Don't miss this one: a NEW FSX optimizer

[Cruachan 705]

The FPS Limiter seems to have smoothed out the small stutters fairly well, however, I am now experiencing occasional 1 sec hesitations. Is there something else that I need to adjust?. I have set up everything according to Nick's tweaks and FSX settings.Bufferpool= 35000000 according to Nick's guideXP Pro w sp3, 8800GTS 640 mb, C2 duo 6700 oced to 3.35 ghz, 2 gb ram dual path ddr2, FSX w acceleration

Hi MSW,Following my initial enthusiasm for this gizmo I find I am now feeling a tad disappointed :(I have the following: AMD Athlon 64X2 6400+ (BE,3200MHz,Windsor), 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 4-4-4-12(2T) (Dual Channel), NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB (DDR3) (ForceWare 180.48 WHQL). If 3DMark06 results are any guide, the 8800GTS appears to be approx twice as fast as my X1950Pro with a 3DMark score of 9129.Your cpu is faster than mine on paper, but in the real world I think their respective gaming performance is comparable.Prior to trying the FPS Limiter FSX was pretty smooth (locked at 20fps) while flying the default a/c, but I was experiencing these stutters/surges while flying the RealAir a/c like the Marchetti or the Spit. I upgraded from an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB to an GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB and this has helped a lot in this sim but the surges with these a/c are still present, albeit less marked.The FPS Limiter seems to have introduced surging even while flying the default a/c, which is not good.I tried reintroducing the BP tweak with a value of 35000000 (as you did) but this produced graphic artifacts popping up all over the place. Previously I was running default. Maybe the value of BP is set too high, I'll need to experiment more.I have noticed a couple of things while using the FPS Limiter:It's subtle, but I'm sure the ground textures appear sharper than before. Also I note that while core #0 appears to be working less hard, core#1 is now frequently batting along at 100%. Possibly this is why textures appear crisper since my understanding is that texture loading was offloaded onto the second core with one of the service packs.I had high hopes for this tool but, for the moment at least, it seems to me that it won't play nicely with my lesser system as compared with the results seen by those running more cutting edge hardware.How are you monitoring your frame rates? I've tried freeing F10, 11 and 12 in FSX but pressing F12 doesn't bring up a fps osd in FSX while using the FPS Limiter. I was hoping to be able to try fine tuning the limiter while FSX is running.Mike

[Noel 4,496]

Hi MSW,Following my initial enthusiasm for this gizmo I find I am now feeling a tad disappointed :(I have the following: AMD Athlon 64X2 6400+ (BE,3200MHz,Windsor), 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 4-4-4-12(2T) (Dual Channel), NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB (DDR3) (ForceWare 180.48 WHQL). If 3DMark06 results are any guide, the 8800GTS appears to be approx twice as fast as my X1950Pro with a 3DMark score of 9129.Your cpu is faster than mine on paper, but in the real world I think their respective gaming performance is comparable.Prior to trying the FPS Limiter FSX was pretty smooth (locked at 20fps) while flying the default a/c, but I was experiencing these stutters/surges while flying the RealAir a/c like the Marchetti or the Spit. I upgraded from an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB to an GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB and this has helped a lot in this sim but the surges with these a/c are still present, albeit less marked.The FPS Limiter seems to have introduced surging even while flying the default a/c, which is not good.I tried reintroducing the BP tweak with a value of 35000000 (as you did) but this produced graphic artifacts popping up all over the place. Previously I was running default. Maybe the value of BP is set too high, I'll need to experiment more.I have noticed a couple of things while using the FPS Limiter:It's subtle, but I'm sure the ground textures appear sharper than before. Also I note that while core #0 appears to be working less hard, core#1 is now frequently batting along at 100%. Possibly this is why textures appear crisper since my understanding is that texture loading was offloaded onto the second core with one of the service packs.I had high hopes for this tool but, for the moment at least, it seems to me that it won't play nicely with my lesser system as compared with the results seen by those running more cutting edge hardware.How are you monitoring your frame rates? I've tried freeing F10, 11 and 12 in FSX but pressing F12 doesn't bring up a fps osd in FSX while using the FPS Limiter. I was hoping to be able to try fine tuning the limiter while FSX is running.Mike

Hi Mike, Is it safe to assume you set FSX to UNLIMITED? Just making sure of the big things first! I've heard the bufferpools setting does not always apply, or should I say needs to be carefully applied, and even then YMMV.

