Download the X-Plane 10 Manual - X-Plane.com

4.8. CONFIGURING THE RENDERING OPTIONS 41
Figure 4.4: Selecting the Weather option from the Environment menu [Full size →]
Optimizing Other Rendering Options A few more rendering options are very important in
getting the best performance in X-Plane on your computer. Once again, to modify the rendering
options, move your mouse to the top of the screen, click Settings, and click Rendering Options.
On most computers, the rendering options with the greatest impact on performance are the
number of objects, number of roads, and number of cars, simply because these are CPUlimited
rather than being GPU-limited. These settings have a huge impact on frame rate. Set
them to none for the most speed, then restart X-Plane for the changes to take effect. Check the
frame rate, bring both settings up one level, and repeat, restarting the simulator each time to see
how performance is affected. Setting these options to higher levels will look much nicer but will
negatively impact the X-Plane’s frame rate.
Another important factor for X-Plane’s performance is the world detail distance setting. This
setting determines how far away from your aircraft the simulator’s 3-D objects will be rendered in
high quality. Doubling the detail distance will cause X-Plane to draw four times as many objects.
This is due to the fact that, from the aircraft’s point of view, the number of objects rendered will
grow in all directions equally. You may want to change this from default to low if frame rate is
at issue.
Higher values in the airport detail field will give, among other things, nice 3-D runway lights,
center line lights, and runway edge lights instead of simple, bodiless spots of light. These effects
contribute to a very authentic look for airports, but since these are only visible near the ground, you
may find the default value an acceptable compromise; lowering this setting can improve performance
significantly.
Modifying Cloud Rendering and Visibility Another group of settings that can be modified
for performance are the weather effects.
The number of “puffs” in each of X-Plane’s clouds can significantly affect performance. To get a
boost in frame rate, first open the Rendering Options as described above. There, drag the number
of cloud puffs slider down, perhaps to 10%.
A further increase in frame rate can be obtained by drawing only a few simple clouds, with
relatively low visibility. To set this, do the following:
1. Bring down the menu as above and click Environment, then Weather, as shown in Figure 4.4.
2. Select the radio button labeled “set weather uniformly for the whole world,” located near the
top of the screen.
3. Using the three cloud drop-down menus (found in the upper left of the screen, and pictured
in Figure 4.5), set the cloud types to “clear” or “cumulus overcast” for max frame rate. For
a good frame rate, set them to “thin cirrus” or “stratus.” “Cumulus scattered” or “cumulus
broken” take a lot of computing power to display.