449: Checking Affinity Mask Performance in Realtime

Affinity Mask could bring improvements to flight simulators.  But the question is: how can we tell from a hypothetical value (or more precisely a CPU combination) that it will bring positive gains to our system before we put it in the configuration file (fsx.cfg or Prepar3D.cfg) ?

Frankly, I don’t have a good answer myself because there are so many variables involved.   However, following is the approach I take to precheck the performances from different Affinity Masks in realtime, then thru which I pick the one I think the best for my set up.

448: Affinity Mask Calculator

Affinity Mask is commonly recognized as one of the most useful features that allows flightsimmers to improve system performance by altering the combination of running CPUs assigned to the simulator.

Here’s my Affinity Mask Calculator (with redesigned interface) version that I hope it could give you some helps during your search for the best possible value.

Using the calculator is simple and intuitive — just select the CPUs you want to assign to FSX or Prepar3D based on:

444: A Temporary Measure to Restore Enhanced Textures

Although the program architecture of Prepar3Dv4 has moved from 32-bit to 64-bit, one should not henceforth assume that its associated environment (sky, cloud, sea, ground) texture data would have been upgraded accordingly.

Actually they are largely the same as those used in previous P3D versions, and in FSX as well.   Only a limited number of files I found so far have been changed or converted into a different format.

This is good because it means that it is possible for me to restore my previously saved enhanced environment texture backup (put together from different addons) onto P3Dv4 now, without waiting until those addon programs becoming version 4 compatible later.

437: My PD3v4 Setting Up #03 – Aircraft Continuity

One of the most important tunings to me after upgrading to P3Dv4 (actually any update or upgrade) is to ensure the continuity of the newly reinstalled or copied aircraft to be run as they did in the previous version consistently .  
Followings are the steps:

STEP 1.)
Copy corresponding “Aircraft.cfg” files from

• “P:\Prepar3Dv3\SimObjects\Airplanes” to
• “P:\Prepar3Dv4\SimObjects\Airplanes“

STEP 2.)
Copy corresponding aircraft flying records (“state.cfg“) from “SimObjects” in

• “C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3” to
• “C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4“

Since P3Dv4 involves the using of new Windows system registries,

436: My PD3v4 Setting Up #02 – FSX Aircraft Migration

This post is originally the first aritcle in the “My P3Dv4 Setting Up” series.   However, since I do normally perform the configuration back up mentioned in the second article first, I therefore rename this post to #02 and the second post #1.   Publishing time adjusted as well to reflect the proper order.

As stated in the About FSX Times of this blog, my goal is to achieve a stable flight simulation system performance with a minimum 30 fps in average.   Luckily, I’ve been able to achieve that goal with some compromises.   But unluckily, that 30-something fps level also acts like a barrier that stops me from passing.

I am not sure yet whether the 64-bit P3Dv4 and my new hardware would help break this spell for good.   But the 120 to 210 fps initially gained from the new system without any tuning seems like a promising start.

As the hardware side of my new cockpit is still not ready, I’ll take it slowly to install addons and to finetune the system.

435: My P3Dv4 Setting Up #01 – Configuration Backup

Actually this is the second piece in the “My P3Dv4 Setting Up” series of articles.   However, since I normally do the back up before migrating FSX aircraft described in the last story, I therefore name this post #01 and rename the last one #2.   Publication time is adjusted as well for proper display order.

After every installation (whether it is P3D or FSX or other similar programs, and no matter if it is a new install or a re-installation), I’ll immediately do a back up for the key configuration files first.    In P3Dv4, most of the user-configurable files are located in the following folders:

• C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4
• C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

The first one is where the Prepar3D.cfg and some other key configuration files reside.   The second contains the Scenery.cfg and other related configurations.

432: My Cockpit Rebuilding #04

Followings are the storage drives I so far added to my new computer.   Except the 2TB Backup drive (O:), all are SSDs of various size from previous purchases.

Major System Folders have been reassigned to various drives, so that user data could be kept intact and independent from System drive (C:) in case Windows is required to be restored or even reinstalled.

407: B737 Cockpit Building Tips

Ever wanted to build your cockpit but have not a clue where to get started?   Marcus from Marcuswald Air recently sent me his 737-800NG photos for the Cockpits section.  In addition, he has included a photo-book about the building of his cockpit.

He said that the document didn’t have a great deal of text but thought it was best to go with photos and it was just meant to show the build in generic terms with a bit of humor.

The photo-book can be downloaded from here or by clicking the image of the book.

Thank you Marcus.

394: My Newest nVidia Settings

A friend who asked me what my nVidia 3D Settings were for P3D.   I told him that I simply used the default values coming with the driver in the last few years.

In response to his question, I re-examined and tested the impact of each value to my system last week.   Here’s the settings I am satisfied with: