FS9, FSX and Prepar3D – Display Configuration

‘home cockpit’ configuration

Date: 14 Decembre 2018

Version: 1.0

Contents 1 Introduction

2 PC Hardware systems used by Rob van Dijk – 2018

3 Software used by Rob van Dijk – 2018

4 FS9 Display Configuration 4.1 Scenery 4.2 Aircraft 4.3 Weather 4.4 Hardware 4.5 ‘View’ settings in FS9

5 Nvidia Inspector Display Settings FS9, FSX and Prepar3D 5.1 Base install of Nvidia Inspector 5.2 Use of Nvidia Inspector 5.3 Profile Screen of Nvidia Inspector

6 fs9.cfg Configuration

1 - Introduction

Flickering Textures, flashing buildings or a blurry behavior in FS9, FSX or Prepar3D? This guide will cover setting up your display settings to have a good FS9, FSX or Prepar3D experience. We all know the stability problems, bad fps, blurry scenery’s specially in populated areas. If you have a recent PD (desktop) and that is a quad core or larger with a Nvidia GPU this guide is for you! GTX 1070 – TI – 8GB For those of you lucky enough to own an NVidia Graphics Card, there is a great program that allows you to force any program to use whatever video settings you wish, rather than to be limited by the selections within the program. This program is called NVidia Inspector. I highly recommend you download and install this program. I also highly recommend you set up your Inspector using the following settings for Microsoft Flight Simulator or Prepar for the best quality vs speed. You can download the NVidia Inspector from website https://orbmu2k.de/ Important: uninstall other display tools because they can influence the operation of the Nvidia Inspector!

https://orbmu2k.de/

2 - PC Hardware systems used by Rob van Dijk – 2018 PC Hardware system ‘View’ PC kast: Motherboard: Processor: Memory: Cooler: HDD: Videocards: Serial Port Card - RS232 Card: Monitor 1: Monitor 2: Monitor 3: HP USB Graphics Adapter: Beamer:

Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl ASUS MB Z97K – DDR3 – LGA1150 – ATX – HDMI – DVI – VGA Intel Core i7-4790 - 3,4GHz – 8MB – LGA1150 – Haswell Refresh Transcend 8GB – DDR3/1600 – JM1600KLH-8GB – 2Rx8 = 16GB Cooler Master 750W PSU80+ BronzeModular Samsung SSD 860 Evo Series 500GB - SATA600 – 2.5” – MZ-76E500B/EU Samsung SSD 850 Evo Series 250GB - SATA600 – 2.5” – MZ-75E250B/EU 1x ASUS GeForce GTX1070-TI-AERO – 8GB – HDMI – DVI – VGA 1x ASUS GeForce GT740-OC-2GD5 – 2GB – HDMI – DVI – VGA Serial Port Expansion PCI Card Samsung 21” – System monitor Samsung 21” – used for Aerosoft FSC (FlightSim Commander) Beetronics 7” LCD (HDMI – VGA- RCA) used for lower EICAS instruments Model NL571AA to connect Beetronics 7” monitor Short-throw beamer Optoma GT740

PC Hardware system ‘Instruments’ PC kast: Motherboard: Processor: Memory: Cooler: HDD: Videocards: Monitor 1: Monitor 2: Monitor 3: Monitor 3:

Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl ASUS MB Z97K – DDR3 – LGA1150 – ATX – HDMI – DVI – VGA Intel Core i7-4790 - 3,4GHz – 8MB – LGA1150 – Haswell Refresh Transcend 8GB – DDR3/1600 – JM1600KLH-8GB – 2Rx8GB Cooler Master 750W PSU80+ BronzeModular Samsung SSD 850 Evo Series 250GB - SATA600 – 2.5” – MZ-75E250B/EU 1x ASUS GeForce GT740-OC-2GD5 – 2GB – HDMI – DVI – VGA Samsung 21” – System monitor Samsung 21” – Monitor for CA MIP instruments Samsung 21” – Monitor for FO MIP instruments Samsung 15” – Monitor for CENTER MIP instruments

