Tuning Rendering Settings

This page contains tuning tips for getting the best frame-rate from X-Plane.

= Understanding Hardware Limitations =

The object of rendering settings are to customize X-Plane's drawing to compromise between framerate and visual quality given the constraints of specific hardware.

But not all hardware acts the same; different rendering settings utilize different parts of the graphics card; the relationship between rendering settings and hardware can be complex, but understanding that relationship is key to tuning X-Plane's rendering settings.

= Tuning for Lots of Objects =

Objects usually consume the CPU more than any other resource; beware of combining a lot of options with other CPU-heavy choices.
 * High detail runway environment adds more objects for the runway lights.
 * Birds are all objects - the flock can add 500 objects to the scene.
 * Cars are objects - when road and object densities are higher, more cars show up, so when other settings are higher, cars cost more.
 * Decrease field of view.

= Tuning for OrthoPhoto Scenery =

Orthophoto scenery comes in a few different forms:
 * DSF base meshes and ENVs (an ENV always has a mesh)
 * Overlay DSFs (with draped polygons).

If an orthophoto scenery package uses overlay DSFs, X-Plane will become limited by its ability to fill in screen pixels on all but the fastest cards, because X-Plane must draw the base mesh, then draw the orthophoto overlay over it. All three of these consume the graphics card's ability to fill in pixels; in particular combining these options can slow you down a lot. So at large resolutions, turn down anti-aliasing or pick simpler shader settings.
 * Turn down full-screen anti-aliasing.
 * Decrease X-Plane's window size.
 * Turn down pixel shader settings.