DVA3901
Captain, MD-88
Joined on January 10 2007
Northeastern United States
15 legs, 24.9 hours
3 legs,
3.0 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
January 18 2007 20:55 ET by Garry Shtofmakher
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for the one who's interested, my collection of FS2004 tweaks.
Happy tweaking,
Garry
Win XP / Fs2004 Tweaking and Tuning
Hard Drive Properties
To access: Windows Explorer>Right click on each Hard Drive icon then select Properties
General
I highly recommend reformatting your drive and choosing the NTFS file system for maximum speed and security. However, you can still convert an existing FAT32 file system to an NTFS one even after installing WinXP by going to Start>Run and typing "Convert C: /FS:NTFS" (without quotes). This will take some time to complete and won't be as fast as if you'd formatted with NTFS, but still faster than FAT32 for most larger hard drives and certainly much more secure. Make sure you backup your data before doing this just in case.
Untick "Compress drive to save disk space" to speed up reading from the drive. Untick "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" and then select "Apply changes to \, subfolders and files" in the subsequent prompt to improve performance and free up disk space.
Click the Disk Cleanup button, and under the "Disk Cleanup" tab tick everything except "Temporary Internet Files" (to speed up internet browsing) for cleaning. This will optimise your disk space by cleaning out and compressing old files. Use this utility often to clean your hard drive. Under the More Options tab you'll find two options which will help you remove installed programs/WinXP utilities which you may not need. If you use System Restore, the third option allows you to clean out older restore points which you no longer use, freeing up a great deal of disk space.
System
To access: Control Panel>System or Right click on My Computer>Properties
To optimise your hard drive, go to Disk Drives>>Properties>Policies tab and for each hard drive select "Optimise for Performance" and tick "Enable Write Caching on the disk". Then go to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers>Primary IDE Channel (same for Secondary)>Properties>Advanced Settings>"DMA if Available" for all devices actually connected. For devices which do not exist, select None under Device Type to speed up bootup.
Click the Hardware Profiles button, and for optimal bootup speed have only one hardware profile and choose "Select the first profile listed if I don't select a profile in?" and set the time to 0 seconds.
Advanced
Click the Settings button under Performance and under the Visual Effects tab select "Adjust for best performance" for fastest performance. I recommend choosing Custom and leaving "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" ticked so you retain XP's looks and interface customization.
Click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery. For a single OS (recommended) system, "" /fastdetect should be highlighted. Untick "Time to display list of Operating Systems" and tick "Time to display recovery options when needed" and select at least 10 seconds. This is the amount of time you'll get to choose the type of bootup from the recovery menu after a bad system crash. Click the Edit button, and change the "timeout" value to 0 and save on exit. Under System failure untick all three options for optimal performance, and "Write Debugging Information" should be set to None. That way if you run into problems you'll see the error displayed (usually a bluescreen) and your system won't automatically reboot. At the same time you won't get lots of logfiles and dumpfiles of the event cluttering up your system. Re-enable these if Troubleshooting a vague problem or if Tech Support ask you to.
The Environment Variables do not need to be altered from default.
Click the Error Reporting button and select "Disable Error Reporting" and tick "But notify me when critical errors occur"
System Restore
Select "Turn off System Restore" unless you really need this function. System Restore can take up a great deal of disk space and is not necessary if you feel confident with your system.
Automatic Updates
Select "Turn off automatic updating. I want to update my computer manually" and manually run Windows Updater (Internet Explorer>Tools Menu>Windows Update) regularly to see a list of updates. See the Services section for information on how to disable this service altogether.
Remote
Both options should be unticked for security and performance reasons.
To access: Start>Run>MSConfig or search for and run msconfig.exe
Boot.ini
Untick all the options under Boot Options, as well as those under Advanced Options. The timeout setting should be set to 0 seconds for fastest bootup. It can't be set below 3 seconds in MSConfig, so see the System section for details on how to edit it to equal 0.
Services
Select "Hide All Microsoft Services" and then untick all the resulting services that are displayed. You shouldn't need any of these unless you're certain that you do. You can always re-enable them should one of your devices not function properly. See Services section for more details on the Microsoft services.
Startup
Shows all the programs which load into system memory upon booting your system. Some of these programs can be found in your Start>All Programs>Startup folder, some will display in the Systray unless you've chosen "Hide Inactive Icons" (See Taskbar and Start Menu above), some are there by stealth. In truth you don't need any of these. WinXP can start and operate 100% without any startup items. Untick as many of these items as possible. Ideally you should check the options/preferences in each program to make sure they aren't loading at startup. Programs which load at startup take up memory and often cause conflicts while running in the background, especially virus scanners. See Regedit section for more information.
