AI hurts my computer

[Jon H]

Is there any way of reducing the impact that AI traffic has on the performance of FS2004? I like to have busy skies, but my system just can't cope.

Yours hopefully,

[dave3cu]

First, make sure that the aircraft your using for ai are designed for ai. Do not use higher detailed flyable aircraft as ai. Even the default aircraft (used as default ai) have higher 'poly' counts than aircraft designed for ai, and therefore take longer to draw.

After that it's just a matter of trade offs between what you want to see and what your system can handle. For busy skies you may have to lower other setting like clouds (3-d clouds are another heavy hitter), scenery complexity, terrain detail,  shadows etc.

Dave

[Jon H]

All of my traffic is Project AI, so the models should be ok shoudn't they? You're right, I can usually have lots of traffic or lots of clouds, but it struggles with both together.

Thanks for the advice. Is there anything else you can think of?

[dave3cu]

"Is there anything else you can think of? "

Not related to ai specifically, other than turning down the traffic %.

Beyond that it's a matter of tuning your system to give FS as many resources as it can....

Adjusting your FS settings to get as much of what you want while maintaining a decent (20 or so)FPS.

The Tweaking & Overclocking is a good place to start looking for system and FS tweaks that may help. When asking for tips on FS performance, it's important to include your system specs. At minimum, identify your CPU, amount of ram and your graphics adapter.

Dave