OPERATIONS MANUAL

Simulator Handling
Instructor > Layout > Setting: (continued)
When designing your personal layouts, consider the following notes to optimize your
graphic performance on slow computers
+ The most performance-hungry flight deck areas are the PFDs, NDs, thrust levers, and
the windshield. The more they are zoomed in, the lower becomes the frame rate (on slow
computers). The frame rate may decrease also when clones of them are shown in other
subframes.
+ For this reason, be sure that clones which are not really needed in other subframes, are
completely outside that subframe. For example, if you have two subframes, with the left one
showing a complete real-size ND, and the right one showing a gear lever and a fraction of
an ND, pan this right subframe so that this fraction of an ND is completely out of view.
+ If you want to display just a certain small flight deck area on a monitor in your hardware
panel mockup—the captain’s PFD and ND, for example—and this area is smaller than your
physical monitor, make the entire flight deck frame as small as the area you really need, and
set your OS X or Windows desktop to solid black. The flight deck frame decoration can be
removed on Instructor > Preferences > Basics. Do not delete the simulator’s flight deck
image files, it may disturb the simulator’s graphic system.
General notes
+ When you use only one ND, deactivate the WXR and TERR modes on the other ND.
This is not because of the graphics (the other ND is out of view anyway if you follow the
advice above), it is because of the terrain database scanner continuously running in the
background to provide radar ground clutter images or EGPWS terrain images to two
individual NDs—each ND has its individual range setting and its individual position
reference (IRS map shift is possible). The scanner has 50% less work to do when the WXR
or TERR mode is selected on just one ND. Therefore, select these modes on both NDs only
when you actually use both NDs.
+ Another performance-hungry feature within the ND is the WPT mode. Some regions are
filled with a large amount of waypoints. Deselect the WPT mode when it is not needed.
+ Microsoft Windows users should check that the Windows task bar at the bottom does not
overlap the flight deck frame; otherwise, the frame rate may drop by 90%.
+ Anti-virus, Defender, and other programs running in the background may drastically
decrease the frame rate.
+ On notebooks, the battery power saving mode has a great impact on the frame rate. If
possible, do not use battery power when running the simulator.
OS X note
+ You may hide the flight deck frame by pressing CMD + H. However, when the frame is
restored, and the dock is in “hidden” mode, OS X will offset the restored frame by a few
pixels, showing a small gap at the desktop edge where the hidden dock is located. To
correct this offset, just reload the last layout file by pushing the Zero key on the numeric
pad or the Reload all button on the Setting page.
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