Hi Albybz:
IIUC, we will be trying to have the autogen appear at least 20 or 30 Nautical miles away from your aircraft.
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Fortunately,
testing this is easier to achieve in FS2004 (aka "FS9") than it is in FSX since the lesser FS9 autogen density is able to be processed by the available system RAM / User Virtual Address space (aka "UserVA"), Video Ram (aka "VRAM"), GPU and CPU.
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Before we proceed further, I'd like to post a
caveat (...to dissuade those who would say 'it can't be done' without personally and properly testing, and to placate those who would have the average person spend so much time de-fragging drives and tweaking system hardware or Windows operating system minutiae that they might only rarely ever get anything else done, much less ever find time to fly in FS !).
CAVEAT: It is
always an important prerequisite to have ones system hardware (whether old or new), and one's Windows configuration (IMHO) ..."reasonably well" optimized
prior to 'tweaking'.
There are guides elsewhere which do an excellent job walking one through that process; I'm very grateful to have those guides available and I genuinely respect the efforts that went into researching and creating them.
However, because in your case we are dealing with FS9 (not FSX) on a newer more powerful system, and my time is somewhat limited today, instead of linking out in my usual "overkill" of detail to the above system optimization threads, I will limit my present links to tutorials I've previously written on how you can tweak your FS9.Cfg file to:
1.) Maximize the rendering process for display of terrain mesh and detailed textures farther out into the distance
2.) Maximize the rendering process for display of autogen farther out into the distance
This is
not intended to be an all-inclusive guide, and I'd be glad to add more detail over the course of the weekend (probably Sunday at the latest) if there is ongoing need and/or interest.
NOTE: Don't be surprised if FS9 has a slightly longer load time the 'first' time you try these parameters (more textures get loaded into memory etc.)
FYI: I've previously only disclosed "all" these tweaks to individuals who I believed likely to implement and discuss them in a cautious, objective and courteous spirit of research; of course 'some' tweaks may have already been discussed elsewhere in FS forums.
I'd like to avoid triggering more controversy and chaos in the FS Community than it already has, so I'd appreciate polite and objective discussion of this topic in this thread, please.
I make no claim as to the applicability of these tweaks to "all" users, nor do I intend for this info to be utilized for individual commercial gain; it's simply
research that I'd like to share with others in the hope that it may prove helpful to both learning more about FS
and enjoying our flights in the FS scenery we make.
These tweaks should be safe to test; however, to be "doubly safe", make 2 or more ZIP backups (...to be kept in more than 1 "safe" location ?) of your existing "active" FS9.Cfg located in Windows at:
C:\Documents and Settings\[current user account or profile name]\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9\FS9.CFG
IIRC, the location is the same in Vista and Win7 as well, but please correct me if I am mistaken, as I do not have first hand experience with FS9 installation on those Windows versions.
The existing FS9.Cfg in that folder can then be edited for purposes of testing the following "Ten Test Tweaks".
NOTE: To restore the original FS9.Cfg, un-ZIP the backup with permission to over-write the edited working copy of FS9.Cfg in:
C:\Documents and Settings\[current user account or profile name]\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9\FS9.CFG
STEP 1
I suggest that first you review this linked thread which might get you started:
http://forum.avsim.net/topic/329728-possible-new-tweak-for-fs9/page__view__findpost__p__1947499
NOTE: At the present time, I suggest
NOT editing or disabling the default.xml file or Terrain.Cfg file in FS9 such as was the opening topic in the AVSIM thread linked above; I linked to it for the discussion of "other" tweaks later in that thread.
STEP 2
Implement the [Terrain] sub-section tweaks pointed out below in
RED, as I believe you will then find that your "autogen display radius" will appear the way you'd like to see it in FS9.
I'll look forward to reading how your FS9 session went using this test info; hope this works well for you too !
The following "Ten Test Tweaks" are listed under FS9.Cfg sub-sections where they should be inserted if not already present.
There may, of course, be other parameters already in place between the sub-section heading and an existing parameter to be tweaked, so the examples below show the parameters to be tweaked immediately below the sub-section heading for the convenience of this guide.
If a "test" tweak parameter does NOT exist, I suggest inserting it at the bottom of the specified sub-section under existing parameters
If a "test" tweak parameter ALREADY exists, I suggest doing this when editing:
1.) Position mouse cursor immediately after the "=" sign
2.) Hit the space bar two or more times, hit the "/" character twice, hit the space bar twice more
NOTE: This saves the existing number to the right of the "//" double-slash as a reference "comment" which will be ignored by FS9
Example result after 1st edit:
[GRAPHICS]
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=262144 // 256
3.) Position mouse cursor immediately after the "=" sign
4.) Enter the new "test" tweak number
Example result after 2nd edit:
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=262144 // 256
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NOTE: Do NOT insert "new" periods (.) and trailing zeroes as decimal separators into existing long parameter numbers that do
not already have periods (.) and trailing zeroes as decimal separators
Always retain the same number of trailing zeroes to the right of the decimal point in existing long parameter numbers that
do already have periods (.) and trailing zeroes as decimal separators
(
ex: 9.500000 and 0.000000 both retain all trailing zeroes so string length stays unchanged... do
not "round off" parameter numbers)
Do not insert "new" commas (,) as formatting separators into existing long parameter numbers (
ex: do
not use commas to separate each group of three digits)
(
ex: 1228800 remains formatted
without insertion of a new comma as in: 1,228,800 ...which is formatted "wrong" in FS9.Cfg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma#In_numbers
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The "Ten Test Tweaks" (
for FS9.Cfg only !):
[GRAPHICS]
DETAIL_TEXTURE=2 // 1
<-- Tweak #1
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=262144 // 256
<-- Tweak #2 (use calculated larger value discussed in AVSIM thread if you have more VRAM)
[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=25600 // 400
<-- Tweak #3
WideViewAspect=True // False
<-- Tweak #4 (investigational only)
[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=100.000000 // 10.000000
<-- Tweak #5
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=400.000000 // 100.000000
<-- Tweak #6
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21 // 18
<-- Tweak #7
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5 // <-- (set to "5" if already set to any other number)
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1 // 0
<-- Tweak #8
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1 // 0
<-- Tweak #9
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000 // 0.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.500000 // 0.000000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1307992 // 3
<-- Tweak #10
Hope this info helps enhance your FS9 flying experience and achieves your preferred "autogen display radius" !
GaryGB