3 – Software used by Rob van Dijk – 2017/2018 PC Hardware system ‘View’ Operating system: Videocards: Serial Port Card - RS232 Card: HP USB Graphics Adapter: Flight Simulator: Microsoft Flight Simulator: FSuipc (Pete Dowson): Instrument displays: FlightSim Commander: FSBUSmod: Scenery:

Windows 10 Home Premium Version nVidia drivers configured with nVidia Inspector Prolific driver PL2303 Driver HP USB Adapter - Version 8.2.2186.0 Rev.A FS9, update 9.1 and NoCD, also good experience with FSX. FSuipc version 3.999z9 or FSuipc 4.xx EFIS Panel Builder - www.simplugins.com Aerosoft FDC9 – www.aerosoft.com FSBUS - Modulair Version - www.rvdijk.nl Aerosoft - www.aerosoft.com

PC Hardware system ‘View’ Operating system: Videocards: Serial Port Card - RS232 Card: HP USB Graphics Adapter: Flight Simulator:

Windows 10 Nvidia drivers configured with Nvidia Inspector Prolific driver PL2303 Driver HP USB Adapter - Version 8.2.2186.0 Rev.A

http://www.simplugins.com/http://www.aerosoft.com/http://www.rvdijk.nl/http://www.aerosoft.com/

Microsoft Flight Simulator: FSuipc (Pete Dowson): Instrument displays: FlightSim Commander: FSBUSmod: Scenery:

FS9, update 9.1 and NoCD FSuipc version 3.999z9 EFIS Panel Builder - www.simplugins.com Aerosoft FDC9 – www.aerosoft.com FSBUS - Modulair Version - www.rvdijk.nl Aerosoft - www.aerosoft.com

4 - Display settings in FS9 Flight Simulator 2004 or FS9 offers customizable display settings and this allows us to adjust many of the visual aspects of the simulation to attain a satisfactory balance between graphical clarity and smooth performance. Not only the display settings of FS2004 are responsible for a perfect scenery view of our ‘home cockpit’, also the configuration of our video cards is important. In this chapter you find our configuration with the necessary explanation. To configure the settings in FS2004 click on the ‘Settings’ option in the ‘Main’ menu. A screen reveals the numerous configurable settings available in your simulator. Click on the ‘Display’ option to activate the display settings screen. There are four sub-menus under Displays:

4.1 - Scenery Terrain mesh complexity: 100 Terrain texture size: High Terrain detail: Land and water Water effects: Low Dawn/dusk texture blending box: checked Extended terrain textures box: checked Special effects detail: High Scenery complexity: Extremely dense Autogen density: Extremely dense Add-on dynamic scenery box: checked Add-on dynamic scenery: Extremely dense Ground scenery casts shadows box: checked Sun glare box: checked Lens flare box: unchecked (pilot's sunglasses don't have lens flare)

4.2 - Aircraft Global aircraft quality: Minimal Virtual cockpit gauge quality: Low Reflection box: unchecked Aircraft cast shadows box: unchecked Landing lights box: checked

http://www.simplugins.com/http://www.aerosoft.com/http://www.rvdijk.nl/http://www.aerosoft.com/

4.3 - Weather Sight distance: 100mi / 160km (100 mi is the maximum view we can see) Cloud draw distance: 50mi / 80km 3-D cloud percentage: 50 Simple clouds box: unchecked Detailed clouds box: checked Cloud coverage density: High

4.4 - Hardware Target frame rate: 22 – 30 (normal cinema movie fps = 25) Display resolution: 1280x800x32 (monitor/beamer native resolution) Render to Texture box: checked Transform and lighting box: checked Anti-aliasing box: unchecked (AA set by Nvidia Inspector) Filtering: Trilinear MIP mapping quality: 8 (It is generally accepted that setting the ‘mipmaps’ level to the highest (8) will in most cases cause more blurred textures than a setting of 4 or 5) Hardware-rendered lights: 8 Global max texture size: Massive

