How to improve frame rates in MSTS

Dear community,the following procedure has been suggested for MS Flight Simulator 2004. I thought why not try this for MSTS.This method uses the possibility of Windows XP to assign to each process a priority. The higher the process priority, the faster a program is bound to run.The downside is under certain circumstances a certain lag on keyboard input.How to do it:(1) Launch MSTS as usual.(2) When loaded completely, minimise and launch the Taskmanager through "CTRL + ALT + DEL"(3) You see a couple of areas there, go to the one called Processes(4) Look for "train.exe"(5) Right-click on it to open the context menu(6) The lowermost choice says Process Priority, set it to high (NOT REALTIME!!!)(7) Finally go back to MSTS.I found that I run MSTS now at higher framerates. Getting 43 on TP2 (Mojave) instead of 28 or below. Any question?Cheers!Sebastian

Visit my "sebastian's trains pages" at http://www.freewebs.com/sstyrnol ...

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., CNBALA, Nov-26-04, 02:23 AM, (1) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., sstyrnol, Nov-26-04, 02:27 AM, (2) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., lnghairedwizard, Nov-26-04, 06:04 PM, (3) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., OTTODAD, Nov-26-04, 06:22 PM, (4) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., railnut, Nov-26-04, 11:34 PM, (5) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., Electroburger, Nov-27-04, 05:37 AM, (6) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., sstyrnol, Nov-27-04, 08:06 AM, (7) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., Electroburger, Nov-27-04, 09:38 AM, (8) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., yulbrynner, Nov-27-04, 12:19 PM, (9) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., hd194512, Nov-28-04, 11:02 AM, (10) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., jbuck36, Nov-28-04, 07:36 PM, (11) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., NickF, Nov-28-04, 07:49 PM, (12) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., seern, Nov-28-04, 07:53 PM, (13) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., jbuck36, Nov-28-04, 08:24 PM, (16) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., Waldo, Nov-28-04, 07:56 PM, (14) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., Rhennar, Nov-28-04, 07:59 PM, (15) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., jbuck36, Nov-28-04, 08:25 PM, (17) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., NewEnglandRailFan, Nov-28-04, 08:31 PM, (18) RE: How to improve frame rates in MSTS..., SP_Frank, Nov-28-04, 08:40 PM, (19)

Conferences | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic

SebastianThanks for letting us, the trainsimmers know about the frame rates improvements. But have one question to ask you what operating system are you talking about?? I believe that would be only for Windows XP because mine is Windows Millennium and not sure how would I do this to improve the frame rates on my computer??ThankyouJohn

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Yeah, I am using WindowsXP! Can't speak for other OS of course!Cheers!Sebastian

Visit my "sebastian's trains pages" at http://www.freewebs.com/sstyrnol ...

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

This capability to prioritize processed also exist in Win 2000...I havent tried it yet, thought I'd wait and see if other people get good results first..hehethe way to figure out of you OS has this capability it to ctrl-alt-del to open your task manager....click on the processes tab..then highlight any process(or right click) and see if you have the if the drop down box contains "set priority"LHW

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Hi Sebastian !Tried it in the MARIAS-KOOTENAI running a 8 x SD40-2 + 100 waggons consist out of ATHOL getting 16 FpS.Changing Process Priority from Normal to High made no difference.WIN-XP Home, AMD XP1800+, 1.5 Gb DDR-RAM, nVIDIA TI-4600 / 30.82.O t t o

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

This process also works with Windows 2000...

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

I tried this in Win2000 Pro, I see an increase in 2-4 fps pulling out of West Coram (with 1200 x 1600 res, 32 bit). Also, for me this only works while the simulator is loading, before you get to the "Drive a train" menu. Cntl-alt-del when the simulator is really running exits quickly and cleanly.Setting the real time causes the sim to become mostly unresponsive (i.e. crash).

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

I warned you not to do this Apparently this works differently on each system. However it seems worth a try for me... Cheers!Sebastian

Visit my "sebastian's trains pages" at http://www.freewebs.com/sstyrnol ...

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Everything is worth a try. Probieren geht über Studieren.I was also convinced that use of Windows 98 would result in markedly better frame rates, so I made a dual-boot disk (start with Win98, FAT32, install it, then install Win2000 over it - the boot manager leaves you with the ability to select between the two). The rationale was that Win98 is simpler, smaller, faster, cleaner, etc. In the end, Windows 2000 was almost exactly the same as Win98 in overall performance, with MSTS clocking about the same frame rates and compute-intensive applications with the same elapsed time. And this was without changing the scheduler priority.From what I can see, Windows 98 has no such priority changing facility (why would it? - no true multitasking) and I would imagine Windows Me doesn't either.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

I made a try:But my problem is that I have a poor On-Board graphic card, (and no AGP slot to insert a better one). I tried this trick, the frame rates increased a little, but the keyboard stopped responding. I could hardly exit the game after pressing many times.

Eduardo
My E-mail is in my profile.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Hi Sebastian. Thanks for your post on frame rates. Your post was easy to understand and try since I am not a computer guru. I have sean a small increase in frame rates but what i think is more important is they do not go down as much as they did before. I use to go down to 0 quite often with scenery changes or when going through yards with lots of wagons. on the low end i am staying around 7 now with a rare 0 or 1. Thanks again all help on getting the sim to run better is greatly appreciated. thanks paul Pentium 4 2.26 GHz w/512k Cache, 533 MHz FSB, 1.0GB DDR System memory. 80GB ATA/100 (7200RPM) HD. GeFORCE FX 5200AGP 128MB DDR Graphics card

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Hey guys, I'm not all that good with computers so need to ask a basic question. Been watching this thread with interest since I have XP and would like to try it out, but don't know what my current frame rate is when running the sim.
Would someone please explain to me how to find out? I have no idea.
Would appreciate it.

JonBuck

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Shift+Z will display realtime framerate at the lower right of the screen.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Hit shift z when running and the fps will show in the right bottom corner of screen.

Sharon Evans
Glen Allen, Virginia
Activities are what makes MSTS run.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Thanks Nick and Sharon...I appreciate your responses! Jon

JonBuck

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Hi Jon,<SHIFT><Z> will do it while in the sim. Look in the lower right corner.Regards,

Waldo

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

LAST EDITED ON Nov-28-04 AT 08:01 PM (EST)

Jon,
Press Shift and z, it shows on bottom right.
Ted
There, you got it twice

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Gee, thanks, everybody !!!! Jon

JonBuck

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

lol One more question tho, Do you have to do this every time you launch MSTS, or does it remember or somthing?Thanks in advance
-Dave

You can e-mail me at davej8010@aol.com -or- hrrc_7324@yahoo.com -or- feel free to aim me.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

>lol
>
>One more question tho, Do you have to do this every time you
>launch MSTS, or does it remember or somthing?
>
>Thanks in advance It doens't remember nuttin'. You gotta tell it each time

_______________________________
Unless you're the leading dog, the view is always the same.

Alert | IP

[ Home | MSTS Forum | MSTS FAQ | How To... | File Library ] Copyright © 2004 by Nels Anderson. All Rights Reserved.