Which FSX setting controls 'sharpness'

[NickN]

Set as above - TBM - 70, FFTF deleted - complexity, autogen etc as specified. Clear skies.

OK, took my normal flight (Shockwave P-51) from KBUR rwy 8 and turned N over the mountains - stayed at 3000 and 190KAS.

Locked spot view slightly above and behind a/c.

Noticed slight stutters in left turns not seen before.

Framerates (unlimited) were higher - 30 to 45fps rather than 20-30

Same issue of mountains popping into focus but seemed like it would start at a further distance and appeared to be larger areas. Also large chunks of trees on the mts.

BTW, another tweak I forgot to mention - I have MAX_BLDGS_PER_CELL at 0 and trees at 800.

When scenery sharpened up it looked fantastic!

Oh, tried windowed and f/s - no apparent difference.

HTH,

Vic

OK, you see how this works?

[vgbaron]

OK -double checked - no more tweaks added by me. BTW, I don't use any specific airport scenery, etc, just GEXn, UTX and FSGS. I use Xgraphics for water texture airport surface.

Removed MAX BLDGS & TREES

Same flight using default Baron -

frames increased again - just sitting at the gate was 30fps and in flight between 40 - 55.

didn't get any stutters at all this time. Still getting some popping but it's mainly trees and large "community areas" in the foothills. Mountains seem sharper close in and popping seems further away.

JIC I misunderstood -

[NickN]

OK Vic

Now you see that tweaks can be bad on good systems.. your increasing the load yet the application is running better

This is a direct result of several things however you followed my list and set up Windows to deliver performance, and, you optimized the storage system with that list meaning all those wasted CPU cycles are now available

Your mistake was you assumed that because you pulled back on settings you get better performance.. well.. yes and no. FSX (like FS9) has an engine and a priority system. If you have the hardware and have set up the system as I listed then the trick with MSFS is to get it in balance with the system and its resources, however... part of that has to do with the priorities the application is executing. Stutters and blurs along with low frame rates can come when you have settings too low as well as too high. They designed the sim with a priority scheduler and the trick is to make it work for you, not against you.


OK, now I did expect you to run with the autogen slider at VERY DENSE (3/4) in these tests so that is where I would like it to be. For your system I do not see that slider ever being lower than DENSE and very dense is probably where it should be unless you are in a really high AG area.

OK so things have gotten better and now it is time to see if we can get that terrain engine to tune in...

Bufferpools at 24000000 is OK for you because you have a 640MB video card. Bufferpools reserves video memory so if you only had a 512 card that amount you have set would probably eat into performance however because you have a 640MB card, your max on that value is probably right around 35000000-45000000 but remember you run more than one monitor so that can cause you to run out of VM and start performance issues if too high.

I find bufferpools helps when flying over large amounts of AG trees when coming into a small one-horse airport and not just with turns however that is a YMMV setting and some do not need it at all.

FSX will only use 512MB of memory.. the rest goes to other things like bufferpools and the 2nd monitor however you do need to make sure to not go too high with that setting because you can start to see graphic 'spikes' like a video card memory is overclocked too much. I run 70000000 to 100000000 because I have a 768MB video card and can do that.

So where we are now is your sim has improved, you have gained scenery you did not have before and things are running better.. lets see if we can get the terrain engine tuned now

Set AG slider to 3/4 and edit TBM to 80. See what that does... in the process you can try dropping the AG slider 1 notch but no lower

Stick with the default baron

NOTE: What you are seeing with autogen popping is by design. Aces removed the feature "alpha fade" which makes autogen fade in and out.. thats something we all see so ignore it.


If you get the same or worse results with TBM 80, try 90.. if the same or worse result, drop it to 60, then 50, then 40 and last 30 but I doubt going lower is going to make it better... find that number Vic and let me know what value you find works best.



Its possible the area you are flying is just a bit too much and nothing we will do will get the terrain there to stay sharp.. Test other areas like Seattle or Portland instead of LA and see how they fair, same routine with TBM. I use KSEA RW 34R to set up a system.. fly out strait past Seattle at FL 3000 until I hit the water then turn around toward the east, and land back at KSEA on 16L. Observe what is going on. The heavy load area is located from KSEA to the city of Seattle because you have highways, Boeing feild and the city all in one spot.


If you find a value that gets it locked down.. when you assign your 3PD addons to cores.. only use the LAST core, not 2 and 3 and then test with those running.. finally test with a payware plane

What you are doing is seeing what loads the system down and when.. some payware is not made right and even if it is, some are simply heavy hitting aircraft. In those cases you may need to drop the AG slider a notch but everything else should remain the same as we set up.

The only other slider that can come down and only 1 notch is scenery complexity but make that an absolutel LAST resort and try not to do it unless AG setting to dense is simply not enough with your add on loads... do not drop AG any lower than dense if necessary.


let me know how you make out

[vgbaron]

It's beginning to make sense now. As you guessed, I would have bet my performance would have dropped by increasing the sliders. And I can think of the various things I've tried all going in the wrong direction.

