3: Initial Flight Setup

General Access
Since X-Plane has been written to operate on Windows, Macintosh,
and Linux systems, the layout and appearance of X-Plane is the same
across all three operating systems for consistency. This may be
slightly different than the interface you are accustomed to, but is easy
to use.
Here are a few pointers to help you along:
- X-Plane's menu is hidden when you first launch the simulator. To
access the menu bar, just move your mouse pointer to the top of the
screen. When your mouse is within a centimeter or so of the top edge
of the screen, the menu bar will appear. There is no keyboard
command to access the menu bar.
- Anytime you've opened a window within X-Plane you can close that
window by clicking EITHER of the close 'X's' on the upper right or
upper left of that window.
- You can also hit your Enter / Return key to close any window that is
open.
-You can go to the SETTINGS > 'Joystick and Equipment' screen,
'Keys' tab, to see the key commands, and easily change them to
anything you like there as well. Additionally, note that many of the
keyboard shortcuts are shown in the X-Plane menus. For example, if
you go to the VIEW menu you'll see the list of all available views on

the left side of that drop down menu and the list of keyboard shortcuts
on the right.
Like most programs, the simplest way to navigate around X-Plane is
using the mouse, though there are many shortcut key commands to
help you navigate quickly through the options after you've become
more familiar with the program. These shortcuts are particularly
important when you're trying to use the mouse to fly. In that case, it is
much easier to use the '2' key to drop a notch of flaps than it is to let
go of the controls and then reach down with the mouse to adjust the
flaps and then reach back up and grab the controls again. Of course,
while you're attempting to do this the aircraft is merrily flying along at
150 knots or something.
Note: Most instruments and controls inside the cockpit are interactive,
meaning that you can use the mouse to alter switches, set
frequencies, manipulate the throttle(s), and trim, etc. Before you start
to use X-Plane, you may need to configure and calibrate your joystick
(if applicable), and set the rendering (display) options to optimize the
software for use with your system. We explain that now:

Joystick Configuration and Calibration

Note: If you are using a joystick or other hardware, it will need to be
plugged in before you start X-Plane or X-Plane will not see your
input devices. Earlier, we reviewed the various types of input devices
that you may want to consider. The most common type of input device
is a joystick. More elaborate input devices such as flight yokes, multiengine throttle quadrants and rudder pedals can also be configured

with X-Plane. Note that X-Plane can only listen to USB-format

devices. This configuration has become the industry standard and is
probably what you already have, assuming your hardware isn't
excessively old. The first thing that you must do to use a joystick (or
other input device) with X-Plane is to properly calibrate it within XPlane.
A few notes before we get started:
- If you don't have a joystick or other input device, you can still control
X-Plane by using the mouse and keyboard.
- A joystick of some kind is recommended as a minimum flight control
device as this will be much more realistic and provide a better
environment for you to use the software.
Axis Assignment
Once X-Plane is running, go to Settings > Joystick and Equipment.
This will bring up the screens that will allow you to configure and
calibrate your joystick hardware. To start, click on the Axis tab at the
top of this screen.
To setup and calibrate your joystick, move your controls around to see
how the axes are mapped into X-Plane. When you do this, you'll see
one of the green bars move for each input you actuate. Thus, when
you roll your stick or yoke left and right only one green bar will move.
If you push it back and forth another bar will move. Select from the
drop down box to the left of each green bar the desired function in XPlane. The normal configuration is as follows:

1: The axis that moves when you move the stick / yoke left and right
should be assigned to ROLL.
2: The axis that moves when you move the stick fore and aft should be
assigned to PITCH.
3: The axis that moves when you move the throttle should be assigned
to THROTTLE (NOT 'throttle 1' or 'throttle 2'), unless you're flying a
multiple engine aircraft and are using a multi-engine throttle quadrant.
4: The axis that moves when you move the rudder pedals left and right
should be assigned to YAW.
5: The THROTTLE axis should probably have the REVERSE box
checked.
If you have additional input devices, you can program them within XPlane in the same way.
Note: Any green bar which is not actively controlled by your hardware
needs to be set to 'none'.
Calibrating Joystick Hardware
This is a step of vital importance that often gets left out. Keep in mind
that X-Plane is capable of interfacing with most modern joysticks and
pedals and so-forth. Some devices may send a signal from 0 to 1,000
when you move a given control from one limit to the opposite and
another may send a signal (given the same movement of your hand or

foot) from -6,000 to 3,992 or something. How is X-Plane to know what

the limits are that your joystick will create? Easy! You tell it. You do
this by clicking the button labeled "Calibrate Joystick Hardware" on
this window. This tells X-Plane that you are next going to give it your
full range of signals for every possible input you have. To do this, just
move every one of your variable controls (that is, your sliders) through
their full and complete range of motion. You can do this quite rapidly
as X-Plane can log and remember all the different inputs at once. So,
after you click the button labeled "Calibrate Joystick Hardware" move
your stick or yoke from full right to full left deflection, from full back to
full forwards. Do the same thing for any engine controls you may
have, like throttles or propellers.

