Really Really Low Frames

[Alcides Segovia]

In other places I get anything around 13 to 25 FPS. Places like KATL, TJSJ, TNCM With Imaginesim. But In JFK Im getting no more then 7 FPS.Which I must say it is really low.

My Specs
E8500 3.16GHZ NO OC
9500 GT 512MB NO OC
2GB RAM
80GB Hard Drive.

FSX SP1 SP2
REX

I Use payware aircraft and I get the same setting all the time. My Display Settings Are at default Ultra High and I have no AI traffic except for ground and some leisure boats I also have Nhancer with AF at 16 and AA a 8xs Dont know if that is bad or good. And i Dont use any AI Traffic such as mytraffic or WOAI.


Hope some can help becuase it is a great scenery.

[virtuali]

7 fps without AI is not normal at all. I don't know the nVidia 9500 card, but I think it should perform better than that. I have a 2-years old E6700 C2D at 2.66 with an 8800 GTX, and I get at least 20 fps WITH AI at 50%, see here my results:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=1304.0

There's a discussion about low fps there as well: the user found to have another scenery for JFK installed, and it was fixed by removing that one.

And, you don't specify *which* payware airplane you are using. To evaluate a scenery ALWAYS try it with a default airplane, then try it with an addon airplane without changing anything else. If you notice the fps changes a lot from default airplane to the addon airplane, it would be apparent what is responsible for the fps loss.

And yes, I do have my fps cut in HALF with the PMDG 747, but ONLY with that one. Other complex airplanes, like Level-D 767, have a *much* less of an impact (like 10% or so) compared to default, and the best one, regarding to fps, is the new Flight1 Super80, which performs more or less like a default airplane.

[Alcides Segovia]

Ok, Im going to be testing the impact. on diffrent airplanes il get back to you soon.

[danydj718]

I just flew from LSZH (yes yours) to KJFK with PMDG 744. I was cleared to land runway 4L (ILS) when the frames suddenly dropped from 14 - 20 to 1.2 - 2.2 fps (about 600ft AGL). Then my 2D cockpit disappeared and instead of it, the lower part of my screen was black. Then I tried to switch to the 3D cockpit which was deformed and flickering. Then I noticed that the whole airport and it's AI traffic was flickering like "appear-disappear-appear" every second. I'm really angry now. After nearly 9 hours of flight, such a weird thing happens a few seconds before the end of the flight... 

I made a screenshot:

[virtuali]

Then my 2D cockpit disappeared and instead of it, the lower part of my screen was black. Then I tried to switch to the 3D cockpit which was deformed and flickering.

That's obviously something related to the video drivers. I don't see how the scenery might affect the airplane panels. The black screen in the lower part of the screen in 2d panel mode it's a very well known issue, and it's always related to video drivers (usually is related to antialiasing settings)

Then I noticed that the whole airport and it's AI traffic was flickering like "appear-disappear-appear" every second.

This shouldn't happen in FSX.

It used to happen, but not with PMDG, on FS9, because there was a certain freeware A320 which wrongly wrote inside the scenery memory area, creating a flickering of the scenery only. But, it can't happen on FSX, because we don't need it anymore, and it was happening only with *that* A320, and the flickering was just the scenery, not the AI.

So, I don't think it's the same issue, more probably it's the same issue that made your panels having problems, affected the scenery as well.

So, in this case, it really looks the scenery is *affected* this issue, it's certainly not *causing* it.

Usual question: have you tried with a default airplane ?

[danydj718]

Then my 2D cockpit disappeared and instead of it, the lower part of my screen was black. Then I tried to switch to the 3D cockpit which was deformed and flickering.

That's obviously something related to the video drivers. I don't see how the scenery might affect the airplane panels. The black screen in the lower part of the screen in 2d panel mode it's a very well known issue, and it's always related to video drivers (usually is related to antialiasing settings)

I don't use the anti-aliasing in FSX, but the one of the ATi Control panel (4x). And I use the bilinear filtering of FSX. FlyTampa suggested this setting in their manual for Kai Tak.

Then I noticed that the whole airport and it's AI traffic was flickering like "appear-disappear-appear" every second.

This shouldn't happen in FSX.

It used to happen, but not with PMDG, on FS9, because there was a certain freeware A320 which wrongly wrote inside the scenery memory area, creating a flickering of the scenery only. But, it can't happen on FSX, because we don't need it anymore, and it was happening only with *that* A320, and the flickering was just the scenery, not the AI.

So, I don't think it's the same issue, more probably it's the same issue that made your panels having problems, affected the scenery as well.

So, in this case, it really looks the scenery is *affected* this issue, it's certainly not *causing* it.

Usual question: have you tried with a default airplane ?

So should I just start a flight at KJFK or for example make a flight from KPVD to KJFK?
I'm just wondering why this happened all of a sudden. I already made flight from and to JFK, but with the DC-10. And I didn't change my graphic card driver since i began to use your beautiful scenery (Never change a running system).
I think I will install a newer driver either way to prevent such situations after a long-haul flight to NY. I will have to uninstall the old one in the software menu, then restart, install and restart again, right?

