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HORTON’S HINTS for FLIGHTsimX

BY DOUG HORTON

Here’s another collection of hints for FSX, gathered from various sources, including my own trials and discoveries in “flying”

the program. This installment urges upgrading from FS2004 to FSX if you haven’t already done so, featuring hints related to performance issues, plus information about the fun and fantastic missions in FSX.

Upgrading to FSXI urge those still using FS2004 to upgrade to FSX, particularly

to enjoy the included missions, signifi cantly improved scenery and terrain, aircraft, and other improvements over FS2004. In my series on benchmarking FSX, I’ve shown that upgrading your computer’s operating system to Windows 7 will provide a surprising benefi t. Moving from Vista Home Premium 64-bit to Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on two computers I use for benchmarking FSX with Gary Dunne’s FSXMark07 method, I’ve enjoyed about 20% FSX framerate improvement on one computer with a default installation of FSX with Acceleration Pack and 35% on another computer with FSX, Acceleration Pack, and many active add-ons. Both operating system upgrades were accomplished with ease, including retention of all programs, settings, and documents.

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processing is enhanced. In addition to keystroke adjustment of traffi c density within FSX, UT2 has a keystroke option, which if used on approach to airports with a heavy AI traffi c and/or scenery load, will temporarily clear AI traffi c from the airport. You’ll need to be fl ying on an IFR or VFR fl ight plan, so that FSX can determine at which destination airport it should clear the traffi c. As described in the Ultimate Traffi c 2 manual:

“If you are on a fl ight plan in FSX (under FSX ATC control) you can clear the runways and approach momentarily to make room for yourself. Just press CTRL + SHIFT + S all at once. UT2 will reinject the traffi c in a minute and the aircraft will not be permanently removed, but just out of your way.”

FSX MissionsAnother great reason to upgrade to FSX is the missions, whether

default or add-on. If you’re in the “my hardware isn’t good enough to run FSX” category, you should be able to easily fl y missions by reducing display settings, such as AI traffi c density. Although it has been a few years since FSX was released I’m still hooked on experiencing the default missions, as well as trying new add-on missions provided by other users and developers. Look especially for a collection of interesting freeware missions developed by Owen Graham at www.FlightSim.com, some of which are based on real historical fl ights.

Though FSX scenery is not photo-real in the sense of displaying scenery directly from satellite photography, such as the MegaScenery series and similar products, Microsoft has employed aerial imagery and various databases to accurately display roads, rail lines, rivers, lakes, and other features. FSX coordinated these simulator land class elements with the real features to provide a convincing suggestion of photo-reality. For example, there are golf course scenery textures in FSX near locations where there are real golf courses, and there are oval running tracks near locations where there are real sports facilities. The best example I’ve found is shown by the accompanying FSX image of scenery that depicts a real golf course I pass on my way to Chicago Aurora Municipal Airport (KARR), which is seen in the distance in the upper left. Compare this with a screenshot taken from the same point in FS2004, and note also the distinct depiction improvement in FSX of realistic farm fi elds compared to nondescript “green stuff” textures in FS2004.

FSX VIEW OF GOLF COURSE NEAR ITS REAL LOCATION EAST OF CHICAGO FSX VIEW OF GOLF COURSE NEAR ITS REAL LOCATION EAST OF CHICAGO AURORA (KARR) AIRPORTAURORA (KARR) AIRPORT

COMPARATIVE VIEW OF GOLF COURSE AREA IN FS2004COMPARATIVE VIEW OF GOLF COURSE AREA IN FS2004

I’ve also shown with standardized benchmark testing of FSX that a few changes in display settings can lead to such very large improvements in framerate performance that those with older hardware can run FSX on their computers with a few simple compromises in display settings. The amount of active AI traffi c is a very fertile area for improving performance, and because of the potential benefi ts, I run Ultimate Traffi c 2 (UT2) instead of default AI aircraft traffi c. UT2 injects traffi c from outside FSX, so that parallel

AMAZING SCENERY FROM THE AMAZON TREK MISSION, WITH AIRCRAFT AMAZING SCENERY FROM THE AMAZON TREK MISSION, WITH AIRCRAFT REFLECTING FROM WATERREFLECTING FROM WATER

Here are some of the discoveries I’ve made that can make fl ying missions much easier. One of the most important features is the ability to save and resume fl ights during missions, particularly if you experience problems. You don’t have to start from the beginning again! The accompanying screenshot shows the Grumman Goose near surprising scenery in the default Amazon Trek mission, which is one of my favorites. Other favorites include Telluride Landing and Tokyo Executive Transport.

