Stuttering clouds

[arthurplum 0]

Hi all,Same problem here.Built a new system about 6 weeks back spec's as;Asus P5k mbE6750 dual core2Gb Geil high performance memoryNvidia PNY 8600GTS graphicsCorsair HX620w psuHitachi deskstar 160Gb sata2 HDWindows XP.Asus 20.1 inch monitor at 1400x1050Runs FS9 like a dream,frames locked at 30,flying PMDG or Level-d into complex addon airports from the VC, no drop in frames or stuttering.Throw in some heavy detailed clouds anywhere, and frames are all over the place with stuttering.Situation rectified by ticking the simple clouds box and were back at 30FPS.Seems almost bizarre that such a small change in visual display quality can have such dramatic results,but hey this is flightsim.Back to head scratching mode. all the best. Garry EGNM.

[FLEX1978 373]

Hey Gary, I have the exact same problem as you, same specs except ATI HD3870 512mb Everything smooth as silk into to most detailed airports (heathrow + frankfurt Aerosoft) with 747F everything maxed out. as soon as I max clouds it starts jerking, but in a diffrent way to when I had a low spec machine. I have decided to do one last upgrade new motherboard 4 gig of the fastest ram and the new Wolfdale dual core clocked at 4ghz with watercooling.. If FS9 still gives me trouble I'm going to take a break till FS11. What annoys me is even with max clouds and stutters the FPS is pegged at 30 :(Rob

[Guest Jagndeke]

Thanks all for everyone's feedback. I'm pretty much convinced now it's a vid driver issue. I may wait for Omega to finally getting around to releasing a modded ATI driver for Vista or I might just try rolling back to an earlier ATI stock driver. Whatever I try and if it works, I'll post back.Cheers,Jag

[Mike... 7]

I just got a new system as well based around an E8400. Best performance ever, but throw in some clouds and the frame rates go down noticeably. Not to the point of a slide show, but it's definitely less smooth, not really stutters though. Especially as you fly through them. Once you're clear, either above or below, everything's fine. Using the 7.10 Omega drivers on XP Pro, they don't get any better than that.By the way, "some" clouds isn't exactly true. It's a massive amount of clouds. And multiple layers of them. Active Sky generated and I'm using the 128*128 DXT set (looks fine enough to me).

[FLEX1978 373]

I cant seem to get my head around the fact that these machines run FS9 so fast in dense scenery, but clouds cause problems. My Jaw dropped flying into Heathrow with a insane amount of scenery around me, and my trackIR was flowing smoothly like I was in the Default 737 in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Does anyone think there could be a problem with the new CPU's and FS9 computing clouds? or a problem with the new Graphic cards?Rob

[Guest Jagndeke]

>Does anyone think there could be a problem>with the new CPU's and FS9 computing clouds? or a problem with>the new Graphic cards?>>RobCould very well be Rob. On my old XP machine I had just the right combination of FS9 tweaks and vid card driver to be able to max everything out with great FR's. The vid card driver had the largest impact. I know because I tried at least a dozen or more and could have, at one time, released a rating for each driver in terms of performance in FS9. I'm sure that it was a combination of the hardware design and the software design for the vid cards and how they worked together (or didn't work together depending on driver version) to "read" and display the code in FS9 that made it better or worse.Today's hardware design is different, the software design is different, and it's likely that they work together differently to read and display the same old FS9 code. Which is probably why many of us have this "new" issue of cloud rendering difficulties on vastly more powerful machines than we had on our older gear. Somewhere though, there's gotta be a fix and it'll take a little time to find it but I'm sure we will.Cheers,Jag

[windycloud 30]

>Today's hardware design is different, the software design is>different, and it's likely that they work together differently>to read and display the same old FS9 code. Which is probably>why many of us have this "new" issue of cloud rendering>difficulties on vastly more powerful machines than we had on>our older gear. Somewhere though, there's gotta be a fix and>it'll take a little time to find it but I'm sure we will.>>Cheers,>JagOh no I'm not buying no core2duo now...staying with my good old 4000+ is the way to go? Those of you who have this poblem here all use the newer C2Ds correct?Jason

[Guest Jagndeke]

>Oh no I'm not buying no core2duo now...staying with my good>old 4000+ is the way to go? >>JasonNot at all Jason. New technology just means new problems (or resurrection of old problems in some cases). I upgrade at every chance I get (which is usually when my wife isn't watching!). I'm sure there is a fix for this problem. It'll just take time to figure it out.Good observation on processor usage. Could be that or the change to Vista or the change to PCIe cards from AGP cards. For those of us having the issue, there's probably some commonality amongst our software or gear that might help at least understand the issue if not resolve it.Cheers,Jag

[FLEX1978 373]

Hey Jason,Trust me these new core 2 duo's are mind blowing, Liquid smooth with every add on Maxed... and despite the issue I am having I will still never go back to the frustration and tweaking on my old P4 3.2 Hyper threading and ATI X1950 512mb.I think/Hope it is a driver issue, as i did need to hunt around with my old setup. ATI 7.10 drivers worked best for me so I will give it a try when I get back to the UK. I should also add that problem is only severe when I have Heavy weather (Thick overcast and 3 or more cloud layers)Rob

[arthurplum 0]

Hi Rob,Have been doing a little research this evening, running in heavy clouds framerate starts to yoyo from a locked 30 to as low as 10fps though stays mainly in the low 20's.Switching to windowed mode gives a slight improvement but the fluctuations are still evident.Running filemon shows nothing out of the ordinary.Looks as though we have a Gremlin in the mix, and where he is I don't know.Noticed you are running ATI graphics and I'm with Nvidia so not so sure its a driver issue.Have to agree with you on the performance of the core2duo in fs9.I upgraded from a P4 3.4G 7600gt graphics and the performance increase is mindblowing,the P4 is now on internet duties.Previously could only fly the 2D panel of complex airliners due to performance limitations but since I built this new machine have flown only from the VC, and for me personally flightsim satisfaction has gone up several notches.Hope someone can nail this cloud issue,in the meantime all the best. Garry EGNM

[Guest Zevious Zoquis]

Yep, the performance I'm getting in FS9 on my new AMD X2 5600+ @2.8ghz is great overall. The framerate stays at the lock of 35fps under pretty much all circumstances at very high visual settings and a res of 1680x1050x32. It's only that one cloud condition (and its a very recognizable condition) where things get messy. I too doubt its a driver issue as I've always experienced the same thing no matter what drivers I've used on both my ATI and Nvidea cards...