Settings for slower graphics cards

Some of us don't have the luxury of using the highest-end graphics cards. Fortunately, FlightGear can still render you enjoyment in the skies with a few strategic settings optimizations. The optimal settings may differ depending on your particular computer's hardware setup, so these are just suggestions from which you can experiment.

FlightGear Settings

Hardware Setup

Although the hardware may be more or less fixed, a few tweaks can make the difference from 2 fps -> 30 fps. Consider these adjustments to see if you can achieve high fps even without disabling FlightGear features.

• Graphics card drivers: Ensure that you have the manufacturer's graphics card drivers installed. For example, Windows may automatically install a generic graphics card driver that works fine for most applications but which does not offer OpenGL support. You may be able to download and install drivers specific to your card from the manufacturer's site. See Troubleshooting problems#Slow Framerate with OpenGL Card for additional information on drivers.
• Maximize power performance settings: If you're running a laptop, chances are your system defaults to a power-saving mode, even with the laptop plugged in. Adjust these settings to maximal power while running FlightGear.

FGRun setup

In the FlightGear Wizard, you can disable features that impact performance. A couple of these features have a particularly powerful effect.

• Disable unnecessary features: In the FlightGear Wizard dialog, uncheck items in the Display and Features settings that are unnecessary, particularly "Enhanced runway lighting". In the Advanced > Rendering dialog, uncheck any remaining features and change Shading to "Flat" and Fog to "Disabled".
• Fly in daytime: Changing from nighttime to daytime flying is not only easier on the piloting, but also easier on the graphic requirement. Check the "Time of day" box and select a daytime setting.
• Low-traffic airport: KSFO is a wonderful airport but also known for a high-volume of traffic, which can slow performance. Try another airport if you encounter performance issues.

In-flight settings

Some additional features can only be readily adjusted after boarding the aircraft. Use the "Show frame rate" option (in View > Display Options) to track frame rates in the lower right corner of the screen to see in real-time how your optimizations are speeding your rendering.

• Turn off shaders: Open the View > Rendering menu and uncheck the "Material Shaders" box (FG 2.4). In FG 2.6, move the "Shader effects" bar as far as possible to the "Performance" side.
• Fly over non-airport areas: While framerate may initially be as slow as 5 fps during takeoff, they may jump 5x or more after flying out to less-populated areas.

Low-resource aircraft

Certain aircraft have lower resource requirements. Here is a list of aircraft that are known to offer decent fps, especially over non-populated areas. Please add additional aircraft that you have found to work well on lower-powered computers.

• UFO: Very high performance (30+ fps) with minimal resources.
• Cessna Citation-X: Decent performance (10+ fps).
• F-4E (David Culp's hanger): Decent performance (10+ fps).
• F-5E: Good performance (up to 30 fps with shaders turned off).