People love playing flight simulators as it simulates a real flying experience. Of course the more realistic the experience the better. As we are viewing the simulated world through the graphics displayed, the graphics is a vital component. There are a number of components to a great graphics experience, including how detailed the scenery is and how smoothly the graphics are displayed. The computer has a great impact on the second component, how smoothly the scenery is displayed. In technical terms, this is called the frame rate.
The frame rate of a flight simulator refers to how often the screen is updated. Frame rate is measured in fps, standing for frames per second. So, if the computer is updating the screen at a rate of say 5 frames per second, the screen will actually look quite jerky. It will not look realistic at all. For comparison purposes, a television has a frame rate of 30 frames per second (NTSC system which is used in the U.S) and 24 frames per second (PAL system used in Europe and Australia). Similarly, to get a realistically looking flight simulation experience, your computer needs to produce the graphics at a frame rate of at least 15 frames per second, preferably higher.
Up to a point, higher frame rates will produce a better picture. To improve the frame rate that your computer can produce, there are two options. The first option is to upgrade the computer. The latest computer with good specifications will be able to produce high frame rates. The most important components to look at upgrading are the processor speed, the computer memory and the video card. If you are running Microsoft Flight Simulator you will also need a 3D video card. To get the best performance, you would want to have at least a 3.0GHz process, more than 2GB of memory and 512MB of video memory.
The second option of increasing the frame rate of your flight simulator is to consider what you can change with your existing computers setup. There are a number of areas you can change with your computer that won’t cost money and may increase performance. One simple improvement is to update the drivers on your video card. Often the video drivers can become out of date and installing the latest will increase the performance. This is a simple download and you will have instantly better graphics performance. Also, look at what is running on the computer. Make sure no other programs that are not needed are running. Every program uses system resources, and we want to minimize the number of programs running, so the flight simulator can have the computer’s resources to itself. Another area to look at is the graphics settings inside the flight simulator software, it may take some time, but you could find the combination of settings that will dramatically improve your frame rate.
For more information on flight simulator controls, including the flight simulator yoke go to www.flightsimulatoryoke.org
