LOD_TARGET_FPS=16 not changing

[Dan Morera]

Hey guys, I got my FS9 looking real good, just a few things with rendering of textures that keep bugging me. I have tried to change this line on my cfg to 16 but it changes it self back to 24. No matter what I do it always goes back to 24.

Any idea how to change it, or what that particular line does? I may not need to change it after all.

Some info:
Pentium D 3.00ghz (2cpus)
Nvidia 8800 gts 320mbs
3gb Ram.

Thanks in advance
Dan

[NickN]

Dont worry about it Dan

It will change dynamically with the frame lock. Its typically a fraction of the frame lock. The suggested setting of 16 is in balance with a frame lock of 22-24. I probably should have eliminated that line in my suggested settings list because it will change by itself and you can not control it.


What it does is maintain Level of Detail as long as the frame rate remains above that value. Below the value the sim starts to pull back on details so frame rate is not killed

[NickN]

Make sure you are not leaving the config file open while running FS9 Dan. Make edits and close the file but do not open it during sim run.

If it is not changing with any setting of FR, open FS9 and set your frame lock to 10, boot a flight, then close FS9

Open the config file and the LOD setting should reduce, if not set it to 10 with a frame lock of 10, save the file and boot the sim again, close the sim, open it again and set the frame lock to 24 and boot a flight.

I think that will set the LOD to 16

If your frame lock is 28-30+ is will raise that number and 24 sounds about right.

[Dan Morera]

You are absolutely right (as usual  ;))  My FR are locked at 31, it was not changing because I was always trying it at the same FRs.

Make sure you are not leaving the config file open while running FS9 Dan.

This one took me a while to figure out when I was originally following the instructions found here. But it's a good reminder for those who are going to do their set up for the first time.

Nick, if you don't mind me asking another question, in system like mine how far ahead in spot view should I be able to see the textures on the ground looking nice/crisp/rendered? The reason I ask is that when I go to spot view, I can see the blurry textures ahead and then little by little it starts getting rendered in an arc in front of my plane (if looking from behind). Obviously I would like for this to happen farther ahead so it is less noticeable.

Nick, I'm glad to see you around here. Please allow me to thank you for ALL the help you have giving me and others who read this forum. We really appreciate the time and patience you dedicate to your replies. Always keep in mind there are lots of us that are thankful.

Dan

[NickN]

That is a lengthy post to get into Dan. What you are describing is the system is BUSY doing other things and can not keep up. The autogen and terrain have a lower call that flight dynamics and other areas.

The first thing to do is to make sure the system is correctly set up, both Windows and your hardware. That can go a bit past setting in Windows. It also includes making sure the BIOS has the memory running the right timing and speeds and that the video system is also correctly set up in the BIOS.

The speed of the hard drive and the drivers for the IDE/SATA system is also important. For FS9/FSX a Western Digital RAPTOR is practically a pre-requisite or a RAID0 setup using 2 WD Raptors in FS9. Slower hard drives will force slow loading of terrain.

The next step is to ensure your hard drive is not filled up. A drive that is 75-80% full will dog down considerably causing textures to load slow and forcing more CPU time for that.

The next step is to ensure the drive is correctly defragged with the right software (not Windows defrag LOL).

The FS9 edited config settings are next. Disabiling shadows will release more resources to other things and some systems simply need those resources. The terrain lines which if you followed the list should already be set to the best they will do 9.9 and 9.0 is the highest and in some cases setting those to 9.0 and 4.5 or 6.0 is better so the system can keep up which is what I suggest you try.


[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.9 //9.0
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.0 // 4.5 to 6.0
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4


Texture bandwith multiplier should be either 240 or 400, one of the two and the tweak with TextureMaxLoad=x under the [DISPLAY] heading left out completely because that does not work for everyone. If TBM is set above 110-160, TextureMaxLoad=x is not possible.

[NickN]

I just noticed you are running 3GB of RAM

That can be a clue, you know why? Because older motherboards REDUCE the memory speed and timing to allow 3 sticks to populate the slots. DUAL CHANNEL speed is ONLY allowed with 2 sticks in older systems and 4 sticks in newer systems if the motherboard is designed to allow full dual channel operation with 4

I suggest you use 2 sticks of memory (2 x 1GB) and make SURE the memory is in the right slots for dual channel operation

3 sticks will typically force the motherboard to REDUCE your memory speed and timing and therefore slowing you down.



Download, unzip and run CPUz: http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-141.zip

Snag a screenshot of the CPU, MAINBOARD, MEMORY and then the SPD tabs with the populated SLOTS drop-downs and post them here so I can see the system and what is going on.

I wont be around the rest of the day but will post back when I get time.

[Dan Morera]

Nick I hope this is the information you were looking for: (if not please tell me where to find it)

[Dan Morera]

These made no difference:

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.9 //9.0
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.0 // 4.5 to 6.0

Drive is only about 30% full.

Working on getting one of the defrag tools recommended from other thread

The first thing to do is to make sure the system is correctly set up, both Windows and your hardware. That can go a bit past setting in Windows. It also includes making sure the BIOS has the memory running the right timing and speeds and that the video system is also correctly set up in the BIOS.

The speed of the hard drive and the drivers for the IDE/SATA system is also important. For FS9/FSX a Western Digital RAPTOR is practically a pre-requisite or a RAID0 setup using 2 WD Raptors in FS9. Slower hard drives will force slow loading of terrain.  

