Fly! Benchmark Tests

Below are the instructions for performing the FSBench benchmark tests for the flight sim Fly!

1. Print these instructions.

2. Say to yourself, out loud, "This is not a competition. I will assess fairly and objectivly the performance of my system. Fast fame rates do not make me a better man, and slow frame rates do not lower my worth as a human being."

3. Download the file fly.zip from the FSBench site (http://avsim.com/fsbench/fly.zip). The file will contain three .rio files that you must unzip into the Saved Scenerios subdirectory of your Fly installation directory. Typically this is located in c:\Program Files\Terminal reality\Fly!\Saved Scenarios\. If you installed Fly! into a different directory, you'll have to find it yourself. If the Saved Scenarios directory does not exist, either create it yourself, or go into Fly! and click on Files/Save As... and the directory will be created for you.

4. Make sure disk 2 is in the CDROM drive, start Fly!.

5. Go into the Options\Graphics... menu, and set the following:

• Video Card: Select the option that gives you the best 3D acceleration. You may need to play a bit with the program to find the option that works best (it's a bit driver dependent).
• Resolution: Select the screen resolution and colot bit-depth that you will test. Write this info down. Here is a sample form for you to use, so you know what data you will need to record:
  ID (do not change) : Date (dd-mm-yy):
  Name: Email:
  Program Tested: --- Flight Simulator Flight Simulator 2000 Flight Unlimited Flight Unlimited III Fly! ProPilot ProPilot99 ProPilot2000 X-Plane Version (year/patch): 3D API used: --- Default Direct3D v5 Direct3D v6 Direct3D v7 Glide OpenGL Mac OpenGL Redline 2D Mode Mac 2D Mode
  Screen: --- 640x480 800x600 960x720 1024x768 1152x864 1280x1024 1600x1200 Color Depth: --- 8 16 24 32 Full Screen Window Refresh rate: --- 60 72 75 85 90 100 120
  CPU: --- PentiumIII AMD K6-3 AMD K7 486 Pentium Pentium MMX Pentium II Pentium Pro Celeron Celeron "A" Xeon Cyrix 6x86 Cyrix 6x86M2 AMD K5 AMD K6 AMD K6-2 Mac Mac G3 SGI DEC Alpha Speed: --- 66 75 90 100 120 133 150 166 180 200 225 233 250 266 291 300 333 350 366 400 415 433 450 466 500 515 550 566 600 620 650 670 System memory: --- 8 12 16 24 32 48 64 92 128 196 256
  3D chipset: --- no 3D card 3Dfx Voodoo 3Dfx Rush 3Dfx Voodoo2 3Dfx Voodoo2 SLI 3Dfx Banshee 3Dfx Voodoo3 nVidia Riva128 nVidia Riva128ZX nVidia Riva TnT nVidia TNT2 nVidia TNT2 Ultra Intel 740 3Dlabs Permedia2 ATI Rage Pro ATI Rage128 ATI Rage 128 Pro 3DLabs Permedia3 3DLabs Permedia4 NEC/VL PowerVR/PCX2 NEC/VL PowerVR/SG Rendition V1000 Rendition V2100 Rendition V2200 Matrox G100 Matrox G200 S3 Savage 4 S3 Savage3D S3 Savage 4 Paladin PixelSquirt Chromatic mPact2 Ticket to Ride Ticket to Ride IV Matrox MGA ATI RageII S3 ViRGE SiS 6326 3D board bus: --- ISA PCI AGP AGP2x AGP4x
  3D card: 3D card memory: --- 4 6 8 12 16 20 24 32 40 48 52 56 60 68 80
  2D card: 2D card memory: --- 1 2 4 6 8 12 16 20 24 32
  Sound card: Sound card bus: ISA PCI
  Results, FSB: FSB1: FSB2: FSB3:
  (if FSB is less than 10, add a 0 in the 10-digit spot, i.e. 06.7)
  Video Pausing: --- no slight moderate severe Sound Stutter: --- no slight moderate severe
  Drivers:
  Comments:
• Scanery Detail: Complex
• Night Lighting: Building & Ground Lighting
• Shadows: Aircraft & Buildings
• Terrain Visibility: 10 miles
• Texture Cache: Leave this at the default setting, or set it to a value that gives you good performance. You might want to note this in the comments.
• Detail tiles, lens flare, environmental mapping, and auto full screen should all be checked (on).
• Click OK.
• In the Options/Cockpit... menu, select Guage Detail: normal, and Strech Main Window: yes.
• In the Options/Realism menu, select all options except Prop Effects.

6. Select the File/Load Scenario... menu, and select the file FSB1.rio, and click the Open button. On the Load Scenario window don't change any settings (all options should be checked except Load Flight Plan), just click OK. Wait. Wait more if you have a slow system. Click Ok in the Alert window. Go the the Environment page and make sure there are no clouds selected, and that the vilibility is 10 miles. Next, click the big red Fly button. If you have a throttle of any kind (joystick or separate) , set it to half-way (if you leave it off the planes will stall ans fall). From here on in don't touch the mouse or the joystick, as you might inadvertantly change the scenario.

7. When the scenario starts you will be on approach to an airport. Press the Tab key twice to display the frame rate on the right side of the screen. If is the rapidly changing number with the nn.nn format. Use the '-' and '+' keys to set the zoom level to 2.00. Wait until the GPS (the digital display) is showing your location (this follows the self test), and read the frame rate. Since the number is changing so rapidly, the best we can do is watch the integer part of the number and write down the number that it is most of the time. Here it is tempting to get the highest number you see, but that number is balanced against the lowest number you see. Just take the number it shows most of the time. Please do not pause the sim to read the frame rate, as your numbers will be about 20% too big and your results will be invalid.

8. Hit the ESC key to go back to the Setup menu.

9. Re-enter the Options/Graphics... menu and set:

• Visibility: 20 miles
• Shadows: None
• Environmental Mapping: off
• Click OK

10. In the Files/Load Scenario... menu, select FSB2.rio, click the Open button, then click OK in the Load Scenarion window. Wait. I apologize for all this waiting, but really, it's not my fault. Click OK in the Alert window, check the Environment page to make sure there is a scatterd cloud layer at 5000 feet and visibility is 10 miles, then click the big red Fly button. This time you will have a spot-plane view of the aircraft as it passes the Chicago skyline. read the frame rate after the plane passes a very nearby building (about 10 seconds after the plane starts flying). Press the ESC key to exit the flight.

11. We don't need to modify the graphics settings, so Leave all the settings as they were, including the zoom level. Go to the Files/Load Scenario menu and select FSB3.rio, then do all that stuff detailed in step 10 above to get the plane flying. There should be no clouds and 10 mile visibility in this scenario. This situation is a flight toward Chicago at dusk. Record the frame rate, and exit the program.

12. Now that you have the frame rates for the three tests (FSB1, FSB2 and FSB3), calculate the average of them (add them up and divide by 3). This average is known as FSB.

13. Head over to the FSBench site, http://avsim.com/fsbench, and use the report System to record your findings. You may want to run the benchmarks at different screen resolutions and color bit depths if you have the time. If you have done any "tweaks" to improve the performance of Fly!, please say what you did in the comments section. It is quite important that we know.

14. Congratulations, you've helped all the other simmers out there by letting them know how your type of computer system did with Fly!