strange-video card performance answer?

[Geofa 108]

I'd like to emphasise that I never claimed that the tweak gave me better performance directly. If you read my first post which started this avalanche I was addressing the fact that my sliders actually started doing something after doing this-and therefore concluded (and also asked) if it could have to do with the display.cfg not having a specific section for my card-that perhaps loading the settings for a different card caused my sliders to finally work/react. I have seen a few other posts for my particular card in the past also stating that sliders seemed to produce no changing results.What I did state is the sliders finally allowed me to change performance--which in turn made better performance through adjustment.e.g. Turning the slider from none to max on autogen used to do nothing-now it makes a difference of about 12 fps. By adjusting this I can now get a consistant above 20fps smoothness in almost all situations-before I got 12 and some stutters at high density situations and only occasionally 20-changing slider positions did pretty much nothing so I used to leave them always maxed out.Yes-I have the extra display section at the bottom-the sim obviously detects the card and places it there-I remove it before using.I will try renaming display.cfg and see what happens.What you say and others have said make perfect sense-but I would still like to know why now my sliders now effect something-and before that didn't..As for what others have reported-I am baffled too-but it would seem there might be more here than a placebo effect considering the unexpected response. I certainly never expected the response to this thread. I don't profess to have an answer or any expertise in this area as I have readily admitted. I do know however that I can now through adjustment get great performance all the time, instead of much/some of the time.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Randall 85]

I'm using Win98Se with a Radeon 9700 and the fix works for me.

[Guest]

Hi Geof,I've read this thread a few times in its entirety, and YES i've noticed you didn't go for performance. Sorry, if i made you think that i did, but in my post i never mentioned performance, just a better simming experience. For you that's being able to adjust the sliders, for others that report possitive results it may be FPS.That being said (and hopefully off the table so to speak) you state there IS an extra Display.Device section in the FS9.cfg.Please reread earlier posts (Russel) and be aware that deleting that doesn't work. I might be totally wrong here, but i guess the sim is making a new section every time you start it up (after you deleted it of course). And it does that when it starts, so deleting it before doesn't make any sense. It just uses the new section it just created and nothing else. Try NOT deleting the section, i bet your ability to use the sliders (and see the appropriate changes) will stay.And YES, i am aware that many people report spectacular results. Not in my lifetime will i try to take any of that away from you nor all the others ! My respect for you and your work (been flying the Deb a few times...) is immense. But, i'm looking for truth in this matter. Luckily, a computer is still 95% logic and reason (counting hardware anomalies for 1 % and MS for 4 % ;-) ) and i really think there must be a logical explanation for all this. My best guess for that is that letting FS make a fresh display.device section with it's normal settings you get rid of some settings you made in the past (in the tweaking process we all went through) and voila: better scalability for you and better FPS for others.I've done a lot of tweaking myself, and i know it's impossible to keep track of all the things you try. As more posts show (JohnCI's recent one) a good tweak today can be a bad one tomorrow. It just depends so much on the situation and the demands for that specific test. So i guess you got rid of some setting that seemed right at the time but made you lose your sliders.Again, i'm no expert on this, just using pure logic and reasoning. The discovery you made doesn't degrade with this anyway, at the very least it makes us all get a better understanding of how FS works.Cheers,Cas

[brucek 38]

Hi Geof,The main thing is that it works, for you and some others. How or why it works is obviously of interest to us techies here too, but not as important as the fact that it works.I was trying some settings spawned from the posts in this thread late last night (I have a 9800 Pro). I quit when I was tired and posted my final reply that things looked better between yawns :), but that maybe it was a placebo effect. I hope you didn't think that my "placebo" comments were about your find, I was strictly referring to what I percieved as being better on my 9800 Pro (which- now in the light of a new day- I think is the same as it's always been).This thread has the most posts I've seen in a while, certainly since Rich Harvey passed. Bruce :)

[Geofa 108]

Again-no disagreement. I used to program computers twenty years ago so understand.What is the display.cfg for though?I have it from a pretty good authority that what I did essentially tells FS to ignore specific driver settings and load with the defaults.Could it be that, "ignoring the specific driver settings" seems to work better on my card than using the "specific driver settings" and perhaps others.Your idea of deleting the display.cfg is a good one-I will try it when I get a chance much later tonight or tomorrow and see what results occur.Believe me-I am not troubled or insulted in any way-just surprised at all the attention this has got! *:-*http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Geofa 108]

Actually-your placebo comment passed me by-I thought I came up with it! Too hard to keep up with this thread. lol-oh well!http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Guest]

I don't know whether this works or not, but the bigger question I have is where is the FS9.cfg. I have looked in the folder and even did a search with know results.Where is it???

[Guest SoarPics]

FYI... I just made several flights, going in and out of the sim from desktop, with the Display.cfg file removed from my system. All went well... the FS9.cfg didn't change, nor did any of my display settings in the sim.

[Guest]

Still I am wondering how do I find that file should I ever want to look in it. I don't plan to change anything (I Promise)

[Guest SoarPics]

Check out the "Read Me First" sticky at the top of this forum (and if you do change anything, the FS cops will be coming for ya :-) ).

[Tabs 2,790]

Yeah there needs to be a serious moratorium on asking where the FS9.cfg file is - they need to post it in giant type on the AVSIM front page, right at the top... ;)Regarding this topic - I'm running some tests looking at average frames using the edited cfg vs the original one I backed up... need to fly a few more flights under some different conditions before I can come to any conclusions.Ryan

[Guest]

Still I ask, can anyone tell me where the FS9.cfg file is???

[Guest PaulL01]

>Also try this for better and more stable fps:>in the fs9.cfg:>>TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024 (change from 512 to 1024 or 2048)>>Much smoother. This is an trick what worked in fs2002 also.>>JohanTexture _max_load= is simply telling Fs what the max Texture size to display on AC and objects, e.g. 64x64/128x128/256x256/512x512 etc. the max texture file size is 1024x1024 (tested) FS will not display any larger files than this (hardcoded), this is a bogus setting and usually results in FS setting itself to default.To verify this yourself go into FS/display/aircraft settings and change texture detail and exit then go back and check that line in the FS9.cfg.

[Guest]

Got it now. I still don't think I am going to change anything. I still don't see a lot of people saying whether it works or not.

[Guest MattNW]

I've tried everything mentioned here with Windows 98 and so far nothing makes any difference. I think either this works only for XP users or that it's changing a setting that increases performance at the expense of some quality. I have the same problem with the sliders not doing anything. Luckily my sim is reasonably playable with whatever the sliders are stuck on. After trying this fix I still find the sliders don't change anything. I can set them to max or everything to minimum the terrain, autogen, and airport details are changed but I still get the same performance. It seems like ACOF is set to run 29 fps in less dense areas and 9-12 fps at detailed airports.I'd suggest on the computers that you just keep your old computer alongside your new one. You can run the flight sim on the new one and do your word processing and books on the old. Eventually you can maybe pick up a couple network cards and a hub and set up a home network. Old computers do come in handy once in a while.