I'm starting plans for setting up a simulator lab at work using FlightGear. I've got my company's sim to output native-fdm style messages, and when I run FlightGear with --native-fdm=socket --fdm=external, our sim drives FlightGear without problems.
The next step is to decide on hardware to use. I think we are going to have 3 computers, each hooked to a projector, so we'll have a somewhat wrap around display. The projectors will probably do 1024x768. How fast of hardware is necessary to get good frame rates at that resolution? I want to make sure the display isn't going to stutter, but I don't want to go nuts with the price, either. I'd like the framerate to never drop below 30fps. I know my Dell 2.8GHz P4 with GeForce 5500 can average over 30fps, but it drops down below 15fps occasionally. That's with the default scenery, not aerial photographs which is definitely something we'd like to try to do eventually. I've got a personal bias towards AMD processors, nVidia graphics cards, and linux for an OS. I don't have any problems using a Pentium 4 or Pentium M with an ATI graphics card if it's performance is better for FlightGear. The systems are never gonna do anything but run FlightGear, and if WinXP gives better performance, then that's no problem either. Or a Powermac G5 running Mac OS X, even. Shuttle just came out with a nForce4 small-form-factor system, with socket 939, PCI Express, Dual channel DDR400, for about $400. So combine that with an Athlon64 3200+ ($200), nVidia 6800 PCI-E ($300), 2x256MB of DDR400 ($100), 80GB 7200rpm SATA HD ($60), and it's about $1100 per box. An Athlon64 4000+ would add $450, and a 6800 Ultra would add $350, almost doubling the cost of the system. If I went with full size ATX, I could get two PCI-E x16 slots and do SLI, but that'd be pricey as well. Thanks for your advice, Miles _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-users 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