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Mike, Is it safe to assume you set FSX to UNLIMITED? Just making sure of the big things first! I've heard the bufferpools setting does not always apply, or should I say needs to be carefully applied, and even then YMMV.

Hi Noel,Yes, and I've even tried locking the frame rates in the sim at levels below unlimited and above 30, but it doesn't seem to improve things in any significant way. I've also tried lowering the FPS Limiter to values between 20 and 30 but still no joy. Unfortunately, this means editing the batch file each time as I don't seem to be able to adjust the limiter lock on the fly while the sim is running.I'm not giving up just yet!Regards,Mike

[Alvega 2,124]

This worked for me, i can now fly with unlimited FPS without the stutters and FPS also increased. It's locked at 30 and never goes down, except when loading the 70% MTX traffic in airports like LAX or JFK, where it goes down to high teens for some secs but then up again.I noticed FPS in windowed mode (which used to be the more or less the same as in fullscreen) decreased and are now about 1/2 the FPS in fullscreen, but as i only fly in fullscreen mode i'm happy with this tweak.Thanks to all who contributed.

[Noel 4,496]

Hi Noel,Yes, and I've even tried locking the frame rates in the sim at levels below unlimited and above 30, but it doesn't seem to improve things in any significant way. I've also tried lowering the FPS Limiter to values between 20 and 30 but still no joy. Unfortunately, this means editing the batch file each time as I don't seem to be able to adjust the limiter lock on the fly while the sim is running.I'm not giving up just yet!Regards,Mike

Sounds pretty odd Mike. For one thing you mentioned you (normally?) run locked at 20. That seems odd to me--too low. What happens when you run UNLIMITED with FSPL off? I don't mean to sound condescending, but you are certain the program is running? Something is amiss but I dont' know what it might be. And as mentioned, if you weren't seeing surges/spikes previously, I don't think this will help much. When you lowered FPSL to under 30, did it stay locked at what you set it at? (using FSX framer counter or FRAPS).

[MSW 0]

It turned out that it was "item a" of Nick's two possibilities causing my 1 second hesitations. I used Enditall to kill absolutely everything that wasn't needed and the 1 second hesitations went away. It now seems that the FPS Limiter is smoothing things out fairly well. I flew around Las Vegas with autogen at dense and complexity at one step to the right past dense and for once it was a smooth flight. This is with real weather, FEX and GEX. When I have more time I will try to determine which background application was causing the problem.Mike

[Guest Nick_N]

Hi MSW,Following my initial enthusiasm for this gizmo I find I am now feeling a tad disappointed :(I have the following: AMD Athlon 64X2 6400+ (BE,3200MHz,Windsor), 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 4-4-4-12(2T) (Dual Channel), NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB (DDR3) (ForceWare 180.48 WHQL). If 3DMark06 results are any guide, the 8800GTS appears to be approx twice as fast as my X1950Pro with a 3DMark score of 9129.Your cpu is faster than mine on paper, but in the real world I think their respective gaming performance is comparable.

X2 6400+ is not even in the same leauge for FSX as a C2 @ 3.35It has nothing to do with the CPU speed compare and everything to do with the internal designIn compare for FSX I would put the X2 6400 in line with a C2 @ 2.2GhzIn terms of how it works FSX is not a game... is not, is not, is not and I wish people would get that. I say the problem is what I posted.. the system simply does not have the resources with overhead

[Cruachan 705]

X2 6400+ is not even in the same leauge for FSX as a C2 @ 3.35It has nothing to do with the CPU speed compare and everything to do with the internal designIn compare for FSX I would put the X2 6400 in line with a C2 @ 2.2GhzIn terms of how it works FSX is not a game... is not, is not, is not and I wish people would get that. I say the problem is what I posted.. the system simply does not have the resources with overhead