Those go beyond what I know about computers  :-[

Something about my ram, I got 2 - 1gbs sticks on channels 1 and 2. And 2 512kb sticks on 3 and 4. Still should I only try the 2 1gb ones?

Thanks again
Dan

[NickN]

That is the readout from latency.exe, forget that.. I need the tabs I posted from cpuz.exe


Oh yea, I think you have a problem with 2 512's and 2 1GB's

I need to see all the tabs I posted, including snags from SPD tab which include ALL the readouts from the SLOT dropdown


Dont worry about number of images. The site knows I am on a diagnostic quest. Just make sure to crop them before posting. You should post 7 images, The CPU tab, the Mainboard tab the Memory tab and the 4 from the SPD tab based on the slot drop-downs

Ill bet you are running reduced speed/timing to accomodate the 2 512 sticks but I my be wrong

in any case we may find out there is either background junk running or the motherboard/HDD/processor simply does not have the guts to do the job. I have to start with CPUz.exe to see and go from there

[Dan Morera]

Found it!  :)

[NickN]

OK Dan I was right

the 2 512's are dragging the system down (image #3)  from 333 to 266Mhz but even so, going from 266 to 333 is not that great of a leap. The system is a dog to begin with and the video card is not getting the resources it needs even if the system was running the memory 333Mhz

I have to get some sleep but will look at this tomorrow and see if there is anything I can suggest.

I would pull the 2 512's and leave the 2 1GB's but I am not sure which slots would be best. You could shut down, unplug and do that , then repost the CPU tab and the Memory tab (tabs 1 and 3) again which may help

Goodnight

[Dan Morera]

Here are the cpu and memory after removing the 512 kb.





Thank you
Dan

[Dan Morera]

Oh and these are my memory chips, I thought these were 677 not 333: I think there's something wrong

Corsair's vaunted ValueSelect 2GB (2x1GB)DDR2 SDRAM memory offers an effective clock rate of 667 MHz (PC2 5300),

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145098

[NickN]

I am not at home right now Dan so I will look further into this as I can

First, the memory is DDR2 667, not 667Mhz. That means 667 divided by 2 or 333.5MHz

There is something wrong because the bus speed is not in sync with the memory and visa/versa

I do not know if it is a limitation of the Dell BIOS or motherboard at this point.

I will need to see if I can find documentation on the Dell system you are using and find out if there is anything in it that will clue me in. Dell sometimes does not publish its BIOS settings which can be a problem here. If I was sitting in front of the system I could sort it out

Now the first thing I notice is the CPU speed is not 3GHz, its 2394 (2.4GHz) so it is possible the motherboard has some type of power management running which is reducing the CPU/FSB/Memory speeds. My question at this point is, is that remaining in a 'low' state at all times or does it kick UP when a CPU load is applied.

If it kicks up, we are OK in that area. There are ways to turn off power management like that which is what I do with both AMD and Intel but I am not sure if that is available in your BIOS or not at this point.

We need to find out if what I am seeing is dynamic (good) or static (bad)


Please download this software: http://mersenne.org/gimps/p95v2414.exe and install it.

That is a program called PRIME95 which runs a calculation routine to find Mersenne Prime numbers. It is also the primary tool used to run CPU LOAD tests to see how hot they get or how stable they are when overclocking.

Here is what I would like you to do... Start CPUz again. Once on the screen, start Prime95 (there will be a shortcut on the programs menu). When prime95 starts for the first time it may ask you to join GIMPS, just select 'no thanks, just stress testing"

Once you are at the blank window, select the OPTIONS menu, then TORTURE TEST. Put a bullet in "In Place Large FFT's (Maximum Heat, Power Consumption.... etc)

Select OK, the test will begin

While it is running, keep in mind the system is HOGGED DOWN by the computations and things may be a bit slow, but go back to the CPUz CPU and MEMORY tabs, take snags and post them.

I want to see if the motherboard boosts the CPU/FSB and memory under a load or not.

You can stop Prime95 by right clicking the RED/Yellow icon down by the clock for Prime95 and select EXIT

I will check back later

If you would please post the Dell model and its serial number I will see if I can locate tech docs that will help me make some suggestions. I see the Dell model number above bit sometimes it is better to run the serial number at Dell to get tech docs.



EDIT:
please make sure you have the following XP Dual Core Update patch installed:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en


After you install that patch, reboot

It is needed for both dual core and hyperthread procesors in Windows XP

[NickN]

I need the service tag number

the dell Dimension dmo51 can be a 5100, 5150, 5100c or 5150c

I am betting it is the 5150. If so the BIOS is old. A07 is the latest and you are running A05 (2nd CPUz tab)

Looking at some of their manuals, I am not very hopeful of having much to find or control. I do see references to SPEED-STEP and hard drive acoustic control, both can be set to allow max performance but I do not see any reference to memory speed changes. We also need to make SURE the BIOS is not set to ONBOARD for the video card and is set to AUTO

I have a feeling I know what is going on with the memory. Many Dell BIOS's and motherboards refuse to allow the memory to be run at anything other than what they program to be the max. If you have a Dimension 5150 that is what is happening:

NOTE: If you install DDR2 667-MHz memory, the speed is reduced to 533 MHz