FS2004 running really slow after adding add-ons!

[JETGUY511]

Guys, added a few add-ons and now when i fly online, my FS2004  has a huge lag sometimes and I really can't   fly because it's too slow. Do u guys know what's going on and how to correct it? I have cable internet service so I figure it should run pretty smooth. Thnx guys.

[eno]

Welcome to the forums.
You don't say wether this is during single player or multiplayer and we would also need to know your computer specifications in order to make an educated guess. Other information that would be useful would be the extras that you have added.

Sorry I cant be of much help at the moment but I'm sure if you furnish more details then someone will help.

cheers
eno

[JETGUY511]

Well Eno, i just got a new 80 GB hard drive.
I have only added three add-ons, all three being aircraft.
 
 I experienced the lag during multiplayer online play. Any helpful info is greatly appreciated, thnx .

[eno]

Still need more information ........ are you running any firewall... antivirus... etc and your computer specs.. so as to elimintate as many variables as possible.

[Hagar]

I've never flown online so I don't really know what I'm talking about. It might help to know which aircraft you installed. Some can be very graphics intensive which can slow everything down even in single player.

[JBaymore]

Jetguy511,

Think I might have part of this issue for you.

An interesting phenomona of multiplayer online is how it treats what aircraft the sim "thinks" OTHER participants are flying.

[Reap]

Also what connection speed do you have, where are you connecting to, to play onlne and are you referring to the other aircraft jumping around or your own?

[Gixer]

There are also some planes out there that cause tremendous lag online too, i.e. if you look at the person in their aircraft your FPS will drop dramatically.

The Maule was one I remember doing this a fair bit, maybe the Lancair Legacy too.  Uncompressed textures, i.e. 32bit instead of DXT3 ones can cause lag online too.

Another glitch with online flying is how people set their own Maximum FPS.  For online flying set it between 25-30 max.  Anymore and the sims starts sending stupid amounts of data to the other players and this can cause slow down too.  The problem with this one is its outta your hands and you just have to hope everyone else has limited their FPS.

[JETGUY511]

wow, great info guys. I guess the add-ons are better for offline flying.

The add-ons I added were the Boeing 787 Lufthansa, Air bus A380 TP Portugal, And a 747-400 with Avianca Airlines' paint scheme, that's it.

I'm not familiar with the term metion FPS, gixer. If you could explain a bit, I would greatly appreciated.

So in conclusion, it's better to just stick with the original aircraft in FS2004 for online flying. Oh and JBaymore, I know exactly what you are talking about, I did experience that.

Thank you guys for all of your inputs, you are all great.

[Saratoga]

FPS is Frames-per-second, it's a measure of how fast your FS is running. When you are flying, hit Shift + Z three times and it will display your FPS.

I'll tell you what I miss. Now if you don't have their planes, FS replaces it with yours. But I miss the Cessnas in previous versions than people in F-104s and Concordes would be flying and you would get passed by a Cessna doin' like Mach 2.

Also, Gixer, you said set frames on multiplayer to 25-30 max. No point in being higher anyways, if you can get higher, turn up the settings, your eye can only see 31 anyways.

[Gary R.]

Actually, human visual cortex can only percieve 24 FPS.  That's what motion pictures run at as well.  A steady 24 in all conditions is about the best anyone could hope for.  I have heard that other species can percieve even more.  it is said that a cat for example can percieve up to 40 FPS which is why most (but not all) cats pay little or no attention to whats on a TV.  TV picture to them would look like a slide show rather than real motion.  just idle interesting (or not) ramblings, lol.

[Reap]

Jetguy dont restrict yourself to stock aircraft online, all my flying is online except when I first test out a new aircraft. Most of the aircraft I and others use on vatsim are add-on aircraft.
Add on scenery is more likely going to make you lag than aircraft if there are too many cmplex objuects in your field of view.
More lkely I would have thought though its your system.
You need a pretty good graphics card to cope with it all, I have a FX5600 and its not really good enough but it just copes, but any less than that would be pretty awful.
My laptop has a pretty good processor and memory but the graphics card is not good and FS9 is a complete waste of time.

[Gixer]

Yeah dont restrict yourself.  Most addon aircraft work just fine online.  Its only a few that cause a big lag.

[JBaymore]

[quote].......added a few add-ons and now when i fly online, my FS2004