Mission Rewards. If you check the “Enable changes in selected Mission” box in the mission interface, no reward will be given for completing the mission. Some in-game menus are disabled in missions and the settings on those menus cannot be changed if you want to receive rewards. Though you can’t change essential FSX settings from within a mission, such as changing aircraft, weather, realism, and crash detection without affecting reward eligibility, there are many actions you can perform before and during missions. A few examples follow.

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NO REWARD WILL BE GIVEN IF YOU CHECK THE BOX TO ENABLE MISSION CHANGES.

Thermals. If you’re fl ying soaring missions, you may wish to enable graphical representation of thermals before starting the mission, by selecting on the FSX menu, Options, Settings, Display, Weather tab, then select in the drop-down list for Thermal visualization, the setting for either Natural or Schematic.

Captioning, Compass, and Pointer. If you enable mission captioning, you’ll see text that corresponds to audio, or in some cases, text without audio. This is selected by checking the “Show captioning” box on the Settings – General screen. At the same time, you can select the default display of mission compass and pointer. The compass displays the distance to, elevation of, and name of the next mission objective or point of interest. Regardless of whether you select the default display of mission compass and pointer, you can cycle through the compass and pointer with the U key.

Mission Objective. In the lower portion of the mission compass, you’ll fi nd the current mission objective or point of interest. This display will update as you work through all mission objectives, and sometimes it will disappear and reappear at various points during the mission. If left or right arrows appear on the objective line, you can cycle the list of objectives with the K key, such as in Tutorial 3, which involves fl ying the “Trike” to three balloons. In this training mission, pressing the K key cycles the mission pointer among the balloons and changes the mission objective text under the mission compass, including changing the indication of distance and elevation.

FOR SOARING, YOU CAN SELECT NATURAL OR SCHEMATIC VISUALIZATION OF THERMALS BEFORE STARTING A MISSION.

(SELECT MISSION CAPTIONING, COMPASS, AND POINTER ON THE SETTINGS – GENERAL SCREEN.)

PRESSING THE K KEY CYCLES THE MISSION POINTER AND MISSION OBJECTIVE.

Map View. You can use the Map View during missions without affecting reward eligibility, though it’s usually more realistic if you don’t look at the map.

GPS Track. Many missions include a fl ight plan that is already loaded into the applicable GPS instrument. You can pop up the GPS and see where you are in relation to the track, though this may detract from realism, depending on mission and aircraft type.

Autopilot. You can use the autopilot in missions, and for those missions that I’ve fl own with the autopilot, there was no reward penalty. If you see a track on the GPS, you can use the autopilot to follow the track, though again, this may detract from mission realism.

Automated Saving of Interim Flights. This is important! You can press the semicolon key to save fl ights during missions. You can then resume these mission fl ights by checking the selection box for “Show saved missions” on the Missions menu. Also, if you’ve installed the registered version of Peter Dowson’s FSUIPC 4 for FSX and you’ve activated its Autosave feature, fl ights will

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MISSION BRIEFINGS, DETAILS, AND CHARTS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE KNEEBOARD.

Wondering how you’re progressing in achieving mission objectives? This information is available on the kneeboard when you click the Mission icon. The accompanying example is from my favorite mission, Amazon Trek, in which you fl y to several locations in the default Grumman Goose. The mission includes unique scenery animation, many other surprises, and it fi nishes with a signifi cant fl ying challenge. It’s best to save many interim mission fl ights!

be automatically and periodically saved during missions, though they’ll only be available on the mission menu until the time they’re overwritten by subsequent Autosaved fl ights. In the accompanying screenshot, saved interim mission fl ights are shown on the mission menu in blue. Whatever title you give the manually saved fl ight appears above the related image, which is the forward view from your aircraft at the time you saved the mission.

IF ENABLED, SAVED MISSIONS ARE DISPLAYED UNDER MISSION TITLES.

Kneeboard. In at least one mission, I was distracted and forgot the last mission text and audio messages. No problem! Pop up the kneeboard with an icon click on your panel or Shift+F10, and then click the Messages icon to see a cumulative record of all mission text and audio messages.

POP UP THE KNEEBOARD AND CLICK MESSAGES TO DISPLAY A LOG OF MISSION MESSAGES.

Clicking the kneeboard Briefi ng icon displays the current mission briefi ng, including details and usually a chart image. This is particularly important if you haven’t printed any of these mission aids before fl ying the mission and need to review particulars. In the accompanying image, I’ve clicked Mission on the kneeboard, scrolled to show the briefi ng chart, and then I’ve dragged the kneeboard vertically to show the area of interest on the chart.

CLICKING MISSION ON THE KNEEBOARD REVEALS THE STATUS OF COMPLETING MISSION OBJECTIVES.

Enjoy one of the best features in FSX: fl y the missions!

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