Tips

595: My Basic System Tweaks

| Tom Tsui


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. Continue reading →

594: My Cockpit Rev #19 – Mini Keyboard

| Tom Tsui

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. Continue reading →

590: Disable Full Screen Optimizations

| Tom Tsui

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: Continue reading →

589: Info Text Color

| Tom Tsui

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.
One may also Continue reading →

588: FSX Settings for Older PCs

| Tom Tsui

by David Marsden

Many of us are advised to turn OFF Anisotropic and Anti-aliasing especially when running with FSX.  David Marsden in UK finds it the exact opposite.

I have been experimenting with my settings to see what works best for my PC. It is running FSX and the specifications are not very high.

Core i7-4770K CPU @ 3.5 GHz
16 GB Ram
Windows 7 64 bit
NVidia Geforce GTX960 video card
Three screens for the main display and one other for the instruments
Continue reading →

582: USB 2.0 for FIP is still preferred

| Tom Tsui

While the world is moving toward USB-C, many flightsim hardwares still only work properly with USB 2.0 standard.  Logitech’s Flight Instrument Panel (FIP) is one of them.  Steve Crouch sent me a comment for My Cockpit Rebuilding #14, saying that he wasn’t aware of that and so he had trouble with them before.

Yes, when choosing USB hubs or ports for FIP connections, the older 2.0 standard is still the preferred choice, disregarding the claim of downward compatibility in 3.0 standard. Continue reading →

581: My Cockpit Rev #15 – FIP Cable Management

| Tom Tsui

There are 12 FIPs in my system, and the two USB hubs they plugged in are placed closely.  As the cables coming with the FIPs are quite long, heavy and hard to bend, they are troubles everytime I want to tidy them up properly.

They have been headaches to me for a long time until I finally figured out how to deal with these cables recently. Continue reading →

580: My Cockpit Rev #14 – Yoke Position Mod

| Tom Tsui

After the FIP Adaptation mod yesterday, I found the protruding placement of the Alpha Yoke particularly eyesoring, since it is hard to cope with the other Saitek / Logitch panels as reported in my review for the yoke.

Of course, to those Alpha Yoke owners who don’t have any Logitech panel, it is not a problem at all.   But it is to me.   Here’s how how I got ride of this eyesore earlier this morning.  And it was pretty easy. Continue reading →

579: My Cockpit Rev #13 – FIP Adaptation Mod

| Tom Tsui

As stated in the Alpha Yoke review earlier, the “extended” FIP adaptation approach makes it even harder for users to access switches on the face-plate.

Here’s my correctional modification so as to place the FIP stack backward a bit behind the bracket-mount of the Alpha yoke.  Continue reading →