Button Assignment
Now click on the Buttons tab at the top of the screen. The buttons and
switches on your joystick and other input device(s) can be assigned a
function within X-Plane, for example to actuate the flaps or landing
gear. As you operate the buttons and switches you will see various
'Joy' indicators change from dark gray to green, This is an indication
that X-Plane has received your input.
To change a button or switch assignment, simply operate the
applicable button or switch on your joystick or other input device, then
select the required function within X-Plane by clicking on the small
circular button to the right of the 'Joy' indicators. Repeat this operation
for as many buttons and switches as you wish to assign the functions.
Close the dialog and your settings will be saved. Note: You must
press the required button or switch to select it prior to assigning it a

function. If you do not, you will overwrite the assignment of the

previous button or switch you programmed.
Setting Null Zones
Null zones determine how much you have to move the joystick before
X-Plane actually starts to take action. You may set a null zone for
each joystick axis to finely tune how responsive your control surface
inputs are, but this function is typically used to prevent your hardware
from 'creeping' in flight or to ignore the constant 'jittering' that many
older controllers will send to X-Plane. To do this, click on the
CENTER tab. Now operate each axis on your controller and hold
them at the point at which you want the control to begin operating
while in flight. Close the dialog and these axis positions will be saved.
Any movement inside the 'dead range' you just set will not affect the
aircraft's controls.
The fifth tab in the 'Joystick and Equipment' screen, EQUIPMENT, is
used to setup special equipment for use in X-Plane. This special
equipment section is generally used on multi-computer X-Plane
configurations on professional/FAA certified simulators or to tie in
various GPS navigators, for example a real Garmin 96/296/396 or 430
or 530 GPS radio. If you have some of this equipment, connect it to
your computer, set it up per the manufacturer's recommendations and
than check off on the Equipment screen (Settings > Joystick and
Equipment: Equipment) that you have connected this to X-Plane.

Controlling Joystick Sensitivity and Aircraft Stability

Now go to the CENTER tab at the top of the joystick screen. The topleft sliders are the sensitivity curves which control the responsiveness
of your input device. If these sliders are set all the way to the LEFT,
then the response will be completely linear meaning that a 50%
deflection of your joystick will deflect the flight controls 50% of their
travel. As you move these sliders to the right the response becomes
non-linear. In this case, the first 50% deflection of your joystick or
yoke may only deflect the aircraft's controls by 10%. This will dampen
any aircraft movements and desensitize your controls, but keep in
mind that the remaining 90% of the control surface deflection must
take place in the last 50% of joystick travel, in this case. Thus, your
controls will be very dampened for the first half or so of their travel and
then become hyper-sensitive for the remainder of their throw. This
gives you plenty of fine-tune control near the center of the flight-control
envelope to hold altitude and roll precisely, but still lets you get full
control authority at the extremes. Try flying with the sliders in various
different positions to see what setting works best for you.
Notice that there is an additional set of sliders on the upper right
portion of this screen. These control the X-Planes stability
augmentation mode by dampening the predicted forces acting on the
aircraft flight control surfaces. If these sliders are all the way to the
LEFT, then there is no stability augmentation of your aircraft. Now
let's say you drag the sliders to the right a bit . . . this means that XPlane will automatically add some stability augmentation to your
aircraft, adding some elevator input to level the nose, some aileron
input to minimize the roll rate, and some rudder input to counter any
aircraft yaw rates. In other words, the simulator will try to make the
plane easier to fly by adding control inputs for you. Try dragging the
sliders all the way to the right and flying the airplane . . . now it is a lot

easier to fly, right? Notice that the aircraft also becomes less
responsive and heavier on the controls.
Go ahead and play with the two sets of sliders to custom tailor the feel
of X-Plane to be comfortable to you.

