604: Setting In-Between

As mentioned in My P3Dv5 Settings, I set the Autogen and Scenery Draw Distance to High as it gives me the best balance to see as much autogens as possible.

Recently, I am cling to push it one more step to Very High for even more visible objects.  Sadly, this brings a little impact even though it is just barely noticeable.  I couldn’t help to think that it would be great if there were one more stop in between High and Very High.

Since the Setting Page doesn’t have the option, I turned to

603: My Cockpit Rev #21 – Covering up FIP Up-Dn Buttons

From time to time, I receive emails from non-SpadneXt users asking if it is possible to turn off the up/down LEDs on the FIPs.  Frankly speaking, I didn’t care much whether they were lit or not in the past.  So typically I would give them an answer NO.

Until recently I have my cockpit layout properly,  I then understand why they have the needs.  Even so, my answer was still a NO unfortunately.

But there was one time I was joking to a friend saying that “You could

602: FIP Turn On Fix

After Windows 10’s last few updates, I encountered some strange behavior on my Flight Instrument Panels (FIPs).  They are connected via two USB hubs on my networked Surface Pro as described in Post 581.  I normally turn them ON after the flight simulator is loaded on the main PC.

But after recent updates, a few FIPs (not the same every time) won’t turn on at all sometimes.  I’ll need to cold boot the Surface Pro in order to have them back to work normally.  This happens about once or twice in every 10 start ups.

The FIPs were checked; hubs – checked; power – checked.  I even swapped the ports and the hubs.  Nothing unusual found.  Besides

601: My Cockpit Rev #20 – Ruddo Rudder Adjustment

VirtualFly’s Ruddo (not the plus model) is one of the highly praised rudders on the market.  I got mine last year but only started using it until a few months ago (for some personal reasons).
The Ruddo is made of metal completely and therefore very heavy and sturdy.  And unlike other similar products, it comes with 8 springs to allow users to configure the best possible pressing force on the pedals of their choices for ideal maneuverings.

It is so far the best rudders I ever have.

However, there’s one thing I don’t like in particular — it is

599: Last Resort before Reinstalling P3D

There are times we may encounter a situation in which we want to reinstall Prepar3D again due to some annoying issues caused by unknown reasons.  But before we do that, there’s a last resort we may try.

Under Prepar3D’s program directory (version 4 or newer), there’s a shortcut called “Delete Generated Files“. 
It can quickly delete everything in your:

595: My Basic System Tweaks

A flightsimmer fan posted a new thread on the P3D forum saying that he finally solves the micro-stutter issue on his system by disabling the “dynamic tick” feature in Windows.  Good for him!

Actually the trick has been around for sometimes, and whether it effective or not, as usual, depends very much on one’s own system, as it didn’t make any difference on mine.  Anyway, it’s still worth a try to see if it works on yours.

To use it, enter “bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes” under Command Prompt.

If you don’t like it, type in “bcdedit /deletevalue disabledynamictick” to remove it.  Do remember to backup your system first, just in case.

When talking about system tuning, followings are some of the tweaks I’ve been using for a long time.

594: My Cockpit Rev #19 – Mini Keyboard

With my DIY cockpit gradually forming in shape, I found the using and fitting of the keyboard and mouse a bit clumsy.  The worse is they cannot be simply “trashed” as they are needed for many inputs and controls, such as airport switching.

In the end, I found a solution of replacing the normal keyboard and the mouse with a miniature keyboard that comes with an integrated touchpad.  The best part is the keyboard even has a backlit.

Actually it (D8) is not my first choice.

590: Disable Full Screen Optimizations

If you are having multi-monitors in your system, you may try disabling the “Full Screen Optimizations” option in your simulator.  I came across this tip somewhere I found on the Internet many months ago and it said the framerate would be benefit.

I tried it on my system for a couple of weeks.  Frankly, I didn’t get any noticeable difference in the areas I usually fly.  But the framerate seems to be slightly higher and a bit more stable in other dense populated areas.

I can’t be 100% sure, but I found no issues from disabling the option as well.  So I just leave it.

Here’s how to do it:

589: Info Text Color

I never like the info texts on top left and top right corners in red color as they are hard to see.   To change them into white color that I prefer, I go to [DISPLAY] section in the Prepar3D.cfg (or fsx.cfg) file. Then replace the values of

InfoUpperLeftTextColorUser, and
InfoUpperRightTextColor

from 255,0,0 (red) to 255,255,255 (white).  That’s it.
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