FSX - Finally made the conversion, but having issues

[Sovien]

Recently I decided to leave my beloved FS9 behind and make the jump to FSX. Previously, my old gaming rig simply couldn't handle the FSX, so I stuck with FS9. I built a new computer a few months ago, and have decided it's well past the time to enter into the world of FSX.

The problem I'm seeing in the 3D world is this weird stuttering/rubber-banding like effect. This occurs in the cockpit and external views. I have all my settings on high and FPS is locked at 30. According to the sim my FPS is fairly stable throughout - including while this stuttering/rubber banding is going on. It's hard to describe. I'm not really sure what's causing this because it appears my performance is what I'd expect, but I I'm getting this weird visual effect.

My specs are as follows:
AMD Phenom II 965 BE (not oc'ed).
8 gigs DDR3 RAM
nVidia GTX 460 - running latest nvidia driver
Display settings 1900x1080 native
Windows 7 64
My FSX install is patched to SP2.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have not tweaked the config file at all. I wanted to see how stable/smooth FSX ran before jumping into the config editing. Again, the issue is just this visual choppiness in the 3D world as I'm flying around. I notice it as soon as I get up to speed on take off. It doesn't look like it does when one has a sudden/severe drop in FPS, it just this constant choppiness.

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Porchpup]

Have you tried it without the FPS locked?

[Fozzer]

LOCK your frame rate to 20 FPS Max!
..any higher is wasted, and will give problems...
Start off with the lowest settings, and gradually make your way up, and notice the response each time.
It could be that your new system is STILL inadequate to run FSX at maximum settings!
Make sure you have no other programs running in the background.
If I swap from my FS2004 to my FSX, it ALWAYS results in "choppy-ness", whatever setting I use!
Its the name of the game!... ...!

Paul...FS 2004....(and FSX)... ...!

[Daube]

Hi Sovien, and welcome to the FSX world

FSX is quite difficult to set up properly at the beginning, but you'll see after a while that you will get more and more comfortable with it. The key is to be not too optimistic with the graphic settings.

But the very first thing to do is to setup your FSX profile in your NVidia drivers properly. Since you are using the latest drivers, you'll have to use NVidia Inspector to setup the FSX profile efficiently. You want to force the VSync ON if you want to avoid the "rubber-banding" effect, for example. You'll also have to set the AntiAliasing to a moderate level, say 8x maximum, with a correct method (transparency set OFF, etc...). You might want to check the sticky topics made by NickN for this.

Then you'll have to ensure the DX10 preview option is disabled in FSX, just like the in-game AntiAliasing option (it iwll be forced and handled only by your video card).

Finally, you'll have to go to the Bojote (Jesus Altuve) website to modify automatically your FSX.cfg file so that you get all the necessary tweaks inside. Again, searching on the forum about this stuff should help you get the info you need.

Last thing: since you're in Windows 7 64, you might want to check two important topics:
- the replacement of the file uiautomationcore.dll, to prevent the crashes to desktop when using the menus in flight
- the "special" method to add the sceneries in the scenery library

Yes, that's quite a lot of steps... but it's worth it

[Slotback]

Do what Daube said.

This is the link to automatically configure fsx.cfg:

http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

Note that although it may improve performance, some of the tweaks might not be ideal for every system. It's best to experiment with the settings it applies yourself; if you don't know what they do then run a search or ask. For example, for some people, removing the affinity mask setting from fsx.cfg (which the above adds) can be beneficial.

Also you can experiment with the setting of your frame rate lock, usually 20-35 fps or unlimited gives best results. I find 20 fps not smooth enough and unlimited causes the frame rate to fluctuate wildly which isn't smooth. You can also set the fsx to setting to unlimited and using an external program to limit the framerate. This should be explained in the link above.

Backup your fsx.cfg before changing anything. You can also make a new fsx.cfg by deleting it and then launching fsx, but that way you lose your settings.

Don't be afraid to experiment.

[Ang2dogs]

Hi Sovien, and welcome to the FSX world

FSX is quite difficult to set up properly at the beginning, but you'll see after a while that you will get more and more comfortable with it. The key is to be not too optimistic with the graphic settings.

Setting up FSX is a labor of love, and also what Daube  said:


but it's worth it

Just don't let it discourage you. I'm running FSX on a 2.2 processer, 1000 ram, and a 256 ATI graphics card, and I'm running smooth at 18fps. It's going to take some trial & error, and as you proceed you'll see that it gets better.

And if it wasn't for NickN and Sim V, I'd still be using 2004! 

[Sovien]

Thanks for all the input gents. I spent yesterday healing myself from the turkey hangover by sitting down and working on FSX somemore. It really didn't take long at all before I was up and running much more stable/smoothly.

I went to link above for the auto-config webpage for FSX.cfg and let it do it's thing, applied the config changes and launched the sim. Wow! What a difference that has made!
I spent yesterday afternoon flying around various locations with my FPS locked at 20.

With the config changes I've been getting consistent 20 FPS no matter where I fly with all graphic settings at their highest (exception being traffic which is set at 20% across the board). From Seattle all the way to the remote locales of Alaska things are stable and smooth now. I'm going to mess around with the FPS limiter a little just see what I can achieve there but I know for certain 20 is atleast a decent number.

[Daube]

Glad to see you're enjoying your flights
If you like flying in the Seattle area, you should download the freeware OrbX PNW demo which covers the Olympic Peninsula and includes their famous Bowerman airfield. You'll love it !