Locking FPS?
Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:03 amWhy do people lock there FPS at whatever number at others dont. Surely you will only get what your sytem can manage?
The FPS lock is there because of what is objectively a limitation of the rendering engine of FS.
In a normal game, the rendering engine gives his best while balanced to the other options of the game itself. In FS this balance is flimsy at best and must be helped by the user. In fact, for the user to ask for the Max Fps to the rendering engine means to take away CPU power to other aspect of simulation, and then you have blurries, hitches and other unpleasant behaviors.
Hence the Fps limiter existence, to set in a position that will allow the rendering engine to, once reached max entered frames per second as selected by the user, divert consistent CPU time to do other things always pertinent to simulation, but that have lower priority, like calculating the AI position, keep behind the weather and so on.
(Be it clear that if you have a so powerful a system that Max out the simulator overall weight, then the fps limiter has no reason to be engaged, but then, at the actual hardware level, only FS98 can be Maxed out that way with no repercussions)
Why do I say it's a limitation? Simple. In other perfectly working softwares (even other flight simulators) there is no such a thing. They are balanced inside, with no inside reason for the user to to rein back their performances.
Actually, for those who want to know, in X-plane there's the reverse of the M$ FS Fps limiter. A lowest fps limit. You enter there a given limit fps, and if the simulation slows down to reach that value, then graphic particulars are taken off from screen to make the simulator run more smoothly.
A lower limit Fps limiter like that has as reason to be to aid the simulation around the limitations of weak hardware, instead to aid the user around the limitation of the rendering engine as in FS.
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