Board index FlightGear Support Hardware

Building my pc for flightgear

Joysticks, pedals, monitors.

Building my pc for flightgear

Postby Rigas07 » Thu May 24, 2018 9:58 pm

Hallo i am new in your forum and i need help about my pc that iam going to make so i can work flight gear!
Can anyone give me imformation about my pc tower what characteristics must have so i can work flightgear,the minimum rerequirements musthave to work
dignified the simulator(grafic card,prossesor,ram,e.t.c
I dont know what i wil buy and what is beter for a medioum cost maximum

Thank you,i will be happy someone to helpme!!!!!!!!!
Rigas07
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 24, 2018 9:42 pm

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby legoboyvdlp » Fri May 25, 2018 3:26 pm

Hi there,

Well, I would say the absolute minimum is:
Code: Select all
8GB of RAM
A modern Nvidia Graphics card-> doesn't have to be a 1080Ti, the 920 works great!
A modern processor -> a Intel Core or the like (again, doesn't have to be an i7 - even a top-range Pentium or low-range Core would do well)
Good cooling


Without knowing more about your budget, whether you will use this PC for other games as well as FlightGear, it's hard to give more detail.

I spent £400 on a laptop, which is more than sufficient. You could spend anywhere between £400 and £1200 on a PC which would be powerful enough for FlightGear.

You could also go the self-build route as well, which gives you much more flexibility and can save you money :)
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby wkitty42 » Fri May 25, 2018 4:58 pm

GPU? definitely a NVIDIA video card...
CPU? we're using an AMD 8350 4Ghz 8-core Black processor... the 8 cores don't really help with FG but the speed is really nice...
memory? we would recommend 16Gig or more... we have 16Gig and FG can use up to 10Gig which then starts swapping and then everything goes to hades in a hurry...
OS? we're using linux... kubuntu 14.04.5 at the moment but we're also compiling our FG, too...

FWIW: here's a quick memory usage shot of the system at the current time... this is the top 15 memory users... you can see that FG is using 2Gig of RAM right now... with a few small changes and going on a long flight, 10Gig is easy to fill...
Code: Select all
top - 11:49:52 up 3 days,  1:19, 10 users,  load average: 2.37, 1.80, 1.70
Tasks: 298 total,   2 running, 295 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
%Cpu(s): 11.9 us,  7.9 sy,  0.0 ni, 80.2 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem:  12269128 total, 11977244 used,   291884 free,   115632 buffers
KiB Swap: 16776188 total,   314872 used, 16461316 free.  4885380 cached Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
21783 myuser    20   0 3645740 2.041g  89060 R  60.8 17.4  75:59.31 fgfs
 5104 libvirt+  20   0 5370676 878948   4648 S   1.0  7.2  42:56.33 qemu-system-x86
23329 myuser    20   0 9646284 626764  95488 S   0.0  5.1   9:49.23 firefox
 5027 libvirt+  20   0 5075608 605972   4684 S   0.3  4.9  23:28.74 qemu-system-x86
21553 myuser    20   0  593456 461132 281152 S   0.0  3.8   0:07.86 gdb
22919 myuser    20   0 2933980 440300  57056 S   0.3  3.6   4:50.27 thunderbird
 2302 root      20   0  402704 386120   1360 S  11.0  3.1 378:20.83 fancontrol
 2106 root      20   0  420172 268268 103728 S   9.0  2.2 600:52.48 Xorg
23434 myuser    20   0 2034788 230588  68132 S   0.0  1.9   6:32.82 Web Content
 4441 myuser    20   0 1677688 171724  67780 S   0.0  1.4   0:05.75 Web Content
10245 myuser    20   0 1954788 170248  50080 S   2.0  1.4  86:40.44 Discord
27854 myuser    20   0  639288 148244  73332 S   2.7  1.2  39:10.63 konsole
 2878 myuser    20   0 1667080 145488  68540 S   0.0  1.2   0:10.42 Web Content
 3682 myuser    20   0 1689840 135528  69512 S   0.0  1.1   0:09.02 Web Content
 6858 myuser    20   0 3454304 129600  35276 S   5.0  1.1 168:53.46 plasma-desktop
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9146
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby Rigas07 » Sun May 27, 2018 7:38 pm

Thanks verry much but becouse i am not an expert i understand about graphic card what to buy but can give me example about hard disk,prossesor a midioum example that i could buy;
Rigas07
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 24, 2018 9:42 pm

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby legoboyvdlp » Sun May 27, 2018 9:47 pm

Do you want to build your pc yourself or is a branded (eg Compaq or Dell) computer? And how much money do you want to spend? Tell me and if you want I can find you one.

