Saitek’s Switch Panel adds a lot of fun to FSX. However, it doesn’t like its younger brothers in the Pro Flight family — all switches on the panel have no illumination and most of them are in black color. They are very difficult to identify in a dark environment with no extra lights but the monitor only.
Here’s my newly modified switch panel with some colored switches replacements.
Updated: Nov-26, 2011
As mentioned earlier, I have replaced my long-used Saitek Yoke with CH Eclipse Yoke in my system. 
Actually I got the Eclipse just a month or two after its release. I was attracted by its rudders, vertical and horizontal trim wheels, and throttle quadrant all integrated into one single casing. In terms of features, Saitek Yoke really can’t compare.
However, the housing design of the Eclipse yoke (due to its oval shape) is very difficult to fit into my equipment chamber. So it’s been put aside for a long time until recently I figured out how to do with it.
Updated: Nov-26, 2011
With two additional FIPs added to my setup, key assignments are reconfigured as follows:
Startup order are:
The RPM Indicator is a virtual one which shares the same FIP with the Air Speed gauge.
Updated: 2011-1004
Lately, I have replaced my long-time Saitek Yoke with CH Eclipse Yoke after re-tuning my FSX system several weeks ago. Because of that, many controls of my gears have to be reconfigured accordingly.
Followings are the new switch assignments for the TPM.
Saitek’s TPM Control Unit comes with 9 programmable toggle switches. However, FSX’s SETTINGS only recognizes their downward actions during BUTTONS/KEYS assignments. In other words, only 50% of TPM’s programmability are used.
To fully utilize the TPM: Continue reading
Updated: Nov-26, 2011
My Attitude Gauge has been updated as follows:
A copy of this update has been sent to those friends who asked for my FIP Gauge set below. If not, please email me.
Intel’s Hyper-threading Technology enables multiple threads to run on each core to efficiently using processor resources. It could be turned ON or OFF through the BIOS setting.
Many simmers suggest to turn it OFF since some argue that hyper-threading generates extra heat which drags the performance of FSX. Others report that stutters are experienced due to extensive collisions between threads.
However, in my case with an i7 930 CPU overclocked to 4.0GHz, with or without using AffinityMask, I find FSX is running smoother with the hyper-threading feature enabled.
Worth a try to decide whether Enable or Disable the Hyper-Threading is best for the sytem.
Just upgraded to version 11.8 a week ago and in my case the new driver brings a positive result — places where used to have stutters now become smoother even though no obvious increase in overall fps.
Two major changes in setting I use in the new driver are the enabling of 64X Tessellation and Surface Format Optimization. Both of them were causing some degrees of performance degradation. Click here to see my earlier 11.7 setting. Continue reading
Updated: 30-Dec-2011
Here is my setting for TrackIR 5 with TrackClipPro. The emphasis is to get an optimized result causing no fatigue to eyes.
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Basic Settings:
• Speed = 1
• Smooth = 50 Continue reading
FS Times 