Hi there,I have recently installed FSX on my new system, and I am kind of mad that even after 4 days of tweaking the settings I am stuck because of, as it seems to me, a stupid programming failure:When I fly above 10.000 feet, I can achieve well over 30 FPS, but the ground textures tend to get a blurred mess after a few minutes. So I set the Target Frame Rate to 25, and it works: solid 25 FPS and visibly better texture loading, no more or at least much less blurries. This is especially obvious when flying with highend VFR scenery such as Aerosoft's VFR Germany.However, once I am on final, or even on the ground, the Target Frame Rate kills my FPS. Sitting at 25R at EDDF I get 20FPS with unlimited frames, when I keep my Target Frame Rate of 25 however, it creeps along at 14FPS. Same goes for any airport or below 10.000 feet situation, so basically I have to turn on/off the Target Frame Rate at least twice in a flight.So obviously, the Target Frame Rate is a broken software feature, as it is simply not doing what it is suposed to do, its makes no sense to me that it kills my FPS on the ground, ESPECIALLY on the ground as there isnt any texture loading to do whatsoever!!I would really appreciate any suggestions.My system: 3.06 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 512MB 8800M GTS, 4 GB (/3GB switch), Windows XP SP2, FSX SP2.Running in 1920x1200, did the notorious Autogen hacks incl. the lightened Default.xml. Texture resolution is set to only 1 meter!Greetings,Robert

HelloLooking at where EDDF is located shows a lot of airports in the areayou may be suffering because of all the animated jetways that may be in the area.See if things improve if you turn down the Scenery Complexity slider this will get rid of the jetways.Same applies to AI traffic, turn it down a bit.The Target framerate feature is not broken as far as i am aware.It is simply that your machine is not able to deliver the requested FPS.I have similar hardware [email protected] 8800GTS 320mb and 2 gig of DDR2 800.After following the posts by Nick.N on setting this all up i never drop below 30 FPS now and textures are clear at all times, unless i am somwhere like Heathrow/london area then i take a hit,i would imagine Frankfurt may be a similar situation.

Thanks for the input!When I was talking about the blurries, I wasnt referring to EDDF however, the problem is when I'm at 10.000 feet above the countryside. I was just using the EDDF example to demonstrate the Target Frame Rate problem. Turning it off, I receive 20FPS, so my while my system is not able to deliver 25, when I turn the Target Frame Rate on, it only delivers 14FPS. There must be some error in that chain, it makes no sense. It limits my framerate far before I reach the set limit of 25. This happens at all airports.I don't seek help concerning my EDDF performance, of course I could make it faster by lowering the complexity. What bugs me is that while the Target Frate Rate feature works at cruising altitude, it totally screws everything else!

HelloWhat happens if you lock the framerate at 20FPS ?You mention that with the Target framerate off (unlimited) you receive 20FPSbut you have it locked at 25? , if you get 20 (unlimited) in a given situation you will never reach 25 (locked) in the same situationI will do a flight over to EDDF to see how this machine gets onI will drop my CPU back to 3.0 ghz and given that your machine is better in all other respects you should be doing better than me.Is that with the default EDDF or a Payware version?

Of course I wont get more FPS when I lock it at a higher digit than my machine is able to perform. But I get LESS, even if the limit hasnt been reached at all, just by turning it on.It is Mega Airport Frankfurt X by Aerosoft, which is nested in VFR Germany also bei Aerosoft. You probably cannot replicate that, but you dont have to either (it occurs at any airport anyway). We can have that a lot easier:Just load a flight in a Cessna in lets say KLAX, no frame limiter. What FPS do you get? Then set the limiter 5 or 10FPS ABOVE what you got. On my system, I will get less FPS, eventhough the limiter hasnt been touched in both setups. That is my problem, it has nothing to do with EDDF or any scenery in specific. Any limiter just hurts my FPS while below 10k feet.I get something like this:Unlimted Target FPS >> Actual FPS: 20FPS.Target FPS set to 25 >> Actual FPS: 12FPS.It makes absolutely no sense.

