------- Add this line
PanelAsTexture=0 <--------------------- Add this line
By adding the PanelAsTexture line, your performance will even increase specialy with 2d panel 3rd party aircraft, it may cause 2-d panels to blank out if you've enabled AA inside FS2004, uncheck AA in fs2004, and enabling AA from your prefered tweaker or your driver display setting.
Q) How can I pan the view in the 2D cockpit?
A) In the fs9.cfg file add this line in the CONTROLS section:
pan_in_cockpit_mode=1
Q) How can I add visual damage effect to aircraft?
a) Add the following line after the ui_variation line in the aircraft.cfg file for each aircraft you want to display the damage effects:
visual_damage=1
You must also check "Detect crash and reset situation" in the simulator realism settings
Q) How do I disable the warning message on startup about non-compatible modules?
A) Add the following lines to the fs9.cfg file
{OldModules} (use brackets not braces - this forum does not display brackets)
name of dll=1
Q) How can I stop the AP to automatically turn on the wing leveler?
Add the following lines in the Autopilot section of the aircraft.cfg file for each airplane you want to change back the AP behavior to the FS2000 way:
use_no_default_bank=1
use_no_default_pitch=1
Q) How do I back-up from a gate?
A) With the push-back function: SHIFT+P to start going back, SHIFT+P then 1 (main keyboard) to back and turn left, SHIFT+P then 2 to back and turn right, and don't forget SHIFT+P again to stop moving!
Q) I can`t see the water reflection even if they are correctly set?
In your Control Panel, Regional Settings, Set to English (United States)
Terrain detail = Land Only
Water Effects = High
Q) How can I customize the panel lighting?
A) Here's the setting I use for my Hawk panel which looks cool and is subtle at night:
(Color)
Day=255,255,255
Night=20,20,20
Luminous=170,170,110
and one of the settings I use for my private DC-3 panels:
(Color)
Day=255,255,255
Night=60,21,21
Luminous=140,85,2
Try those two for starters in one or other of your panels, and see what you think.
Q) How can I make my overcast clouds look better and not so patchy?
Read this thread:
Overcast - my solution
You still get a few little holes here and there every so often, but at about a tenth of the frequency as before. Adds to the realism actually. I think it's a byproduct of the dynamic weather. I had no holes initiallly, but after about 20-30 minutes, I started seeing a few isolated patches in the overcast with different cloud formations occupying the 'holes'.
Combining low vis with the cloud layer is still the key. I have also had good success with two layers of stratus, one from 2000 to 3999, the next from 4000 to 6500. Then a layer of 1/16th vis from 2000 to 5000. If you like more of a "deck" then this looks a little better. Also, I have backed cloud density off from "maximum" to "high". I get more holes, but I don't get the giant hole above me after descending. I think with maximum density, FS9 is trying to get better framerates by knocking down the clouds.
You can also improve performance, my reducing the 3D clouds percentage. FS will still draw clouds out to the maximum cloud draw distance, but it will render them as a 2D textured surface instead of a volume. Not a huge gain, but you can pick up 10-15% or so. I have mine set to 60% 3D clouds.
For best overcast results, it's best if you limit your maximum visibility to 60-80 miles and set the cloud draw distance to the same, otherwise you'll get a very visible line on the horizon where the cloud line stops.
Q. The yaw damper doesn't appear to work in 3rd party panels.
FS9 adds many new lines to the autopilot section of the aircraft.cfg file (after you use the aircraft for the first time) and the last one allows you to activate the yaw damper for any aircraft. The line looks like this:
yaw_damper_gain=0.000000
Just change it to:
yaw_damper_gain=1.000000
and that aircraft will, once again, have a yaw damper.
Q. How can I get similar frame rates to what I was getting in FS2002?
A. If all the new features in FS9 are slowing down your system, here is a starting point that should get you back to FFS2002 performance or better:
Select in the Options/Settings/Display menu:
Terrain detail = Land Only
Water Effects = Low
Select in the World/Weather/User selected weather, Customize
Visibility=50 miles
Clouds=none (or Advanced weather: "Few" Cirrus 10,000 to 12,000 feet, looks better with little fps impact)
and back on the Weather menu: Rate of Change=0
Q) HOW CAN I STOP SOUND STUTTERS IN FS2004
A) CLICK ON START AND THEN RUN. TYPE IN "DXDIAG". LOOK FOR THE SOUND PAGE, THEN NOTE POSITION OF SLIDER FOR SOUND ACCELERATION. MOVE IT FROM HIGH TO BASIC.
