Frame rates & Frame Lock

[Guest]

Hi,Can anyone please tell me how the frame lock works? I have it set to 25, and if I understand correctly that means the frame rate should always stay around 25 - but is doesn't! So what is the point behind the frame lock? And how come you can't turn it off?Does anyone know?Keith

[Francois_Dumas 10]

Hi Keith, I am a bit pressed for time, so just a quick answer.The Framerate Lock is a funny thing that our friends at MS invented to help us make the sim perform as smooth as possible, depending on our machines and wishes.Basically if you set the lock to 25, then that is what FS2002 will try to achieve. But depending on your machine (CPU, memory, graphics card) and what you fly and where you fly, this might just not be achievable. For instance take a complicated aircraft and a complicated scenery and you will see that the fps goes down, no matter what you set at the lock.It can even make the sim look or perform worse. Trying to achieve the target framerate will nake it 'turn off' certain settings to save energy. That might result in having less than perfect scenery voew for instance. Remember, this version is built with fluidity in mind and so anything that will hamper the performance willbe turned down if your PC is not powerful enough, or your target frames are set too high.Finally, there is something odd with it. We have discovered that sometimes you need to set the lock to the lowest possible first (10) then start the sim, THEN set it to 25 or whatever, restart the sim again. Only the will it actually try to achieve the setting. This has been noted by quite a few simmers.Hope this helps,Francois :-outta Francois :-wave[table border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0][tr][td valign=bottom" align="center]"At home in the wild"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:avsim.com/alaska/alaska_052.htm|Don's Alaskan Bush Charters]"Beavers Lead the Way"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:www.avsim.com/vfr_center/mainpages/vfr_flights_main_page.htm]VFR Flight Center]"Looking Good Outside"[/td][/tr][tr][td valign=top" align="center]http://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gif[/td][td valign="top" align="left" colspan=2]http://www.fssupport.com/images/moose2.gif[/td][tr][/table]________________________Francois A. "Navman" DumasAssociate Editor &Forums AdministratorAVSIM Online![/bemail: fdumas@avsim.com________________________

[Guest RonB49]

Hi Keith, you asked, "And how come you can't turn it off?" Because the FR limiter sets the upper limit, then setting it to "Unlimited" position (move the slider to the far right), turns it off. R-

[Guest RichardL]

Here's a good explination at Lago.http://www.lagoonline.com/ENG/articoli/art_1.asp?art=4Richard

[PeterR 9]

It's always puzzled me why FS needs a frame rate lock whereas other 3D games and sims can take care of properly load balancing themselves. Things that make you go "hmmmm..."

[Guest cwright]

I don't believe the frame rate lock makes the slightest difference to smoothness. But it does have a very important function. Some people, including myself, suffer from the dreaded dynamic blurred textures problem (scenery texture mip maps that update painfully slow, leading to ugly blurred textures). In this case setting a low frame rate lock improves the problem considerably, probably because it makes more processing power available for mip map updating. Best regards, Chris