How to make orbiter run better in Windows 7 x64

[Aviator14]

I am not sure if someone already posted this, but if not please make this a sticky. I am sure it will help a lot of people.

I recently upgraded my PC to Windows 7 Professional x64 from windows XP 32-bit. Along with that I also upgraded my video card, RAM, power supply, and got a larger hard drive. When I copied orbiter however; I noticed I ran really slow, took a while to load, and I got bad frame-rates. In windows XP it was alot faster even with my old hardware! Anyway I found out how to fix this and "optimize" orbiter 2010 P1 for windows 7 x64 (it may work for the 32-bit version as well).

Here is what I did:
I right clicked on the orbiter.exe icon, selected properties, then clicked on the compatibility tab and checked the boxes that say "disable visual themes", "disable desktop composition", and "run this program as administrator." After I did this the game was about 5 times faster, and was running just like it did in windows xp if not faster.

 

[orb]

There were several threads concerning that and there's one article:

• Orbiter on Vista and Win7 (actual data + from the horse's mouth)

Threads:

• [Hardware] Orbiter 2010 and win7 requirements
  
  
• [Hardware] Assigning processes to that other core...
  
  
• [New Release] D3D9Client Development (...)

 

[CLEAN]

I tried the OP's fix, and got no improvement.

I read though the linked thread, and to a non programmer, I've got to tell you, I read a lot of gibberish, but no fixes, maybe I missed them all. I've got a new Dell w/ an i5, 6GB ram, pretty fast video card, ect. I can smoke FSX at any framerate I want w/ full resolution. On Orbiter 2010, Im getting about 17/fps, and even when I turn ALL the visual elements off, I get no improvement. Running Windows 7, and I'm just about to give up.

Are there any fixes for running this program w/ Win7 that don't involve reprogramming? My old XP would smoke Orbiter at full resolution, and now I get this. If anyone can answer in non-computer programmer language, it would be greatly appreciated. :lol:

 

[Mandella]

I tried the OP's fix, and got no improvement.

I read though the linked thread, and to a non programmer, I've got to tell you, I read a lot of gibberish, but no fixes, maybe I missed them all. I've got a new Dell w/ an i5, 6GB ram, pretty fast video card, ect. I can smoke FSX at any framerate I want w/ full resolution. On Orbiter 2010, Im getting about 17/fps, and even when I turn ALL the visual elements off, I get no improvement. Running Windows 7, and I'm just about to give up.

Are there any fixes for running this program w/ Win7 that don't involve reprogramming? My old XP would smoke Orbiter at full resolution, and now I get this. If anyone can answer in non-computer programmer language, it would be greatly appreciated. :lol:

Unfortunately, due to Win 7's lack of support for DirectX7, Oribiter runs really poorly in it no matter what (most of the above hacks help a little, but not up to XP levels).

One "easy" thing to try, if you haven't already, is [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3891"]Vistaboost.[/ame] It installs as a module, and helps a little.

The best answer is still in development, but you might want to try Jarmonik's DirectX9 beta. It's not perfect, and some scenarios and ships don't work quite right, but many do (including AMSO). And the framerate is superb.

It doesn't run Spacecraft 3 natively (not without changing around config files, which I take from your post you're not comfortable doing), but [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5177"]Artlav's Spacecraft3 Converter[/ame] will change a spacecraft 3 vessel into a "standard" Orbiter vessel.

Orbiter takes a bit of work sometimes, but the results can be pretty gratifying. Don't be afraid to ask questions! Somebody will always be along to help.

 

[_Designer_]

I never have any problems, the only one problem I have is really when I time warp to 1000x on some skins but that's only because I have so many add-ons really.

 

[Hielor]

Unfortunately, due to Win 7's lack of support for DirectX7, Oribiter runs really poorly in it no matter what (most of the above hacks help a little, but not up to XP levels).

Windows 7 supports DirectX 7 just fine. The problem is the DirectX/GDI interop that's no longer supported. This is exacerbated by things that use GDI drawing--MFDs, HUDs, playback annotations.

 

[CLEAN]

Thanks for the info!