Q) HOW DO I USE MULTI MONITORS IN FULLSCREEN MODE
A) Tired of reshuffling extra panles around on multiple monitors - I was, until I discovered this work around:
1. Load up FS9 & your favourite aircraft
2. Start a flight & go to a Windowed main panel.
3. Open up your extra panel windows, move them to your other monitor(s) and resize making sure you leave an allowance for the Windows frames which will disapear in full screen mode.
4. Save the flight!!!!! MOST IMPORTANT
5. Switch to 3d mode and check the position of your extra windows.
5A: Go back into Windowed mode (this appears to lock the full screen mode panel window positions into place. Then for the second time undock your extra panels and move and resize them into your extra monitor. THEN SAVE FLIGHT. This locks the windowed extra panels in place.
6. If you need to adjust, go back to Windows mode and CTL-C out of FS9 - DO NOT RESAVE THE FLIGHT.
7. Restart FS9 and the flight you saved (you should be in Windowed mode with your extra panels showing as you left them on your other monitor(s)).
8. Re-adjust your extra panels and then SAVE AGAIN, then recheck in Full screen.
REPEAT steps 6-8 until satisfied with positioning of extra panels.
9. When happy, kick off FS9 with your saved flight and go to full screen mode with your extra panels where you left them. Have a good flight BUT DO NOT GO BACK TO WINDOWED MODE AND DO NOT SAVE THE FLIGHT AGAIN.
10. At the end of every flight slip back into windowed mode and CTL-C out of FS9. Yes, the extra panels will resurface on the main panel window, this is no problem provided you don't save again.
11. Repeat the whole process with other aircraft.
I have noticed on one occassion that, on starting a flight in windowed mode, as you must to get this to work, the extra panels weren't showing. But, after pressing SHIFT + panel number they showed up on the second monitor as I had left them.
Caution: Remember that before leaving FS9 you must go into Windowed mode.
Q) How to find and enable/disable the Multitexture in Fs2004?
A) It's the terrain details slider in fs2004 Display.
Terrain details Slider to None = No Multitexture
Terrain details Slider to Land Only = Multitexture Enabled
Q) How do you get the force feedback feel in CoF like we had in FS2002?
A) In CoF there is just not much force like there was in FS2002. In order to get it back do this...
Open up the 172 aircraft folder and make a copy of your aircraft.cfg
Then go and paste this info in the place of your forcefeedback info
gear_bump_nose_magnitude=6000 ; 0 - 10000
gear_bump_nose_direction=18000 ; 0 - 35999 degrees
gear_bump_nose_duration=2500000 ; in microseconds
gear_bump_left_magnitude=6000 ; 0 - 10000
gear_bump_left_direction=35500 ; 0 - 35999 degrees
gear_bump_left_duration=2500000 ; in microseconds
gear_bump_right_magnitude=6000 ; 0 - 10000
gear_bump_right_direction=00500 ; 0 - 35999 degrees
gear_bump_right_duration=2500000 ; in microseconds
ground_bumps_magnitude1=3800 ; 0 - 10000
ground_bumps_angle1=8900 ; 0 - 35999 degrees
ground_bumps_intercept1=5.0
ground_bumps_slope1=0.48
ground_bumps_magnitude2=3250 ; 0 - 10000
ground_bumps_angle2=9100 ; 0 - 35999 degrees
ground_bumps_intercept2=5.0
ground_bumps_slope2=0.48
crash_magnitude1=10000 ; 0 - 10000
crash_direction1=01000 ; 0 - 35999 degrees
crash_magnitude2=10000 ; 0 - 10000
crash_direction2=9000 ; 0 - 35999 degrees
crash_period2=75000 ; in microseconds
crash_duration2=2500000 ; in microseconds
Since the 172 does not have retractable landing gear other planes might have extra forces like landing gear up bumps. Change only these settings and leave the others alone will work giving you the feel of force we had in FS2002
When you play Microsoft Flight Simulator and turn on the Real-World Weather feature, the weather in the game may either be incorrect or may stay the same every day.
-CAUSE
This issue may occur if your Temporary Internet Files folder contains old copies of the weather data files, and the files are not replaced with new information.
-RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, empty your temporary Internet files folder before you turn on Real-World Weather. To do this, follow these steps:
#1 Quit Flight Simulator.
#2 Start Internet Explorer.