Rendering Options Window Setup

X-Plane is a very advanced simulator that has been designed for use
across a broad range of computers of varying specifications. As such,
X-Plane provides the user with the option to make changes to
numerous settings to optimize performance given a particular system
specification or set up. For this reason, this is one of the most critical
portions of this manual. The Rendering Options page (go to Settings
> Rendering Options) allows you to match X-Plane's settings (and thus
computer requirements) to your computer's capabilities.
The Rendering Options screen is where all the settings affecting the
display quality and X-Plane's performance are set. You will probably
want to experiment with the settings in this screen to get the best
results from X-Plane on your computer. Generally speaking, the more
options you choose and the higher the setting of the rendering options,
the lower the performance and frame rate. The Rendering Options
you set will have more overall effect on X-Plane performance than any
other settings you can make.
Here's why this is so important:

The simulator's performance is measured in frames per second, or

Hertz (Hz), commonly referred to as frame rate. This is how many
times per second the complete code (currently more than 700,000
lines!) can be run. Each time the computer runs through the program
it advances the aircraft and recalculates the images that are seen
(cloud formations, scenery, aircraft instruments, other aircraft, etc).
Suppose for a moment that your computer was only powerful enough
to run one iteration every hour. That would be absolutely
UNBEARABLE. Here's why: you would sit there for 60 minutes with
out a single thing happening, and then the aircraft would suddenly
leap forward whatever distance had been covered in the last hour.
Then get to look at that image - never changing - for the next 60
minutes while your computer crunches through the next iteration to
see what will happen next. Obviously, this is not desirable. Not only
do you not want to sit there for hours and hours with nothing
happening, but the program would calculate all sorts of infinite
accelerations and massive changes in position and moment. This is
simply not viable as the computer is just too slow to run X-Plane; at
least for the way you've set X-Plane up.
As you can already tell, X-Plane has to be tremendously flexible to
allow it to run on two year old computers and also to take full
advantage of the newest super-computer that can be created. There
are two things that effect the Simulator's frame rate: the computer's
capabilities and what you are asking it to do (i.e., how much visibility
you have set, how many 3D objects like buildings, clouds, and other
aircraft are being drawn, how many roads to calculate, etc.). It should
be apparent that it will be much harder for the computer to compute
images when you're flying an airplane in 30 mile visibility with 8,000

three-dimensional buildings and cloud puffs than it would be if you set

X-Plane up with only two or three miles of visibility.
The faster the computer can run X-Plane the more realistic and
rewarding you will find the simulation. Scientific testing has shown
that the human brain can interpret individual frames at frame rates of
less than about 20Hz, causing the simulation to appear choppy.
Coincidentally, this is also about the same place that the engineering
begins to fall apart. Thus, we have set the minimum operating speed
at this level. If your machine is not capable of delivering a frame rate
of 20Hz while rendering the levels of detail you have set up in the
Settings > Rendering Options page, X-Plane will automatically
introduce fog to help your machine run more smoothly. The fog
means that X-Plane doesn't have to draw the world to as great a
distance and this allows the computer to run faster.
The following paragraphs explain what each of these options does.
We strongly suggest experimenting with these settings in order to get
the best experience from X-Plane.

Setting Up Your Monitor

Resolution Section
Texture Resolution
The 'Texture Resolution' setting determines the clarity and detail of the
textures displayed in X-Plane. Textures are the image-maps that are
draped over the terrain and aircraft to make them look realistic. If your

texture resolution is LOW, then the runway and terrain will look pretty
blurry and blocky . . . really not so great. While this will not look too
good, it will use very little VIDEO MEMORY (VRAM), so a high-framerate will be more easily possible. (We'll get into a lengthy discussion
on frame rate and how to optimize it in a few sections.) The more
powerful your video card is, though, the higher you can set your
texture resolution in X-Plane without hurting the frame-rate. The frame
rate will be VERY BADLY REDUCED, though, if you select a texture
resolution that requires more VRAM than your card has!
So, how do you tell what texture resolution you can set? Easy! Look
at the very BOTTOM of the rendering options screen and see how
much "VRAM is used at current settings." If you have a 128-meg
video card, and the VRAM used is only 32 Meg, then you can go up to
a higher texture resolution. The scenery, runway, and airplane will all
look much better and sharper and more crisp. And, as long as you do
not ask for more VRAM than your video card has, your frame-rate will
not be impacted. Note that if you set a texture resolution which
requires substantially more VRAM than your video card has, your
frame rate will be MASSIVELY impacted as the computer begins to
use system RAM to store textures - a VERY SLOW process.
NOTE: you must restart X-Plane (but not your computer) for the
changes in texture resolution to take effect! Thus, if you are using 32
MB VRAM according to the rendering options screen, but have a 128
MB video card, then crank the texture resolution up a notch or two and
re-start X-Plane... then go into the rendering options screen and see
how much VRAM is used at the new setting. In a perfect world, the
VRAM used will be just right about equal to or a bit more than the
VRAM of your video card. This will give maximum texture detail

