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Microsoft Flight Simulator X

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Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Microsoft Flight Simulator X cover
Developers
ACES Studio
Publishers
Microsoft Studios
Release dates
Windows October 17, 2006
Microsoft Flight Simulator X on Wikipedia

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).
Microsoft Flight Simulator 1982
Microsoft Flight Simulator Version 2.0 1983
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Mac) 1986
Microsoft Flight Simulator Version 3.0 1988
Microsoft Flight Simulator Version 4.0 1989
Microsoft Flight Simulator Version 5.0 1993
Microsoft Flight Simulator Version 5.1 1995
Microsoft Flight Simulator for Windows 95 1996
Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 1997
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 1999
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 2001
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 2003
Microsoft Flight Simulator X 2006
Microsoft Flight 2012
Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 2020
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 2024

Key points

Flight Simulator X is noted for its very CPU and GPU intensive nature and instability. Low performing hardware will run the game poorly and/or cause crashes.
GameSpy online server browser for the original game is no longer working. Direct-IP connect still works.
Re-release by DoveTail Games is coming to Steam in Fall 2014.

General information

AVSIM - a very active fan forum.
FlightSim.com - a very active fan forum.

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Amazon.com
DRM details are not known
Gold Edition is fully updated and contains all previously released expansions and enhancements.
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This game is not yet available digitally. A re-release by DoveTail Games will soon be available on Steam.

Essential improvements

Service Packs

After installing FSX download and install Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2. Gold Edition users do NOT need this update, as the game is fully updated.

Mods

Flight Simulator X is known for it's extensive modding community. There are many freeware and payware add-ons available. Be cautious when installing and research other users experiences along with check for compatibility with other addons you may have.

Tweaking Game Settings

Graphics

  • Set resolution to your monitors default resolution.
  • The frame rate can either be locked with the internal limiter or an external limiter. External limiters may yield higher performance but have been linked to blurries and stutters
  • Anti-Aliasing is dependent on whether you are using another utility such as nVidia Inspector to force higher anti-aliasing
  • Global texture resolution should be set to Very High. This will allow FSX to load texture sheets up to 1024x1024
  • Preview DX10 enables Directx10. Many addons and even default objects will not display properly and anti-aliasing does not work. Advantages are increased performance, enhanced lighting, and cockpit shadows
  • Lens flare enables a camera-like flare when looking at the sun
  • Light bloom adds a subtle bloom but decreases performance. A better option is the ENB Series mod
  • Advanced animations allows many object animations to display, leave this checked

Aircraft

  • High resolution 3-D virtual cockpit should be left enabled for best detail
  • Aircraft shadows add depth to the sim but are somewhat bugged and decrease performance
  • Aircraft self-shadowing is also bugged and decreases performance but adds depth and shading to aircraft

Scenery

  • Level of detail radius impacts the sharpness of terrain around the user. The higher this is set the less blurry distant terrain will be at the expense of increased memory usage and decreased performance
  • Mesh complexity impacts how far away mesh will retain a high resolution. A lower number will load lower resolution mesh at a distance
  • Mesh resolution is the resolution of the terrain mesh itself. Many addons require a certain resolution but there is no default FSX mesh of a higher resolution than 10m
  • Texture resolution determines the maximum resolution that terrain textures will be loaded. Set to 7cm so that all terrain textures and photoreal overlays will display at their highest potential resolution. Default FSX terrain textures are 1m
  • Water effects controls the wave action and reflection in water. Higher settings impact performance but look better. Low 2.X or higher is advised for best graphics. Max 2.X is known to be bugged
  • Land detail textures, leave this checked
  • Scenery complexity determines how many non-autogen objects are loaded. Extremely dense can be used on most systems
  • Autogen density determines how much autogen is loaded by FSX. This setting will have the most impact on performance. Adjust accordingly to your system
  • Ground scenery shadows allows objects to cast shadows. This setting takes a heavy toll on performance and is very buggy
  • Special effects detail, set to high

Weather

  • Cloud draw distance determines how far away clouds are display. The highest setting is often beyond what a human eye can see in real life. Between 60 and 90 mi is a realistic setting for most conditions
  • Thermal visualization will show markers for thermals. If enabled either natural or artificial markers are used. Natural markers are birds flying in the thermal while artificial markers show a coil following the thermal upwards
  • Simple or detailed clouds affects the quality of clouds. Detailed clouds appear much better but take a harder hit on performance
  • Cloud coverage density will set the number of clouds to be displayed. A higher setting will decrease performance
  • The simulations settings box adjusts the affect of weather on the users aircraft and how often real world weather is downloaded

