Simviation Forums

I just wanted to let everyone know that I switched from detailed clouds to simple clouds and I went from 10- 15fps to 45fps.  I have just about all the sliders set all the way up.  I cant see how the clouds can mess the performace up like that, but on my system they do.  If anyone knows a fix for this i would greatly appreciate it, if not then I guess i'll sacrafice the detailed clouds to get better performance. 

3d clouds require a massive amount of CPU power to render, as opposed to the flat 2d clouds.

You could try a texture replacement, if you're running the default clouds still.

This package seems to work well (at least on my outdated heap.

thank you i'll try it, i mean i would love to have the clouds on but it sacrafices my performace way to much, so if thats the case i'll just deal will simple clouds

I should also mention, limiting cloud draw distance to it's lowest level (60nm), and setting the visibility in the User Defined Weather to no more than 40-50 nm

In real life, you will never get visibility greater than that, and you can't really see 60nm, so there is no point in drawing them that far out.

Let us know how it goes.

thank you i'll try it, i mean i would love to have the clouds on but it sacrafices my performace way to much, so if thats the case i'll just deal will simple clouds

Your problem may be linked to the cloud drawing distance, which has to be set to the minimum on slower computers.
Also, you have to know that the default cloud textures from FSX are a ressource hog ! Their impact on the FPS is just dramatic.
If you switch to lower resolution textures, like FS Skyworld 2004 or HDE (both for FS9), to adopt 512x512 clouds, you will definitely see an improvement in the FPS.

Flat 2D clouds are so UGLY that I prefer flying with low FPS.

Are you reading my mind again Daube?   

well i know they are ugly but i cant fly when they are on its really slow and choppy.  i'm going to try that download that was suggested, i always have it on the lowest setting too.  I mean i have a pretty quick computer i dont know why i'm having probs with it. 
amd athlon 64x2 4200 at 2.53
4 gig ram
1 gig radeon 4650
I know the video card is a lil slower but i dont think thats what it causing the prob.

Have a look at the excellent advise from this guy, and then download his PDF file and use it:

http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php ... 30796&st=0

Good luck!