Warmed over FS9 aircraft

[macca22au]

I have (purchased) and installed the LevelD 767 and the Feelthere 737PIC in their FSX makeovers.

Last night as a bit of a test I noted that these aircraft run at up to 10fps slower, and jerkier, than the default 737 and CRJ.  Sure the defaults have no FMC or equivalents, but the performance hit of the clunky add-ons is pretty substantial.

To make good comparisons it is important to keep all other parameters constant.  But with these add-ons I have to pull back autogen and complexity sliders to get acceptable airport performance.

I hope the made for FSX add-ons like the PMDG 747 and NGX and those to follow from other makers will truly take advantage of FSX features and go for smooth.  These made-over FS9 aircraft literally force us back to less complex models or the defaults to avoid a slide show of an experience.

Sure I can pull the sliders right back.  But I remain offended by the fact that there is scenery hidden from me which I can't see, and for which I paid.....I resent that.  

And I have a pretty powerful rig by most standards.

[reider]

Comparing a standard 737 to a payware 767 loaded with features is far from a fair comparison, in anyones terms.  If you freely register on the Level D Technical forum, you`ll find lots of help on the subject.  By far the biggest solution is to download a simple test FSX.cfg  Copy your original to a safe place and try the test one, compare the two and see which works best.  I thought my optimized one couldn`t be beaten, but I was well surprised at the results.

Reider

[macca22au]

Reider:  thanks for that.  I was commenting on the performance drop, not making an unfair comparison.  The answer is in the gauges obviously - and my intent was to urge add-on makers for FSX to go for the best possible performance when making their panels.

But, yes, I do read the Level d forum, but completely missed the fix that you referred to.  I am off to get it.  Thanks.

[Nick N]

known issue with the levelD 767.. you are not the first to complain about their design approach. If you check around the net at a few of the more popular forums (ours being the best

[macca22au]

Reider:  is that the one by Bill VC??

[macca22au]

I compared Bill VC's fsx.cfg with my own to see where the differences might be.

Turns out he runs at a much lower texture resolution - 512 instead of 1024.

So I brought the global texture resolution down to medium and it made a great difference in fps, and the panel remained clean and well-focused.

Its an interesting result, as for instance the default caravan requires global texture resolution to be Massive, otherwise the background to the panel is hopelessly fuzzy.

I guess it is different design criteria - but its hard on us PBOs (NickN has a boat, he will know what that means)

We lives and learns

[nextlevelsims]

the problem as usual is the same - if you want more, then you need to sacrifice more performance. With more I mean things like: higher resolution textures, more detailed models, more complex gauges. And here I must say, the default FSX planes are very basic with still beeing not too simple. They have really done a great compromise when developing their models. The way they are modeled and textured is just the most economic way you could ever do it. I still admire that... the most economic way to make best use of the resources. Add on aircraft have a less economic factor there... Everytime I work on my A380 I see potential to save resources and face difficult descisions -> performance or detail?! I think all developers feel the same way here... but no matter how hard you try - it's nearly impossible to get the same performance/detail ratio than MS does since they know best what they can do with their own inhouse developed graphics engine...

we are trying our best to work on better performance tho there are for sure ways to optimize things and to save performance but add on planes will always have a worse performance/detail ratio than the MS planes...

FS9 makeovers aren't really the problem in my opinion. Well okay, ways to design stuff have slightly changed from FS9 to FSX, especially because of the "new" graphics engine. But the only advantage you get when designing stuff exclusively for FSX is that you can take full advantage of the new engine features - and not only that! Also in terms of animation, gauge programming and so on. But it doesn't make anything faster... it just looks better