HelloJust headed over the EDDF (default)At 3.0ghz 1920x1200 i get 60FPS in the air (default Baron)On the ground in the VC looking towards the terminal buildings with25% traffic GA and Airline it drops back to 20FPS.What i have noticed is that when i switched to external view the FPS dropped right off to < 14 FPS and never recovered when i went back to VCNever had this happen before.The Framerate slider behaved as expected .What traffic percent are you running.I am using MyTraffic here which can get rid of the jetways so that maybe the difference between your 14 FPS and my 20FPS.Also the choice of aircraft, what are you typically using?

HelloCessna at KLAX 25%trafficUnlimited Target FPS >> Actual FPS: 22-27 FPS fluctuating.Target FPS set to 25 >> Actual FPS: 16-18 FPS.When i lock it at 20 which is just below my lowest stable FPS in unlimited, it drops to 14-16 FPS.This is very much the same as you are seeing.Turning off traffic in the same situation Target Framerate 20 Actual Framerate 20So it looks like the CPU is having to struggle with the traffic as my Target framerate of 20 delivers 20 correctly with no traffic.But I get the same symptoms as you when I throw in 25% traffic.Your observations regarding the Frame lock slider appear to be correct.We are both CPU bound :-(

Are you sure this anomaly does not happen with your setup?Unlimted Target FPS >> Actual FPS: 20FPS.Target FPS set to 25 >> Actual FPS: 12FPS.(When sitting on the ground).I don't think it makes sense if we compare the FPS we get in EDDF given we have different setups and all... But I am also using MyTraffic 5.1b (50%), what do you mean it can get rid of the jetways?) I want my jetways :)I do FPS ground tests generally with the "lightest" FPS-impact Aircraft (FPS wise), that would be this scooter-engined glider.Can you recheck if you get that limiter anomaly please?

AH! You have it too! We should get more people involved... I will test this without traffic, too.And then maybe head to the official MyTraffic Forum!

HelloIn the MyTraffic communicator app you can select airports with higher performance (no animated jetways) i can live without them for better performance.Imagine being in an area with a lot of large airports, the sim is having to calculate the data for all of the jetways animating at all of those airports.I dont think it is a problem with MyTraffic as my FPS are better with MyTraffic than with the default traffic at the same traffic density.Just lose the animations and see how you get on.With this [email protected] I have to make compromises to get the best average FPS, but overall I am happy with the performance which is just as well, as I am not building another system until FS11 is released.It is better than I ever got in FS9,much smoother.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/193046.jpg

FSX is another spelling for the word compromise, we all know that. But overall I am quite OK with the performance I am getting (esp. since this machine is an elegant 24" iMac - no big rig). The FSX code is not efficient - but we cannot change that.But this anomaly really makes me mad. I don't want to go to settings and adjust the limiter all the time - knowing that this is the fault of the software and not my system. When I can get 20FPS, I WANT 20FPS. And I am not willing to adjust the limiter. I want a FIX ;)

I thought it was widely known that locking the framerate tends to cripple FPS at ground level and low altitude near high-complexity scenery such as EDDF, EGLL, New York etc. The problem is especially pronounced when there are complex clouds to draw. This is so, even with traffic set to zero.I don't know why this is so, but my guess is that the graphics card and system RAM, not the CPU, are the single biggest bottlenecks in these situations. As you say, it's probably not to do with loading textures. But that just means it's to do with rendering and/or applying anti-aliasing etc to complex structures - especially ones that have been drawn inefficiently and/or use RAM inefficiently. I have four pieces of evidence for this.First, last year when I went from an 8800 GTS to an 8800 Ultra, my "in flight" framerates didn't change very much: but on the ground, at Aerosoft Heathrow 2008X, they went up quite substantially: from memory, about 20%. Secondly, more recently I have gone from a 3.0GHz dual Xeon system to a 4.2GHz E8600 system. This has massively increased framerates and smoothness etc almost everywhere. Even at Aerosoft Heathrow 2008X, there is a definite improvement: BUT it is much less remarkable, and less in proportion to the raw clockspeed increase, than elsewhere. (Incidentally, even running the E8600 at 4.5GHz - which I have done experimentally - doesn't make very much difference).Thirdly, improving latency on my new PC has, I think, improved the experience at Heathrow. Everest now reports latency of about 47.2ns compared with about 64ns before I optimized the settings. It is difficult to tell quite what extra fps this has delivered (compared with the extra speed of the CPU) but at a guess, on average, I'd say 1.5 or 2 fps - which is quite a lot when your starting point is only about 18 or 19 fps.Fourthly, the Fly Tampa Hong Kong scenery does not suffer to anywhere near the same degree from the framerate problems of the Aerosoft scenery, and to my mind even does better than the built-in scenery too - provided you use the Fly Tampa "strict compliance" setting. This tells me that other developers have been deviating from strict FSX standards, with deleterious consequences for FSX framerates.So, whether or not the locking thing is broken, I can't say: but we're all in the same boat.Tim

