User Guide

Before You Fly
5
1
Making Flight Simulator
2000 Really Fly
When talking about a flight simulation’s graphics,
quality refers to how real the images look on the
screen, and performance refers to how quickly
and smoothly the images move. Higher quality
typically means decreased performance, since
displaying complex, richly-detailed, three-
dimensional graphics puts a heavy load on your
system. If you’re not seeing the graphics quality
and performance you expect, this section explains
some choices and tradeoffs you can make to
optimize your experience.
Improving both quality and
performance
To achieve maximum quality and performance,
consider the following options:
Shut down other applications
When you’re flying, you probably won’t be using
other applications such as word processors and
email programs, so close them to free up more of
your computer’s brainpower for Flight Simulator.
Get a 3-D graphics accelerator card
To display Flight Simulator graphics, your com-
puter must convert a three-dimensional world into
a two-dimensional image. A 3-D graphics
accelerator makes this task easier, by taking some
of the burden away from the main processor. This
leaves the main processor more resources to
handle the simulation’s flight model. The result?
Better performance and graphics quality.
If you have a 3-D card, make sure you:
· set the display options in Flight Simulator to
take full advantage of it (see “Change display
options,” later in this chapter)
· download and install the latest drivers from
the manufacturer’s Web site
If you have problems getting your 3-D card to
work properly, make sure you’ve read the Flight
Simulator 2000 Readme file and the card
manufacturer’s documentation.
Get more RAM
Random access memory (RAM) is your
computer’s short-term memory. Generally, the
more of it there is, the faster your computer’s
brain (the CPU) can process data. Your computer
needs to have at least 32 megabytes (MB) of
RAM to run Flight Simulator 2000.
Get a faster processor
Although Flight Simulator 2000 will run on a
Pentium 166 machine, a faster processor will
provide better performance.
Making a tradeoff between quality
and performance
Choosing between quality and performance
depends on what you want to do. If you want to
spend an evening reading signs and billboards as
you fly the Bell 206B JetRanger III helicopter
down the glittering streets of Las Vegas, then
you’re probably willing to sacrifice a little perfor-
mance for a better view. If, however, you want to
test your instrument flying skills by guiding the
Concorde into Heathrow in a storm, then smooth
movement of the aircraft and the instruments will
take precedence over scenery details. No matter
what kind of hardware you have, you can make
tradeoffs between graphics quality and perfor-
mance.
Try the following options to find the balance
between quality and performance that’s right for
your needs.
Watch your windows
Flight Simulator runs in a window. The
simulation’s views and instrument panels are also