Best Computer configuration

[CAVUJIM]

I would like to put 3 (maybe 4 if I use 2 dual heads) monitors on the FS9. What is the best hardware (processor, RAM, video and audio cards) to run this type of configuration.

I aslo have Cirrus II with Avionic panel and the older rudder pedals but nothing else.

[Pete Dowson]

I would like to put 3 (maybe 4 if I use 2 dual heads) monitors on the FS9. What is the best hardware (processor, RAM, video and audio cards) to run this type of configuration.

I aslo have Cirrus II with Avionic panel and the older rudder pedals but nothing else.

You might be better off posting this over in the FS2004 forum. I can tell you what I use, but it may not suit you. I fly airliners and use Project Magenta, so ALL my instrumentation is distributed to other computers and screens via WideFS. My FS PC just has three displays all connected to a Matrox Parhelia card, and currently I run this at 2400 x 600 x 32. It can go up to 3840 x 1024 on my screens, but the frame rate drop is too much then.

This is a good arrangement if you have no need for any panel at all showing on the FS PC. The three screens on the Parhelia are dedicated to the ouside view, only.

You have an Avionics stack, which saves some of the need for an on-screen FS panel, but you still need all the normal flight instrumentation, so maybe my approach isn't suited to you.

One thing to be warned about. If you run FS2004 on a multi-monitor setup and want to move panel parts and windows onto different screens, many folks are reporting some difficulties in getting these arranged consistently so that they stay put. I'd advise you to do some research on this.

Good luck!

Pete

[CAVUJIM]

My FS PC just has three displays all connected to a Matrox Parhelia card, and currently I run this at 2400 x 600 x 32. It can go up to 3840 x 1024 on my screens, but the frame rate drop is too much then.

This is a good arrangement if you have no need for any panel at all showing on the FS PC. The three screens on the Parhelia are dedicated to the ouside view, only.

Hi Pete, Good morning. What type of monitors are these?

You have an Avionics stack, which saves some of the need for an on-screen FS panel, but you still need all the normal flight instrumentation, so maybe my approach isn't suited to you.

Does the on-screen avionic stack take processor time when it is not displayed. The reason I ask is that I use the A/P readout (bottom instrument on the stack) because it is not displayed on the PFC Avionic Panel anywhere. Therefore I have the whole on-screen stack anyway, even though I hide most of it behind the main panel.

I was thinking of using the Parhelia (this is a dual head card but with the cables they provide, you can have three independent monitors. Correct?) and a GeForce 4 card for the instrument panel. Do you have a recommendation of how much video card memory is good?

Do you have a recommendation for which Windows OS (Does 98 work as well as XP for FS only).

I'm not familiar with WideFS. Is it applicable to what we are discussing here?

One thing to be warned about. If you run FS2004 on a multi-monitor setup and want to move panel parts and windows onto different screens, many folks are reporting some difficulties in getting these arranged consistently so that they stay put. I'd advise you to do some research on this.

If you save the flight, it seems to keep the panel arrangement but the ordering (avionic stack behind the main panel) is not saved.

I registered FSUIPC and assigned the buttons to the GPS. Two questions.

1) The PFC avionic panel group and page rotary knobs must be spun 2 clicks to register 1 click on the onscreen GPS.

2) Since I overlay the GPS on the main screen, I like to hide it when not needed. There seems to be no button that allows me to do this. I tried the Activate GPS assignment, but that didn't work. I have to click the satellite icon on the main panel with the mouse. Kind of defeats the purpose of the avionic stack.

One general question reqarding processing. During landing, takeoff and in the pattern, screen stutter seems to be the most noticable. Is there anyway to have FS "focus" on flight manuevering and not on all the other things like distant weather during these times?

Thanks

[Pete Dowson]

You managed to get three copies of the same message posted here. I hope you don't mind, but I've deleted the two earlier ones and only retained the last one.

What type of monitors are these?

I use 3 x 18" TFTs (LG1810Bs) for the outside view. I have no CRTs left, I am all TFT now. Love 'em. :)

Does the on-screen avionic stack take processor time when it is not displayed. The reason I ask is that I use the A/P readout (bottom instrument on the stack) because it is not displayed on the PFC Avionic Panel anywhere. Therefore I have the whole on-screen stack anyway, even though I hide most of it behind the main panel.

