FSX Utilizing 4 Cores.

[AndyT]

Very nice Bill.
Keep up the good work!

[Kennair]

Bill, (I think this thread has been hijacked somewhat )

That panel is outstanding. I am constantly amazed and inspired by the ingenuity of builders in this forum. How did you make that bezel with switches? I take it you are using a stripped 19" Widescreen LCD? I would really like to do similar for my Next Gen PC12 to simulate the Honeywell Primus displays.

As for the 8500 video card, if you have a similar system to mine you shouldn't see a great effect on frame rate if you are using the TH2GO off one port of your main card. Having said that the G1000 optioned aircraft are very resource hungry and you wil notice a drop. I found running the 3 screens off the TH2GO was far less of a drain than running 3 separate video card outputs. As far as running a second card is concerned, in non-SLI mode the second card simply acts as extra video ports and doesn't necessarily play a role in video performance, so theoretically you could run any old card that suits. I found the "shader" issue which precluded me from running the old PCI card (as you did also) but a quick $90 fixed that. As for frame rates, as I mentioned earlier, I have mine locked at 25 and with the TH2GO plus two other screens I get consistent 25's everywhere except high impact scenery around major airports where initial testing revealed mid-teens with some ever-so-small stutters. Certainly very flyable and most scenery sliders at High and Very High in FSX. My next project is to load up FS9 and watch it burn!!

As I am to understand (and I am no IT guru, just researched lots) additional video cards simply act as extra video outputs and it is your main card that does all the pixel crunching, so the extra monitor, and therefore FS windows, you have running will impact on the main card and your CPU. Conclusion: Get a fast CPU/Motherboard and the best GPU you can afford. As I have said earlier, todays cheaper 8800GT rival the more expensive 8800GTX as they use the newer G92 processor used in the 9000 series cards being released, so money can be saved and performance maintained. Gad, what a world we live in!

I hope that helps and keep up the inspiring work,

Ken.

[Prof Bill]

Hi Ken,
Many thanks for your "technically rich" reply that is indeed most useful!
Apologies if this thread is hijacked and would be most happy to move wherever you consider best as this sort of topic confusion makes searches difficult for others if not for ourselves from time to time - point well made!

Something that is bothering me and I wondered if you have experienced it is does the PCI graphics cardcard that you are using utilise some of the system RAM? I found that mine were and am now doing a search for some cards that do not.
I have been looking at a cheap PCIE x16 option from NOVATECH that might do the trick!!
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...html?NOV-85GT1

Bill.

[Kennair]

Bill,

The short answer is I really don't know. I'm sure all hardware on the motherboard utilize some system memory but whether this has an impact or not, I couldn't say. Given today's motherboard bus speeds and RAM size I wouldn't think it would have a huge impact. I've not heard of particular video cards that don't use system RAM against others that do, but as I said, I'm no expert.

I think you stand the best chance of minimising impact by using a video card that is PCIEx16 and ensuring the motherboard slot also runs at x16 (and is configured to do so in the BIOS). Most motherboards that have two PCIE slots will only have one run at full x16 speed, with the other running at x4 or x8 (one exception being the ASUS P32N). Having said that I beleive this only plays an important part if running SLI or Crossfire (neither of which are utilized by FS). Again, fast CPU's and tons of RAM will cure most ills. Windows in particularly benefits as it is so full of holes it needs speed to skim over them

Unless you're able to get hold of a whole swathe of cards and test them side by side, you really are stabbing in the dark. One very useful resource is Toms Hardware's VGA Benchmark tests as they do just that. FS is tested as well using a host of current and past cards so you can see exactly how they compare. Some very interesting results indeed, but they only test under certain conditions, none of which might reflect your system setup, but at least there is something to gauge by. In the end you've just go to take the plunge and fly! (reminds me of my first solo).

Ken.

PS. You've avoided my question though; how did you make those G1000 bezels?

[Prof Bill]

Ken, Apologies for not addressing your question regarding the surround /bezel.

I have used 10.2" touch screens and discarded the touch electronics/interface. I chose these particular touch screens (approx £100UK each) as the touch panel provides an excellent barrier to finger damage on the screen and these types of screen also give a very good viewing angle.

