Tips

26: Remove Unwanted Views

| Tom Tsui

In FSX, there are many views one can choose from and cycle through by pressing S (next category) and A (next view in category) on the keyboard, including Cockpit (2D), Virtual Cockpit (3D), Locked Spot, FlyBy, Top-Down, etc.   Often there are views that we seldom or never use, however.

Steps below will get rid some of them for good.

Option 1:
1) Locate Cameras.cfg (x:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX) and make a backup of it
2) Open the file and you will find 11 Camera Definition sectons inside
3) Just delete the Camera Definition section(s) you don’t need
4) Save and Exit

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24: Reduce Autogen File Size

| Tom Tsui

Autogen objects are defined by default.xml under FSX’s Autogen folder.   Many third-party sceneries during installation will add new objects to the file, making it bigger and bigger.

Here’s a quick and easy way to reduce the size of it and bring some improvements, especially to low- to mid-end computers.

1) Locate default.xml in the Autogen folder of the Microsoft Flight Simulator X directory (x:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Autogen)

2) Backup the file first for safety sake

3) Open the file with Notepad

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22: Modify GPS Window Size

| Tom Tsui

It is possible to resize the GPS window during any flight session. However, it will resume to its default value once FSX is terminated.

To make the change permanent:

  1. Open the panel.cfg of the aircraft to be changed
  2. Locate [Window02] section
  3. Decrease the value of window_size for smaller window (0.4 or 0.35 represents 80% or 70% of the original size), or
  4. Increase the value of window_size for larger window

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20: Adjust Virtual Cockpit Panrate

| Tom Tsui

There are two ways to adjust virtual cockpit panrate:

Option 1:

* Locate Cameras.cfg under C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX directory
* Under CameraDefinition.002 (Virtual Cockpit) section
* Modify the number (degrees per second) of the following two:

  • PitchPanRate=15     // vertical pan rate — I am using 40
  • HeadingPanRate=45     // horizontal pan rate — my setting is 100

* Add the following line right after the two PanRates to improve response time

  • PanAcceleratorTime=0   // zero equals to no delay

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15: Scenery Library Priority Guidelines

| Tom Tsui

Scenery Library Priority Guidelines

1) Sceneries Grouped by Regions

AF=Africa
AS=Asian
AU=Australia
NL=New Zealand
EU=Europe
NA=North America
CA=Central & South America

2) Arranged as follows (could be in alphabetical order)

Single scenery (mission/airport)
Area-related scenery
Country-related scenery
Region-related scenery (landclass/mesh)
World-wide (landclass/mesh)

3) If a scenery has several components, follow developer’s instruction

If not, follow below:

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10: fsx.CFG – AffinityMask

| Tom Tsui

For Multiple Core support in FSX, add the following command line in fsx.CFG file.   The setting is not shown by default.

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=n

Choice of <n> as follows:

For 2-core 4-thread CPU
15=1111 = ALL 4 cores
14=1110 = last 3 cores  (cores read from back to front)
7=0111 = first 3 cores
3=0011 = first 2 cores
1=0001 = first core

For 4-core 8-thread CPU
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09: Disable Unwanted Airplanes

| Tom Tsui

There are certain aircrafts we may not want to display in FSX at all.  Besides uninstalling them from the system, we can go to the SimObjects folder and

1)
Rename the “panel” folder to “panel-0” to disable all aircrafts under the same group; or

2)
Open aircraft.cfg and change the “panel=” of specific aircrafts to “panel=0” to hide them from showing up.

02: FSX and Addons Installation Order

| Tom Tsui

There is no one-fits-for-all installation order for FSX; especially when you have a number of addons to follow.  Here is the order I took.  Note that my FSX system and addons are stored on separate SSDs.  Moreover, I used Acronis Home Image to backup each stage of my installation, just in case I need to go back to any point for any reason.

FSX-01-FSX Deluxe
FSX-02-FSX Acceleration
FSX-03-Scenery Tech Landclass
FSX-04-UTX USA, Canada, Europe and Alaska
FSX-05-GEX USA/Canada and Europe
FSX-06-Real Environment & Active Sky Evolution
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