Traffic

  • Adjust traffic settings according to your system. All AI traffic requires CPU power and will decrease performance.
  • Road traffic should be kept at a low number or disabled as it is a heavy performance hit

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/row
System Location

Save game data location

Template:Game data/row
System Location
Screenshots are saved in %USERPROFILE%\My Pictures\Flight Simulator X Files

General CFG Tweaks

Note - if at any point the user becomes unhappy with the changes made to the .cfg, or the changes cause problems within FSX, then the .cfg may be deleted. Launching FSX will generate a new FSX.cfg

Multi core fix

To change how FSX uses multiple cores, these changes can be added to the .cfg. This tweak will move FSX's main thread from core 0, where the OS puts most processes, to core 1. This tweak is reported to improve performance but removes core 0 from use and so fewer threads are available to load scenery and textures.

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=n

'n' is a number that will depend on the amount of cores you have.

  • For a dual-core CPU, n = 3
  • For a tri-core CPU, n = 7
  • For a quad-core CPU, n = 15
  • For a hexa-core CPU, n = 63

FSX does not support hyperthreading, so virtual cores are not to be factored in to this tweak. Hyperthreading has been reported to increase stutters and decrease performance.

HighMemFix

A recommended tweak from Microsoft for all FSX users

[GRAPHICS]
HIGHMEMFIX=1

Turn Off Red Warning Messages

Change the following lines from True to False.

InfoBrakesEnable=False
InfoParkingBrakesEnable=False
InfoPauseEnable=False
InfoSlewEnable=False
InfoStallEnable=False
InfoOverspeedEnable=False


Bufferpool

Add the following to your CFG file. The default value is 1000000.

[BufferPools]
PoolSize=0

Setting to 0 bypasses the internal bufferpool and sends data directly from the CPU to the GPU. Some users may experience artifacts from this tweak. This tweak improves smoothness while turning in flight.

Important: Set "Water Effects" to High 2.X or higher to prevent flashes with this tweak

Texture Bandwidth

Do not modify this line. In Flight Simulator 2004 it was recommended to change this value to 400 but this does not apply for FSX and will degrade performance

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40


Increase Maximum Texture Size

By default FSX will only display textures up to 1024x1024. Any larger textures will be downsized. Change the following line to 2048 or 4096 to use higher resolution textures

[GRAPHICS]
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096


Note that any size larger than 1024 will be reset to 1024 if settings are changed in-game.

Sharper Distant Textures

This tweak forces FSX to load textures that are farther away, making them appear sharper. It places a heavy load on memory and may result in out of memory errors

[TERRAIN]
LOD_RADIUS=4.500000

The default maximum in FSX is 4.5. Settings beyond 6.5 were shown to cause a drastic rise in errors and artifacts during FSX beta testing and user testing. This value will also be reset to the default maximum if settings are changed in game.

Autogen Density

Autogen is the trees and buildings automatically generated by the game engine. Autogen is resource intensive and so decreasing it will increase performance.

Add the following lines to the [TERRAIN] section of your CFG file. The default values are as shown.

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=4500
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=3000

These two values work very differently from each other. For buildings the in-game autogen slider loads autogen in intervals of 20% meaning that the highest setting loads 100% of autogen available and the lowest loads 0% available. If there are 1500 buildings on the terrain tile then a setting of Very Dense will load 80% of the 1500 buildings or 1200 buildings. Recommended values for TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL are between 700 and 1000.

Autogen trees may be placed in the sim in different ways but the number of trees can override the TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL line. For those seeking more performance it is best to create an artificial cap for buildings and use the autogen slider to adjust trees.

Scenery Loading and Blurries

Increase CPU time dedicated to loading scenery data by adding the following value:

[MAIN]
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.33

This variable determines the amount of CPU time given to loading scenery data as a fraction of the time spent rendering. The default value of 0.33 means that for ever 3 milliseconds spent rendering, FS will give 1 millisecond to the scenery loader. If this value is set to 0 scenery will not be loaded. The lower this value is set the higher performance will be, but at the expense of blurry terrain and autogen loss.

Video settings

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Enabling wide view aspect also increases the in-flight FOV.
Instructions

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play
GameSpy online server browser no longer works.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Must use Direct-IP option
Self-hosting
Direct IP

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) 2.0GHz dual-core
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 14 GB (Acceleration expansion [Included in Gold Edition] requires an additional 4 GB)
Video card (GPU) Shader Model 1.1 or later
512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible

References