some FS One questions
 

I'm leaning towards getting FS One for it's better flight model realism.

I want to ask those with up to date FS One's about it's performance on less than highest end hardware on the whole.

I have some systems that I can clock up to 3.0+ Ghz in speed (AMD Athlon and P4). On the RAM side I have currently max 512 MB (dual channel) and ATI 9200-9300 at best.

I don't care about having to set the scenery realism to a lower level to keep the frame rate smooth. I figure I should be able to keep airplane graphical detail at a higher setting without stressing the GPU too much.

So my questions are: assuming I can set scenery detail lower, will FS ONE work smoothly with 3 Ghz, 512 MB ram and ATI 9200-9300? And I'm guessing that the photo-scenery would not be overly taxing on my GPU... Does the photo-scenery stress the GPU noticably less than the 3D computer generated scenery? One would think it would because it's just a "bubble" of static panorama rotating around a point of perspective (kind of like a planetarium).

The main thing for me is maximum realism in flight model as long as it's smooth on my hardware. I'll upgrade GPU and ram at a later date (probably no time really soon).

Thanks alot for any help

EDIT: I did btw know already the minimum and recommended hardware for FS One before posting this (I've read other posts and reviews). Just asking about it because my hardware on the whole would be rather close to the minimum. Cheers :)

RE: some FS One questions
 

So I went ahead and ordered FS One with Mode 2 controller. From my experience with sims generally I should be able to tweak the performance to a good level until I get more ram and better GPU.

I wanted to mention here also that reading about RC sims in this forum has been extremely useful to me. Special thanks go to Cybert99 for the comparison chart.

Another very useful insight I got from the posts here is that it's good to get the sim WITH the sim's own TX, because you ideally don't want to be using your field-TX every time. That shouldn't be used like a joystick and with a dedicated sim-TX you can care freely practice as much as you need. And you can still connect your real TX when needed.

Thanks to all who post on this forum. I learned a lot from the posts and I think I made a good choice for RC sim'ing.

Cheers

RE: some FS One questions
 

CloudSkipper -- Let us know how your system performs with FS One. We've tested FS One on a laptop with a 1.6 GHz Mobile Pentium CPU, 512MB RAM, and an ATI 9200, and it performed fine. More memory would be nice (1 GB is plenty) and a better graphics card will help you get better frame rates, but your system should be fine. Be sure you have the latest drivers for graphics and sound and be sure to use the latest patch of FS One.

RE: some FS One questions
 

Thanks I'll do that. Although I'm realistic about the ram/gpu limitations, I think it should be fine. If it works on 1.6 Ghz then 3+ Ghz should be good.

The no brainer here is to pick up a stick of non-dual channel 1 Gig ram for not that much in terms of price. My CPU's however are overclocked, so that complicates the issue of changing ram. I need to refamiliarize myself with my OC'ing settings which I tweaked so long ago that I don't remember anymore. Once I've sorted that, more ram will be the first thing, and then I'll consider over time how high I want to go with GPU.

EDIT: Before getting around to GPU though, I'll probably get an Alpha 40 trainer... priorities [8D]

Cheers

RE: some FS One questions
 

The only problem I'm having is that this is way too much fun. Is there a patch for that? :)

My GPU by the way is ATI 9250, 128 MB, 64 bit

I haven't done a lot of tweaking yet, but I do have trouble with the larger scale models for some reason. The GPU gives errors with those (sometimes freezes). But again, I've only just started tweaking for my low end GPU. No problem though because everything works perfectly with the Alpha 40, which is the one I can fly with proficiency at the moment. I also flew the Edge with no problems except that it's pretty hard to fly :)

I had to set the detail lower for pano scenery and the plane itself to get stability, but the difference in visible quality is barely perceivable if at all (I haven't tried 3D scenery yet... pano is better for this purpose anyway).

But I'm totally happy with this. It works very smoothly.

I think I will buy a new graphics card after all (just to get rid of the GPU errors with some of the other planes). I was thinking either ATI x800, x850 or GeForce 7600GT. Selection is partly based on what I can get locally without ordering. Any opinions?

My 512 MB of ram by the way seems to be plenty. It's dual channel which should increase it's effectiveness (and it's running at a pretty fast clock speed due to my overclocking mischief).

Thanks for the really great RC sim... really nice.

Cheers

EDIT: I should add that it's possible although not that likely that there was a minor issue with my overclocking settings (I'm thinking of the handful of freezes in particular). I did notice that there was some big dustballs in the CPU heatsink which I've cleared away now (that could cause some overheating and freezes). In general I test my OC'd computers for stability very extensively (24 to 48 hour CPU burn in tests for example). I'll check the settings further, but for now I can't put the TX down :) A higher end GPU will fix the GPU errors for sure though (they were "VPU errors" reported in dialog boxes). But like I said before that's not prevented me from using the sim and getting very good performance from it. I'm really glad it's working well :)

RE: some FS One questions
 

Glad to hear things are working well -- even with an ATI 9250!

RE: some FS One questions
 

Oh it blew me away. I wasn't expecting it to work so smoothly without sacraficing visual realism to any appreciable degree.

RE: some FS One questions
 

a little update...

my GPU again: ATI 9250, 128 MB, 64 bit

I've determined now that the only real issue with using my low end GPU is that you need to reboot the computer before changing aircraft. It seems that the GPU doesn't reset properly and perhaps still contains the airplane graphic elements from the last airplane in it's memory.

I've been going through the selection of planes and all of them work great without GPU errors (provided I reboot before flying).

The ultra stick lite is one of my favorates... really flies nice and great for aerobatics. T34 is another nice flyer.