Regards

EDIT One more thing: I recently changed my global resolution settings from VERY HIGH to HIGH. Maybe it has also something to do with this.

[virtuali]

I don't use the anti-aliasing in FSX, but the one of the ATi Control panel (4x).

I haven't said it's related to FSX antialiasing, it's might be related to antialiasing in general. So, you might want to try different settings.

And I use the bilinear filtering of FSX. FlyTampa suggested this setting in their manual for Kai Tak.

Once you forced the filtering settings in the video card control panel, meaning the video card setting takes precedence, setting bilinear or anisotropic in FSX doesn't change anything. However, anisotropic filtertering doesn't have an impact on the airplane panels.

But the specific "black screen" in the lower half, it's more like a *bug*, triggered by the type of antialiasing. Note, that this used to happen only with specific driver releases, and I recall being more frequent with FS9.

I already made flight from and to JFK, but with the DC-10.

And the results was ?

EDIT One more thing: I recently changed my global resolution settings from VERY HIGH to HIGH. Maybe it has also something to do with this.

This would only affect the texture sharpness. In fact, from your screenshots, you have very bad blurred texture at ground, which is not how the scenery it supposed to look like.

However, lowering the max global texture resolution, doesn't have any "bad" effect, other then blurring, but sometimes can even *fix* issues, because it lowers the vram memory requirements. So no, I don't think the loss of 2d and 3d panels and the scenery flickering were caused by this.

[danydj718]

I already made flight from and to JFK, but with the DC-10.

And the results was ?

The frames were not bad, about 15 during the landing on 04R and no problems after landing. I think it's also that the DC-10 (CLS/JF) is a much easier built plane than the PMDG.

I'm just curious why this happened in New York but not in Zurich as both of the airports are fsdt.

What about a default aircraft test flight? From Providence or just start at KJFK?

After having installed the new driver, i will set the anti-aliasing to FSX. I have to uninstall the old driver (software menu), restart, install the new one and restart again, correct?

Then what settings would you suggest for FSX regarding my system:
Intel DualCore E6700 @ 2,66GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM (of which only 3.3 can be used as I'm using still Windows XP Pro Media Center)
and an ATi Radeon 4870 HD with 512MB DDR5

Btw I have the 3G Switch active to prevent OOM error in FSX, specially when using the PMDG 744.

Thank you so much for your help!!!

[virtuali]

Btw I have the 3G Switch active to prevent OOM error in FSX, specially when using the PMDG 744.

Careful with this one.

With 4GB, under a 32 bit OS, the maximum total memory allocation (including VRAM) can't be more than 4GB so, your 512MB cards is taking away from the total RAM, and other on board devices and any expansion card will take away further. That's why you will never see a "4GB ram available" message in 32 bit Windows, usually you get something like 3GB max.

The /USERVA=xxxx parameter on the boot.ini line can be used to fine tune this, if is set too high, you card can't allocate vram properly, and this results in graphic corruption. The more VRAM you have, the lower the number should be. For example, on my 8800 GTX with 768 MB, if I set it to higher than 2700, I get graphics corruption, like FSX menus disappearing, but it works ok with 2560.

I'm using Vista, so the actual numbers can change, and it also dependent on mainboard and the devices you have (network card bios, disk controllers bios, sound cards, etc.), both on board and as pci expansions. So, you might want to play with this setting, until you find the correct one for your system. /USERVA=2560 can be a good starting point.

[danydj718]

Ok I set it to 2560. We'll see if it solves the problem. Right now, I won't update my graphic card driver. I think it was really this 3G Switch, that caused the problem at New York.

I had to set it about 2 months ago, because I had an OOM error at Zurich with PMDG and a guy on another forum said, that I would have too less memory to handle LSZH and the 744 at once without the 3G switch.

[danydj718]

I just made a very short test flight. Took off from 31L, made a left turn over Manhattan and then landed on 04L. Is this far enough from the airport or should I fly away to force FSX to reload the airport? Everything works perfectly fine. I really hope i t was the 3G switch. And I think there's no reason to update the ATi driver at the moment.

Best regards

[virtuali]

Is this far enough from the airport or should I fly away to force FSX to reload the airport? Everything works perfectly fine.

The scenery range for JFK is about 8 nautical miles, because it's just enough to not have it loaded when you are positioned at KLGA, the closest big airport. So, if you go farther than that, the scenery is unloaded.

[danydj718]

Ok, so i'll do a short flight from KLGA to KJFK later on. Thank you very much virtuali!

[danydj718]

Weel, it works. But it took nearly 40 Minutes from KLGA to KJFK (SID - STAR).

I didn't use the same STAR for the arrival on 04L, but I used the same runway and the ILS approach.

I hope the 3G reduction solved it. Thanks