How to best recover when FSX bogs down?

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Most of the time, FSX runs just great on my machine.With the fps limiter application set to 30 fps, I can fly to most placeswithout more than the odd hickup.With some add-on sceneries like Vancouver+ however, FSX can exhibitthe dreaded "4 fps" syndrome which I remember from the Fly! days.Video memory utilization goes to the limit and the processor goes to 100% and stays there. Usually, this happens when I fly into the scenery area from outside.When this happens, the fps stay in the single digits, no matter what I do toimprove matters: Reload scenery, lower scenery complexity, autogen etc, problem persists.The only thing that works, and works every time, is to save and re-load the flighton the spot. After the re-load, the fps are back at 20-30.. the flight is smoothand all the fancy scenery displays just fine.I hoped that new video driver releases might improve things, but so far, no change.Has anyone found a better way of dealing with the issue? I'm pretty good at typingalt-f, s, t, yes, alt-f, l, alt-f now, but I wish I had a simple hotkey or simpler process to rescue me.Q6600@3.2, 2 GB PC800 RAM, 9600GT 512MB, WinXP Pro.

[tf51d 284]

Most of the time, FSX runs just great on my machine.With the fps limiter application set to 30 fps, I can fly to most placeswithout more than the odd hickup.With some add-on sceneries like Vancouver+ however, FSX can exhibitthe dreaded "4 fps" syndrome which I remember from the Fly! days.Video memory utilization goes to the limit and the processor goes to 100% and stays there. Usually, this happens when I fly into the scenery area from outside.When this happens, the fps stay in the single digits, no matter what I do toimprove matters: Reload scenery, lower scenery complexity, autogen etc, problem persists.The only thing that works, and works every time, is to save and re-load the flighton the spot. After the re-load, the fps are back at 20-30.. the flight is smoothand all the fancy scenery displays just fine.I hoped that new video driver releases might improve things, but so far, no change.Has anyone found a better way of dealing with the issue? I'm pretty good at typingalt-f, s, t, yes, alt-f, l, alt-f now, but I wish I had a simple hotkey or simpler process to rescue me.Q6600@3.2, 2 GB PC800 RAM, 9600GT 512MB, WinXP Pro.

By any chance are you using default AI? If so the problem may be jetways engaging, for 120nm radius. To fix this you need to either replace the AI with one t6hat doesn't utilize the jetways. (Most addons will work) or edit the default jetliners aircraft.cfg file and take off the 3 coord fields in the exit section (Essentially format it like FS2004) You could also remove the exit entries, but then your doors won't work. Active Jetways are nice, but they do eat up a good deal of frames if they all engage at once.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

By any chance are you using default AI? If so the problem may be jetways engaging, for 120nm radius. To fix this you need to either replace the AI with one t6hat doesn't utilize the jetways. (Most addons will work) or edit the default jetliners aircraft.cfg file and take off the 3 coord fields in the exit section (Essentially format it like FS2004) You could also remove the exit entries, but then your doors won't work. Active Jetways are nice, but they do eat up a good deal of frames if they all engage at once.

I do use default AI, but I can fly into big airports KSEA, KLAX, KSFO etc and have no problems.It appears to be the scenery detail in packages like Vancouver+, Victoria+ that pushes my system over the edge.And once I'm over the cliff, so to speak, I'm SOL.If I can avoid the problem, even better.... but I'd be happy to just just be able to recover...

[Guest firehawk44]

I have the same issues, just a little bit more computer power than your system. I load the Victoria Plus fsx config that came with the scenery when flying in the Victoria area. It has helped but I still get occasional low FPS. As I recall I even had to mess with the scenery sliders with their configuration. Whenever I fly in scenery intense areas like Victoria and Manhattan, I load a special config just for those areas. Other than that I think reloading the flight as you suggested is the only other way to go unless you upgrade your computer system.Best regards,JimMy system:Dell XPS 720H2C w/Intel Dual Core Extreme CPU X6800 (2.93 o/c to 3.7 GHz), 4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, Dual 8800GTX w/768MB RAM, 1K PSU, Dell 30" LCD Monitor, Vista 32 Home Premium

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

I have the same issues, just a little bit more computer power than your system. I load the Victoria Plus fsx config that came with the scenery when flying in the Victoria area. It has helped but I still get occasional low FPS. As I recall I even had to mess with the scenery sliders with their configuration. Whenever I fly in scenery intense areas like Victoria and Manhattan, I load a special config just for those areas. Other than that I think reloading the flight as you suggested is the only other way to go unless you upgrade your computer system.Best regards,JimMy system:Dell XPS 720H2C w/Intel Dual Core Extreme CPU X6800 (2.93 o/c to 3.7 GHz), 4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, Dual 8800GTX w/768MB RAM, 1K PSU, Dell 30" LCD Monitor, Vista 32 Home Premium

Interesting that 768 MB video memory is not the cure... what settings do you reduce in the config?I've not found any setting that clearly makes a difference..