Services
To access: Start>Run>services.msc or Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services
To save space here I've only listed the services I recommend to be set as Disabled or Automatic. The remaining Microsoft Services not listed below should be set to Manual. If unsure, set a service to Manual rather than Automatic or Disable. The settings recommended here are safe for almost all systems, allowing all the common WinXP functions to work. Make sure to read the WinXP Services Guide (link at the end of guide) to find out more and customize services to suit your system setup.
Automatic:
Cryptographic Services
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Event Log
Plug and Play
Protected Storage
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Security Accounts Manager
Shell Hardware Detection
System Event Notification
Task Scheduler
Telephony
Themes
Windows Audio
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Time
Disable:
Alerter
Automatic Updates (manually update using Internet Explorer>Tools>Windows Update)
Clipbook
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching Compatibility
Help and Support
Human Device Interface Access
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Messenger
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSM
Performance Logs and Alerts
Portable Media Serial Number
Print Spooler (Set to Automatic if you have a printer installed)
QoS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Smart Card
Smart Card Helper
System Restore Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet
Terminal Services
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Upload Manager
Volume Shadow Copy
WebClient
Wireless Zero Configuration
WMDM PMSP Service
WMI Performance Adapter
Remember, the Microsoft services not listed above should be set to Manual.
Group Policy
To access: Start>Run>gpedit.msc (Note: No Group Editor in WinXP Home)
Turn off System Restore permanently
- Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\System Restore\(Set both items under here to Enabled
Remove Shared Documents Folder
- User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer\"Remove Shared Documents from My Computer" (Enabled)
Disable Windows Messenger
- Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Messenger\(Set both items to Enabled)
See the Regedit section on how to turn off Messenger and fix the Outlook Express "slowdown" issue.
Registry Editor
To access: Start>Run>Regedit or search for and run Regedit.exe
Stop programs from automatically starting when booting up
; and
None of the entries under these folders are really necessary for WinXP to operate properly.
Dramatically improve menu speeds and application and system shutdown/restart speeds
HungAppTimeout=4000 Delay before a hung application is allowed to terminate (each 1000 = 1 sec)
WaitToKillAppTimeout=4000 Delay before windows finally starts to shutdown (each 1000 = 1 sec)
MenuShowDelay=20 Delay before a menu pops open. (each 1000 = 1 sec)
AutoEndTasks=1 Automatically closes running applications when Windows shuts down.
Unload DLLs from memory when not needed to maintain free memory
Create a new Key (a sub-folder, not an entry) called AlwaysUnloadDll. Once created double-click on the (Default) entry in the right pane and enter a value of 1.
Usage of Physical RAM and caches to significantly improve system performance
DisablePagingExecutive=1 Will load your core WinXP files into system RAM and keep them there. Use this tweak if you have 512MB RAM or more.
LargeSystemCache=0 For 512MB RAM or more set to 1 for potential performance improvement.
Note that data corruption may occur if the Large System Cache feature is enabled in Windows XP. If you have more than 512MB of RAM, a large NTFS disk or multiple large volumes (60-100 gigabyte hard drives possibly in RAID arrays), and/or AGP graphics with large AGP resource requirements (AGP aperture greater than default) then you will get hard drive corruption. Don't enable Large System Cache in these circumstances.
IOPageLockLimit=226492416 Enter value (bytes) in Decimal view. Default of 0 = 512KB. I personally use the Cacheman-determined setting of "Large IO page lock limit" (for 512MB RAM it's 226492416) for optimal performance. See Cacheman section.
SecondLevelDataCache=256 Enter your CPU's L2 cache size in Decimal view. Microsoft suggest the default setting of 0 will automatically detect your L2 Cache size, however entering it manually in this way won't harm performance.
If any of these entries don't exist, create them as new DWORDs.
Improve Windows Prefetcher performance for faster loadup
EnablePrefetcher=3 Default of 3 is recommended but a value of 5 may be better for some.
Speed up NTFS and general system performance
DisableNTFSLastAccessUpdate=1 Disables constant updating of dates a file/folder was last accessed.
NTFSDisable8Dot3NameCreation=1 To disable support for old DOS 8-character filenames.
If these entries don't exist, create them as new DWORDs.
Note also that if you disable 8Dot3 Name Creation you will have problems installing Norton Antivirus 2003. To successfully install NAV2003, set it to 0 (enabled) first, reboot your system, install NAV2003, reboot once again and set it back to 1 (disabled).