The original bezel suited the button layout that controlled the original touch screen setup configuration on the righthand side so I removed the switch pcb and relocated it internally on the lefthand side internally no longer making these buttons externally available. This pcb has an infrared interface so I made that available through a little hole in the front lefthand side which allows me to setup both screens using a single infrared controller.
I used plastic padding to fill up the holes I no longer needed and drilled some more hole to anchor the pcb via the front with countersunk 3mm screws that
engaged with the spacers on the button pcb. These were also filled and smoothed. Sprayed the bezel matt black and I used LETRASET to inscribe the panel. This was then sprayed with a clear laquer.

I made a pcb from stripboard with buttons and substituted it to control the
G1000 functions. Also added to this board were the single "range" rotary encoder and the "page, group and cursor" pushbutton rotary encoder.
These had their own little special stripboard pcbs.

The twelve "softbuttons" on the bottom were mounted on a stripboard that was specifically sized to fit between the bottom of the bezel and the screen.

This required some non trivial milling of the original bezel to get this button assembly to be positioned at the right height behind and relative to the front of the bezel to achieve the correct button potrusion.

This became a simple task for subsequent bezels. I have built four.

If I had chosen a 15" monitor it would have been much simpler and easier as I would have just added 1" to the right had side, done some plastic padding and that would have been that!

I will dig out some pictures to clarify this monologue and send them to you!

Bill.

[aviaparts]

Bill,

I am also working on a G1000, the hardware part is as good as finished. Only thing left to do now is the software interface part.
Wat is the software that you are using for the G1000 and can it be interfaced with keyboardencoders like Hagstrom ?

Thanks

[Prof Bill]

Hi Marnix,

The Hagstrom rotary encoder board and the their keyboard emulation board is one solution! I also have built a G1000 with that cofiguration.
My preference is the Leo Bodnar board with rotary encoder support as and when Leo makes it available. Leo's solution is one of the best I have encountered and I have a very high regard for his technical skills and products. You will need to contact Leo personally.

You will need to build your own diode matrix board (which is easy enough) and can be seen in some of the pictures.

Dave Cunliff in Texas did the editing of the G1000 screen and he is a member of mycockpits.com.
Dave is also most knowledgeable and helpful in sorting out this type of coding and has done a splendid screen version of the GPS500 in FS9 also.

The software to drive the minimalistic G1000 is availabe in FSX and also the assignments.

I would advise this configuration of the G1000 as it is much more easier to familiarise oneself with and allow you to really explore the benefits of the instumentation.

Bill.

[Padraig]

I once had GTX 8800 SLI which wasn't working out so well with FSX . I sold one of the cards and then moved to a Intel Quad core, and I must say I had alot more performance with the Quad than I had with my "two core duo" and minus one card.

Now, I have learned my lesson and I know now for a fact, that processor speed is the key and a good graphics card is the way to get more FPS and good render in this simulator environment with every thing at realistic levels in FSX as in traffic and also other enhancements, at the moment I'm able to spike up the levels of (Sat) terrain etc up to the max while leaving the traffic up at high withour the exception of boats etc.

So all in all, if our looking for good performance, get a serious CPU and serious standalone graphics card and some good memory and you`ll do fine. Don't fall into the trap I did as into thinking SLi/ Crossfire will boost up your FPS with FSX

The other members here know what they are talking about and I can tell you for my own experience that they speak the truth, so don't waste you money on these SLI / Crossfire stuff. Get your self a serious CPU and a decent card.

My two cents on the matter.....

[andarlite]

I cannot understand why we are having such power pcs, as FS never take advantage of them

I had a P4 Hyper Thread with 2GB ram, but also Fs9 did not support HT technology.
Now the same with FsX.

So, we are just following the technology, without the profit we could have from our systems.

Lets wait for the Fs11 to see...... if there is a change for better

See this for how FSX utilizes multi-cores:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/archiv...tel-quote.aspx

Regards,
Henry

[Prof Bill]

I upgraded the MAXIMUS Extreme system with SP1 yesterday and am really impressed by its content and performance.
I have however noticed that my user-specific data used by Windows SuperFetch just vanished causing a small but measureable performance penalty.
Today this has begun to reverse itself and as I use the system SuperFetch is refilling it's cache.

I have now downloaded and installed the newly available NVIDIA 174.74 BETA Driver on an 8800GTx and there is indeed a welcome observable frame rate improvement.
I will start benchmarking shortly!
I have had some crashes on other cards on other systems so the stability of this release has yet to be determined. I guess this would indicate some caution if it is being considered.

Bill.