Thanks Nick, I guess that puts me firmly in my place .. LOL!I'm well aware of the limitations imposed by the hardware in my system - my choice. I'm content with what I have as this setup has proved, in the main, to be very stable. I have numerous sims installed as well as a number of quite taxing games and everything else runs very well indeed. I'm not quite as obsessed about getting FSX to run smoothly in every situation but, I admit, it would be nice! So my priorities are a bit different. I won't uninstall FSX as it does give me much pleasure along with the various addons like GEX, UT, FEX and ASA and the performance is pretty decent so long as I avoid those situations where it starts to grind. The upgrade to the 8800GTS was simply to help performance a bit especially in clouds. This has proved to be a worthwhile exercise and I am happy. However, there remains this issue I am experiencing with the RealAir a/c and, indeed, some other 3rd party a/c as well.Like everyone else I have followed and benefitted greatly from your very helpful guidance concerning System and FSX tuning (huge thanks!) and now I am intrigued to read about this FPS Limiter. Naturally I wanted a piece of the action and was hoping it would help resolve those surges. So far, and for whatever reason, this does not seem to working on FSX. Moreover, it seems to introduce some surging while flying many default a/c. Normally I run frames locked at 20 and this seems to assure pretty smooth stutter-free performance most of the time. The unlimited setting destroys that aspect of performance although often the frame rate is noted to be considerably higher.FSX runs pretty well and I know I can't expect the same level of performance achievable with the better C2Ds and the newer Quads. That's a given. However, I noted that MSW has an e6700 C2D and I felt that our systems were probably comparable. I should have qualified that by saying that this would be the case were the e6700 running at the factory clock of 2.66MHz. Yes, his cpu is faster, but not by a large margin. A quick search produced this link:http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-3115-vie...-benchmark.htmlI'm quite sure there are still many like myself who don't yet feel any pressing need to upgrade our hardware just to accomodate better FSX performance. However, that doesn't stop us looking at things like the FPS limiter in the hope that it may help iron out issues such as these surges. At the end of the day it may not be very helpful or appropriate to use it in 'slower' FSX systems such as mine. If this does indeed prove to be the case then we should be made aware of the fact. On the other hand, if it can be shown that those of us with less than leading edge hardware can also benefit then I would like to cut through any problems which may be preventing it from happening, hence my posts.If MSW's overclock is the difference between what is and is not achievable where this utility is concerned, then I want to know before finally turning my back on it. After all, in effect I too am currently experimenting to try and discover whether this is indeed the case.It's not my intention to hijack this thread. I just wanted to reflect the position of those of us who have systems with insufficient grunt to run FSX well in the more taxing situations.Regards,Mike

[Guest harryrupert]

Hi,I have the FPS_limiter installed which is running as it should, however when I start FSX I get this error message? please see attachment. (it only started today) and I can't fathom out whatscaused it. It comes up whether I start FSX without using the batch file as well. It is obviously a Java message and also it doesn't seem to have an effect on the limiter or FSX.I am a bit baffled so would appreciate any suggestions please.Harry

[fbass 1]

At least new to me! First, super thanks to Omzig, whoever he/she is. I posted a question "Is there a driver-level frame lock utility for nV GPUs?" in the Video Cards & Drivers section on Feb 15th, and until today, no replies. Here is the issue I posed:"I am looking for a driver-level method to lock frames in FSX. As we know, sometimes running UNLIMITED can lead to frame rate surges and jerky video at times. There are also priorization benefits in running UNLIMITED that limiting frames in FSX seems to override, or at least adversely affect. It seems to me a driver level frame rate limiter would solve this conundrum. Any thoughts?"Omzig sent me a link to the freeware applet that does just this. Seems super low overhead. And I have very good news! It works perfectly to REMOVE the surges that can come when using UNLIMITED. This is really a nice benefit I have already discovered. One can set the desired FPS limit in the applet by way of a batch file that autoexecutes FSX.exe (or any other D3D 9.x or 8 or Open GL app). This approach eliminates FPS "spikes" as Nick and other have noted is unfavorably associated with UNLIMITED frames in FSX under certain conditions. There may be optimal places to set the frame lock on this. But already, I'm seeing it works as theorized. There are quite a few posts in other game forums re the value of this tool in minimizing . . . "micro-stutters." I'm not sure this is true, but it certainly solves frame surges, which can ruin the optimization and higher baseline framerate that UNLIMITED offers.Here is a picture of the Java run applet interface:A screenshot of FSX using FRAPS to display actual FPS, with FSX's frame limiter set at UNLIMITED (note: without FPS_Limiter, this scene runs at ~40fps UNLIMITED:Here is the link to get the applet: http://rapidshare.com/files/16064218...imiter_0.2.rarYou will need to rename .rar to .zip to open it, or download shareware winrar.You will also need the Java applet enabled on your machine/browser.From there, expand the .rar file into a folder, and click on the .jar file. This generates the GUI interface you see above. From there, just navigate to FSX.exe and the GUI will create a batch file to run FPS_Limiter and autoexecute FSX.exe. From there, you're good to go!I think this will turn out to be a significant technique to use. Enjoy!Noel

