Simviation Forums

Okay, I'm just full of questions today.  ;D

Normally, my framerate runs around 45 - 55 fps with no
other aircraft in view. Is this low or high or normal?

When default cfs2 aircraft spawn,  it drops to around 35fps, then climbs back up with fewer a/c in view. Is
this normal?

When some of the nicer add-on aircraft spawn - those by
I. Hsu and K. Malinowski it can drop to around 16 - 24fps.
In some cases even lower, and frequently cfs2 will crash.
I'm wondering if my system is just not capable of
handling these high-end models.

I have a 2.5Ghz processor and 700+ RAM and a Raydeon
9600 video card. My cfs2 graphics are set to 'high'  -
but reducing them to medium didn't reduce my crashes -
and my video setting is 1024x768x32bit. Using XP Home.

I would dearly love to use this DB-3 bomber in a campaign
I'm planning, but to date I've had trouble with the screen
picture jumping around too much whenever more than
one DB-3 is visible. And my fps drops to around 12-16.
What changes could I make that will maintain the highest
graphics quality yet improve my framerates?

So if anyone knows of a framerate friendly DB-3 or some
suggestions for boosting my framerate, let me know!
Thanks!

Those frame rates are normal and your system is more than capable of running CFS2. Heck, I ran it just fine on an old Campaq Presario, Celeron 800Mhz with 768 PC100 Ram and an ATI 8500 card, and I ran it on high settings.

Frame rates drop with more acft. in the picture, even the default acft. If you have any weather, drops even more. How close you are to the ground, airfields and their complexity all drop your frame rates. As long as you can maintain 18 - 20, you will still have smooth flight.

Now if you start throwing in downloaded acft. then this is a different story. Some of these acft. have very big texture files and this will really zap frame rates. In the past, many of us would use DXT Bitmap by Martin Wright and reduce the size of the textures on these acft. Would many but not all.

Some acft. designers are aware of this and try to use the most frame rate friendly textures and sizes as possible.

Complex panels can zap your frame rates too.

So what can you do?

Well, for one try adjusting your settings in game. Uncheck "acft. casts shadows". Adds very little but is a hog.

Download some cloud textures from FSSky World, they are more frame rate friendly. Or don't use clouds.

Make sure you have the latest drivers for your Vid card.
If you have your resolution set high, reduce it a tad and see if it helps.

As far as your crashes go, try to zero in on when it does it. With certain acft.? Certain scenery or in a certain area? Flying for a general amount of time? etc.

Make sure all other programs are shut down. Using FSAuto Start can really help with XPs resources. It safely will shut them down and restart them when you are done flying.

Hope the info helped. Good luck pilot.

Fireman is quite right that most 3rd party aircraft are not suitable for use in missions. This is the reason we decided to create as many of our own aircraft as possible for the Fox Four campaigns. We're very fortunate to have a talented designer on the team & all our latest aircraft have multi-LOD models which vastly improves frame-rates, especially when a lot of AI aircraft are on screen at once.

I'm not convinced that texture formats make a great deal of difference to frame rates. In my experience the most important thing is the complexity of the visual model & keeping the poly-count down. The multi-LOD models showed a marked improvement during a period of careful testing on computers of different power, ranging from my antiquated low-end machine to the more powerful examples. We sacrificed some of the bells & whistles for playability. You don't worry too much about having a beautiful visual model as you rarely leave the cockpit while in combat & shouldn't get near enough to the AI aircraft to notice. The ideal Player aircraft would be a DVC with interior views of the visible parts of the aircraft. Mind you, I think you would go a long way to beat the quality of Fang's work.

Thanks Fireman, for the reply. I haven't gotten back to my
computer at home to try out your suggestions...but I will!

Hagar - how steep is the learning curve in gmax? I'm
wondering how difficult it would be to take an existing
a/c, where all the difficult/complex modeling work is done,
and then add several LODs to it. At least it might be a good
way to learn gmax before diving into a full blown model.

Does this sound like a reasonable solution?

Also, where can I get FSSky World? I found only one
download location so far, and it's links were dead.

p.s. Totally loving "Ocean Fury"!

Hagar - how steep is the learning curve in gmax? I'm
wondering how difficult it would be to take an existing
a/c, where all the difficult/complex modeling work is done,
and then add several LODs to it. At least it might be a good
way to learn gmax before diving into a full blown model.

Does this sound like a reasonable solution?

