Where do you lose your frame rates?

[Guest ScottPilot]

Hello!I just switched my drivers back to the 30.82's from the 40.72's and have gotten a very good increase in performance (smoothness and fps).However, I still get a pretty good frame rate loss when banking the aircraft beyond 18 degrees or so. In the Barron when my bank goes to around 22-25 degrees or more my frame rates drop from about 18-20 (locked at 20) to around 7-8 fps. This of course makes the outside view become more choppy and un-smooth. I also notice this to some extent on the guages like the D.G.When I am flying straight and level, pitching up or down, or using shallow banks (less than standard rate turns) I have no noticible frame rate loss and the sim stays very smooth. This is with no clouds or all kinds of clouds.However, if I increase the bank to around standard rate or more, I get a substantial loss in fps. This happens whether it is clear or cloudy.I was wondering if this was the same for everyone else, or if you are losing fps during other operations in the sim?Is there anything else that can be done to stabilize the fps so there is not such a dramtic drop durring turns?Thanks and Happy Simming!Scott Heinz :-)ATP/CFII - KCOSMy System Specs:1GHZ PIII 2X AGP (Built by me)512MB SDRAM120GB Hard Disk(s)Visiontek Xtasy Geforce 4 MX440 64MB AGP card with dual 17" monitorsNvidia driver version: 3082Video Settings: LOD = -.08, Anistropy: Force Level 2, FSAA - OFF, Refresh Rate Force - 85MHZHercules Digifire 7.1 Soundcard with Creative Inspire 5.1 surround speakers and hardware acceleration set at BASICWindows XP Pro with SP1CH Products Flight Sim Yoke & RuddersMS Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro Joystick (Disabled exept when flying helecopters)FS Addons:Eddie Denny's RealsceneMisc. 3rd Party MeshFS SKyworld 2002SE CloudsReal Weather rwxeFS Flight MaxOceanFX water texturesOther aircraft, freeware and paywareMS Flight Simulator 2002 Pro Settings:Resolution: 1024 X 768 32 Bit ColorTerrain Mesh Complexity: 80No Building shadowsNo Aircraft shadowsAutogen for trees: DenseAutogen for Buildings: Extremely DenseCloud Density: 65Reflections and water effects: MAXAircraft Reflections: ONAI Aircraft: 40%Tri-linear BufferingEnhanced Lighting: ONFSAA in Flight Sim: OFFAll other sliders set at MAX

[Guest]

hicould be wrong,but im sure this is to do with some of the gauges in the panel.possibly the artificial horizon...there was some posts a little while ago about the same thing.does it do it in VC???if you fly from 2d panel ..backup the original panel folder,get a new barron panel ,there are some good freeware ones on here,install new panel and gauges ,and see how it goes...if it's still the same you can always revert to old panel.try to find a panel that does not use default gauges,they could be the cause of the problem!!!! best wishes steve

[spotlope 0]

I've got another idea about that, Scott. When you're making shallow turns you aren't seeing the sim change much so the overall smoothness seems fine, but in a steep turn you notice the speed of the update because the each frame is changing so much from the previous. I wonder if the problem is your overall frame rates or another related issue called stuttering where the frame rates fluctuate wildly for a short time. I've noticed the same problem on my rig when doing exactly as you described, usually when flying aircraft that place a high load on the system. I don't have an answer other than playing with your display setting sliders until things smooth out. One thing you might try if the problem happens in VC mode is to turn the gauge quality to low. It makes a big difference for the worse in some panels and little difference in others, but at least it would help you isolate the problem.Good luck!

[Guest ScottPilot]

Interestiing...I'll try the VC idea.As far as my frame rates jumping all over the place, they do that all the time. Even if I set ALL the sliders down, which makes the outside view horrible of course.I don't have the fastest system, so maybe that is why the frames are changing all the time. They never stay the same, unless the sim is paused of course.I am happy with the sim's performance over all though. When I am taking off or landing for example, and I change the viewpoint, left, right, forward, ect, there is no stuttering. The ground textures and clouds are going by nice and smooth. No pauses or anything like that.The only time it happens is when the airplane is in a normal to steep bank. Maybe it is related to the guages in some of the aircraft (as suggested in the prior reply) because when flying different airplanes the stuttering during turns may be more or less pronounce.For example, with the C172, until you get into a formal steep turn (around 45 degrees) there isn't much stuttering. But with the Barron, it happens at a much shallower bank.Of course, if I set the visibilitly real low, then it isn't an issue when flying IFR.So it probably is a combination of my system not being as fast as others out there and since I only have 2X AGP on my motherboard, I wouldn't see much improvement if I went to the ti line of Geforce cards unless I replaced my mother board with one that has at least a 4X AGP slot.So I am just trying to see if there are other solutions to "tame" the stuttering in turns.Thanks for the replies!ScottATP/CFII - KCOS

[Guest]

Scott - It's really going to vary by system and FS2002 configuration. The framerate slowdown will occur anytime the CPU can't calculate the polygons as fast as the rest of the system can display them. Steep turns and dense static scenery are two of the major issues in that regard. Faster CPU's can keep up with high polygon counts and slow ones cannot. The only real solution is to always fly level in very sparse scenery and always use the fastest available CPU :-) .TripEdited 'cause I can't spel

[Guest]

ScottYou could try deleting xour FS2002 cfg. file and let the program build a new one when you start the sim.I've found this to be a help after driver or hardware ghanges.I have the feeling that after a certain amount of installs and changes,the cfg. somehow becomes corrupt in some way.BTW,although I have a Mobo with 8X AA capability,I only have a GF3Ti with 4X,and actually run at 2X,still looks good,and the frame rate is better.What you mostly need is a faster processor,FS is very CPU dependant.Although I must say,the MX cards are not really suitable for FS,they are made for Office applications.Even the GF4MX cards have basically the same graphic engine as the GF2MX.Hope this helpsRegards Grahame EDHL

[Guest JonP01]

Hi Scott,Trip is right on the money. The only viable solution to banking stutter is a faster CPU. When I upgraded from a PIII 866 to an Athlon XP 2400, the two main differences were that the banking stutter syndrome went away and that I could turn the terrain mesh slider all the way up.

[Guest PaulL01]

>Hello! >>I just switched my drivers back to the 30.82's from the >40.72's and have gotten a very good increase in performance >(smoothness and fps). Hi Scott,Just wanted to point out as far as the difference you had between the 40.x vs. 30x drivers... If by default or otherwise the "texture sharpening" box was checked in the 40.x drivers that would double the amount of Aniso that the you select and that the card has to perform and would likely be responsible for the performance difference you saw.I personally don't recommend 40.x drivers below 42.01, but if your 30.82's are working fine along with everything else there really is no reason to change.The performance difference between all most any driver set is very very minor as realized in FS, most driver releases are not "performance" optimization oriented at all but compatibility or problem specific, and in some instances the so called "performance" drivers are low on image quality, for owners of GF4TI cards there are some advantages to "newer" drivers (I believe it was 32.xx up) as the GF4TI suffers aniso fatigue and these "newer" drivers attempted to alleviate some of that the results being however rather disappointing.