(Also, what country are you in?)

Generally, I would get an Intel Core i5 or i7 Quad-Core for a medium powered processor. For Hard Disk, get maybe a 256GB solid state drive and a 1TB hard disk? Put FlightGear on the SSD along with scenery etc, massively decreases the loading times. But just a hard disk is fine too, I have just a hard disk myself.
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby wkitty42 » Mon May 28, 2018 2:55 am

i posted my recommended details above... the only thing i didn't list was a HD... 1TB are pretty cheap these days... that's more than enough room for FG and an OS ;)
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9146
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby FlugHund » Mon May 28, 2018 7:24 am

wkitty42 wrote in Fri May 25, 2018 4:58 pm:[…]we would recommend 16Gig or more... we have 16Gig and FG can use up to 10Gig […]

You might want to check your settings regarding tile-cache and LoD. If FG would (still) be such a memory hog, it wouldn't be usable on most of the computers out there. 8 GB is more than enough.
User avatar
FlugHund
 
Posts: 568
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:27 pm
Location: Inside ground effect
Callsign: D-HUND
IRC name: D-HUND / debdog
Version: next
OS: Devuan

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby Rigas07 » Mon May 28, 2018 9:01 am

I am from greece and i will make my own tower ,so i can put what ever i like just iwant to built it with a medioum cost!!
Thank you for all the help you will give me becouse its very difficult here in greece to find someone to haveyours experience!!!!
Rigas07
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 24, 2018 9:42 pm

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby legoboyvdlp » Mon May 28, 2018 10:38 am

Hi,
I found a website that gives lists of parts in "build guides":

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/vN48T ... ming-build
There is one that is fairly cheap at £600 or so while being more than sufficient for FlightGear.

For slightly more at £1,100 you could get this:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/sj9Tw ... ming-build
This has a more powerful processor and GPU, as well as more memory.

I can give more help later, but that should help you start.
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby StompingAround » Mon May 28, 2018 12:00 pm

I just built myself a new PC specifically to run FG flight simulator. It cost AUD$1759 and has the following bits:
i7 7700 cpu
NVIDIA Geforce 1060 graphics card with 6MB RAM
16 GB RAM DDR4
270 GB SSD
2 TB HDD
WiFi + DVD + SD Card reader + USB3.0 ports etc

I basically found something like this on the Dell Australia website (http://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/dell-des ... /b210101au), took it to my local computer shop and said can you build me something like this for the same price. The bloke said yep and away we went. I installed Ubuntu 18.04 and FG. Anyway, it works great with FG. Consistently draws 60 frames per second on a single monitor with the graphics bling turned up reasonably high. Having said that, I'm just running on standard definition scenery whilst waiting on the high def scenery to arrive on USB in the post and plan to use an old Sony LCD TV as a second monitor (hopefully to display cockpit gauges- not sure if this is possible). Will be interesting to see if the high def scenery and second monitory has an impact on the fps draw rate.

I've added a scenery directory on the 2TB HDD so as I don't clog up the SSD with scenery files (world = ~85 GB? apparently).
StompingAround
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun May 20, 2018 2:12 pm

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby wkitty42 » Mon May 28, 2018 5:45 pm

FlugHund wrote in Mon May 28, 2018 7:24 am:
wkitty42 wrote in Fri May 25, 2018 4:58 pm:[…]we would recommend 16Gig or more... we have 16Gig and FG can use up to 10Gig […]

You might want to check your settings regarding tile-cache and LoD. If FG would (still) be such a memory hog, it wouldn't be usable on most of the computers out there. 8 GB is more than enough.

