Improve performance (3)

In August 2000 Nvidia released new Detonator 3 drivers for all graphical boards based on Nvidia chipsets, like TNT, TNT2, Gforce256, Geforce2, no matter the graphical board is made by for example Diamond or Asus. It has been told that the new Detonator 3 driver gives a 50% better performance in some systems.

I prefer the original Nvidia drivers above the boards manufacturers drivers because it seems to be a more clean and solid driver.
Microsoft errors hints
At Microsofts site you can find a page explaining all kinds of error messages and solutions.
Illegal operations faults

If you are facing illegal *.DLL operations like g3d, terrain, symmap, texture, kernel this may be helpful:

IF you had used the GPS in a direct-to function or a flight route...do the following: in your FS2000\pilots folder, open up your situation and go 3/4 of the way toward the bottom - [GPS_Engine] DirectTo=True change the True to False DirectTo=False.

If you are facing terrain.dll errors it may be helpful to install the nightlights textures. (7Mb) Errors can be caused by wrong formatted texture (*.bmp) files. The nightlights files will replace the wrong ones. Please read the included instructions carefully.
Microsoft released a new patch on March 30th 2000.
Install it. It's a must have.
Improve performance (after installing the patch)

In you fs2000.cfg (in your main fs2000 folder) you need to set two parameters on 0 (zero) using your windows text editor (notepad.exe)

[PANELS]
IMAGE_QUALITY=1 <------set this to zero

Explanation: A value of 1 turns on bilinear filtering; a value of 0 turns it off. 

[MISCDATA] 
USEPOLYCOASTDATA=1 <------set this to zero

A value of 1 turns on coastlines polygons; a value of 0 turns them off.

Where is map view?
Map view from FS98 has changed to Overhead view in FS2K. It is accessed the same way (Shift-"]") and closed by "]" if it is the active window. You can toggle overhead view with Ctrl-S without opening a new window. The new Map view gives you access to airport and navaid information, allows you to move the plane by dragging, and even allows the tower position to be set by dragging. Double click on an airport or navaid to obtain information.
Improve performance (2)

The two single most effective settings that effect fps are "texture distance" and "visibility". Changing that can double the frame rate without loosing too much quality.

Some users report better performance using a big fixed swap file (for instance 500Mb) You can change the swap file setting in the configurations/system menu (performance TAB)
Using imported planes causes lock-ups. What to do.
The problem was this, as I tried to use add-on planes I found around the net in FS2000 I had a very particular problem no one seemed to be able to help with, but I found the answer myself by accident. The problem was in using the add-on planes I found vs. the stock planes that came with the game itself, the instruments would go out on me about every 2 minutes, I would not be able to turn them on again as the game still thought they were on !! The only way to get them back on was to choose the same plane again, and wait. You can not switch from a default plane in FS2000 to a addon which is derived from FS98 with the engines OFF, this will cause FS2000 to go screwy with the instruments and cause a general malfunction or complete shutting off as I was experiencing. I was using a saved situation with engines off to start up, and this caused the problems. The solution is simple, always start up with engines ON, or switch planes from default FS2000 ones to add-on ones with the engines running.
How to avoid a flight starting at runway using the Flightplanner
When you use the flightplanner it will position you at the beginning of the runway in stead of a start position for taxi. The workaround is as follows:create the flight plan, save it, then CANCEL the dialog (click on the red "X") Your A/C stays at the FBO (or wherever) then you can taxi to your chosen runway. Now you can open the flight planner, load your flight plan and hit the CHECKMARK. It's not an exact science but it work.
I can't get my CH-Yoke run properly like it did in FS98

You will have to make some changes in the fs2000.cfg file that can be found in your fs2000 folder.

insert the line "stick_sensitivity_mode=0" into the : [CONTROLS] section of the FS2000.CFG file. It seems to make the joystick input stuff then all work like it used to. Then simply cut-and-past all the [JOYSTICK_...] sections from my FLTSIM98.CFG file into the FS2000.CFG file, in place of the ones it generated, and everything will be like before.
How do I find out the navaid frequencies, airport elevation, etc.?
Go to Map View and double click on an airport
I have to hold the Shift-Num7 key to keep looking in another direction
If you release the num and shift key one after the other, then the view stays fixed. I can't remember if it is first shift and then num, or the other way around. Try it out.
How to make FSNavigator to work in FS2000

First copy the entire FSNavigator folder from the FS98\Modules folder to the FS2000\Modules folder. Then copy the individual files named FSNav.dll and FSNav.isu from the FS98 Modules folder to the FS2000 Modules folder. This should get it up and running for you. If this wasn't the issue you're addressing, maybe someone else will benefit.

How to get ILS information

Go to the map view and click on the airport. You will get a list of the ILSs.

Can I make the simulator run more smoothly?

Expand the scenery cache to 500mb both in the scenery library and in the file scenery.cfg Another tip for ATC users is to expand under [APL] CACHE_WAV_FILES=5.

The stuttering of the FS2000 is caused by the Attitude indicator gauge and the DG gauge. If these are disabled, we have found the sim to run completely smoothly. Microsoft's patch should solve this.

Microsoft posted an article about this issue. More hints can be found there.

Closing other applications may help a lot. In the right bottom of your windows95/98 screen you can see all active programs. They all need less or more memory and most of them are not needed when flying. And worse: most of them are never used.....The workaround is:

  • Hit Start
  • Go to Run
  • Type in "msconfig".
  • Hit OK Once
  • in System Configuration Utility hit the Startup tab.

You can then check or uncheck the boxes to load what you want on start up therefore not having to hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete everytime you want to disable any unwanted programs running in the background.

There is also a small program available (End It All 392Kb ) which lets you terminate all nonessential programs for the purpose of installing new software, running finicky games (like FS2000...), or writing to CD-Rs that need a big buffer. The essential system programs Explorer and Systray cannot be terminated.

How can I see those nice inside pictures of the aircraft?
This is an option you have to check when you install the game. You need to choose the custom installation and in the following screen check the Install Interior Views button. If you already installed FS2000 and can't see any interiors you can reinstall the simulator.
I am getting a page fault in my G2D.DLL file
It is reported that it can be fixed by updating the driver for the sound card.
How can I print my flight plan
Download the official patch. It addresses this issue.
How to use FS98 scenery without conflicts
To avoid conflicts you well need to make changes in your scenery.cfg file in the FS2000 root folder. How this should be done is described in this Microsoft article. This is a nice subject for a neat utility which can automate this task! Programmers please inform me if you are working on this job!
Can you tell me more about ILS. I don't know how it works....
Ray Jones wrote a nice article about this is a newsgroup. I saved it in this textfile.