#3 On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
#4 On the General tab, click Delete Files under Temporary Internet files, and then click OK.
#5 Start Flight Simulator, and then open the flight that you want to fly.
#6 On the World menu, click Weather.
#7 Click to select the Local Weather check box, and then click Real-world weather.
#8 Click OK.
#9 Flight Simulator updates the weather to the current conditions for the flight's current location.
Q: How can I get to see the aircraft textures at maximum detail, as I remember them from FS2002?
A: In Options/Settings/Display/Hardware, set global max texture size to "Massive"
For Pilots refusing the FS9.1 patch:
Q) Autogen causes a big loss of performance in FS2004. How can I fix this?
A) This is caused by some kind of bug in FS2004. Autogen keeps accumulating even when the objects are not visible. There is a workaround that does not impact visual quality of the scenery much.
Originally posted by Kurt in another thread here at AVSim:
"FS2004 has additional types of Autogen. You have the regular Autogen that is mostly assigned by the .agn files like FS2002. In addition you have Autogen that is assigned in the terrain.cfg file, bridges, high-tension towers, highway signs, etc. and these can be disabled individually in the terrain.cfg. They can also be completely disabled by changing this line in your FS9.cfg under the GRAPHICS SECTION.
TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS=0 0=off/1=on
Another type of Autogen is assigned by the default.xml file in the Autogen folder. This is where the fast food buildings and other types of new Autogen objects are added. The default.xml file can be edited to get rid of certain types of objects, you can also disable this type of Autogen on a texture by texture basis with the annotator tool included in the FS2K2 Autogen SDK. You can also disable all of these types of additional objects by renaming the default.xml to
default.xml.BAK."
I have found that disabling both (by renaming the default.xml file AND setting the opton in the cfg file to 0) will prevent autogen from accumulating and improve performance significantly.
Enabling only one of the options will not slow the sim much and autogen data will still not accumulate. However, having both these enabled will cause massive slowdowns, especially when nearing airports or when slewing.
I recommend you to set TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS to 1, but rename the default.xml file to something else. The bridges, high-tension towers and highway signs add a lot more to the scenery, visually, than the fast food buildings do.
Q) I cannot do a complete install of FS2004, even though I have the disk space, because the Install always hangs or aborts while decompressing the scenery.
A) If your install gets as far as decompressing the scenery, then it may be possible to create a "complete" install manually. Then, when you substitute the "no-cd" version of FS9.exe, you will be able to shelve your disk4.
The following procedure comes from my personal experience. I have tried to be as comprehensive and accurate as possible, but ... the usual warnings about proceeding at your own risk.
1. Do a normal "compact" install. If that succeeds, then proceed as follows.
2. Study the CAB files in the Scenery folder on disk 4. If you have XP, you can right click on each cab file and Explore. Note especially that the Explorer window will show the PATH heading of each file in the CAB, and that the files in the CAB come from two sub-folders: "scenery" and "texture".
3. Now study the structure of the Scenery folder and subfolders in the FS2004 home directory.
You will note that the Scenery folder contains a list of subfolders whose names are identical to the names of the "regional" CAB files, and that each of those subfolder contain the further sub-folders "scenery" and "texture". The files from the Disk-4 CAB file have been put into the appropriate sub-folder as determined by their PATH in the CAB.
4. Also note that the main Scenery folder in the FS2004 home directory has a "cities" sub-folder. Each of the sub-folders under "cities" has a name identical to the names of the CAB files in the Disk4 Scenery directory, whose names represent a city as opposed to a region.
4a. If you have already started up FS2004 at least once, there will be DAT files within the Scenery subfolders.
DELETE EVERY ONE OF THESE DAT FILES NOW.
5. In the FS2004 "Scenery" folder, make sure that all subfolders have been created for all of the regions, plus all of the cities (under the "cities" subfolder), to account for all the CAB files on disk4. If any have not been created, CREATE THEM NOW, also create a "scenery" and a "texture" subfolder in each.
6. From each CAB on disk4, extract all the files and copy them to the appropriate same-name folder in the FS2004 "Scenery" directory. don't forget to copy all the files with a "scenery" PATH to the appropriate "scenery" subfolder, and those with a "texture" PATH to the appropriate "texture" subfolder. Don't forget that the city CABS go into the subfolders under "cities". If you have XP, this is relatively painless, because you can use the Windows explorer to sort the files in the CAB by PATH, then carefully select of "texture" files separately from the "scenery" files.