I've gotten this utility working but now I need some extra expertise. I have a number of config files that reside in my main FSX folder. When I want to start FSX I double click icons that point to these various config files. For example, I have a file titled airlines.cfg which starts FSX with a specific hardware configuration for various sized aircraft used by airlines. How can I get the bat file to start FSX using one of these config files?Frank

[Guest Nick_N]

Thanks Nick, I guess that puts me firmly in my place .. LOL!

I guess I should use the smilies more often.. LOL Was not my goal to put you in your place, just inform Sorry.. sometimes I can come off dry when I am in a hurry and doing 'hit-n-runs' on threads around the net :(

[Noel 4,496]

I've gotten this utility working but now I need some extra expertise. I have a number of config files that reside in my main FSX folder. When I want to start FSX I double click icons that point to these various config files. For example, I have a file titled airlines.cfg which starts FSX with a specific hardware configuration for various sized aircraft used by airlines. How can I get the bat file to start FSX using one of these config files?Frank

Have you tried putting it in the .bat file for FPSL, for example:start C:\"FPS_Limiter\"FPS_Limiter.exe /r:D3D9 /f:30 /x:ON /l:OFF "E:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\airlines.cfg

[OldMaintChief 7]

NickN,FSX+AP core 1 is 100%, cores 2-4 on and off as textures load.With Limiter installed core 1 is 50%, cores 2-4 same.With 180.48 I had spiking at unlimited but none when locked at 30. With Limiter I have no spiking and FPS solid at 30, except 22 at KSEA ramp. Every session I would usually have a driver stop working. With limiter I don't have any crashes! Maybe core 1 not being hammered has helped the driver keep working. I think this, and the flashing cloud fix, is the fix to make FSX work as it should have after the SP's. Runs like a charm now on Vista SP1, UAC on.DaveSystem:Dell XPS 720 H2CIntel Quad Core Extreme QX6800 2.93 @ 3.73GHz4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Dominator EPP 8500C5D FSB 800MHz @ 1066MHz2x160GB WD SATA Raptors, Sound Blaster X-FiNvidia 2x8800GTX 768MB SLI, Dell 2407WFP PanelXP driver: 169.21, Vista driver: 169.25Logitech Z680 5.1 Speakers, G5 Mouse, Saitek X52WinXP Media Edition SP3 on C: (SATA 0) w/ Internet/AV/Office/FS9/Falcon4 AFVista SP1 on D: (SATA 1) (Dual Boot) w/FSX+AP3DMark06: 17,018/6992/7123/5667

[fbass 1]

Have you tried putting it in the .bat file for FPSL, for example:start C:\"FPS_Limiter\"FPS_Limiter.exe /r:D3D9 /f:30 /x:ON /l:OFF "E:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\airlines.cfg

Thanks Noel, I'll give it a shot.fb

[Riah069 157]

Hi all.Well a friend told me about this and at 1st i thought.. Oh here we go another white elephant. Tried almost everything to get FSX to work with out it being a pain in my rear and be fluid without losing detail in the Sim. Well from one skeptic all i can say is WOW!!!! The reason i say this is because i use Freetrack and it works flawlessly in FS9 but FSX its a total pig.. Hitching stutters etcI was just going to totally give up on FSX as i had tried everything. But after this little program1. NO Hitching2. NO stuttering3. Freetrack smooth as silk4. 30 FPS over Orbx YMML (And most of us know who own this that well.. Just dont bother putting it on)LOL i couldnt believe it!!! so i thought of lets install some payware scenery! My favorite TNCM was a total pig before now a fluid 30fps, with PMDG MD11 running LOLWell enough of my rambling time to go a FINALLY enjoy FSX. Begs the question though. If someone can create SUCH a small program like this that has helped me and possibly others why the HELL isnt he working for them? LOL. I dont know :)RegardsMike