*******, the night lights for Ultimate Terrain are now flashing when I'm flying in clouds. How can I fix this? I'm using your entire fsx settings

Thank you for your reply & recommendation *******, which seems like an educated guess, versus something tested and proven? I like to try to separate friendly educated guesses from proven fact, if at all possible.What does FSX "think" when the AffinityMask setting is left out? When I use the applet I notice FSX is running nearly 100% on the 3 cores assigned, as if FSX was able to utilize the 3 assigned cores just fine, and quite heavily might reemphasize. Do you have any additional insight that sheds more light on the practical effects of this distinction?

FSX (when no affinity mask is present) simply uses all available processors. The affinity mask (its called mask because it MASKS cores for an app) simply serves as a way to tell FSX which 'cores' are 'usable' by the APP. again, this setting, when set on the FSX.CFG is not a 'hard mask' its an application mask, meaning FSX knows of the existence of all your available CORES's but is using only 'some of them' (based on the mask setting)A 'HARD' affinity mask, is the one set at the OS level, with it, your app DOESN'T EVEN KNOW of the existence of all your processors, but only the ones the hard mask is allowing.Now, lF you don't set ANY affinity mask in FSX.cfg, but you mask it via an external app, FSX will run on ALL the cores that the hard mask is allowing. So, for example:If you have an i7 with HT set to Off and you run FSX with a HARD mask of 14 set in the applet, then this is what the app will 'think' (assuming there is NO AffinityMask setting inside fsx.cfg)1) FSX will think, your computer only has 3 available cores2) Out the 3 cores FSX 'thinks' your computer has, it will use the First, for fibers an Main scheduler. and the rest will be texture managers.However, if you DO NOT run any 'applet' and you do NOT set any 'hard masks' but instead, set in fsx.cfg AffinityMask=14 then, this is what FSX will thing:1) FSX will think, your computer has 4 available cores2) Out of the 4 cores, FSX will use the last 3 like this: First core main scheduler, and the remaining two texture managers. so you ask, what about the 'fibers'? well they REMAIN in the first core because they are not bound to the AffinityMask setting inside fsx.cfgSo at the end, you'll have:CORE0 = Running Fibers (terrain system)CORE1 = Main SchedulerCORE2 = Texture ManagerCORE3 = Texture ManagerThe above, can ONLY be achieved with NO HARD MASK and using an AffinityMask value of 14 inside fsx.cfg Noel, no 'educated guesses' here. Thats how it works, and you can test it yourself, send me a PM and I'll make sure I clarify this further if you think its confusing or you still think I'm 'guessing' :)

*******, the night lights for Ultimate Terrain are now flashing when I'm flying in clouds. How can I fix this? I'm using your entire fsx settings

Thats a known Ultimate Terrain problem... like ages old :) search the UT forums and you'll see. Probably the more 'lights' there is, it will be more evident.

Question for Bojote.Confused about the size of the values used for the fsx.cfg entries shown below ...STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=1024TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400TextureMaxLoad=15PoolSize=10000000RejectThreshold=102400are they in ?bits b kilobits Kb megabits Mb gigabits Gb terabits Tb

STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=1024 => KBTEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400 => No size, this is a multiplierTextureMaxLoad=15 => (part of a formula) like this TextureMaxLoad x Texture_Max_LoadPoolSize=10000000 => BytesRejectThreshold=102400 => Bytes

Hi *******,Just a little thankyou note here... I've got a new i7 930 o/c at 4ghz, with 6g of ram and a gtx 280.

The big kick for FSX came (on my 870i) when I got it over 4ghz. It now runs at 4.58 with a GTX285 running at 675 core. Bojotes tweaks made it work with FSX a whole lot better.jja

*******,thank you very much for your fsx.cfg! I still get stutters, but only in areas like Manhatten (Using UXT, GEX, REX, FSDT KJFK, WoAI, Manhattan X) Will try some out more.Thank you! CheersCrash

FSX (when no affinity mask is present) simply uses all available processors. The affinity mask (its called mask because it MASKS cores for an app) simply serves as a way to tell FSX which 'cores' are 'usable' by the APP. again, this setting, when set on the FSX.CFG is not a 'hard mask' its an application mask, meaning FSX knows of the existence of all your available CORES's but is using only 'some of them' (based on the mask setting)A 'HARD' affinity mask, is the one set at the OS level, with it, your app DOESN'T EVEN KNOW of the existence of all your processors, but only the ones the hard mask is allowing.Now, lF you don't set ANY affinity mask in FSX.cfg, but you mask it via an external app, FSX will run on ALL the cores that the hard mask is allowing. So, for example:If you have an i7 with HT set to Off and you run FSX with a HARD mask of 14 set in the applet, then this is what the app will 'think' (assuming there is NO AffinityMask setting inside fsx.cfg)1) FSX will think, your computer only has 3 available cores2) Out the 3 cores FSX 'thinks' your computer has, it will use the First, for fibers and Main scheduler. and the rest will be texture managers.However, if you DO NOT run any 'applet' and you do NOT set any 'hard masks' but instead, set in fsx.cfg AffinityMask=14 then, this is what FSX will thing:1) FSX will think, your computer has 4 available cores2) Out of the 4 cores, FSX will use the last 3 like this: First core main scheduler, and the remaining two texture managers. so you ask, what about the 'fibers'? well they REMAIN in the first core because they are not bound to the AffinityMask setting inside fsx.cfgSo at the end, you'll have:CORE0 = Running Fibers (terrain system)CORE1 = Main SchedulerCORE2 = Texture ManagerCORE3 = Texture ManagerThe above, can ONLY be achieved with NO HARD MASK and using an AffinityMask value of 14 inside fsx.cfg