So far I've been sticking with the pano scenery (with sharpness lowered a bit), because I don't see the point of 3D scenery for RC flying. But you can guess that 3D scenery will add many more polygons and surfaces for the GPU to deal with.

But anyway I'll be upgrading my GPU mainly for the convenience of not needing to reboot.

RE: some FS One questions
 

I got the GeForce 7600GT (256 MB, 128 bit, GPU 560 Mhz).

Works great :) The VPU errors and freezes are gone. I don't have to reboot between changing planes. I cranked up pano scenery to photo quality. It's a good card for FS One. Apparently the ATI x850 is faster, but I couldn't get that one.

I'm using the "ms flight sim 2004" set up profile in the NVidia set up.

So in conclusion, a low end card like 9250 is very usable with some tweaking, but a little inconveniant. It's good enough to allow you to practice the thumbs (while still having very good visual realism) until you get a better card.

edit: I forgot to mention in my conclusion, that having minimum RAM does not seem to be a big issue at all. I have only 512 MB ram and I see no reason to upgrade it. FS One is running great on my hardware now; perfectly. I have dual channel ram which might help. So in particular if your system ram is 512 MB dual channel, try it for a while before spending anything on ram upgrade... you might not need to upgrade.

RE: some FS One questions
 

That sounds more like a driver issue than a hardware one. Hol old are your drivers, did you update them when you got FSone?

RE: some FS One questions
 

One would think so because it's clearly a "malfunction", but I had the latest and appropriate version of Catalyst and it's cache of drivers.

Processing chips do strange things when they overheat or are stretched to limitations.

edit: I'm sure that lowering the visual realism still further would have resolved the issue. I could have found a stable balance, but I opted to just upgrade. The GeForce 7600GT (Club 3D) that I upgraded to is not very expensive, but a very good card. I consulted some GPU gurus in making the decision :)

RE: some FS One questions
 

FSOneDev - would a P4 3.0 w/ 2gig of system RAM and BFG 6800 GT OC(256MB) cut it? What res could I run happily?

somegeek

RE: some FS One questions
 

I would expect your system could handle FS One pretty well. One can never be sure with all the subtle issues of drivers, etc., but you have a good CPU, plenty of RAM, and a good GPU, so I expect your system will work quite well with FS One and would expect you could run at something like 1600x1200 or higher with no problem.

If you could, drop the group a line to tell us how it performed for you on your system. Thanks.

RE: some FS One questions
 

In case you were taking my thread as an example of how your 6800 GFX card might perform, the ATI 9250 that I was using is much below a NVidia 6800. You're at the higher end of recommended hardware with your 6800 and much more so with the rest of your system.

I should add here that later on after upgrading my GFX to NVidia 7600, I noticed that my CPU needed one step up in voltage... about +0.1 volts (OC'd cpu's have a bigger appetite for voltage). Had I noticed that while using the low end ATI 9250, the system as a whole may well have performed better than it did in terms of stability.

I'm very happy at the moment with my 7600 gfx, 512 MB ram, and mobile xp2500 (OC'd to about xp3000 or so). I haven't tried running the resolution higher than 1024x768 because of the quality of my monitor, but I'm sure the gfx would handle higher res too. Works great with FSOne.

Like stated in the above post, there can be subtle issues with drivers, etc. Make sure to update everything and check that the system is running properly overall for best performance.

RE: some FS One questions
 

Has anyone flown the Tribute? and if so, is it normal when trying a knife Edge that the wings rotate and it also seems that some elevator influences the flight? When I try the KE it seems that I have to hold some ailerron and elevator to keep it straight.
Is this unusual, or is it just something I need to learn how to do?
Thanks Scott H

RE: some FS One questions
 

Thanks for the replies. Will report back with how it runs. Should be up and running late this week.

somegeek

RE: some FS One questions
 

somegeek,
Before you install, make sure you have the latest drivers for your audio and video. This step is vital and will save you hours of trouble. Updating can be a challenge, so I hope you know how to do this.
Scott H

RE: some FS One questions
 

Thanks, Scott. Will do.

Been building my own PCs for roughly fifteen years so have an idea. :)

somegeek

RE: some FS One questions
 

This is running smoothly at 1600x1200 with high detail. I'd like to haul my box out and hook it up to my 51" HD set... only about 4% more pixels on that 1080i screen.

I need to learn to tweak the Twist a little to get it to feel more like my Sig Somethin' Extra. This is going to be a great learning/training tool... wish I woulda gotten it sooner. :)

Having that controller at the bottom of the screen to show what the sticks are doing in the training videos is killer. Kudos to whatever dev came up with that idea.

somegeek

RE: some FS One questions
 

I've got my set up hooked to a projector. I like the 10' diagonal screen:)
Scott H

RE: some FS One questions
 

If you'll be running it via HIFI equipment, you might want to go to Options -> Sounds/Music -> and check the "Disable GUI Sounds" (disables the click sound associated with clicking menu selections... does not effect sim sounds). I wouldn't want to hear the "Click" sound effect through hifi tweaters.

Enjoy it... It's a great sim :)

RE: some FS One questions
 

Somegeek,
Shouldn't you be working? I know I should be!! Looks like we may get a break on Sunday. Will I see you at the field? Also are you still planning on helping out on Tuesdays? I have it all worked out at work so I can leave early every Tuesday.

RE: some FS One questions
 

I get a few coffee breaks and a lunch... ;)

Wanted to get down to the field to maiden my Swany Taco .25 today but it'll have to wait. Think I will fire it up in the garage to tach the prop and get some aroma therapy. :D

That's cool about your work arrangement. I'm going to get down to the field this year on Tuesdays to help with training. I should be able to get down there at 5:30pm.

somegeek