without overflowing the video card and reducing your fame rate.
Set Color Depth and Monitor Resolution on X-Plane
Startup
Check this box and X-Plane will automatically reset your monitor to the
same resolution as X-Plane every time you start it, making the sim
always run full-screen. If you check this box, you will also get to
choose a color-depth of 16-bit or 32-bit... 32-bit looks a little better. If
you don't have this box checked, then X-Plane will run in whatever
color depth you have your monitor set to, which is probably 32-bit (or
"millions of colors" as described on Macs).
Anti-Alias Level
The anti-alias option is pretty interesting. There are only about a
million pixels on your monitor; which seems like a lot, doesn't it? In
reality, it's not for what X-Plane is doing. When any computer tries to
draw a diagonal line across these rectangular pixels, "jaggies" result,
which is pixilated-looking "stair-stepped" lines. If you would like to try
and eliminate these jaggies select anti-aliasing and this will actually
draw the X-Plane world several times per frame and blend them
together, resulting in a better-looking image. This will completely kill
your frame-rate if you don't have a strong video card, but if your video
card is powerful, you can crank this option way up without the framerate being affected too badly.
Screen Res (Resolution)
This option sets the full screen resolution of X-Plane. The default and

recommended setting is 1024x768 pixels. Other screen resolutions

can be used, but you may find that frame-rate deteriorates just a little
as the screen area gets larger. If the X-Plane window does not fill your
screen, determine at what screen resolution your computer is running
and enter this same resolution here. Or, do it the other way around:
Set the resolution on your computer to match the resolution on XPlane. Changes to this setting will take effect after X-Plane is
restarted.
NOTE: IF YOUR MONITOR IS NOT OF A STANDARD 4:3 ASPECT
RATIO, THEN EVERYTHING ON THE SCREEN WILL BE
DISTORTED IF YOU RUN X-PLANE IN 1024X768. Why is this? Well,
think about it: X-Plane's standard resolution is 1024:768.. this is a
ratio of 4 to 3, agreed? Now lets say that your monitor is NOT 4:3
aspect ratio? Then what happens? Well, if the monitor is not physically
4/3 as wide as it is tall (4:3 aspect ratio) but the pixels are 1024x768
(4:3 aspect ratio) then there will be distortion of the image! Things that
should be round will appear as oval. This is not any sort of bug in XPlane, it is just a fact that if you take 4:3 image and stretch it over a
space that is not 4:3 in proportions, it will simply be stretched in some
direction. This is no different than taking a piece of wallpaper from
your wall and stretching it out too far in one direction and seeing that
the circles printed on the wall-paper are now ovals! This stretching is
most easily seen as instruments that appear to be oval. So, if you see
this, what do you DO about it?
Well, the first step is to buy standard-aspect ratio monitors if you want
X-Plane to fill the whole screen. This means they must physically be
3/4 as tall as they are wide. This is the 4:3 aspect ratio. Their max
res should be 1024x768 if you want the X-Plane cockpit to fill their

screen. If you buy a monitor of some OTHER aspect ratio (like a widescreen) then if you set the monitor res to a wide-screen res (like
1280x768) then you will have un-used pixels on either side of the
monitor. If you set the monitor to 1024x768, then you will be stretching
1024 pixels across the space occupied by 1280 pixels . . . a clear
case of distortion!
So stick to 4:3 aspect ratio monitors to avoid image distortion if you
want to fill the whole screen with an X-Plane cockpit with no distortion.

Setting up the X-Plane World

Performance Rendering Options
Forest Density
This control is pretty self-explanatory, allowing you to control how
dense the forest and shrubbery are in X-Plane. Keep in mind that
drawing more and more dense forestry will have a moderate effect on
the simulator's ability to maintain frame rate.
World Detail Distance
This will set the level of detail of objects in the world scenery, and from
how far away this detail will be visible. Changes to this setting will
take effect after X-Plane is restarted and have a large effect on frame
rate. Be careful with this one.
Number of Objects

This will determine how many three-dimensional objects are drawn in

the world scenery, for example buildings. This will obviously have a
VERY POWERFUL effect on the simulator's performance as flying
over New York City with 8,000 little 3D buildings is much more difficult
than flying over rural Iowa with only 20. Changes to this setting will
take effect after X-Plane is restarted. This control will have a very
large effect on frame rate - be careful with this one.
Number of Roads
This will set the number and complexity of roads and rivers, which will
be displayed in X-Plane. Changes to this setting will take effect after
X-Plane is restarted and have a moderate to large effect on frame rate.
Draw Instructor's Operating Station on Second Monitor
on Same Video Card
If you have a dual-head video card (which must be configured in your
OS, by the way) and check this box than a second X-Plane window will
open on the second screen. On this window go to "Output > Local
Maps" and you will than have the option of checking on the "IOS, or
Instructor's Operating Station. On the left you will than be give the
option of loading different aircraft, relocating the aircraft, failing
systems, and altering the weather for the 'student' pilot. Note that this
IOS functionality is available not only on a second screen on the same
computer, but also from a second computer networked to the student
via a LAN or through the internet. This option has no effect on frame
rate.
Anisotropic Filter Textures