Turn off MSN Messenger
PreventRun=1 Will prevent MSN Messenger from running
PreventAutoRun=1 Will prevent MSN from popping up automatically.
Set/create both these DWORD entries to 1 to disable MSN Messenger.
Fix Outlook Express slowdown when MSN Messenger is disabled
Find the key {FB7199AB-79BF-11d2-8D94-0000F875C541} and under it select the folder IniProcServer32. In the right panel of regedit double-click on the (Default) entry at the top and completely delete the value data it contains. Now do the same for the LocalServer32 folder as well.
Make WinXP a registered copy without going through registration
RegDone=1 This is not to be confused with Activation ? it's MS product registration.
RegisteredOrganization="" Fill in organization name or leave blank.
RegisteredOwner=User1 Fill in a name ? I suggest one which is not uniquely identifiable.
Further Optimization
The following tools will further optimize your system, and in the case of some, give you access to tweaks and settings which may not otherwise be available to you (e.g. XP Home doesn't have a Group Editor).
Bootvis
To access: Install Bootvis and click Icon or search for and run Bootvis.exe
Note that the Task Scheduler service needs to be set to Automatic and started for Bootvis to work properly (see Services section). Run Bootvis, go to the Trace menu and select "Next Boot + Driver Delays". Let Bootvis reboot, and on rebooting wait patiently for Bootvis to pop back up when it's finished analysing. Go to the Trace menu and select "Optimize System". Once again let Bootvis reboot and wait for it to restart after the reboot. It will say "Optimizing System". Once done your bootup times will now be much faster.
Cacheman
To access: Install Cacheman and click Icon or search for and run Cacheman.exe
Cacheman is a tool which provides a user-friendly interface for making most of the memory and cache-related changes covered in the Registry Editor section. The best way to change settings in Cacheman is to go to the Show Wizard menu and select All. Run through each setting as prompted. If you want to know more, click on the Help button on the main screen. My recommended settings ? which correspond with the registry settings I provide in the Registry Editor section of this guide ? are as follows:
Disk Cache:Balance
Note: Data corruption may occur if the Large System Cache feature is enabled in Windows XP. If you have more than 512MB of RAM, a large NTFS disk or multiple large volumes (60-100 gigabyte hard drives possibly in RAID arrays), and/or AGP graphics with large AGP resource requirements (AGP aperture greater than default) then you will get hard drive corruption. Don't select "Maximize throughput for file sharing" or "Maximize throughput for Network Applications" in these circumstances - just select "Balance."
Icon Cache: Set large maximum Icon Cache size
Unload DLLs from Memory: Enable this setting
Disable Paging Executive: Enable this setting
IO Page Lock Limit: Large IO page lock limit value
Disable NTFS last access update: Enable this setting
Hung App Timeout: Optimize this setting
Wait to Kill App Timeout: Optimize this setting
Menu Show Delay: Optimize this setting
Filename Completion: Do not enable this setting
Once that's done, click on the Settings button on the right, go to Tweaks, select the Miscellaneous tab and set "Wait to Kill App Timeout" to 4 sec and "Show delay" to 50 msec. Then click on the Options button and untick "Load Cacheman on Windows Startup". Finally, go to the File menu and select "Save Settings". Cacheman need never be run again or loaded into memory for these settings to work.
RegCleaner
To access: Install Regcleaner and click on Icon or search for and run RegCleanr.exe
Tweaks and Utilities To Enhance Your Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, Computer Games and General System Performance
Disable Last Access
Whenever any file in an NTFS file system is accessed (read or write) NTFS will write a few bytes that sets a last access date and time to that file, provided that the file was accessed more than an hour ago. So in effect every NTFS read operation becomes a write operation. This can have a critical impact on performance when a program accesses a lot of files during loading just like FS2002 does. All you want is a read operation. You have no sound reason to want to know your last access for your FS2002 files. So? you will disable last access as follows:
Go into the Command Prompt (You will find this under Start > All Programs > Accessories)
This will bring you to the good old fashioned DOS Prompt.
Type this command:
fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1
read-accesThis will disable the last access information written to each file as it is accessed. The result? faster hard disk file s.