7. Now:
find the scenery.cfg file for each user. It is right there next to fs9.cfg in the Documents and Settings\<username>\Microsoft\fs9 directory. Recall that this is a hidden folder, so make sure you select the "show hidden files" checkbox on the windows explorer "Tools | Folder Options | View" tab.
8. Study the structure of the scenery.cfg file. Note that there is also a scenery.cfg in the "Complete" sub-folder on disk 4, plus another scenery.cfg in the "Compact" sub-folder on disk 4. Study all 3 scenery.cfg files.
9. Note that the operational scenery.cfg used the "compact" version from disk 4, but added some path information under each section, marking each section as "Local" or "Remote".
10. Into the operational scenery.cfg, MERGE IN THE MISSING SECTIONS from the "complete" version on Disk 4.
11. Study the stucture of those sections which have a "Local=" path specification.
12. NOW, IN EVERY SECTION, REMOVE EACH "Remote=" path specification if there is one, and add in the appropriate "Local=" path specification, using what you have learned in step 11 as a guide.
13. Stick the no-cd version of FS9.exe into the install-directory, file your disk 4, and "FLY NOW!"
FS2004 will start off by "creating the scenery index" and "scenery database"... (It is re-creating those DAT files at this point). When it gets done, you are on your way.
Q) How can I place new *.FLT Situation Flight and *.WX weather files in fs2004\flight
A) Place all your *. FLT and *.WX files in a new folder name and copy all your *.FLT AND *.WX in fs2004\flight\ new folder name
Q) How can i reduce the tyre smoke?
A) Change :
touchdown=fx_tchdwn, 1 to touchdown = fx_tchdwn_s, 1
This will give a little less tyre smoke.
Q) How can i reduce blurries with photographic sceneries?
A)Hardware tab (Display settings)
Framerate: Unlimited
Mipmap detail level: 4
FS2004 seems to load textures on a "per frame" basis, so the higher the framerate is, the better the quality of the scenery will be. Locking the framerate to a lower number will actually cause more blurries to appear. Generally, if framerate starts dropping below 30 FPS, the sim will have trouble keeping up and you will see blurry textures. If you manage to get over 60-70 FPS, blurries will virtually be non-existant.
3D clouds/cloud detail (Display settings)
It's OK to use 3D clouds if you keep the draw distance of the clouds fairly low (about 40 miles). You may also want to compress the clouds or use the FSW high performance replacements. If you get blurries, especially in heavy weather, consider reducing or turning off 3D clouds.
AI Traffic
AI Traffic can cause lower FPS. This depends on where you are flying. For example, over Megascenery Socal, there's a lot of AI traffic, so setting traffic to 100% will cause a hefty drop. Over the Real Germany and Switzerland Professional sceneries, the traffic isn't as dense, even with this slider set to the far rightt, so you might get away with a setting of 100%. I recommend a setting of 25% unless you absolutely need/want more AI traffic. If you won't need the AI traffic at all (just sightseeing), disable it alltogether.
Extended Terrain Textures
Enabling ETT loads detailed textures farther away from the aircraft. This impacts the performance of photographic sceneries in two ways:
Longer loading time – the scenery can take several minutes to load when ETT are enabled.
More blurries – ETT cause more blurries to appear in the scenery, especially when flying fast (over 200 kts.).
If you can live with the longer loading time and have a fast system, or if you only fly slow aircraft, you can enable this option. If you get blurries or can't stand waiting up to 4 minutes for the scenery to load, disable it.
If you disable it, you will see green, ugly textures in the distance. You can change the weather settings to create a Low Visibility Layer with 10-30 miles Visibility, and increase the max altitude of this layer to above the max altitude you plan on flying at. This should hide the ugly textures, and this visiblity setting is actually more realistic than Unlimited visibility in most cases. If you're using Real World weather or don't want to always change the visibility settings, there's an FS9.cfg tweak that can do this automatically for you. See further down.
Dusk/Dawn blending
Only affects flying at dusk/dawn and gives you nicer textures. If you have a fast system, you can enable this option. You might have to reduce some other options when flying at dusk/dawn (AI Traffic, 3D clouds, Extended Terrain Textures) in order to eliminate blurries.
Water Detail
Setting this to High can cause more blurries to appear and causes "micro stutters". This is especially true in coastal regions (Megascenery, coastal regions of the England and Wales scenery). Inland, where there are only smaller lakes, using the High setting has a smaller impact. Setting this to Low will still give you "shiny" water but not as detailed as the High setting. Usually, Low is good enough unless you're flying a floatplane and want to land on water.