[Noel 4,494]

Most of the time, FSX runs just great on my machine.With the fps limiter application set to 30 fps, I can fly to most placeswithout more than the odd hickup.With some add-on sceneries like Vancouver+ however, FSX can exhibitthe dreaded "4 fps" syndrome which I remember from the Fly! days.Video memory utilization goes to the limit and the processor goes to 100% and stays there. Usually, this happens when I fly into the scenery area from outside.When this happens, the fps stay in the single digits, no matter what I do toimprove matters: Reload scenery, lower scenery complexity, autogen etc, problem persists.The only thing that works, and works every time, is to save and re-load the flighton the spot. After the re-load, the fps are back at 20-30.. the flight is smoothand all the fancy scenery displays just fine.I hoped that new video driver releases might improve things, but so far, no change.Has anyone found a better way of dealing with the issue? I'm pretty good at typingalt-f, s, t, yes, alt-f, l, alt-f now, but I wish I had a simple hotkey or simpler process to rescue me.Q6600@3.2, 2 GB PC800 RAM, 9600GT 512MB, WinXP Pro.

Hi Bert,Is it possible it is related to weather as well? There seems to be some weather coming out of ASX/FEX that can impact my system in a similar way. It's really hard to put my finger on. I was flying Tasmania FTX in the Cessna Mustang (itself a small hog) and was flying through huge clouds out to 110mi at full density--no problem--locked on 30 no problem. Fly in the same area with totally different and SEEMINGLY much less comlex weather and wam--down to the high teens. Much better than single digits granted, but you can still see 17 frame/sec as a steady stutter. I wonder if there aren't some weird cloud textures than can be a big issue. I can stop ASX, not refresh weather, and the problem remains. Clear all weather and it's fine again. But as I say, I have flown in what looked like it should be really hard to process cumulus out 110m with no issue. It's weird! Seems like it ultimately is a bandwidth issue--exactly where I'm not sure.Noel

[Guest JIMJAM]

I have always ran my 32 inch lcd at very high rez and just accepted FSX or what it is. Yesterday I figured what the hell and loweed the rez and went to 16 bit. Yes I said 16 bit. I can see very little if any graphics difference and the sim smoothed out alot. I can now fly into large cities. The fps is about the same but its smooth and I am, yet to see any graphics anomolies that I sometimes run into. Worth trying.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Update report:Prompted by the suggestions on this forum, I tried something else when I noticed the performance dropping off: I killed all traffic.To my surprise, I was back to 30 fps. :( Now I've got to experiment with traffic types... Road Traffic is my prime suspect... but will report back!

[Captain Kevin 586]

Road traffic is definitely going to eat up a lot of frames. I usually keep that at about 4%.

[Guest jshyluk]

Road traffic is way, way denser in Vancouver/Victoria+ than default traffic. Boat traffic, too. Fairly often, I just turn all the traffic off as well, and then I don't have to bother with AISmooth. Jeff ShylukSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Road traffic is way, way denser in Vancouver/Victoria+ than default traffic. Boat traffic, too. Fairly often, I just turn all the traffic off as well, and then I don't have to bother with AISmooth. Jeff ShylukSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

Yup, the road traffic makes a difference. I like the boats, so they are staying.. but the funnylittle cars are now at 0%, at least for these two scenery areas.Amazing the difference! New lesson learned every day :(

[Noel 4,494]

Yup, the road traffic makes a difference. I like the boats, so they are staying.. but the funnylittle cars are now at 0%, at least for these two scenery areas.Amazing the difference! New lesson learned every day :(

Interesting Bert. I have played with traffic (I am using UTX too!) and found virtually no difference at 20% or 0%. It's all relative to the situation/scenery/hardware/OS etc I am assuming. I think this is why FSX is such a tough nut to crack. What works for some may not be the issue for another.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Interesting Bert. I have played with traffic (I am using UTX too!) and found virtually no difference at 20% or 0%. It's all relative to the situation/scenery/hardware/OS etc I am assuming. I think this is why FSX is such a tough nut to crack. What works for some may not be the issue for another.

I think you are right... it is a combination or accumulation of things. Our quest may well be "attemptingto identify the straw that broke the camel's back" :( But for now, traffic is the culprit, at least in my case.Road traffic in busy areas does not help, so I've got it turned off and flying is smoother.I still have trouble with Vancouver+ at times but, I can reliably recover from poor performance by pausing, setting traffic to "minimal"and then re-loading regular traffic settings and flying on.I've been playing around with editing exits on AI aircraft, spray on AI boats etc... but no clear smoking gun anywhere.The thing is, with the wonderful fps-limiter now in place (Thanks BTW!) I fly with 30 fps pretty much everywhere and the CPU is not being heavily taxed.. which is just wonderful.