Simviation Forums

This is just one way to improve the frame rates of FSX. If it doesn't work for you, then I'm pretty sure there is another way.

Click here for the tutorial

The tutorial was made by a friend in the FS2004.com forums who was also the one who did the experiment on converting the DDS textures back and forth to improve FPS. It seems to work wonders for most people. I haven't tried it yet because I don't have the beta and I'm NOT one of the lucky few who have the final version.

I hope the mods make this topic into a sticky so that others can see this. This guy has devoted so much of his time and effort into putting together this tutorial and sharing it with us all.

Thanks for the info Kat. Has anyone tried this? I was going to wait and see what others had to say about this before doing it, but no one is responding, so I'll try it myself. I'll keep you posted.

I haven't tried it but DID convert a .dds file to various DXT formats -- none of which showed up in the FSX Preview Window

I tried it. It did improve FPS slightly but all the autogen trees were upside down after conversion soooooooo I went back when someone figures out how to keep the trees rightside up I will try again till then I guess I have to live with single digit FPS

It worked for me. I didn't notice any upside-down trees though. I have no idea what would cause that. My FPS improved a little, enough to be worth it.

This is exciting, my first tweek in the new sim!

Yep, the autogen trees went upside down for me too and then I switched the files back to .dds. Very odd...  ???

I tried it. It did improve FPS slightly but all the autogen trees were upside down after conversion soooooooo I went back when someone figures out how to keep the trees rightside up I will try again till then I guess I have to live with single digit FPS

That's because you only did half of the task.  You are supposed to take the DXT1 textures and convert them back to .dds before using.

.dds textures are 'flipped' upside down, since that's the way they are sent to the video card (bottom-to-top scanning).

However, there's a much easier 'fix' for the autogen posted at http://avsim.com or http://flightsim.com that simply reduces the variety of trees used, and the variety of roofs used in any one scene.

Using these three replacement files has boosted my fps by more than 50% with autogen set to "NORMAL..."  From a solid 20fps to a healthy 30+fps in congested areas such as Chicago, New York, etc.

I don't know how I missed it, but my trees are indeed upside down.

Thanks for the new tip n4gix.

Not sure I want this if I have to have a PHD in programming to get it running on my computer. I would think that as much money as microsoft makes, it should be the one to get it right before releasing it.

Not sure I want this if I have to have a PHD in programming to get it running on my computer. I would think that as much money as microsoft makes, it should be the one to get it right before releasing it.

I don't think Microsoft intended it as a mistake. If you notice closely in the tutorial, it's basically telling to reduce a DDS file from DXT5 to DXT1. As a result, the autogen textures will become less detailed and will render less features like the building reflections.

n4gix, could you maybe give a file name or direct link? I can't seem to find anything like that on either of those sites.

-SNIP-
Using these three replacement files has boosted my fps by more than 50% with autogen set to "NORMAL..."  From a solid 20fps to a healthy 30+fps in congested areas such as Chicago, New York, etc.

Fr. Bill...just curious as to your system specs.

   Paul

[quote]

Fr. Bill...just curious as to your system specs.

I can understand my laptop with P4 2.8GHZ, 512MB Ram, ATI Radeon 9700 64MB is only enough to get the sim running, but to actually enjoy it is a different matter.

*Katahu looks at his dwindling bank account*

[quote]I think his is made from some dinky outfit called "Cray" ...