Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Color depth in cockpit

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | Color depth in cockpit

DVA8576
Captain, MD-11

Joined on April 26 2010
50 State Club
Century Club

Frankfurt am Main, Hessen DE

121 legs, 190.2 hours
121 legs, 190.2 hours ACARS
239 legs, 400.9 hours total

Posted onPost created on April 20 2011 02:41 ET by Holger Ende

Hello,

I just installed FS9 on a new machine. Specs are
- Intel i5-2300 Quadcore 2.80 GHz
- 6GB RAM
- NVidia Geforce GT 435M 2GB
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit

Everything runs fine and FPS are well beyond 60 - even at JFK (default scenery) in bad weather and by using a high traffic amount (WOAI).

The only issue I have so far is that all cockpits (2D/3D) seem to be displayed with 16 million colors only. The secenery and outer views are looking fine for me.
I played around with several screen resolutions and color settings - but that had no positive effect. Neither had an update of the graphics driver. And switching between full screen and windowed mode doesn't make a difference.

Despite of 3 WOAI packages, the PMDG 737-600/700NG and the DVA 767 no add ons have been installed so far.

Any ideas?

On the other hand I'm thinking about switching over to FSX. Do you think this machine could handle it smoothely?
It's not really important for me to have every tree or building in the right place. I'm focussed on FPS >= 30 by using realistic traffic settings and real (sometimes bad) weather settings.
Do you think a switch would make sense? And do the "old FS9 planes" (like the PMDG 737/MD-11 or the Dreamfleet 727) will work under FSX or do I have to invest in a new FSX fleet?

A lot of questions - any help is appreciated...

Thanks and Regards,
Holger

Holger Ende

Captain, MD-11

AFV313
Senior Captain, B737-800

Joined on June 11 2010
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"Come fly with me, lets fly, lets fly away!"
Howick, KwaZulu-Natal ZA

2,941 legs, 9,560.6 hours
1,901 legs, 5,926.6 hours online
2,853 legs, 9,199.0 hours ACARS
58 legs, 272.0 hours event
350 legs dispatched, 155.5 hours

Posted onPost created on April 20 2011 07:31 ET by Robert Armstrong

Hi Holger,

No idea with regards to the colour issue but i may be able to offer some help with regards to upgrading to FSX.

I recently upgraded to an Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.10ghz, 4GB Ram and an Nvidia GTX460 1GB. I have all sliders maxed on FS and am getting 30fps on the ground with payware scenery and vatsim traffic and upwards of 60-100fps in the air. So I think that your rig will be able to run FSX quite well. You will however have to invest in new payware aircraft as FS9 planes wont work with FSX.

Hope that this helps you a bit

Rob

DVA9589
First Officer, A320

Joined on March 14 2011
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Stuart, IA USA

1,495 legs, 2,393.1 hours
45 legs, 90.3 hours online
1,480 legs, 2,370.6 hours ACARS
4 legs, 8.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on April 20 2011 09:23 ET by Randy Donnelly

Just curious how you came to the conclusion it is using 16m colors? Thought that was a resultant of the display resolution settings. My option through Nvidia control panel color depth is 32 bit and 16 bit and application controls color setting. Nvidia GTX 470.

Randy Donnelly

First Officer, A320

DVA5188
Assistant Chief Pilot, A350-900
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Joined on November 08 2007
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Decatur, GA

726 legs, 2,872.6 hours
1 legs, 1.8 hours online
723 legs, 2,866.3 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on April 20 2011 09:36 ET by Paul Barnhill

Not sure about the graphics issues, butfromwhat I understand, the DF 727 is FF9 only. There is supposedly a good freeware727 that works well with FSX if the switch is that important to you. I know it's only a bit of your question, but I figured I'd help with what I could.

Paul Barnhill

Assistant Chief Pilot, A350-900

Posted onPost created on April 20 2011 09:43 ET by Holger Ende

Hi Randy,

compared to my old machine (a 3 years old celeron notebook with on board graphics) the cockpit interior now seems to be displayed in a minor quality. And switching the settings to 16M colors shows no negative effect. So my conclusion was: It is running at 16M colors. Maybe I am wrong and the minor quality is a result of a bigger screen (which eventually multiplies some graphical errors in the cockpits). But Windows is definitly running with 32M colors.
However - I will do some flights first. I don't think that this issue will have a big negative effect on my flying experience :-)

@Rob: Thanks for your helpful hints! If I find some time, I will install the FSX-Demo and do some flights to check the performance. Then I can make a decision about switching the versions. But I'm relucant in investing a lot of money if FS9 does its job

Thanks
Holger

Holger Ende

Captain, MD-11

Posted onPost created on April 20 2011 18:29 ET by Randy Donnelly

Hey Holger. I was more curios than anything. Its true you may notice differences with a larger screen. usually they can be optimized using the monitors colors, gamma etc settings and resolutions. different monitors reproduce colors better than others. My main monitor is a 28" I-Inc and is fantastic. You should have enough Video mem to run as high a resolution as needed.

As far as FSX. Your VC is fine. Usually to run FSX well, one needs to be in the mid 3.0ghz to 4.0ghz, or more, CPU speed in order for FSX to run smoothly. IMHO of course smile

You be ok as long as you didn't have a bunch of AI aircraft and fancy addon scenery.

Randy Donnelly

First Officer, A320

DVA8447
Senior Captain, L-1011-100

Joined on March 30 2010
50 State Club
Double Century Club

Morongo Valley, CA USA

230 legs, 353.4 hours
31 legs, 38.9 hours online
229 legs, 352.3 hours ACARS
1 legs, 1.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on April 21 2011 11:18 ET by Phil Baker

You may want to calibrate your monitor, I recently noticed degraded images in the 2d cockpit, everything else looked great. Using the calibration website listed it seems to have gotten better.

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Phil Baker (DVA8447)

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