OK, this one is a bit difficult to explain. Imagine if you take a picture
and look at it from about two feet, with your eye directly above the
image and perpendicular to it. Things are clear and sharp, right?
Now take the same picture and rotate it 90 degrees away from you so
you're looking at the edge. How does the image look now?
Obviously, you can't see it any longer. Now rotate it back towards you
but only about 5 to 10 degrees. You can just start to make out the
image but, since you're looking at it from such a low angle the picture
is all fuzzy and poorly defined. This is analogous to looking at the XPlane scenery from a low altitude on a clear day. The images directly
in front of the aircraft will be relatively clear, but the farther the scenery
gets towards the horizon the fuzzier the image becomes. The
anisotropic filter helps to filter this fuzziness out, helping the image to
be more clear. This option has a minimal effect on most machines
and a moderate impact on some machines. Try it out and see if you
like it and if you can live with the performance penalty.

Draw Hi-Res Planet Textures from Orbit

X-Plane can simulate orbital and sub-orbital flight using the Space
Shuttle and other spacecraft. If selected, this option will display highresolution images of the Earth when simulating space flights. These
high-resolution images will typically be displayed at altitudes of
100,000 ft or higher. This has no effect on frame rate unless you are
above that altitude.
Oil Rigs, Carriers and Frigates

In the past this was a user option. In the new version, X-Plane
populates areas of ocean for you automatically with Oil Rigs, Aircraft
Carriers, and Frigate Vessels, which can be used to perform maritime
flight operations. You can land and take off from these vessels, which
realistically pitch and roll in the waves according to the weather
conditions you have programmed. These additional items have a very
negligible effect on frame rate.
Draw Cars on the Roads
The X-Plane world can be automatically populated with hot air
balloons, cars parked by airports and driving on the roads, and some
other objects. Use this option to switch these objects on and off. Note
that the hot air balloons are only displayed on relatively calm days, as
in real life. This option has a moderate effect on frame rate.
Draw Birds in Nice Weather
This is a relatively new feature in X-Plane that arose from a near-miss
between Austin (the author of X-Plane) in his Cirrus and a small flock
of birds while departing from Columbia, South Carolina, one day. As
he was climbing out a flock of birds flew in front of his aircraft and
Austin thought we was about to incur multiple collisions. As luck
turned out the birds did not collide with him but it was enough to open
his eyes and to realize that this potential hazard needed to be
modeled in X-Plane.
It would have been cool to just draw a flock of birds that moves around
but that wouldn't be very accurate. He went much further than this
and actually designed flocks of birds that fly around, flapping their

wings. Each bird is modeled independently and has its own little
mission. Thus, when you see a flock of birds it looks VERY realistic
and colliding with the birds will cause damage to your aircraft as well
as engine failures and other things, just like in real life. This option
has a negligible effect on frame rate.
Draw High-Detail Runway Environment
When checked, this option will use a light texture in place of a light
point wherever there is such an object used in the scenery. Although
it looks more realistic, if there are a large number of lights in a scenery
area, having this option enabled will negatively impact performance to
a moderate degree.
Draw Cloud Shadows and Reflections
This option will simulate cloud shadows on the terrain and sun
reflection effects on the ocean. If your OpenGL graphics card and
driver support multi-texturing, this option will not cause a noticeable
drop in performance.

Setting up Clouds
3-D Cloud Controls
X-Plane's 3D clouds are generated from many smaller cloud sprites, or
'puffs'. They give the appearance of a true, volumetric cloud, which
you can fly through, or around. They also develop over time, just as in
real life, depending on the weather conditions. You can experiment

with these settings to obtain a balance between performance and

visual appeal.
Number of Cloud Puffs
This option sets the number of cloud puffs, as a ratio to the default
value of 1.00. Increasing the number of puffs will have a massive
impact on frame rate. Be careful with this one.
Size of Cloud Puffs
This option sets the size of each cloud puff, as a ratio to the default
value of 1.00. The larger the size of cloud puffs, the lower the
performance of X-Plane will become, although this may not be too
noticeable on modern video cards.

