Tip, tricks and frequently asked questions
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Q - Why do I not see waves on the shores anymore?
A - The shoreline wave’s effect is linked to the autogen slider; if autogen is turned off you will not see them
Q – How do I disable the horrible lake waves in lakes like mountain lakes, in land lakes and so on?
A – By going into the Effects folder under FS2004 root\ and delete or rename these files - lakewavecontroller.fx and fx_lakewaves
Q - How do I remove the brake message from the screen?
A - Add the following line to the [SIM] section of the f9.cfg file: show_brake_message=0
Q – How can I pan the view in 2D cockpit?
A - In the fs9.cfg file add this line in the [CONTROLS] section: pan_in_cockpit_mode=1
Q - How do I disable that annoying airspace alert message in the GPS 500?
A - Press and hold the MSG button for two seconds, to enable them press the MSG button again
Q - Why can't I fly over the Poles?
A - N89:30 and S89:30 are the North/South limits of FS2004
Q – How do I disable the everlasting annoying red text in my simulator?
A – By pressing this link and downloading the messagekill.zip http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=54592
Q - How do I back-up from a gate?
A - With the push-back function: SHIFT+P to start going back, SHIFT+P then 1 (main keyboard) to back and turn left, SHIFT+P then 2 to back and turn right, and don't forget SHIFT+P again to stop moving!
Q - How do I permanently raise the seat in cockpit view for an aircraft?
A - Open the panel.cfg of the aircraft you want to modify the default point of view for the forward view, and edit/add the following line in the [VIEWS] section: VIEW_FORWARD_DIR=X.X, Y.Y, Z.Z
Experiment with the values until you are satisfied with the result, you can do the same for the other views.
Q - What is the default key to open/close aircraft doors?
A - Press SHIFT+E simultaneously, and press 2, 3 or 4 immediately after if the aircraft has several doors.
Q - How do I add NAV2 to add-on aircraft?
A - FS9 does not add the following lines to the aircraft.cfg file enter them with Notepad and customize if needed:
[Radios]
// Radio Type=available, standby frequency, has glide slope
Audio.1=1
Com.1=1, 1
Com.2=1, 1
Nav.1=1, 1, 1
Nav.2=1, 1, 0
Adf.1=1
Transponder.1=1
Marker.1=1
Q - What is the frame rate lock in the hardware display settings and how to use it?
A - This option is used to cap the fps in FS9 so resources are spared for other tasks (texture rendering, GPS, traffic etc...) than pumping as many frame rates as the system can. Make a few flights with your preferred settings and unlimited frame rates and note the average fps you can achieve, then lock your fps to an amount slightly below that average to keep a smooth flight and best image quality. A nice tool to log average frame rates is FRAPS from http://www.fraps.com
Q - What are the following settings in the [TERRAIN] section of the fs9.cfg file?
A – Explained below.
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=96.000000
this is a value from 0 to 100 that control the DEM radius (it is linear in area)
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000
this the lowest value used to calculate the DEM radius based upon the TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000
this is the highest value used to calculate the DEM radius
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19
this control the DEM resolution: 18 = 150m DEM, 19 = 75m DEM, 20 = 37m DEM, 21 = 19m DEM
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
this controls the terrain texture size. Valid values are 8 = 256x256, 7 = 128x128, 6 = 64x64
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=4
this controls the autogen density
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1
this turns on/off the gradient map (cliffs).
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
this turns on/off the extended texture ring
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=
this is the default radius in textures for all rings, default is 2.5
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=
this is the radius used for the inner ring when the extended texture ring is turned on, default is 4.0
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=
this is the number of rings to add when using extended texture rings, default is 1
Q - What is the TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT parameter in the [DISPLAY] section?
A - This setting controls the rate at which textures get transferred to the video hardware
Higher numbers will result in the textures getting to the hardware faster and avoiding "popping" textures when switching view but may increase stutters and require more physical memory on the video card (and some more, not recommended for video card with less than 128Mb).
Increasing this setting with a 64Mb video card will cause stutters as the greater memory requirement will use the main system memory via the AGP port - or the slower PCI port - or even worse if the system memory is insufficient it will use the virtual memory on the hard drive with access to the swap file and lots a stutters.