Ahh, so the real distinction is, by setting AffinityMask=14 FSX effectively assigns ALL 4 processors as 0 for fibers, 1 for main, 2+3 for textures, whereas with a hard mask using just 3 (or 4) cores, FSX will lose the division of fibers & main into two different cores, so will use only one in this instance, yes?If this is the correct interpretation, I do have another question if you will: what is the potential processing load of fibers verus (or plus) main? That is, since the soft mask, from what you say divides these two tasks between two cores versus one ("Out the 3 cores FSX 'thinks' your computer has, it will use the First, for fibers and Main scheduler"), what are we really talking about? For example, if the total processing load of fibers and main are relatively low, then the distinction implied with soft versus hard masks could be quite irrelevent. Do you know what relative load "fibers" and "main scheduler" have as a percent of total processing load in FSX? This becomes the very relavent question, no? And in the end, end-user "performance" is the real metric. Do we know that folks running quads with the soft mask notice signficantly better performance, with performance being defined frame rate + texture loading rate + absense of stutters, or is this effectively an academic/theoretical distinction? What do you know here *******?Thank you again for your detailed replies *******.

I tried the BP=0 tweak with succes (been using it for quite some time now) but I decided to see what happened if I simply copied bojote's cfg from A to Z and then change the ingame settings to my preference: I didn't expect much of it but it works like a charm. FSX seems even smoother and more stable than before (with the BP=0 tweak but not all other tweaks). Don't know exactly what helped getting this results (there are a LOT of tweaks in that cfg) but on my i7 [email protected] and GTX285 it even improved things more (specially stability and smoothness when looking around with the TrackIR). I never was a fan of copying entire cfg's (specially when it contains stuff and links to stuff I don't even have), but well... it worked out fine here. Use at your own risk, though, and YMMV!

Ahh, so the real distinction is, by setting AffinityMask=14 FSX effectively assigns ALL 4 processors as 0 for fibers, 1 for main, 2+3 for textures, whereas with a hard mask using just 3 (or 4) cores, FSX will lose the division of fibers & main into two different cores, so will use only one in this instance, yes?

Exactly! the reason being, that fibers don't care what the 'soft' AffinityMask setting is in fsx.cfg. They ALWAYS run in CORE0

If this is the correct interpretation, I do have another question if you will: what is the potential processing load of fibers verus (or plus) main?

Normally, fibers take between 4% - 20% depending on several factors, such as the terrain you are flying and your FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION setting. The main schduler however, its a CPU hungry thread. WHen they BOTH run on the same CORE0 you are risking getting stutters IF there is a peak load in the fiber or viceversa.

For example, if the total processing load of fibers and main are relatively low, then the distinction implied with soft versus hard masks could be quite irrelevent.

Correct, but the main scheduler load is by no means low :) hence, the AffinityMask=14 offers an alternative, more 'stable' thread free core to run it :)

is this effectively an academic/theoretical distinction? What do you know here *******?

Well.. its a known fact, search the forums :) specially posts where Adam explains FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION or Phil doing it. Then compare what they say with what I just wrote. AND... of course, there is the 'USER' factor... for example:User A Posts in the forum: Hey guys! FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION is a miracle tweak, I set it to 0.10 and now my frames are incredible.... but, what he just did, was lower the FIBER time share so the main scheduler will have more room. Evidently, this user probably has only TWO CORES, so, is not an option for him to move the MAIN scheduler to the second core, because the second core is running the texture managers which are very CPU INTENSIVE and non linear (they batch) meaning.. they go from 10 to 10% usage in seconds.But... for a user with 4 CORES... then, AffinityMask=14 is heaven ;) because you can even set FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION to 0.99 and you will not notice a single drop in frames.

