all I seem to find is posts telling me to search this forum for the answers or that these are "well-known" tweaks that are global FSX tweaks.
Yes, they are NOT "GSX Settings" or "Addon Manager settings", they are well known FSX tweaks, which are discussed in great detail on many forums, we don't have any special suggestions about them. You don't have to use them in order to use GSX, the Addon Manager or any of our products. Our products will run regardless of how these settings are set.
What you have there, is just a free FSX tweaker included with the Addon Manager, nothing more. There are payware products that do *just* that: offering you a more convenient interface to edit your FSX.CFG tweaks, we are giving it away for free in the Addon Manager but again, they are not *needed* to use our products and you are not supposed to known about them to USE our products so, you are just looking at a part of our software that is basically a bonus free tool, that's it.
The issue is, the manual says there would have been a detailed explanation of these settings (note that part of the manual is not really something specific to GSX, it's the same for all our products that come with the Addon Manager, and it was written roughly in 2007), but along the way we found that knowledge way more complete has been developed in the FSX community so, we preferred to provide JUST the tool to move the slider, and let users learn about the tweaks themselves.
I'll repeat it again: you are NOT "required" to change anything or tweak anything just to use our products. That page is there not because you need it for our products, but just as a bonus tweaking tool.
You could just install the Addon Manager without buying anything, and use that interface just to tweak FSX, it you want...
What I would really like, is exactly what you would usually see in a product manual, a full description of each setting.
You mean the FSX manual ? Because, since these are FSX settings that existed well before GSX and Addon Manager, the FSX manual should have explained, but it didn't. Some of them were introduced with the FSX SP2, too.
You will find some discussions here:
http://www.simforums.com/forums/fsx-tweaks-demystified_topic37948.htmlRight now, my main concerns are about the tweaks which have been applied to my fsx.cfg file
No FSX tweak are applied to your FSX.CFG, that's the more common misconception about that page. What you see there, are the tweaks AS THEY WERE in your FSX.CFG.
It's YOU that will "apply a tweak", by CHANGING a value AND pressing the "Save to FSX" button. OR, if you press the "Defaults" button AND press the "Save to FSX", they will be reset to default values. If you don't do that, nothing will be applied to your FSX.CFG.
I know that Virtuali swears that nothing is applied to your fsx.cfg file unless you click on this, but I haven't ever clicked on it (was waiting until I knew what they all were), but I have the following entry in my fsx.cfg file:
And I repeat and confirm that nothing is changed you your FSX Tweaks. Of course, if you decided not to believe what I've already said (several times) "swearing" again wouldn't probably make any difference...
[FSDREAMTEAM]
AntiPopUp=0
AltitudeCull=1
This is NOT an FSX Tweak!!
The FSX.CFG it's an .INI file. Fact that is named .CFG doesn't change the fact IT IS an .INI file. An .INI file is composed of named sections (those names within square brackets) and keys. A program that reads an .INI file will IGNORE anything that is under a section name it doesn't know anything about it. Since FSX doesn't obviously know anything about a section named [FSDREAMTEAM], it will of happily IGNORE IT. Meaning, we can write hundreds of lines down there, it won't make ANY difference to FSX, because only a product designed to read *THAT* section, will make any use of what is inside there.
So, what you have here, is the Addon Manager, instead of creating another file, is using the FSX.CFG JUST as a storage area for its private settings.
This make it simpler and more reliable to code. Since the Addon Manager *already* reads the FSX.CFG and (only if the user WANTS) can write to it, it was convenient keep reading and writing on the same file, without having to manage a separate one JUST to put 3 lines on it, or cluttering the registry with new keys. Again, FSX will IGNORE entirely the whole section so, any possible discussion about potential FSX issues, is entirely moot.
I did find a lot of information about the AntiPopUp setting, but everything I see is in relation to your sceneries, none of which I own.
That these settings apply only to FSDT sceneries, is very obvious in the Addon Manager tweaks window, which is divided in two clearly labeled sections, one with all settings applied globally to all sceneries, and another one with the settings that applies only to FSDT sceneries.
Does this have any effect on GSX or anything else I should know about, and if not
They only affect FSDT sceneries so, they don't affect GSX or anything else in FSX.
is it safe to delete that entry?
It will not make any difference whatsoever if you do.
As for the AltitudeCull, I see several posts mentioning it, and one or two that sort of dessribe what it does, but no particular information on settings. Same questions apply, does this even apply to me, and if not, can I just delete it?
Yes, you can delete it. Of course, it won't change anything to FSX, because FSX doesn't use it and it won't change anything to you, because you don't have any FSDT sceneries. If you use the Addon Manager tweak to do something, they will of course reappear again. But, as I've said, they will not make any difference if you don't have any FSDT scenery installed.
Again, I understand that all these answers are out there somewhere, but I already have over two hours into searching for just these two, and I don't think it's too much to ask for one simple link or .pdf or something where they are all explained in detail.
The Anti-popup was explained here:
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=1777.msg14201#msg14201I don't know why the AltitudeCull post disappeared in any case, it's very simple: it's an on/off switch that enables a further optimization for objects coming from FSDT sceneries, to be automatically removed after a pre-set height. It only affects smaller objects, not main buildings. Again, doesn't affect in any way anything else in FSX, and it's really relevant for earlier FSDT sceneries, the more recent ones (after 2010) are not much affected by it, since they use different optimization methods, and it was useful mostly in the early days of FSX, were PCs struggled a bit with larger sceneries like JFK or KORD.