Q - How can I change the way runway and approach lights look?
A - There are now scalars in the FS9 config file that will allow you to scale the size of each category of lights to your liking. The values have to be added to the [DISPLAY] section of the fs9.cfg file, they are set to 1.0 by default. This is a power user option and has no UI.
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR (scales edge, center, end, and touchdown lights)
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR (scales VASI lights)
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR (scales approach light bars)
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR (scales Rails and ODALs)
Q - I have messed up the fs9.cfg file with your silly advice and did not make a back-up; do I need to re-install FS9?
A - No, you can either delete the file (see top of the FAQ for its location) and FS will create a new one, or hold the CTRL and SHIFT keys while FS is loading
Q – How do I disable the Flying tips?
A - The "flying tips" checkbox can be found at the top of the realism settings page
Q - How can I speed up the view panning?
A - Modify the "pan_rate" in the [CONTROLS] section of the fs9.cfg file; try to set it at 900 instead of 400
Q - How can I start up the simulator with a flight instead of the welcome screen?
A - You need to modify the following parameter in the [STARTUP] section of the fs9.cfg file: Change SHOW_OPENING_SCREEN=1 to 0
Q – How can I see the water effects and the reflections in the water?
A – By changing the regional settings to USA or UK in the control panel of Windows. Set the water effect to high in settings\display in FS2004 as well.
Q - How can I hide the menu bar in window mode or display it permanently in full-screen mode?
A - Change HideMenuNormal=0 to 1 in the [MAIN] section of the fs9.cfg file, display it with the ALT key
Change HideMenuFullScreen=1 to 0 in this same section
Q - FS2004 doesn't allow me to choose a higher screen resolution than 800*600, why?
A - FS2004 requires more than 16Mb of memory for the video card to support higher resolutions
Q - When exiting slew mode some aircraft lurch forward, why?
A - You need to be sure that the aircraft is on the ground before switching off slew mode. This was introduced in FS2002 to avoid aircraft falling like stones after exiting slew mode in the air. Press A (default key) to firmly set the gear on the ground before pressing Y. To fix this permanently in an imported aircraft model you can change the static_cg_height line in the aircraft.cfg file (Contact Points section) until the plane sits at the same height in slew mode as in normal mode
Q - When rolling on the ground the frame rates are going down, what is happening?
A - If you are using a Force Feedback joystick disable the ground effect that can cause this problem: in the simulator force control settings un-check "ground bumps"
Q - I would like to try settings in the fs9.cfg file, is it possible to have several of them?
A – Yes, the main program config file gets its name from the executable: fs9.exe will have fs9.cfg, if you copy and rename fs9.exe to fs9_yoke.exe and another to fs9_stick.exe the program will create both an fs9_yoke.cfg and an fs9_stick.cfg.
All you have to do is to create a shortcut for each exe file to launch FS with the corresponding configuration and customization. There is no limit apparently to the number of renamed exe/cfg that you can create. This seems very useful when regularly using different devices, different settings when flying online or simply experimenting.
Q – Where did the config file go?
A – For Windows XP users the fs9.cfg file is now located in
Drive_Letter:\Documents and Settings\User_Name\Application
Data\Microsoft\FS9 . This is a hidden folder by default so you need to
modify the folder options via the control panel: go to the view tab and
check the "Show hidden files and folders" option
For Windows 9x users the fs9.cfg file is located in
Drive_Letter:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9
Q – How can I add visual damage effect to an aircraft?
A - Add the following line after the ui_variation line in the aircraft.cfg file for
each aircraft you want to display the damage effects: visual_damage=1
You must also check "Detect crash and reset situation" in the simulator
realism settings
Q - How do I disable the warning message on startup about non-compatible
modules?
A - Add the following lines to the fs9.cfg file
[OldModules]
name of dll=1
Q - I am planning to upgrade to FS2004, what frame rates am I likely to get with my system?
