This chart shows the type of a/c used in the survey. FPS Out is outside view. FPS In is cockpit view. Scale factor is size of a/c (relative & not used at this time). Def is for default aircraft and panel.
Background:
location: Meigs;
outside view: eastward towards lake Michigan
readjusted to fit the a/c on the screen;
time: midday and no clouds.
all details settings at max.
resolution is 1600x1200x32 and full screen;
reference system: P3-800 133, 160 meg ram & Gef2MX agp4x, drivers 6.49 		Observations:
  • The cockpit view is very consistant. Of course, the a/c is not moving. But this is somewhat surprising considering the difference in cockpits. They are pretty steady at 16.45 average.
  • The outside view is a different ball game: it goes up to 32fps and as low as 9fps for the DHC6 mentioned on my previous "All a/c are not alike". It appears that I was looking at an extreme situation.
  • However, there is still a big difference in outside views between aircrafts. For example, the DHC8-102 has 29 fps while the AN-24r has 16 fps. Visually speaking the Antonov has more details to it, more 3d objects, moving parts. In the texture folder, the An24 has 57 objects of 3.60 mb total while the Dhc8-102 has 26 objects of 1.65 mb total. But that does not explain everything.
  • So, all a/c are not alike, that's for sure. In as far as the benchmarks for FS2K are concerned, I don't think the integrity of the data is at risk as long as we use the same reference aircrafts.
    PP Jan 14 2001