4.5 - View Setting in FS9 To configure the ‘View’ settings in FS2004 click on the ‘View’ option in the ‘Main’ menu. A screen reveals the numerous configurable view settings available in your simulator. To items are important: Full Screen mode box: not checked (we use more monitors and a beamer and this makes it impossible to project in ‘full screen’ mode) View Option: pull back the ‘field of view’ in all modes to 0.75/0.65 by pressing the ‘minus - ‘ key. (This will immediately make all ground textures appear much, much crisper. You will see the letters "0.75" in red letters in the top right hand of your screen to confirm your FOV has changed. Default 100% zoom level is not realistic and will make things appear far more blurred, which is true in FS9 too. I usually run a .75 zoom or about 2 clicks back on the minus key from 100%)

I will indicate in this guide which values change positions of sliders in FS9/FSX settings. Be aware

that changes in FS9/FSX settings may overwrite your fs.cfg tweaks. In my opinion it’s best not to use FS9/FSX display menu after you made the first display settings at all!

5 - Nvidia Display Settings FS9/FSX Nvidia is the GO-TO video adapter for FS9/FSX. Important: uninstall other display tools because they can influence the operation of the Nvidia Inspector!

5.1 - Base install of Nvidia Inspector Download Nvidia Inspector. (http://download.orbmu2k.de/download.) Unzip it and place the folder anywhere you like on your system. (Do not remove Nvidia Inspector.exe from the folder it was unzipped to without also moving the XML file(s) that was included with the software!) Optional: Open the folder and right click nvidiainspector.exe to place a shortcut on your desktop.

After installing any Nvidia driver and a reboot, there is no need to open the Nvidia control panel for D3 and

game settings. If you change anything in the Nvidia control panel for 3D and FS9 games it will override Nvidia Inspector.

5.2 - Use of Nvidia Inspector Step 1 - Run nvidiaInspector.exe and after opening of the window click the tab shown beside!

5.3 - Profile Screen of Nvidia Inspector Step 2 - On the profile screen, in the top box, start typing: MS FLIGHT SIMULATOR X and click the ARROW next to the box (see below). It will take you to ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004’ listing and click on the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 profile. Step 3 - With to ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004’ displayed in the box, make the following changes as shown. Doing so will not change any other profile and only set fs 2004. You can use the same method for the MS Flight Simulator X profile too. Step 4 - When finished, click APPLY PROFILE. The "gear ICONS" in the boxes shown above will appear AFTER APPLY CHANGES is clicked!

In to ‘Microsoft FS9/FSX ‘Options/Settings/Display/Hardware’ settings make sure that Antialiasing (AA) is

unchecked and Filtering is set to Trilinear!

6 - fs9.cfg Configuration Navigate to your fs.cfg location (PC/System/Users/Name/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/FS9) and make a backup copy. Now you are ready to start tweaking and testing your FS9. There are no settings that are always correct! Remember this. Use settings that are appropriate to your setup (Hardware + FS9/FSX + Add-ons). Different add-ons (planes, sceneries, even weather settings) may require different tweaks and different configuration. All your tweaks and settings have to be adjusted to your personal preferences. Some people will be ok with 20 frames per second and better graphics. Others will settle with lower quality and constant 30 fps. My personal preference is to keep the highest quality that will allow at least a stable 20 frames on approach to the heaviest scenery that I use at the moment. It means that I have constant 30 frames inflight and I have no stutters in this difficult part of flight. You need to consider VAS (virtual address space). Too much scenery or autogen objects may cause OOM (out of memory) error. The same may happen when loading a large number of high quality textures.

Test, test and once again – TEST!

It is a process of trial and error. Use this guide and set your FS2004. Then test it. Then tweak it again and test. If you see improvement – use your new settings. If not – try something different. Even if you have a ‘perfect’ set of tweaks – do a small change from time to time. And let it work for a few days. Maybe it will be better. I use for my first tests always the same situation: a final approach to EDDF runway 07L of the Aerosoft scenery: AS_MEGA-AIRPORT-FRANKFURT-2.0_FS2004. Do a long test It is hard to test tweaks in a single flight. Even if you have a test flight (same weather, airport, plane, date, time of day, traffic) – you may see different results with no change at all. You may see improvement even if the long term change is for worse. So do not trust a single test unless the difference is obvious and very strong.

