Weaker system than required: Will aerofly FS run?

[gliderpilot1980]

My system:

MacBook Pro 13''
OS X 10.6.8
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 256 MB VRAM

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The hardware requirements as listed on the aerofly FS homepage are

"Graphic card: ATI Radeon HD 4850 or NVIDIA GeForce 9600
or faster with at least 512 MB".

But there's also the following note:

"In the event your computer has a somewhat lower graphics power than listed in the requirements you can reduce the demand on the graphic card directly in the program."

So:

- Would aerofly FS run at all on my system?
- If so, is a video available that shows how much the performance and look of the simulator is reduced with my hardware?

Thanks!

[Arctic]

Hey,


at first (as you know) your/our MBP's have lower graphic power than recommended. And (in my opinion) a simulation like Aerosoft only makes fun on Hardware that can handle the graphics (at least at mid settings with about 25FPS).


My Hardware:


MBP 13" mid10
2,4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8Gb 1067MHz Ram
Nvidia Geforce 320M 256MB (shared)
OSX 10.7.3 Lion

Its playable on my Hardware with average settings. I think your MBP can handle it, too... (You own a late09, am i right? My graphic is a little bit better i think...) But the performance of AFS is not exactly brilliant... I recommend not to play in fullscreen mode or not in full resolution fullscreen. In cockpit view FPS are Bad (around 20), clouds are bad for the FPS and so on... Good FPS are not higher than 30...

I got the 2009 27" Imac, too. The MBP is for mobile work and fun only, lower graphics on are no problem for me on the MBP. But if the MBP is your only machine maybe you're not getting happy with the performance of aerofly FS on your Hardware...

Sorry for the bad englisch...

[gliderpilot1980]

Thanks!

I'll stick with Condor for the time being, in that case. Too bad... The eye candy of AFS is very tempting, even though it lacks many aspects I'd want to see in a simulator.

I'm almost exclusively interested in the soaring part of the sim, and there's a lot of important stuff that's missing, from what I've read:

- thermals not related to clouds
- no lenticularis / wave systems not flyable
- no NMEA output (for seeyou mobile, iGlide, XCSoar)
- no multiplayer mode
- no force feedback
- not enough gliders (ASK21, LS4, ASG29, ASH25, DuoDiscus, Arcus, Fox, ASW28, Ventus, ...)
- no aerotow launch (!!!)
- (...)

But the fact remains that this is beautiful (and cheap) enough to purchase once I have better hardware. Unfortunately, my MBP will probably do for another 2-4 years at least.

As a passionate glider pilot, I very much hope that the aforementioned aspects are integrated until then...

[IPACS Support]

@gliderpilot1980: As Artic said, your system specifications are below our recommended specifications. So we do not recommend you purchase aerofly FS yet, it simply won't run the way it "should". We are working on a small update that will run on slower hardware (which will be out in around 2 weeks), but it won't look as impressive as it could.

We really want our customers to be satisfied with our simulation and that means that aerofly FS should run as smoothly as possible thats why we have fairly high system requirements. This way we ensure aerofly FS runs perfect if these requirements are met. However your system is too slow right now.

We will post new information if we can actually get aerofly FS to work on the 9400M.

[gliderpilot1980]

@support: Thanks for the reply! I'll certainly keep myself updated on the development of AFS and if it works on the 9400M according to you, I'll be tempted again... ;-)

Other than that, it would be great if you could add the points I'm missing to your list for further development. For most glider pilots, these will probably be very important. Combine these with your outstanding graphics, and you could get quite a lot of Condor users to purchase AFS, because Condor frustrates their customers by not keeping their simulator up to date as quickly as everybody wants them to. (I'm aware that what I ask for is a lot, but I for one would be willing to pay for additional planes and features).

[sapam]

I end up purchasing the AeroFly FS from Mac App Store last week, installed and run it on my 13" MacBook Pro 2010 (Nvidia 320M).

Obviously, there is no way i can run the sim at High setting. But I manged to run it at the edge 20-30 fps at Medium Setting Window Mode and with trees turn down "low". The sim settled comfortably around 30fps.

Definitely, MacBook Pro 13" are not under the recommended list for this sim. But the battle was not lost for me after all and was able to run it at the edge.

Regards,
Sapam

[Arctic]

I got the 27" Imac HD 4850M 512MB and its impossible to play with high settings! Step from Medium (50-60FPS) to High (1FPS) is a small klick, but a big step for the Hardware in Aerofly FS :D

[sapam]

I got the 27" Imac HD 4850M 512MB and its impossible to play with high settings! Step from Medium (50-60FPS) to High (1FPS) is a small klick, but a big step for the Hardware in Aerofly FS :D

Did you try different resolution. I think with your spec you can still fly with High Setting getting a little low on resolution. Try lowering your resolution till you get optimum performance.

Regards,
Sapam

[Arctic]

Hey ;)


yes, i tried Window Mode as well as fullscreen with 70/80%. FPS are getting better, sure. But even if i use the smallest window i cant set terrain texture and texture quality to high. Thats not possible with 512MB VRAM i think... Like i prv. said, it seems to be a big step from medium to high. But ok, mine is the minimum recommended Hardware so its ok for me. Maybe i buy a HD 6970M 2GB from the newest Imac 27" Version, but its expensive with taxes and shipping from the States (Im from Germany)....

__________________________________

@Ipacs: Warum ist es eigentlich nicht möglich im Fenstermodus wie auch im Vollbildmodus den Prozentwert (wieviele Pixel berechnet werden) herunterzustellen? Das wäre richtig klasse

[IPACS Support]

We are currently uploading a new version to the Mac App Store that is compatible with the INTEL Graphics HD 3000 card at reduced quality settings. The new version also offers the option to turn off the shadows completely. This way users with slow cards can even further increase their framerate, of course at the expense of reduced quality.

@Artic: As soon as aerofly FS requires more than 512 MB ( which is the case if you set the quality is set to HIGH ) performance drops dramatically on ATI based 3D cards. This seems to be a driver issue specific to the ATI drivers of the Mac computers. So in this case, keep the Texture quality as well as the Terrain Texture quality at Medium to be sure you don't hit the 512 MB limit.
The percentage setting is limited to Fullscreen only for now but we will consider it for a future update in the window mode as well.