Special Viewing controls - i.e.: multiple

monitor installations
Field of View
The Field of View setting will change the way X-Plane renders
(displays) the view of the outside world. Higher settings will allow
more of the terrain to be viewed at any one time, but will reduce
performance. Higher settings will also increase the 'fish eye' effect of
the simulator. The default value is 45 degrees, which generally gives
the most natural view and good all round performance.
Minimum Frame Rate
As discussed previously, the frame rate is the number of unique

pictures, or 'frames' that the simulator displays per second. The term
comes from the motion picture industry where each frame was a
separate picture taken by a movie camera. As far as X-Plane is
concerned, the higher the frame rate, the greater the flight model
accuracy and the better the visual appeal will be. This function will set
a minimum frame rate that X-Plane will attempt to maintain. If your
system has too many rendering options set, or those options are set
too high, X-Plane will automatically reduce the visibility in an attempt
to maintain the specified minimum frame rate specified here.
The minimum frame-rate is interesting... if X-Plane ever gets BELOW
that minimum frame-rate then it will reduce the visibility to try to get the
frame-rate up to draw less. You can't go less than 20 fps (frames per
second) because the flight model needs at least 20 fps to do a decent
job simulating most airplanes... although smaller, lighter planes with
less inertia and more speed for their size and more maneuverability
will actually need MORE than 20 fps to fly accurately because they
can flicker around the sky so quickly: a high frame-rate is needed to
accurately track the plane's rapid accelerations. If your frame-rate is
too low for the flight-model to handle, then the plane is likely to start
oscillating quickly back and forth (referred to as 'simulator flutter', often
with autopilot on) as the flight model tries unsuccessfully to predict
what the plane will do next... unsuccessfully, because your computer
is running too slow to take small enough time-steps in the flight model
to see what the plane will really do each moment in time. The smaller
and more maneuverable the plane, and the faster it goes, the greater
the accelerations. And the greater the accelerations, the greater the
needed frame-rate to simulate the plane.

View Options

Draw View Indicator

This is a handy feature that will draw a little orange triangle in the top
center of your screen when looking any direction other than forwards.
It rotates about a little depiction of your aircraft and points in the
direction that your screen is pointing. This is helpful in maintaining
situational awareness. This option has a negligible effect on frame
rate.
Draw Forest Fires and Balloons in Warm Weather.
When checked, this option will draw randomly generated forest fires
for you to practice water bombing. X-Plane can realistically simulate
such operations, requiring you to fly a water bomber such as the CL415 (found in 'Seaplanes') and scoop up water from the ocean or a
nearby lake. This option has a negligible effect on frame rate.
Dim Under High G-Load or Hypoxia
When checked, X-Plane will simulate the effects of gravity, creating Gforce blackouts under tight maneuvers or hypoxia from high altitude
flying. These affects are true to life and you will see the screen either
'black out' or 'red out' just as a pilot would experience a loss of
eyesight under extreme high or low G situations. Additionally, you will
black out if you fly at too high an altitude with out first setting your
pressurization or oxygen system, just like in real life. This option has a
negligible effect on frame rate.

Expert Rendering Options

Compress textures to save VRAM
Check this and re-start X-Plane and you may be able to use about
twice the VRAM without overflowing your card! If you do this, then
some of the crispness and precision of the textures may be lost! Try it
out if you like and see what happens.
Do Any Scenery Loads in the Background
This will do exactly what it says, to load new scenery when you are
about to fly out of one sector of scenery and into another. There is not
a computer that has been built yet that has the memory required to
load the entire Earth scenery into active memory. Thus, the scenery
must be broken down into smaller pieces and loaded in sectors. In XPlane each sector is three degrees of longitude by two degrees of
latitude. If you uncheck this option your computer will not load
scenery as you approach the end of the sector that was loaded in
flight. This will prevent your machine from going into the annoying
pause (typically 15 to 30 seconds or so) but you will quickly find
yourself out over the ocean if you fly beyond the location of scenery
that was originally loaded. Why ocean? Because this is what XPlane draws if you fly over an area that does not have any scenery
installed. This option does not affect frame rate as you fly along but it
does prevent your simulation from pausing periodically since it never
loads new scenery.
Checking this option causes X-Plane to load as much scenery as
possible in the background while the simulator is running in the

foreground. This is where a dual-core or multi-processor machine

comes in useful! A single hyper-threaded CPU? Not so good - you
really want a dual-core chip or dual CPU's.
Runways follow Terrain Contours
X-Plane includes a feature whereby runways and taxiways can follow
the elevations of the terrain upon which they are drawn. In some
cases, the changes in elevation of the terrain may be too abrupt, which
can make airport runways overly bumpy. For this reason, the default
case is for X-Plane to flatten the terrain under the runways. Checking
this box will disable that convention and allow the runways to follow
the underlying terrain. This option has no effect on frame rate.

