FS9.cfg tweaks.

[Nathan Ford - HJG]

Hi, I have added here the follwing FS9 tweaks that I believe will get the best out of FS9.
They are the ones I use and give great reasults. For the frame lock, use 30, 60 or unlimited as they are multiples of a modern monitors screen refresh rate. If you are flying over a lot of complex scenery or photo scenery, unlimited is the better choice but I find I have to change it to 60 or 30 around most airports to stop stuttering.

Cheers,

Nathan.



FS9 CONFIGURATION FILE REBUILD


Save a copy of your current FS9.cfg file in a safe place. Then DELETE the FS9.cfg file being used by the sim.

Start Flight Simulator. You will be starting clean with a new FS9.cfg file Let the sim boot and go to the SETTINGS area. Make the following changes:

DISPLAY BUTTON:  
Scenery Tab:  
All sliders to 100% and ALL check boxes checked (water FX on 100%)

Aircraft Tab:
Drop down box, select HIGH, which should enable everything

Weather Tab:
60 -40 – 100 with Detailed Clouds and 100% maximum density

Hardware Tab:
Frame Lock @ 30
Check in: Render to Texture, Transform and Lighting, UNCHECK AA,
Trillinear Filtering,
Mip Quality 4 FOR ATI, 8 FOR NVIDIA (note: some Nv cards may cause shimmer at 8.. set to 4 in this case)
Hardware Lights 8,
Global Texture Slider 100%

CLICK OK

SOUND BUTTON:
Sound to MEDIUM, you can put the sliders wherever you wish, click OK
You can set this back to HIGH after tests are completed and your sim is smooth.


TRAFFIC BUTTON:
Traffic to 60%, click OK


REALISM BUTTON
Drop down Box; set to HARD, UNCHECK allow collisions with other aircraft. AUTO RUDDER should be enabled if you fly keyboard and do not use pedals. Click OK


WEATHER BUTTON:
Check only Download Winds Aloft with real world weather, click OK


Close the sim

Once you close the sim a new FS9.cfg file will be written with the settings you just made. Open the new FS9.cfg file in notepad.

Scroll down and VERIFY - ADD - EDIT - CHANGE the following items in the list:



[CONTROLS]
PAN_RATE=700 <--- will always be 700

[DISPLAY]
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.2
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=1.0
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.0
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.5
UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=30 // note.. if the processor/card is a bit slower, this may need to be 22
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=240 //NOTE: some systems work better @ 400 which is the MAX


[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000
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=9.5 // Also try 9.0
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.0 // Also try 4.5 (with 9.0 above)
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4 < --- If you use FSGenesis mesh, make it 4. If not experiment with 1. This setting is either 1 or 4, nothing else

[SCENERY]
IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=5
DYNAMIC_SCENERY=1
DYN_SCN_DENSITY=5
DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1
SUNGLARE=1
LENSFLARE=1

Close and save the FS9.cfg file.

[canuck]

Thanks for that copied and saved for future reference.

[Falcon]

Does someone have one of these tweaks for FSX? I know of several out there but was wondering if any here at HJG?

I know, most of you use FS9, but just wondering.

Denny

[crisso69]

Hi Nathan,
I followed your instructions fully above for the FS9 tweaks. The only glitch I had was, with AA unchecked in Display settings, the terrain graphics were blurry and simplified/washed out plus, ai and the aircraft I was flying were displayed blurry and undetailed. With AA checked, however, the graphics are seemingly fully detailed.
Incidentally, I have a nVidia Geforce GTX 750 Ti Graphics Card, which I recently restored to it's vanilla settings and have deliberately not altered anything. Thus, in the nVidia Control Panel under Global Settings AA is simply 'Application-controlled' and, in (specifically added for FS9) Program Settings - 'Use Global Setting (Application-controlled)'.
Should I change anything in the nVidia Control Panel for FS9? I must be honest, I've searched everywhere online for a list of suggested settings for this specific video card but realise of course, FS9 is not the latest flight simulator out there although, it's still mine of choice especially since I prefer flying older aircraft, both props and including the excellent jetliners hosted here.
Best wishes, Chris

[simpilo]

As far as real world weather updates I keep getting the same old archived weather everytime I even try so I resorted to Fs Real Wx Lite from Hans-Coderz. If you know anyway to make FS2004's real world updates work again please let me know. I think I saw a line in the FS9.cfg file for a link but that link is only providing very old weather.