I printed out your last post and will start some testing tomorrow and report back.

Thanx!

Vic

[vgbaron]

Well, I'll be darned! Several observations - I guess MS made Seattle area the most dense because that's home but I was amazed that my frames dropped to the 20's using your test flight. However, after some trial and error I did find the sweet spot of best fps+terrain+smoothness - seems like my system likes TBM of 70 and bufferpools of 30M. Above or below that and I got more popping and stutters and worse blurries. It's a whole world better than before and I liked what I had before. Main thing is that I have a base to test from if I get in the tweak mode and I understand a bit more about the relationships of the settings. That alone is a BIG plus.

What's fun is that I went back and took a flight from LAX with these settings and I had frames of 22 - 23 on th runway and 16 - 18 on climb out - all with no change in visual quality or micro stutters etc.

I'm going to give the 174.74's a try again and if all is well start inserting my add-on weather, clouds, etc. into the mix and see what changes.

I hope others following this thread grasp the concepts.

Thank you is not enough - I owe you one!

Vic

[SubZer0]

Sorry to interrupt your work here, guys

[wsciutti]

Vic,

Thank you for the question and test results.

Nick,

Thank you for the test plan; I now have a modest 2.4 dual core with a 9600 GT (my 8800GTX blew up) running almost all planes at ED and AG VD smoothly. I turn down AG one notch at KDCA and other large airports. The main shimmering are the trees at Aspen in winter but it sure is pretty.

Many thanks.

Jack

[NickN]

[quote]Sorry to interrupt your work here, guys

[NickN]

A question has come up to me in the past about FSX and clouds... I use the following and it is a YMMV change

I use FEX with the following themes and settings

Clouds = Realistically Dense

Water = Depths Of Tropics 2

Sky = Misty Sky (great upper ALT dark depth with well balanced lower)

Waves = either Medium Pacific or Storm Rugged

all 1024x1024 DXT5 never 32bit


And I use the "clear' water overlay layer from UTX (which should be enabled by default) but do make sure FEX selections are installed after UTX is installed.


With some shader edits.. its a very realistic water theme and I like it because it handles the tropics and other areas very well at the same time. The DXt5 format makes the clouds soft and provides a trade off between the quality and performance I like



http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... ?TID=26682

I can not comment on other products or their affect on performance because I do not use them.


Also, Holger Sandmann provided an excellent fix for the "line' issues in FSX with respect to snow/ice

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... ?TID=26672

copy one of the generic FSX blending masks, e.g., 900b2m11.bmp, from within \Scenery\World\texture and rename that copy to 001b2m11.bmp.

this is the best method to fix that issue with FSX. Make sure to backup the original 001b2m11.bmp before making a copy of 900b2m11.bmp and renaming it to 900b2m11.bmp.

We are looking at making a new mask with GEXn which will do the job better than the fix provided above.






be careful with addons... some can invoke changes which can CAUSE blurry problems such as the bumpmap updates in XGraphics

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... ?TID=25411

Not to say that XG is bad... you just have to know what CAN be bad and should not be used within the addon, like any other addon many times its a 'live and learn' situation with what works and what does not

[NickN]

And I do want to add one other item

After all is said and done with tweaking, replacing AI traffic with friendly models is the icing on the cake

WOAI is a good choice and there are others which you can use to do this too. You do need to be careful as with any changes to the sim.. some aircraft are simply not made right and can create more issues than they solve.

After a full AI replacement in aircraft and flight plans, the GA and AL sliders can come back up. I suggest they do not exceed 59-65% for other reasons and you may need to add AI SMOOTH to you addons to be sure AI obeys the pattern and does not come in piled on top of each other.. again, run it on CORE3 (or the last core) of the proc


The resons such replacements help is because they remove the GATE code from the aircraft.cfg file... that also means gates and jetways stop working for AI however it also removes a massive load AI places on the system by forcing your CPU to start calculating the gates at every airport in a 50-120NM radisu of where you boot your flight. Payware 'replacement' packages are hit and miss.. none of them are completely perfect and because of how they are designed they too can present a massive AI load on the system.

You may review slider influences in a post I made here, about 24 posts down the thread...

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... ?TID=26434


direct link to the post here: http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... 957#149957

[Selkan]

I have been reading this thread with interest, and in particular the section relating to 'BufferPools'  I have a Nvidia G-force 9800GTX.0 graphics card having 512 memory.

The section I refer to lists different 'numbers' for the BufferPools line in the FSX.cfg, but does not actually give a figure for a 512 card; can you offer guide lines?

Many thanks, Steven

[NickN]

[quote]I have been reading this thread with interest, and in particular the section relating to 'BufferPools'

[Selkan]

response is much appreciated.  I will try the different 'numbers' within the limits suggested.

regards, Steven

[NickN]

[quote]response is much appreciated.

[AMDDDA]

[quote][quote]response is much appreciated.