Frame rates with detailed clouds

[Guest SootyGTi]

I have a modest spec PC,AMD Athlon X2 Dual 50002Gb Ram 512 video etcGet fantastic frame rates, with add on sceneries, detailed user and AI a/c but as soon as I switch to detailed cloud, BANG frame rates can literally half themselves. I have purchased Active Sky 6.5 and changedthe texture's on the cloud bitmap's to 128x128, this helps a little, but as soon as there is any real cloud 'density' I loose all flyability because of the frames...Any idea's Could my G-Force 8600 just not be up to some of the rendering?It's a shame because the simple clouds in fs2004 just dont cut it and are pretty dull, but the detailed ones (especially with AS6) are really really realistic

[Byrna 0]

I have a modest spec PC,AMD Athlon X2 Dual 50002Gb Ram 512 video etcGet fantastic frame rates, with add on sceneries, detailed user and AI a/c but as soon as I switch to detailed cloud, BANG frame rates can literally half themselves. I have purchased Active Sky 6.5 and changedthe texture's on the cloud bitmap's to 128x128, this helps a little, but as soon as there is any real cloud 'density' I loose all flyability because of the frames...Any idea's Could my G-Force 8600 just not be up to some of the rendering?It's a shame because the simple clouds in fs2004 just dont cut it and are pretty dull, but the detailed ones (especially with AS6) are really really realistic

I have an Intel E8400 with an Asus G-force 8600GT card with 2GB RAM, Asus motherboard and have no problems. I use Active Sky 6.x - though I cannot recall if it is 6.5 or not (I am not at home now...). It may be something else that is causing this slowness. Have you verified things like the cloud draw distance, cloud complexity level, cloud visibility distance in the FS2004 settings?Here is a comparison of my CPU and your CPU from Tom's Hardware Guide - http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop...od%5B2280%5D=onAlso, what are your exact frame rates? In FS, I hope you are aware that "fantastic" frame rates are considered to be around 20-24 fps (when landing at add-on airport sceneries or taxiing) which is more than enough. I get usually no less than 20.John

[out 769]

SootyGTi,Try using DXT3 instead of 32bit clouds.The most simple way is to open your ActiveSky Graphics interface. Then in Options check 'Use DXT instead of 32bit color' and Send to FS.Maybe it will help. Won't hurt anyway.Best regards,Rafal

[Byrna 0]

SootyGTi,Try using DXT3 instead of 32bit clouds.The most simple way is to open your ActiveSky Graphics interface. Then in Options check 'Use DXT instead of 32bit color' and Send to FS.Maybe it will help. Won't hurt anyway.Best regards,Rafal

Yes of course, I had forgotten about this setting for DXT3 for clouds in AS. Also, there are settings in SOME add-on sceneries to use DXT3 instead of 32-bit textures and even a program (free) for converting high-res 32-bit textures to DXT3 format.

[Guest napamule]

You say the clouds in Fs9 are simple and dull. Well, if you go World\Weather\CUSTOM menu and adjust the parameters, they look much better. What simmers don't do when they add a cloud layer is adjust the base -vs- the tops altitutes. In other words, a cloud layer from 6,000 ft to 7,000 ft is not going to give good results. You must make a thick layer (ie: from 6,000 ft to 18,000 ft) for those clouds to get all puffy and look like thunder boomers. Otherwise they look like squashed wet cotton balls, as they don't have ROOM to expand. Try it, you'll like it.Chuck BNapamule

[Guest SootyGTi]

Thankyou, all for repliesYes Byrna, between 20-24, limiter set to 24 (no need for anymore)Comparison website shows some interesting results, and when I run detailed clouds I have all sliders to the left to see if I can get any sort of playability.I have the checkbox for DXT3 but its greyed out, it says render to texture in FS9 is OFF, Can I only turn this on in the fs9.cfg?Thanks for all the help thus far

[Guest belga1]

Hello,

I have the checkbox for DXT3 but its greyed out, it says render to texture in FS9 is OFF, Can I only turn this on in the fs9.cfg?

You can turn this "ON" in the options (settings) in the gameCheck for display and material or hardware .. it's a option "on" "off" for "render to texture".Regards.

[kev4242 5]

You may already done this in which case apologies, but I turned off AA in fs9 and set it through the video card and fps in detailed clouds improved loads with ASA.