5. File compression reduces hard disk access
NTFS supports file compression. That is "on-the-fly" file compression. Files are compressed and decompressed as they are written or read respectively. In the day of the slower processor this came at the price of more load on your processor in compressing and decompressing the files. Today with the GHz speed of computers it is no longer an issue. The beauty of file compression is that you computer is doing less work accessing the hard disk since it has to read less data off the hard disk. With the modern fast processor the trade-off between decompression time and hard disk access results in overall faster file/data access from the hard disk into memory provided your system is fast enough. Our tests showed that FS2002 loaded slower after file compression on an 800Mhz Celeron system but on a 2.2 GHz Pentium the time to load FS2002 was reduced by 10%. The entire contents of a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 installation, compresses at a ratio of 1:1.18 so that your hard disk access is just 85% of what it would be on an uncompressed version. So if your system is faster than around 1.6 GHz, compress your FS2002 folder. You?ll have your hard disk working on average 15% less. This amount will be much less for some files and no change for others but your overall average will be 15% less hard disk access and faster performance.
You can choose to compress any folder, any file and/or your entire hard disk
FS2004 autogen/framerate problem WORKAROUND
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. This setting allows me to play the sim with Autogen at Extremely Dense with very playable framerates and NO SLOWDOWNS or STUTTERS even on long flights or when slewing.
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
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.
How can I change runway light settings?
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.
For those of you running MS Flight Sim on Win XP and an Intel Hyperthreading CPU, here's a truly amazing performance booster:
After starting FS, go into task manager (CTRL_ALT_DEL)
Select Processes tab
Right click on FS9.exe, select "Set Affinity"
Disable one of the two check boxes so that FS9 only runs on one virtual CPU (I use CPU 0).
Do the same on any other running utilities (i.e. FDC, RC) and select the other virtual processor.
I see better than a doubling in frame rates. This, of course, assumes that hyperthreading is supported and enabled on your motherboard and BIOS settings.
An even better (permanent) way of constraining FS9 to run on a single virtual CPU on an HT CPU is using the Microsoft IMAGECFG utility (an older NT/2000 utility that works fine in XP -- do a google search). Command syntax (in a Command window):
IMAGECFG -a 0x1 <your FS directory>\fs9.exe
This writes a processor affinity mask into the executable. 0x1 specifies virtual CPU 0, 0x2 specifies vCPU 1, and 0x3 uses both 0 & 1 (default). FS will always run on the specified virtual CPU(s) from that point on.
I have done the same to the other utilities I run on the machine while FS is running, only restricting them to the opposite vCPU.
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
How can I get similar frame rates to what I was getting in FS2002?
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
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.
How to find and enable/disable the Multitexture in Fs2004?
It's the terrain details slider in fs2004 Display.
Terrain details Slider to None = No Multitexture
Terrain details Slider to Land Only = Multitexture Enabled
How can I get to see the aircraft textures at maximum detail, as I remember them from FS2002?
In Options/Settings/Display/Hardware, set global max texture size to "Massive"
Garry ShtofmakherCaptain, MD-88
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DVA1070
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM
Joined on January 28 2003
Online Century Club
Double Century Club
"I believe I can fly" Jeffersonville, IN USA
218 legs, 841.9 hours
182 legs,
778.3 hours online 108 legs,
505.1 hours ACARS 42 legs,
200.5 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
January 19 2007 15:55 ET by Adam Gaweda
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DVA3857
Captain, CRJ-200
Joined on December 23 2006
Western United States
44 legs, 47.7 hours
8 legs,
10.8 hours online 31 legs,
30.7 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
January 19 2007 16:05 ET by Jess King
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DVA2253
Senior Captain, DC-8-61
COMM
Joined on April 01 2005
Everett 250 Club
Online Century Club
Eight Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"I'd rather be flying!" Church Hill, TN USA
862 legs, 1,344.5 hours
108 legs,
165.2 hours online 299 legs,
485.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
January 19 2007 16:18 ET by George Lewis
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DVA3266
Captain, L-1011-100
Joined on June 23 2006
Century Club
"Stupid Hurts!" Newport News, VA USA
103 legs, 161.4 hours
62 legs,
102.2 hours online 90 legs,
143.4 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
January 20 2007 07:14 ET by Steven Jones
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DVA3448
Captain, B767-300
Joined on August 16 2006
Century Club
Online Century Club
"Git 'er done!" Eastern Canada
102 legs, 313.5 hours
100 legs,
310.1 hours online 90 legs,
259.2 hours ACARS 1 legs,
13.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
January 20 2007 08:46 ET by Ian Hunter
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DVA2945
Captain, B737-800
Joined on March 03 2006
CM Spain
70 legs, 100.7 hours
12 legs,
14.6 hours online 64 legs,
94.3 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
February 03 2007 05:28 ET by Carlos Gonzalez
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