helloIf you go to KLAX or EDDF and lock your frames at just below the lowest you see displayed, If that is 14FPS then so be it, that is all your machine is capable in the worst case scenario'sIt is not the fault of the software, FSX would like to give you more and indeed does as soon as you are in a less demanding situation.But the bottom line is around airports your machine can only deliver 14FPS so that is what you will get.Your slider may be set at 20FPS but FSX is having to deal with a lot more going on whilst around airports.If I want my FPS to be a constant in any situation be it around airports or in any weather conditions then I would need to find the situation with the very worst case, London/Heathrow would be a good choice.If i then take a note of my lowest steady frame rate and lock just below that, I know that i will get that everywhere and in any combination of conditions.If that Framerate is to low for me to find enjoyable then it is time to get a better PC of turn some sliders down.As we know FSX demands a very good PC, even the best will choke in some situations if the settings are too high.This [email protected] is borderline with a complex aircraft at a large airport, your iMac is clocked slower so you will fare no better.Can you not attempt to overclock your machine? I have no experience withMacs so i would not know.

I am kind of relieved that it is widely known. But it doesnt really help. I see your 4 examples, but to me those are more general, logical observations, while I still don't see why the frame rate limiter cripples the FPS on ground level... it makes no sense. The FPS are there, the limiter just kills them, and gives nothing in return.And yes, I almost couldnt believe my eyes when I installed VHHX. Fly Tampa does an amazing job and they put ALL other scenery developers to shame. The VHHX Scenery is 5 times as Complex as let's say ANY Aerosoft Scenery and performs better than the standard scenery. It is indeed amazing. given the visual quality which also superior to any other addon. I just wish they would port their FS2004 Airports, too. Or Microsoft should just buy them to do all scenery in FS11 ;)

>hello>If you go to KLAX or EDDF and lock your frames at just below>the lowest you see displayed, If that is 14FPS then so be it,>that is all your machine is capable in the worst case>scenario's>It is not the fault of the software, FSX would like to give>you more and indeed does as soon as you are in a less>demanding situation.>But the bottom line is around airports your machine can only>deliver 14FPS so that is what you will get.>Your slider may be set at 20FPS but FSX is having to deal with>a lot more going on whilst around airports.>If I want my FPS to be a constant in any situation be it>around airports or in any weather conditions then I would need>to find the situation with the very worst case,>London/Heathrow would be a good choice.>If i then take a note of my lowest steady frame rate and lock>just below that, I know that i will get that everywhere and in>any combination of conditions.>If that Framerate is to low for me to find enjoyable then it>is time to get a better PC of turn some sliders down.>As we know FSX demands a very good PC, even the best will>choke in some situations if the settings are too high.>This [email protected] is borderline with a complex aircraft at a>large airport, your iMac is clocked slower so you will fare no>better.>Can you not attempt to overclock your machine? I have no>experience with>Macs so i would not know.I am totally aware of these facts and the situation were In when dealing with FSX. but did you understand my point? The fact that I get 20FPS when the limiter is off, and then simply losing 25% of performace just for turning it on - is a BUG. I am not complaining about general FSX performance, I am just saying that this detail really is annoying, and believe there could be a fix.