Well, I think any 2D imposition on the screen will affect performance to some extent. But that wasn't really the point. The point was that if you have any panel parts at all on display you'd want a higher resolution. The lower resolution I am using to get good performance (2400 x 600 = 3 screens each at 800 x 600, quite low for 18" displays) is great for scenery, not so good for panels.

What you may want to invest in is a proper MCP. Take a look at the Aerosoft one (http://www.aerosoft.com.au/) -- it's pretty good value for money in my opinion. Otherwise check out some of the GoFlight accessories.

I was thinking of using the Parhelia (this is a dual head card but with the cables they provide, you can have three independent monitors. Correct?)

Didn't I say I was using a Parhelia for my three screens? Sorry.

and a GeForce 4 card for the instrument panel. Do you have a recommendation of how much video card memory is good?

No idea. I have a 256Mb Parhelia, but I suspect a 128 Mb one would be okay.

I think than, in FS2004 only, there are some difficulties splitting off panels and things when in full screen mode. You'll need to double check things before going in that direction. It *should* be possible, but be warned. I'm not sure what exactly the difficulties are.

Do you have a recommendation for which Windows OS (Does 98 work as well as XP for FS only).

Matrox do not do any Parhelia drivers for Windows 98. Windows XP is the way to go in any case.

I'm not familiar with WideFS. Is it applicable to what we are discussing here?

Only if you use multiple PCs in a Network.

1) The PFC avionic panel group and page rotary knobs must be spun 2 clicks to register 1 click on the onscreen GPS.

True unless you program them to do the same thing on both press and release. Rotaries produce a press and release alternately.

2) Since I overlay the GPS on the main screen, I like to hide it when not needed. There seems to be no button that allows me to do this. I tried the Activate GPS assignment, but that didn't work. I have to click the satellite icon on the main panel with the mouse. Kind of defeats the purpose of the avionic stack.

The GPS window is one of the panel parts selectable by the controls "Panel 1" to "Panel 9". The actual number varies according to the way they are defined in the PANEL.CFG file. For instance on the default 737 it is selected by Shift+3, which is assigned to the "PANEL 3" FS control. You can program a button to do that.

One general question reqarding processing. During landing, takeoff and in the pattern, screen stutter seems to be the most noticable. Is there anyway to have FS "focus" on flight manuevering and not on all the other things like distant weather during these times?

No. The stuttering will be due to scenery elements, autogen, stuff like that, nothing to do with distant weather. You either need to turn some of your settings down or follow some of the hints abounding for improving performance near airports and cities. See the FS2004 Forum on this site.

Regards,

Pete

[CAVUJIM]

Hi Peter,

I posted a question about the performance near airports (like you requested) and the response I got back was

There are no settings that only work at a specific location. You either turn down 'sliders' or you don't, but the effects will be seen no matter where you fly in the virtual world.

Here's a thought for possible FSUIPC enhancements. Say within 5 miles of an airport, while airborne, have a toggle which scenary or autogen can be reduced. Kind of like triggering the scenary slider to move when within 5 miles. It seems this would dramatically improve the performance during this phase OR would FS want to relad all the scenary again?

Just a thought.

Jim

[Pete Dowson]

I posted a question about the performance near airports (like you requested) and the response I got back was

There are no settings that only work at a specific location. You either turn down 'sliders' or you don't, but the effects will be seen no matter where you fly in the virtual world.

Well, you didn't look far enough. Check this:

http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=11354

... coincidentally, in the same forum you posted your question! If you'd just perused the titles you'd have found it easy enough! I tried the suggestions and they work well for me!

Here's a thought for possible FSUIPC enhancements. Say within 5 miles of an airport, while airborne, have a toggle which scenary or autogen can be reduced. Kind of like triggering the scenary slider to move when within 5 miles. It seems this would dramatically improve the performance during this phase OR would FS want to relad all the scenary again?

No idea, but all that is beyond me. Sounds like the sort of thing FSAssist used to do -- you need to suggest it to the clever folks at Lago I think!

Regards,

Pete

[nightia]

What hardware configuration are you using Pete for the Parhelia? as in PC-RAM, CPU speed?

I'm thinking of rebuilding a new Flight Sim PC from the ground up. Upgrading to the Parhelia is very tempting. I'm just curious to know if it was worth the investment.

I'm still tempted with going with a speedy Nvidia or ATI. I've bought Matrox products before and been impressed with the 2D picture quality and stability on heavy hardware depedent systems.

Regards,

Aidan

[Pete Dowson]

What hardware configuration are you using Pete for the Parhelia? as in PC-RAM, CPU speed?

