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severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:02 pm
by satz
dear all

have recently (!) got FS2004 after years of playing 2002.

I've noticed that when I come out of slew in many occasions (not always), the frame rates drop severely (to around 2 fps) and everthing becomes really sluggish (even sound, key presses).  Eventually it just locks up and I can't even exit FS or XP gracefully!

Any ideas what it could be?

I'm running a P4 2.6Ghz with 1.5gB RAM
Nvidia 6600 gt AGP card
onboard 5.1 sound  (ASUS P4P800 mobo)

It's really frustrating, almost enough to go back to FS2002!

please help...

cheers

Satz

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:07 pm
by Opa
[quote]dear all

have recently (!) got FS2004 after years of playing 2002.

I've noticed that when I come out of slew in many occasions (not always), the frame rates drop severely (to around 2 fps) and everthing becomes really sluggish (even sound, key presses).

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:05 pm
by satz
I'm just using Y key and arrow up on the number keypad

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:46 pm
by Opa
I'm just using Y key and arrow up on the number keypad


Next question - are you slewing over a fairly long distance (as opposed to just slowly looking around an airport) and if so, are you slewing at a fairly rapid speed?

If so, my guess is that your system simply cannot process all of the quick graphic changes it is being asked to do and just "chokes" and eventually crashes.

I had that happen on my older machine and finally figured out I was expecting too much of it.

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:50 am
by Fozzer
Welcome to the extra delights of FS 2004!... [smiley=thumbsup.gif]...!

Do you have the problem if you DON'T use Slew; "Y"... ::)...?

Are you sure you don't mean the; "Accelerate Time" option, which will give you problems on a low Spec system!... :o...!

My FS 2004 ran satisfactorily on a system similar to yours (6600GT

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 10:23 pm
by satz
hi there

I do use slew  (Y key) to rapidly cover long, straight distances.  After all it's mainly the takeoffs and landings I'm interested in.

It's when I come out of slew, and there's cloud, that the frame rates drop to the point I have to exit the game (sometimes even reset the PC)

I think it is related to the computer not handling the amount of graphic info, so lucky I didn't go for FSX!!!

WHen I use accelerate time (R key) it seems okay.    It does annoy me a little that they've removed the time-accelerate indicator on the panel clock for 04!

cheers

Satz

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:27 am
by beaky
I can't tell you why this is happening, but if you're just interested in takeoffs and landings, you'd be better off just moving the plane in Map view. You can position it and set the altitude.

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:34 am
by Capt.Propwash
depending on what plane you are using at the time, the SimRate increase/decrease is on the Cronograph Panel Clock.  

I do not know if it will help or not, but as a suggestion to your slew problem, you CAN continue useing your current method, just when you get close to where you want to be, stop your plane using the arrow keys (not the numeric keypad), wait 5 seconds, then come out of slew.  That will give your computer a reasonable amount of time to take a look around and figure out what cloud is where, and what you need to be seeing and put it there.  At the most you might see a 5 FPS drop, but then it will go right back to where it was after 2 seconds.

I have tried this, and I am running REAL ENVIRONMENT PRO on a laptop (see specs below) and on a CLEAR DAY / NO WIND, i can only pull maybe 15 Fps at the best.  Put it on Storming like hell and your trying to fly low and slow over a HIGH autogen area.... forget it.  1-2 FPS.  [i can get out, parachute down, and walk to where i am going faster]

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 5:12 pm
by satz
hi Capt Propwash

thanks for the suggestion about using slew to slow down before 'unslewing'.  I'll try that.

What I've been doing now is just pressing the "y" key to stop slewing.   Should I use the 2 key (down arrow) to stop the plane, and then wait 5 seconds before pressing 'y' to unslew?


My usual frame rates are around 30-40fps with light cloud and buildings in view.

cheers

s

Re: severe drop in frame rate and lockup after slew

PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:13 pm
by Capt.Propwash
here is your scenerio.  Press "Y" to enter slew.  UP arrow goes forward, right - slide right, left - slide left, DOWN slows you down or goes backwards.

F1 - go to ground FAST
F2 - stop up or down movement NOW!
F3 - go up slowly
F4 - go up FAST

just hit the DOWN arrow to slow down and then stop.  Right or left to stop side-to-side movement.   After your plane sits in 3D space for 5-10 seconds and it does not move in any direction, then hit "Y" again to come out of slew.  

Just make sure that you have your throttle set to a point to allow enough thrust out of the engines as it might start falling if not.