Questions about FSX Installation

[BPL 39]

I’m getting a new PC built (with 64-bit Windows 7), and I’m facing the daunting task of reinstalling FSX and its add-ons. I’d like to ask y’all some questions so that I can be sure to do this right the first time. Compared to most of you, I’m about as computer savvy as a sea cucumber, so be prepared for stupid questions.

First, I’ve read that you should install FSX on its own hard drive, while installing everything else (including the OS) on a separate hard drive, but I’m still not clear on the rationale behind this. What would be the purpose of installing FSX on a separate drive, and how important is this? Also, what about programs such as REX? Should they be installed on the same drive as FSX in this case?

Second, name any tip you think I should keep in mind while installing FSX and its add-ons. Last time around, I didn’t do any research into the topic and later found out things I should have done differently. If you have any strategies or cautions you could give me, I’d really appreciate it.

[gandy 25]

fsx on its own drive helps with performance of the sim as the swap file on the boot drive wont get in the way and cause issues when there is a lot of paging going on..

My tips are

Dont install everything at once. Get the sim installed and make sure you are happy with the way it performs with what ever tweaks you like to use before you install addons as addons will only reduce fps and remember to restart when you install scenery and airports.

Dont over tweak for the hardware you have.. the more modern the hardware the less tweaks you should use and try to maintain a balance between fps and smooth performance.

Have a read of Kosta's guide, i dont follow all his tweaks as my hardware is not that good but his guide is informative and other parts of his blog might be helpful

http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/

[mopperle 4162]

keep all software that is needed while FSX is running on the same drive. Software like flightplanners can be installed elsewhere.

Turn of UAC, or at least run everything as Administrator:

- installation: right click on installer and choose "run as administrator"

- run FSX itself always as administrator: right click on fsx.exe properties/compatibility "run as administrator"

Don't tweak your fsx to death! there is only one mandatory tweak: put the line HIGHMEMFIX=1 to the [GRAPHICS] section of the fsx.cfg

Start with moderate settings in FSX. There is no hardware available that allows to run FSX with a bunch of demanding addons (highend sceneries and aircrafts) with every slider set to MAX and expecting high fps.

A good website is http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html with some good explanations.

Do not apply any tweak as long as you do not 100% understand what it does.

[BPL 39]

Thanks, guys!

Kosta's guide is a great resource, Paul. I've skimmed through it before and used it to set my NVIDIA Inspector settings.

I feel the same about tweaks, Otto. I try to keep them to a minimum.

[Cheyenne Chief Pilot 829]

And pls. pls. pls. install 'the PMDG way':

http://support.precisionmanuals.com/KB/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx.aspx

[BPL 39]

Thanks, Oliver! I had seen that page and made note of it; I'll be sure to refer to it during the installation process.

[mopperle 4162]

And pls. pls. pls. install 'the PMDG way':

http://support.precisionmanuals.com/KB/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx.aspx

Thanks for adding this one, forgot to mention it.

[Cheyenne Chief Pilot 829]

Thanks for adding this one, forgot to mention it.

No worries, yesterday was a "hot" day - in more than just one respect ...

[gandy 25]

I would recomend being very careful about running an auto tweaker as they can do more long term harm than good if you have up to date hardware, if you have slow or old hardware then i would recomend it. With my hardware Bojote;s tweaking tool costs me about one thrid of my performance, when flying with GA aircraft i dont notice the impact but with bigger payware aircraft i struggle to get good frames.

Also FSX does not need to run in admin mode as the sim gains nothing from it unless you install to the default program files location so i would give that one a big miss as you can run in to future activation issues as well.

[BPL 39]

Thanks, Paul!

Yeah, I avoid those auto-tweakers. I use a bare minimum of tweaks. With my new machine, I'll likely only use HIGHMEMFIX=1.

[gandy 25]

I use Highmem, Affinty mask and LOD tweaks but sometimes i will use bufferpools 0 with a high water setting as it does look nice, i use an affintymask setting to keep the fsx texture loaders off core 0 which runs my weather addon, trackir and anything else for the sim

One thing that can be overlooked for anyone else reading this is if you use a high anisotropic filtering setting ( through nvidia inspector or radeon pro etc.. ) you should use dxt1 water compression from your texture addons like Rex or AS2012 as 32bit water with a high AF can cause performance issues.

[Herman 1591]

• Anti virus "off" during installation
• Not strictly an installation issue, but running MS Security Essentials for your AV consumes the least resouces of any reliable AV out there
• If you have the Acceleration version, you'll have all the service packs. If you don't, it's really important to do a reboot right after each SP install, then open FSX (up through opening the default flight) and close it before doing the next SP. I forget the exact reason, but IIRC, it has to do with correctly initializing certain SP files. Repeat for each SP.

Edited 7/12/2013, after seeing a few typos. Must have been too late at night.

[BPL 39]

Thanks, Herman! I do use MS Security Essentials. I don't have Acceleration, so I'll keep the reboots in mind when installing the service packs.