I'm thinking of rebuilding a new Flight Sim PC from the ground up. Upgrading to the Parhelia is very tempting. I'm just curious to know if it was worth the investment.

I'm still tempted with going with a speedy Nvidia or ATI. I've bought Matrox products before and been impressed with the 2D picture quality and stability on heavy hardware depedent systems.

The FS PC is a 3.2GHz P4 on an MSI 875P mobo with 2 x 512 Mb PC3200 memory sticks running dual channelled (so giving double speed -- 800 MHz, same a Rambus 800's).

I run FS2004 plus the Project Magenta MCP and SimKits TRClink on that PC. FS2004 is only displaying the outside view -- no panel at all. I currently run it at 2400 x 600 x 32, with the zoom set at 0.50.

All the FS options are turned up to maximum, but I am using Chris Wiliiis's faster clouds. The frame rate limiter is set to 20 fps which is high enough for me and ensures a good smooth operation of the client WideFS PCs running Project Magenta gauges and CDU. The only times frame rates dip below that maximum are at detailed airports where it might go down to about 12 fps in heavy weather conditions.

The Parhelia isn't the prime choice for performance, and I wouldn't advise it for panels, but if you can set up a system with it only driving the outside view in three screen stretched mode, then in my opinion it is a superb choice and once you fly with that wide view you won't want to go back!

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Pete

[CAVUJIM]

Peter,

Just out of curiousity. What FS views do you put on the monitors? Do you use the preset LEFT FORWARD - FORWARD - RIGHT FORWARD or do you use LEFT - FORWARD - RIGHT FORWARD.

I was going to play with putting a Y cable on the Middle Monitor so that two identical views are shown out the front windows and then have the right monitor on RIGHT and the Left monitor on LEFT FORWARD.

Is there a way to create a static intermediate view between LEFT and LEFT FORWARD such as with PAN VIEW and then saving it?

I'm seriously thinking of putting the outside views on one system and the FS panel on another. I take it the outside views are more processor and video card dependent than the panel. True? The systems don't have to have the same processors or anything like that to use WideFS do they?

Jim

[Pete Dowson]

Just out of curiousity. What FS views do you put on the monitors? Do you use the preset LEFT FORWARD - FORWARD - RIGHT FORWARD or do you use LEFT - FORWARD - RIGHT FORWARD.

It's just one view. The Parhelia surround mode works by making the 3 screens one wide window. That's why I quote the overall resolutions, like 2400 x 600 or 3840 x 1024. The view is just one view, which will be normally the forward view. But it is at Zoom 0.50, so you effectively get most of what on a 4:3 screen would be forward left and forward right as well.

When I use a views button to look around, all three screens change, of course (it is one window), so when I look forward left I get some of which I already saw, but now on the right, and so on.

Some Parhelia users have their zoom set as wide as 0.31, but I find that rather unnatural from where I sit, and you start getting a marked "fish eye" distortion at the edges then, which I don't like.

Is there a way to create a static intermediate view between LEFT and LEFT FORWARD such as with PAN VIEW and then saving it?

It used to work on FS2000 as I had stuff like that saved when I used to use WidevieW. But I don't know if it applies now. I suppose it should. Try it.

I take it the outside views are more processor and video card dependent than the panel. True?

Yes, I would say so. But there are some panels where this may not be so true! :)

The systems don't have to have the same processors or anything like that to use WideFS do they?

No, but WideFS won't allow you to move FS panels. You'll need to look at Project Magenta or FreeFDS or some other type of external panel applications. FS panels need FS. WidevieW might let you when it is available, but with multiple copies of FS you really start needing similarly spec'd machines.

Regards,

Pete

[CAVUJIM]

Peter,

When you say WideFS doesn't allow you to move panels around, does that mean I can not have outside view on one machine and the panel view on another? Both computers are running FS9 at the same time, correct? WideFS is a way to synchtonize them...?

Sorry for the dumb questions.

Jim

[Pete Dowson]

When you say WideFS doesn't allow you to move panels around, does that mean I can not have outside view on one machine and the panel view on another? Both computers are running FS9 at the same time, correct? WideFS is a way to synchtonize them...?

No it isn't, not at all. WideFS is a method of connecting programs using FSUIPC's interface to FS when they are running on a separate computer which is NOT running FS. You cannot run the WideFS client software on a PC running FS.

You are thinking of WidevieW by Luciano Napolitano.

Regards,

Pete