Special Viewing Controls

The options in this section are used for multi-computer simulators.
This will allow you to run different views on different monitors, for
example a left, center, and right views on three different monitors.
Others may like to draw the instrument panel on one screen and the
forward view on a second screen. Note that each screen requires its
own computer and copy of X-Plane as each machine is running a
parallel simulation. To do this, tie the various computers together via a
standard Ethernet network through a router and get the machines
communicating. Than launch X-Plane on each computer and go to
the Settings > Data Input/Output screen. On this screen go to the Inet
1 or Inet 2 tab and enter the various IP addresses of the different
machines in the appropriate location. Call customer service if you
have difficulty with this and would like some assistance.

Under normal, single computer configurations, these options can all

be left at their default values
Field of View
The field of view (FOV) is exactly what it says: how many degrees of
width are displayed on the screen. While you may set the width of
your field of view, X-Plane will automatically set the vertical field of
view to maintain a non-distorted image based on the aspect ratio of
your screen's resolution.
Minimum Frame Rate
Lateral, Vertical and Roll Offsets
Let's say that you have three networked computers for additional
visuals to form a wrap-around cockpit. Each computer might have a
40 degree FOV. You should enter a lateral offset of -40 degrees for
the left visual, 0 for the front visual, and +40 degrees for the right
visual. If each visual has a field of view of 40 degree, these images
will blend together seamlessly if you don't consider the width of the
frame around the monitor. If you cannot set up the monitors to run
their effective image all the way to the edge (as you can with some,
even though you can't see the part theoretically under the border) then
you might try a field of view of maybe 38 degrees, based on whatever
fraction of the monitor is visible.
Entering the degrees of offset is what you would do for a wrap-around
view, where each monitor is at the same distance from the viewer,

each gathered around him/her in a circle and pointing at him. If,

however, you are placing all the visuals along a flat wall, where all the
monitors are in the same plane, each one off to the edge farther from
the viewer than the center one, then you will enter a RATIO offset...
-1.0 for the left and 1.0 for the right are recommended as starting
points.
Vertical and roll offset are what you would expect based on the text
above.
NOTE: While the view offsets do indicate how much to the left or right
or up or down each view is looking, people still make the same
mistake over and over: they run a center view with a cockpit in the
center screen, and external visuals on the left and right (this is fine)
but they notice that the horizon in the center (cockpit) screen does not
line up with the horizons on either side. The reason for this is that the
center-point of the screen where the horizon rests in a level flight
attitude is up near the =>top<= of the screen in the cockpit view (to
make room for the instrument panel) and the =>center<= of the screen
for the external visuals (which do not need room at the bottom for the
instrument panel). Often, people will incorrectly lower the vertical
offset of the center (with cockpit) view.
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!!!!! This results in countless problems with the
views not lining up and is like taking the wheels off the left side of your
car and then thinking you have the problem solved by holding the
steering wheel to the right to drive straight. It is =>not<= the correct
response to the problem. What you need to do in this case is go to
the viewpoint screen in Plane-Maker and set the cockpit viewpoint
center to 384 pixels (half of the 768-pixel height of the screen) so that

the viewpoint center in the cockpit window is the same as the

viewpoint center in the side-view screens. Only then will the horizon
always line up across all the visuals! In other words, the only time you
should enter a vertical offset is if you have one monitor on top of
another. If you have to enter a vertical offset for one of two monitors
that sit beside each other, you are doing something wrong! You need
to solve the problem by making sure that the viewpoint =>center<= is
the same pixel-height on all the computer monitors that are side-byside, and that height is always 384 pixels (halfway up a 768-pixel
screen) for the external visuals.
Lock View to Forward Cockpit
When you change the views in X-Plane, that changed view propagates
to all the external visuals, but maybe you want a view to ALWAYS be
forward-with-cockpit. Check that box here.

Setting up X-Plane to Achieve the Best Results

Here is a procedure that will allow you to optimize the performance of
X-Plane, regardless of the power of your computer or any limitations it
may have.
First the basics: You have to be able to tell how fast X-Plane is
running on your computer. To do this, launch X-Plane and go to
the Settings > Data In / Out, and check the right-hand box in front of
"FRAME-RATE", which sends the frame-rate to the screen in flight.
Now you can see how fast you are running, in the "freq /sec" output on
the far left. This is called "frames per second" or "fps".

- 15 fps is terrible and barely adequate to run the simulator.

