Windows 2000 compatible interface?

[babek_b]

[Eric Brouwer]

First, you will need a battery for your transmitter. For the interface option, you can go for any of the following:
- Serial PIC Interface (com port)
- Joystick Interface (game port)
- USB Interface (USB port, simulating a joystick)

The serial PIC interface will limit your setup to FMS, whereas the others can be used on other simulators/games as well.

FMS does not need a top of the range PC. However, it is recommended to have at least a 32MB video card. I am running a Pentium II, 300MHz with a 32MB video card, and getting around 30 frames a second. It is also a good idea to check your version of DirectX. Anything below version 8, I will recommend you to upgrade DirectX.

Have a look on my for a quick link to the DirectX site.

[babek_b]

Hello Eric
Thank you for your reply and advice.
What puzzles me is that I have NVIDIA GeForce2 with 32 MB Video card in my PC on the PCI bus and with a 1280 x 960 pixel resolution I get 1 - 2 Frames per second with FMS. When I reduce the resolution to 800 x 600 I still get 1 - 2 Frames per second. In both cases the CPU is running 100% indiacting that the CPU is the bottleneck.
Am I missing something ? Is the PCI bus contributing to the problem ?
I am considering upgrading my PC to a 1+ GHz and I hope it will solve this problem for me. I will make sure it has a Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) slot. Any other feature I should look out for ?
Also I have been told that the Serial PIC Interface (com port)
and USB Interface are both slower than the Parallel Interface. What is your experiance ? I could install
win98 on a second partition and use the Parallel Interface.
Any thoughts on the two issues ?
Thanks,
Bob

[Eric Brouwer]

I can not really comment on the PC, as there are so many variables. Did you check that you have DirectX 8.1 or newer? Also, you might want to see if there is updated drivers available for your video card.

Regarding the speed of the interfaces, I can not say that the one is slower or faster than the other. I have no problem with the PIC Serial interfaces. In theory, they should all be the same.

I have tried the parallel interface when I started with FMS, but I could never get it to work correct, so I can not comment on it.

[trevsie]

I too have a 32Mb GeForce. I recently upgraded to NVidia drivers v44.03 and DirectX9.0 both at the same time and am now getting 1 fps and occasional problems running FMS such as "Canvas does not allow drawing" and "FMS has to close". Before the upgrade it was running fine, 70fps or better. If anyone has ideas please let me know. I am about to try re-installing the earlier NVidia drivers to see if they make a difference. Also, DirectX v9.0b has come out so I shall try that too.

Trevor

[trevsie]

An update to my last reply. I downgraded my NVidia drivers from 44.03 to v41.09 and FMS works fine. I have absolutely no idea why, though.

Trevor

[babek_b]

Hello Eric and Trevor
I followed Trevor's lead and downloaded the NVidia's driver v41.09, also downloaded DirectX v9.0b. After both were installed I got 38 - 42 FRS ! The CPU still is 100% busy.
But now FMS looks much better ! Thanks for posting your driver experiance.
I will go ahead now and get either the Serial PIC Interface or USB Interface.
Trevor, you had any performance issues with either interface ?
Thanks again for the help,
Bob

[trevsie]

I use the Ripmax joystick interface for my Futaba FF6 and Hitec Eclipse 7 radio control transmitters and have had no problems, it plugs into the game port and works fine for both aero and heli. I havent used any other kind of interface

Trevor