John Venema Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 In the FTX User Guide for AU BLUE/GOLD, on page 7 I mention to disable scenery ground shadows. This was mainly due to the square shadows which you'll see when our FTX vector roads are displayed with trees attached, so that advice still applies. However there is one tweak I did not mention in the manual, and I find this gives me a remarkable performance improvement. In the SETTINGS | DISPLAY | AIRCRAFT tab disable the following two options: [ ] Aircraft casts shadows on the ground [ ] Aircraft casts shadows on itself Give this a try and watch your frames increase substantially. My personal opinion is that a lot of the FTX ground textures and indeed a lot of our airports have faux shadows built into the textures anyway, so you won't be losing too much visual quality. But the biggest FPS killer is Aircraft casts shadows on the ground - you will be surprised how much smoother the sim is with this turned off. I'd be curious to see if this works for you as well as it does for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricclar Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 John Thank you for your input. I am always looking to fine tune FSX to make FEX run that much smoother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinc Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Hi John, Yeah, makes a big difference. Shadows always seem to eat up performance. I recall this issue from earlier versions of FS. A lot of other games/apps can benefit from shadows off as well. Cheers MC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Hanley Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 John, Are those settings in the fsx.cfg file or in the display settings menu inside fsx while it is running? Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Agreed. I always fly with 'ground shadows' and 'Aircraft casts shadows on itself' disabled. But... 'Aircraft casts shadows on the ground' i see as a must have. Looks very dull without and a performance drop isn't noticeable with my system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted June 25, 2008 Author Share Posted June 25, 2008 Agreed. I always fly with 'ground shadows' and 'Aircraft casts shadows on itself' disabled. But... 'Aircraft casts shadows on the ground' i see as a must have. Looks very dull without and a performance drop isn't noticeable with my system. I agree Mango that aircraft shadow on the ground are desirable, but the performance hit is very noticeable, which is why I'm posting this for people who want to get some extra FPS; and in this case it's a lot of FPS and smoothness. I also agree that it looks very dull, particularly while we've been testing YMML - turning aircraft shadows on really adds to the immersion for all the parked aircraft. But again, with it off there is a notice jump in smoothness. It's a personal choice I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tennyson Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Oh, i see now what you mean, John. Of course with dense AI traffic in range, the aircraft shadow makes a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Hanley Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Thanks Frank Thats where I thought John meant, but I was going to look for something to change in the cfg file as well. Thanks Regards Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted June 25, 2008 Author Share Posted June 25, 2008 Thanks Frank, I should have thought to show the setup screen; much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goober Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Thanks John for your continued support with tweak and info to help achieve that sweet spot. Goober Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Mason Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Just did that and took a fly around the Melbourne metro area, I can see at least a 2-3 FPS frame rate difference. Thanks Koorbs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_NZ Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 I'll assume them (from reading the above posts) that gains will only really be seen if there are a number of aircraft casting shadows. ie. if you were playing at being the flying doctor in the outback then you'd probably not notice a difference? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotspot Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Tried the outback bit in an ultralite - no AI - went up by 5 ,Cheers, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_NZ Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Tried the outback bit in an ultralite - no AI - went up by 5 ,Cheers, Bill Will have to try it myself then when I have a moment. I guess now's a good as time as any. Who needs sleep anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted June 25, 2008 Author Share Posted June 25, 2008 I'll assume them (from reading the above posts) that gains will only really be seen if there are a number of aircraft casting shadows. ie. if you were playing at being the flying doctor in the outback then you'd probably not notice a difference? Load up YMLT in the ultralight and spot view with aircraft casting shadows. Do a circuit of the airport. Now turn the shadows off. Report back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tennyson Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 My pleasure, John, Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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