Autogen
Few photographic sceneries use Autogen. Megascenery does, however you might prefer the appearance of the scenery without autogen. Try with and without and see what you prefer. Autogen has no noticable impact on blurries, at least not on my system.
Many of the following tweaks apply when flying over generic scenery as well
Load textures farther away to reduce blurries:
Find these lines in FS9.cfg and change them to read:
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.900000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4
Load textures faster
Find and edit:
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=
I use 400. You can try a higher or lower setting to see what gives the best performance on your system. The default setting is very conservative so don't be afraid to try high values. You'll likely get stuttering if you set it too high.
Workaround for the Autogen performance bug:
In FS9.cfg, find this line and edit it to read:
TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS=0
Go into your FS9 folder, then the Autogen folder, and rename the file
default.xml
-to-
default.bak
Performance should improve, especially over densely populated regions. This can also affect blurries when flying near the "edge" of a photorealistic scenery because the autogen is taking away resources that would otherwise be used for loading the textures.
Improve the appearance of detailed Mesh:
Find and edit this line in fs9.cfg (default for this is 19):
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21
This will allow FS2004 to draw detailed Mesh more accurately.
Remove "canyons" and other Mesh weirdness in photographic sceneries
This is caused by the "valleys" FS9 creates for rivers/streams. When you're using a photographic scenery, the actual stream lines are not drawn. The stream lines you see are actually part of the photo texture. The Microsoft stream lines and the actual photographic stream lines are rarely aligned because Microsoft uses very innacurate stream line data. This causes "valleys" or canyons to appear in the scenery near rivers or streams.
In your FS9 folder, find and open terrain.cfg. Near the top, you should see:
//Stream Lines
Under this are textures 1024 and 1025. At the bottom of each offset=-10
For textures 1024 and 1025 (stream lines), change it to read:
offset=flat
You may want to set it back to -10 when you're not flying over photographic scenery.
Hide the green textures when Extended Terrain Textures are disabled:
You can do this by changing the visibility setting inside FS9, but when using Real Weather or Weather Themes, this is not always possible. In that case:
In fs9.cfg, find and edit:
MAX_UNLIMITED_VIS=44000
You can try various settings to see what you prefer. Lower means scenery is cut off close to the viewer, higher means you'll see some of the green textures.
Note: This setting is automatically reset to 96560 every time you click OK in the display settings in FS9. You will then need to re-edit FS9.cfg to put it back to your prefered setting.
Harddrive partitioning
If you have two harddrives, keep FS2004 on one drive and install your detailed sceneries to another. If you have the excellent Partition Magic by Powerquest, use it to create a dedicated partition for your photographic sceneries. Make sure you put the sceneries on the faster of the harddrives (if you have one 5400 RPM drive and one 7200 RPM, put the sceneries on the 7200 RPM drive). This will speed up file searches and some other general Windows tasks. Also, make sure to defragment both BEFORE and AFTER installing a photographic scenery. They contain thousands of texture files that easily get fragmented.
Q) Aircraft.cfg - what is it all about ?
A) Have a look [link removed - site is down]
TIP:
- you can free hand rotate the aircraft in the 'select an aircraft' mode by hitting ALT + ENTER -
Q) How can i get rid of this red message bars ?
A) Open up fs9.cfg with notepad scroll down to [main] and add this entry after the last one in the group
"HideInfoText=1" //without quotes
This removes all red messages
Q) How can i install additional aircraft ?
A) Have a look
[link removed - site is down]
Q) How can i install different aircraft textures ?
A) Have a look
[link removed - site is down]
Q) How can i fix the "contrails falling to the earth" problem ?
A) When you added a new plane, especially if it had its own self-extracting .exe program, it probably had written over one or both of the default fx_contrail files in the effects folder.
Go to the Effects folder and look to see if the dates for the fx-contrail_l.fx and fx_contrail_s.fx files are at least 2003. When I did this, I noticed that one of them (can't remember) was 2001. So, I went back to the installation disk (disk 1 actually), and copied and pasted the fx_contrail files back to the Effects folder in fs9.
TIP:
A great tweak guide you will find here: ATI & NVIDIA Video Card Tweak Guide
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P.S. As mentioned above - if you know Tips or Tricks which are not in our Database, please feel free to post them here! If you notice a broken link - just send me a PM
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Always happy landings !
Heiko
j/k. Nice info there.