A – On a normal setup, A Century of Flight will run OK on a 750 MHz Pentium, but is happier on 1.0 GHz + systems. It is comfortable on a 1.5 MHz Pentium, though you will need to have many of the sliders pulled back, and it really begins to work well on a 2.0 GHz machine. Even on a 3.0 GHz system, you will experience some slow downs using very complex planes at detailed airports. I am told that FS2004 runs OK on Athlons rated at more than 1.0 GHz. If you know what you are doing, substantially faster frame rates can be achieved by stripping out your system, so that the OS boots as 'clean' as possible. This means killing all the apps that load with the OS, unloading your virus scanner and so on. Under these circumstances, FS2004 can be run OK on a 400 MHz system. The more system RAM you have fitted, the better - depending on OS, I would advise at least 256 Mb, ideally 512 Mb and a gigabyte if you are running XP and can afford it. Video cards hardly affect frame rates, though I would advise at least a reasonably up to date 128 Mb 3D card, as otherwise you will miss out on many special effects. The crucial message here is that upgrading your video card will not increase your frame rates or resolve stuttering if the CPU is not up to it - if you suffer from these problems, the solution is either to start pulling sliders to the left or to buy a faster CPU.
Q - I am getting frequent crashes when I run FS20004. What causes this?
A - Assuming that you haven't been sold a beta copy masquerading as the real thing (don't laugh, it happens), try updating your video card drivers to the latest version, as this fixes the problem about 90% of the time. It could also be Season Crash bug.. CTD can be fixed by updating to Version 9.1 of the FS2004
Q – How can I tell what kind of frame rate I am getting in FS2004?
A - Hit shift-z twice. This will bring up the figure top left. Hit shift-ztwice again to get rid of it.
Q – All my lights have black squares around them. Is there a way around this?
A - Go to Settings-Display-Hardware where you will find a check
box called 'Transform and Lighting'. Try unchecking it.
Q – Why do the scenery textures look blurry?
A - The explanation for this is complex, but it depends on hardware settings for the video card and also on settings in FS2004, primarily the level of bitmapping used. One possible cause is the simulator settings: the "Aircraft Texture Size" slider in the Display settings seems to apply to the scenery textures as well - try dragging this slider to "Massive" if you are affected by blurring. For some strange and unaccountable reason, the "Aircraft Texture Size" slider can affect scenery textures at settings lower than "high" (set at "High" FS2004 uses 512 x 512 texture sheet, the preferred size of autogen). "Medium" (256 x 256) will affect autogen textures, but no other scenery textures. "Small" (128 x 128) will affect most scenery textures to some extent. Checking 'use extended terrain textures' under the display settings will help, as will running in full screen mode, but ultimately the problem is caused by the way FS2004 handles terrain texture loading. If you are confident about editing FS9.cfg, try setting TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT to a higher figure. The default is 40, on a fast machine you may be able to increase it to 300 or more.
Q – How do I disable the Overspeed message in FS2004
A - Go to the menu: \aircraft\realism settings and thenunchecking 'aircraft stress causes damage'
Q – How do I make movies in FS2004?
A – By using a program like Fraps ( http://www.fraps.com )
Q – How do I take these beautiful screenshots from FS2004?
A – By using programs like the one above or downloading freeware programs like ex. Snapper ( http://www.ovosoft.nl/snapper/
Q – How do I disable the northern lights? ( Aurora Borealis )
A - By going into the main effects folder of FS2004 and deleting or renaming the following files
fx_Aurora1.fx
fx_Aurora2.fx
fx_Aurora3.fx
Q – How do I improve the reflections on the aircrafts in FS2004?
A – By changing the envmap.bmp file in FS2004 main texture folder.
You can download this wonderful texture made by me ( http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=76338 )
Q – How do I stop the aircraft from moving when engine is on and parking brake is engaged?
A – By opening the aircraft file with notepad and changing the following lines
[brakes]
toe_brakes_scale=0.489926
parking_brake=1
Change it to
[brakes]
//toe_brakes_scale=0.489926
toe_brakes_scale=1
parking_brake=1
// brakes_scale=0 means no breaks
// brakes_scale=1 means very hard brakes
// you can use any decimals between 0 and 1 ( ex. 0.75)
// never use any decimals higher than 1
Last updated ( Thursday April 3, 2008 2:59 AM ) Copyright design and content