Sorry. I never got the hang of Gmax although some people seem to pick it up pretty quickly. I suppose it depends on what you're used to. All our own aircraft were created with FSDS2. If you can find a source file to practice on I think it would definitely be a good idea. You can learn a lot from seeing how other people tackle things.

Also, where can I get FSSky World? I found only one
download location so far, and it's links were dead.

p.s. Totally loving "Ocean Fury"!

Sorry but I don't know anything about FSSky World. Glad you like Ocean Fury. A lot of hard work went into it.

I quickly took this to show you what I mean about frame rates. This is a flight of 7 Sea Furies, the player aircraft Fang created for Ocean Fury. 41 fps is not bad on my old PIII 800 with 512 Mb RAM & antiquated Voodoo5 5500 on WinMe. I could do better if I defrag my HD & shut down a few background applications.

Okay, if you already have the model file from the
completed aircraft, can gmax or fsds2 be used to
"decompile" the model file so you can edit it? Or do you
need the original source code?

Ocean Fury really is a terrific piece of work. When I saw
the spectacular quality of the ships, I bruised my chin.
My jaw dropped so hard it hit the table! I knew for sure
my cfs2 would crash, but it never has. I'm just diggin'
carrier ops with one of my favorite planes.

I gotta stop listening to that bloody LSO! When I just
eyeball it, I land the Sea Fury no problem - otherwise
things like the following happen...hehehe.

whoopsee!

RabbitHawk that was excellent advice this gentlemen gave you. But there other thing you can do on your own through the game it self that may help you enjoy this game even more.

This the only game that you allows to manipulate its inner workings. You can go to the sceneries setting and change it depending on the demand of the mission your playing.

Remember the higher the scenery settings the more demand you put on your PC. Adjust them to your likeing. Its process of trail and error.

Another thing that has a lot of effect on your PC performance is your sound settings. You probably do not need your radio voice to loud or engine for that matter. Perhaps you can the lower effects sounds as well. Its all up to you.

I also found that if you put too many AAA your frame rated drops as well.

Another thing that you can play with that will effect your Frame rate is your video resoluton. I found that at least in my PC the higher I went the better the Frame rate I got.

Just change it to your likeing. There are no rules in this matter. Its all base on what you like and the best frame rate you can acheive with them.

Remember you can upgrade your video card. You can also upgrade your sound cards or buy more memory . Do not forget to Defragment your PC on a regular basis as this simple precedure will improve your PC peformance.

I hope this information was helpful

James007

Okay, if you already have the model file from the
completed aircraft, can gmax or fsds2 be used to
"decompile" the model file so you can edit it? Or do you
need the original source code?

You need the source file. I suggest you try one of the Gmax source files posted here at SimV http://www.simviation.com/adoptfsc.htm & at FFDS. http://www.freeflightdesign.com/
This is how I & I suspect most people got started.

Ocean Fury really is a terrific piece of work. When I saw
the spectacular quality of the ships, I bruised my chin.
My jaw dropped so hard it hit the table! I knew for sure
my cfs2 would crash, but it never has. I'm just diggin'
carrier ops with one of my favorite planes.

Glad you're having fun with it. That's what it's all about. Collin's ships are the most detailed & accurate I've seen for CFS2. They were originally even more detailed but obviously very graphics intensive. He put in a lot of hard work reducing the poly count before creating the finished multi-LOD models. Check out his Shipyard for more of his fine ships. http://www.simviation.com/lair/cfs2shipyard.htm

I gotta stop listening to that bloody LSO! When I just
eyeball it, I land the Sea Fury no problem - otherwise
things like the following happen...hehehe.

whoopsee!

Nice shot. LOL Take no notice of the LSO. He's new at the job.

Thanks Hagar,

I see a Mig-3 that might be fun to play around with.
Thanks to Fireman and James. I made some adjustments
to my system last night (I also have some RAM sitting in
front of me now), and was able to jump a flight of 8 DB-3s
in heavy clouds with no significant stutter after spawning.
So that's an improvement. But I'm concerned about
building a campaign that others - with slower machines -
could also fly.

Looks like it's time to find a gmax tutorial!

RabbitHawk

Here is the link to FSW, FS Sky World. Here you can get cloud textures for CFS2 that really improve frame rates if you are having problems.

Use the FS2000 cloud textures.

All their texture work for the sims is great stuff.

http://fsw.simflight.com/

RabbitHawk its pleasure to help you or any body else in this community. Others have help me before and feel I should help others as well with my little knowledge of this program.

I like your altitude toward the others. I see you care about others and like to help them. That shows a lot about a man character.

Thanks for your comment.

James007