- 30 to 50 fps is the range you should target - faster frame rates mean
your computer has reserve capacity. Studies have shown that starting
at about 50 frames per second, your sub-conscious mind forgets that
you are looking at a simulator, and thinks you are actually flying.
- 100 fps is insanely high and indicates you have plenty of capacity to
draw more buildings, clouds and other objects.
What are you seeing on YOUR computer? Not high enough? OK,
here's how to make it faster: Go to the Environment > Weather
screen. Set the cloud types to CLEAR or OVERCAST for maximum
speed, or HIGH CIRRUS or LOW STRATUS for good speed.
SCATTERED or BROKEN take a ton of computing power to run.
Set the visibility to about five miles or so. Higher visibility takes more
computing power to run, because the computer has to calculate what
the world looks like for a much larger area.
Nothing else in the weather screen will affect frame-rate, but clouds
and visibility affect it a LOT.
OK, close that screen and check your frame-rate now. Better? Good,
but we're not done yet.
Now go to Settings -> Rendering Options. Look at your TEXTURE
RESOLUTION. This setting determines how much VIDEO RAM
(VRAM) you use. As long as you have plenty of VRAM, you can set it
as high as you want with no loss in frame rate, but as soon as you set

the texture resolution to require more VRAM than you have, your
frame rate will die! How do you tell how much VRAM X-Plane is using?
Easy. Look at the bottom of the rendering options screen and X-Plane
tells you.
NOTE: You can in some cases allocate MORE VRAM than you
physically have, and X-Plane will still run fast, because a lot of the
RAM can be "cached away" in the system with no speed penalty if it is
not often accessed by the computer... like if it is the texture of desert
sand, for example, but no desert sand is visible to you because you
are not flying over the desert. But, if you have only 128 meg of VRAM
on your video card, and the texture resolution is set such that you
need 256 meg of VRM, then the computer will constantly be moving
RAM on and off the video card (between the video card RAM and the
system RAM) to draw each frame of scenery. This is VERY, VERY
SLOW. Thus, you must set the texture resolution low enough to avoid
this.
NOTE: After you change the texture resolution, you must re-start XPlane for the change to take effect! We recommend that you put the
texture resolution on its lowest setting, exit the sim, re-start it, and note
the frame-rate. Then raise the texture detail up one level and repeat,
keep doing this until the frame-rate decreases . . . this is the point
where you are using up all your VRAM! Back the texture resolution off
to one level lower than where you noted the decrease and restart XPlane again.
Now look at the screen resolution in the rendering options screen... it
uses up some VRAM, but not much. Your screen resolution is the size
of the image that X-Plane is drawing, in pixels width by pixels height.

You may have a large, wide monitor but that does not mean that
drawing a large, wide screen HAS to be more difficult for X-Plane. You
can either draw a relatively few number of pixels on that screen if you
set your system Screen Resolution accordingly or a lot. Remember,
you set this in your control panel > Displays (Windows Users) and in
your System Preferences > Displays (Mac users). Drawing a large
screen with few pixels will look much worse and 'grainy' than drawing
a smaller screen with more pixels - assuming that you are the same
distance from the monitor in each case. Obviously, drawing more
detail (with a higher screen resolution) uses up some video card CPU,
but not too much. The primary drag on your computer is in the
processor as it must calculate the view for a larger, more detailed
area. Play with this a bit and set the resolution as you see fit...
probably 1024x768 on a marginally powerful computer. Remember,
you will have to shut down X-Plane and restart for the changes to take
effect.
Now we get to the really critical things: the all-important "number of
objects" and "number of roads" settings. These have a HUGE impact
on frame-rate. Set these to NONE for speed, then reset X-Plane for
the changes to take effect. Then you slowly bring them up, one level
at a time and restart the sim to see what the change in performance
is. Setting these options to higher levels will look much nicer but will
massively impact your frame rate.
The many different boxes to the right of the world/object/road boxes for
speed were reviewed above in detail. Most of these do NOT make too
much of a difference, with the exception of "Draw textured lights" is
very CPU-intensive when flying at night. Thus, set these up pretty
much as you wish.

"Number of cloud puffs" has a HUGE impact on frame-rate when you

have scattered, broken, or overcast clouds, but you already know to
avoid those if you are not getting good frame-rate.
There's one more area that is pretty important, "Number of airplanes,"
accessed from the Settings > Aircraft and Situations window. It should
be '1' (yours) for maximum speed. Setting this number higher will
cause X-Plane to use AI (artificial intelligence) to fly any specified
number of other aircraft around the sky. Note that there is no logic to
determine what type of aircraft to place or where - thus you may see a
hot air balloon flying around New York City. Fun to look at but not too
realistic, we agree.
The other settings in this window don't really affect speed too much.