Exactly! the reason being, that fibers don't care what the 'soft' AffinityMask setting is in fsx.cfg. They ALWAYS run in CORE0Normally, fibers take between 4% - 20% depending on several factors, such as the terrain you are flying and your FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION setting. The main schduler however, its a CPU hungry thread. WHen they BOTH run on the same CORE0 you are risking getting stutters IF there is a peak load in the fiber or viceversa.Correct, but the main scheduler load is by no means low :) hence, the AffinityMask=14 offers an alternative, more 'stable' thread free core to run it :)Well.. its a known fact, search the forums :) specially posts where Adam explains FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION or Phil doing it. Then compare what they say with what I just wrote. AND... of course, there is the 'USER' factor... for example:User A Posts in the forum: Hey guys! FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION is a miracle tweak, I set it to 0.10 and now my frames are incredible.... but, what he just did, was lower the FIBER time share so the main scheduler will have more room. Evidently, this user probably has only TWO CORES, so, is not an option for him to move the MAIN scheduler to the second core, because the second core is running the texture managers which are very CPU INTENSIVE and non linear (they batch) meaning.. they go from 10 to 10% usage in seconds.But... for a user with 4 CORES... then, AffinityMask=14 is heaven ;) because you can even set FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION to 0.99 and you will not notice a single drop in frames.

Much obliged *******. It sounds like AffinityMask=14 is the true miracle setting for quads all else being equal, so many thanks for adding the full explanation.Cheers n Thanks,Noel

Much obliged *******. It sounds like AffinityMask=14 is the true miracle setting for quads all else being equal, so many thanks for adding the full explanation.Cheers n Thanks,Noel

Thanks from me too, *******, your tweaks are quite a revolution in running FSX. Bruce.

Thanks from me too, *******, your tweaks are quite a revolution in running FSX. Bruce.

90% of them have been out there all the time :)You just need to know when to use them and the hardware they go along with... no voodoo magic or 'Guru' stuff here, just basic common sense and a bit of HEX digging, seriously, I'm just an enthuasiast like any of you..

90% of them have been out there all the time :)You just need to know when to use them and the hardware they go along with... no voodoo magic or 'Guru' stuff here, just basic common sense and a bit of HEX digging, seriously, I'm just an enthuasiast like any of you..

It's a little early to confirm (that should be idiom #1 with evaluating FSX performance) but I tried duplicate flights using the hard mask set w/ FSX on core0,1,2, other apps on 3, and then the same flight this time disabling the hard mask and enabling AffinityMask=14. The brutal answer: No difference. Both were very smooth, with equivalent frames. I do have a suspicion texture loading rate was significantly slower as some blurries developed (really never had before) after about a 1h flight in dense terrain when using the AffinityMask parameter. This may have been influenced by the TextureMaxLoad setting I had, which was higher than previously? I had it set at 30, when previously was only 9.I will continue on with this, but as I say, sometimes many of the tweaks we have are either not relevant, or really difficult to estimate the value of due to their fickled nature, or are essentially academic. I hope this is not one of them!Noel

As I mentioned, I've got rid of Nhancer - and my understanding of J's posts is that he says it's "old" news. Get rid of it, and just try J's .cfg, is my advice. Good luck.

but fsx only does 2x anti aliasing, 8x ss aliasing is much nicer looking

I'm gonna keep posting the actual explanation for this until it sticks... :( What is no longer necessary with the recent driver versions is nHancer's overriding of Nvidia's predefined "Enhance" flag for AA in FSX. This is purely about HOW AA is getting applied in FS - with the override method, the FS engine is setting no AA on its own, the video card is being instructed by the driver to antialias at whatever setting you specify. With the in-game box checked, FSX by default uses what I believe to 4X multisample AA. ******* found the cfg settings that actually control what it does by default. That's not of any consequence really though, since the "Enhance" option in the Nvidia driver now works - this tells the card to take whatever the game engine is ordering up and then enhance it to whatever level you've specified. You're going to get the same AA level you got with the override method, but it's now being done the way ACES intended it through the engine itself and not forced on. I don't know what if any performance optimizations are present when doing it this way, but it's quite possible there are some. (ie, the engine-AA is more selective in how it applies the effect vs. just brute forcing it onto the entire scene)nHancer itself is fine, it allows you to set some AA modes (like the combined supersample+multisample ones such as 8XS) that are hidden in the normal driver control panel. You do not need to uninstall nHancer or stop using it. I personally think it's a much better UI for editing the game-specific profiles than the Nvidia driver is. They're both doing the exact same thing (editing a file called nvapps.xml that contains the driver's game-specific profiles), it's just different interfaces for it. All you need to do is reset the FSX profile in nHancer by right clicking it and hitting "Delete/Reset Profile". Then, make your selections again, but don't uncheck "Enhance in-game AA setting" option since this now works fine in FSX like it does in other games.The options I have for my profile now in nHancer are:AA:8xS(Enhance), Power:Max, Perf:HiQual, NegLOD:Clamp Check the AA box and set the filtering dropdown to anisotropic and you're good to go. Looks as good as the old forced method ever did and I'm not dropping below 40FPS using RejectThreshold=102400.

90% of them have been out there all the time :)You just need to know when to use them and the hardware they go along with... no voodoo magic or 'Guru' stuff here, just basic common sense and a bit of HEX digging, seriously, I'm just an enthuasiast like any of you..

Well, I for one, am certainly enthused that you are an enthuasiast, *******. Thanks for all those PMs and handholding.RayM