FS9/FSX.cfg structure The FS9/FSX.cfg is a simple configuration file that uses single line commands containing a name of the setting and value with ‘=’ character in between. Section headers are wrapped in square brackets. For example: [GRAPHICS]. Double slash ‘ // ‘ marks comment – a part of line (or the whole line) that will be ignored by FS2004. The following setting in our FS2004 config ‘fs9.cfg’ deals with blurries and much else besides. My comments and/of meaning will be place after comment mark ‘//’. Editing your config? First, save a copy of your FS9.cfg file for safe keeping!

[PANELS] IMAGE_QUALITY=1 UNITS_OF_MEASURE=1 QUICKTIPS=0 PANEL_MASKING=1 PANEL_STRETCHING=1 [STARTUP] DEMO=0 LOADSIM=1 LOADWINDOW=1 SHOW_OPENING_SCREEN=0 STARTUP_DEMO=0 [GRAPHICS] FULL_SCREEN=0 // Full-Screen mode is impossible!

PERFORMANCE_MODE=0 DEF_PERF_MODE=7 TEXT_SCROLL=1 AUTO_LOD=0 DETAIL_TEXTURE=2 WATER_EFFECTS=1 TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_MAP=1 TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS=1 EFFECTS_QUALITY=2 GROUND_SHADOWS=1 SMOOTH_VIEW=1 IMAGE_SMOOTHING=1 TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024 COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=0 AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=0 // We are sitting in our aircraft and can’t see the shadows LANDING_LIGHTS=1 // Important! IMAGE_QUALITY=0 TEXTURE_BLDG=1 TEXTURE_GND=1 TEXTURE_WATER=1 AIRCRAFT_TEXTURE=1 SEE_SELF=1 // Important! Otherwise landing lights are not visible in ‘cockpit’ view TEXTURE_QUALITY=3 LOD_TARGET_FPS=21 NUM_LIGHTS=8 [SOUND] SOUND=1 SOUND_FADER1=0.300000 SOUND_FADER2=0.400000 SOUND_FADER3=0.500000 SOUND_FADER4=0.700000 SOUND_FADER5=0.200000 SOUND_FADER6=0.900000 SOUND_QUALITY=2 SamplesPerSec=44100 BitsPerSample=16 [DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GT 740.0] Mode=1280x800x32 TriLinear=1 MipBias=8 [DISPLAY] UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=30 TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400 TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024 [TERRAIN] TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000 TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000 TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=400.000000 // Textures are loaded earlier TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21 TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8 TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5

TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1 TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1 TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.900000 TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.000000 TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4 // Load textures farther away to reduce blurries [SCENERY] IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=5 DYNAMIC_SCENERY=1 DYN_SCN_DENSITY=5 DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1 SUNGLARE=1 LENSFLARE=0 [RUNWAY] RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.7 RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.7 RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.0 RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.0 // Tweak the airport and other lights by adding these entries. They are not strictly performance related but it will // look more realistic and won't dominate approaches [JOYSTICK_MAIN] // device numbers depends on your joystick AXIS_EVENT_00=AXIS_LEFT_BRAKE_SET AXIS_SCALE_00=-127 AXIS_NULL_00=1 STICK_SENSITIVITY_MODE=0 // Add this line: this makes FS treat the raw joystick readings in a linear fashion. AXIS_EVENT_01=AXIS_RIGHT_BRAKE_SET AXIS_SCALE_01=-127 AXIS_NULL_01=1 STICK_SENSITIVITY_MODE=0 // Add this line: this makes FS treat the raw joystick readings in a linear fashion. AXIS_EVENT_05=AXIS_RUDDER_SET AXIS_SCALE_05=127 AXIS_NULL_05=1 STICK_SENSITIVITY_MODE=0 // Add this line: this makes FS treat the raw joystick readings in a linear fashion.

I really hope this guide assists anyone wanting to make their Flight Simulator run without flashing buildings or a blurry behavior!