Other topics already contain most info, about the why and how. I especially put this idea, because of screen shot quality. The current Ultra won’t do that as nice as before, without any tweaks in usercfg.opt.
Related:
I wonder if it would be possible (and an easier change), to just max out scenery graphics quality and cockit graphics quality Ultra++ when active pause is hit… Now, you see your aircraft wobbling during pause… But you don’t move while pausing, so frame rate does not really matter…
So my proposal is: max out all General settings temporarily, let it settle down for a few seconds and freeze the screen. On resume, go back to the previous frame rate and proceed flight… You can enjoy the very best scenery as a still. It could end most wars about Frames per Second versus Scenery Quality… and allow for super beautiful screenshots.
The purpose of Active Pause is not and shouldn’t be a beauty contest. While flying, my frame rates are not at all bad - personally I’d be pretty miffed if while Active Pausing to look around a town, a valley, a mountainous region or find a button in a cockpit on approach etc. that they drop by a significant amount just because I MAY want to take a screenshot. Don’t forget that we still have camera control in Active Pause and I don’t want that to be at 40fps in normal mode and then drop to 25fps just because I pause. First and foremost we use Flight Simulator as a “simulator”, not primarily as a desktop background generator.
Better to propose a “Beautiful Screenshot” button that freezes the scene, increases the quality momentarily, takes a screenshot and then lets you get back to flying. It certainly shouldn’t be part of Active Pause.
Imagine the complaints from users not in the know… “When I pause the Sim it looks amazing, when I unpause it looks rubbish again” or “when I pause it slows down so much, what’s wrong with my sim”.