i know exactly what my system can handle... i've worked with it a lot ;)
if you want realistic visuals when you're flying at 35000ft, you might want to adjust things...
Code: Select all
# the following distance numbers are based on the horizon distance of 369km @ 35000ft altitude
# visibility 370000 takes fgfs up to ~9.5G of RAM usage with these current settings
# visibility 150000 takes fgfs up to ~4G of RAM usage with these current settings
--visibility=75000
#--visibility=150000
#--visibility=370000
--prop:/local-weather/config/ground-haze-factor=75
#--prop:/local-weather/config/ground-haze-factor=150
#--prop:/local-weather/config/ground-haze-factor=370
--prop:/sim/rendering/clouds3d-vis-range=75000
#--prop:/sim/rendering/clouds3d-vis-range=150000
#--prop:/sim/rendering/clouds3d-vis-range=370000
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9146
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby Michat » Fri Jun 01, 2018 1:40 am

On a budget based on a free independent home tester channel, with evident positive results we have tested this successful GPU. It was in some I7 series driving win



See the description or follow this link for the brave young free independent home tester on a budget channel that will defeat many myths, especial mention to the old top-end on a budget cpu vs new bla bla bla series, again destroying the myth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lLw3zch5HI

The money you save is going to your cockpit equipment.

29.92 and Keep Calm cause 99.9 % suckertubers are pushing people as a user, as a gamer to the saw chain. BE CAREFUL with the formats. Case, gpu, mobo, power supply, cooling. Could be drive to undesirable surprises.
User avatar
Michat
 
Posts: 1226
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:24 pm
Location: Spain
Version: 191b
OS: MX 21 Fluxbox oniMac

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby dilbert » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:55 pm

On the low and cheap end:

I have a somewhat old system that handles FlightGear fairly well:

I3-4150 3.5 MHZ
8 GB RAM
Nvidia GEFORCE GT-210

Such a system could be built toaday in the $ 300 U.S. range.

A lot depends on whether you also want to use the machine for serious gaming; in which case you
definitely want an I5 or preferably faster processor.

I've spent a good bit of time watching the task master while running; and have very rarely seen
demand exceed 5 GB of Ram, so think 8 is adequate.

Yes, more video card is better. Today's gamers consider my obsolete GT-210 junk, but it's done well for me. Would recommend a GT-710 or, better yet a GT-1030; however, more powerful cards
require more power supply and better cooling, which escalates cost.

An economical system for about $500 U.S. might be:

Intel I3-8100 4x3.6 (has about twice speed of my 4150)
8 GB Ram
NVIDIA GT-710

The few limitations I've experienced on my system follow:

With Automatic Scenery Downloading on, downloading at start-up can be slow in high scenery areas;
however, if previously downloaded to TerraSync directory, or if area has been downloaded and installed in the Scenery directory, scenery loads quickly at start-up with automatic scenery downloading off. I don't really know if this is a matter of WiFi and Internet connection or processing speed, but suspect the former.
(If it is the processor, doubling speed, as above, would help)

In like manner, with Automatic Scenery Downloading on, I sometimes outrun the scenery and have to "pause" for it to catch up. Not so with Auto loading off and scenery available from
either the TerraSync or Scenery directories on my hard drive. It then works fine.

Best Regards :)
Last edited by dilbert on Tue Jun 05, 2018 5:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
dilbert
 
Posts: 774
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: KJKA, Alabama, USA
Callsign: db1
Version: 220.3.19
OS: W10,Ubuntu64

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby RJ5576 » Tue Jun 05, 2018 3:52 am

You can run FlightGear on 8 MB of RAM? I could barely run it with 1.5 GB!
RJ5576
 
Posts: 86
Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 4:24 am
Location: Between KSEA and KPDX
Callsign: RJ5576
Version: 2018.1.1
OS: Linux Mint Sylvia

Re: Building my pc for flightgear

Postby dilbert » Tue Jun 05, 2018 12:57 pm

Sorry, meant GB. Brain gets foggy in the wee hours. Thanks for the correction. :)
dilbert
 
Posts: 774
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: KJKA, Alabama, USA
Callsign: db1
Version: 220.3.19
OS: W10,Ubuntu64

Next

Return to Hardware

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests