Simple Stutters Fix for FSX

[bojote 20]

*******, will this only help FTX users?

Yes, users that do NOT have FTX installed are not affected. But, most users HAVE FTX installed :) and if they don't, NOW is the perfect time to have it. You'll not believe your eyes flying KSEA with Extremely Dense autogen TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL and TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL both set at 6000 with '0' impact on performance or a single stutter. (assuming your PC was already healthy of course)

[BAW303 38]

Well after my first post in this thread, I have not had the chance to do any more testing until now, however this is now completely irrelevant anyhow. Although I did see a slight difference in performance in that first quick test, I didn’t use the same situation file for each test. :( *******, Thank you for tireless efforts.

[MindYerBeak 73]

I tested again this time saving it as unicode and it did seem to work.I'm not sure I was seeing improvements that were not there.. But strange things started happening at the same time like houses running on freeways instead of cars (never seen that before). What gives ? I put the default.xml back.ThanksVic

[ryanbatc 12,857]

I'm not getting this...If we have PNW we are to change it to UTF 8 or leave it at 16?

[Jean-Paul 167]

I'm not getting this...If we have PNW we are to change it to UTF 8 or leave it at 16?

******* :

Stand by and monitor this thread for the 'official' recommendation. it *WILL* provide the benefits of eliminating stutters and improving overall performance WITHOUT the autogen supression.

[bojote 20]

People, please be patient :) and simply monitor this thread for further updates.

If we have PNW we are to change it to UTF 8 or leave it at 16?

You can completely 'ignore' that recomendation. Using UTF-8 or UTF-16 on the default.xml does NOT impact performance AT ALL.. not a single bit. The SIZE or NUMBER of objects on THAT file does NOT matter and will NOT affect FSX performance. Thats why I said to monitor this thread for updates. I can't discuss anything right now.

[scott967 62]

Update:I created a default.xml which only contains entries for the region code 'B' (North America) and that includes The PNW area.I created ANOTHER default.xml which includes ALL entries, except REGION B (I renamed it to '_B')The default.xml file that ONLY CONTAINS region 'B' is only 284 KB, a tiny file, yet, the performance was terrible.The default.xml file where I renamed region 'B' to '_B' is almost 12MB big (in UTF-16) yet, the performance was second to none, outstanding!!The 'problem' is in the REGION B section, it is NOT the XML parser, I will now proceed to test the region B by 'blocks' to see which class or classes have the most impact on stutters. (I will first clean REGION B of all the stock FSX entries and leave only the ones for PNW)

Hi, jumping in here, but the sdk for the autogeneditor.exe has this to say:

It is possible to edit the default.xml file by hand, using a text editor, though this is no longer the recommended method. If this method is used, then ensure that a new class is added to all regions, and note that the GUID format is an old format that the new Guid creation tools do not provide. The table below provides a link to a code snippet which can be used to reformat guids.

Don't know what that's telling us, just throwing it out there for consideration. There's also a command line tool AC2scan for checking default.xml but I don't know what it checks for. scott s..

[jjjallen 37]

Yes, users that do NOT have FTX installed are not affected. But, most users HAVE FTX installed :) and if they don't, NOW is the perfect time to have it. You'll not believe your eyes flying KSEA with Extremely Dense autogen TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL and TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL both set at 6000 with '0' impact on performance or a single stutter. (assuming your PC was already healthy of course)

Sounds like we are getting our cake and eating it too.  Good job team!jja

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

This is the correct Regions map for FS X - 3 Australian regions including Queensland.As Scott mentions, incorrect manipulation of the relevant files will lead to problems.Best regards.Luis

[bojote 20]

David, Geofa or rightseater:Is it possible (in order to avoid more 'confusion') to 'lock' this thread? this information concerns PNW users 'only' and discussing this here doesn't seem to be a good idea anymore.John has already stated that they won't support the change I suggested, including the reasons (which are 100% valid, its their product after all), so I will simply *NOT* make it public. *** Please, don't PM me asking for the changes because I'll ignore you ***.You can see the info John posted here:http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=28569.msg243323#msg243323If you are curious as to how PNW 'feels' with everything maxed out including autogen check this video of Aerosoft's F-16 doing tight turns west of KSEA after the proposed changes. Fraps will take 5-10 FPS away, but in this case it is steady at 30 FPS. So, as you can see the performance gain was 'MASSIVE' and it did NOT supress autogen, but 3D Night lights (which affect performance even during the day) ORBX is commited to their customers, so I'm pretty sure they'll address this issue in due time. Check John post for details. There's nothing else I can do, sorry.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28vRHvRC5bo

[Mike_CFII_MEL 789]

Hi bojote,Well, that's disappointing. I thought I was going to be able to change my default.bak back to a usable autogen file.Thanks for all the work you do with FSX, its appreciated by those of us that don't have the time and/or talent to find these precious gems. Now if you can figure a way to get 100% AI with no performance hit. :(

[Tom Tsui 2]

:( In another 24 hours, it might turn out to be a major breakthrough after all.Some interesting point are raised :Better performance because of the UTF8 encoding ?Better performance because of a default.xml file with less entries so less workload for FSX ?I haven't had the chance to look at the default.xml file yet but I guess that large addons such as GEX or FTX each add entries to a single default.xml file. Would it be possible to switch to an optimised and smaller default.xml file per large area, i.e. :- 1 for default FSX- 1 for default FSX + GEX- 1 for ORBX AU- 1 for ORBX PNW- ....Food for thought :( Thank you ******* :(

Actually, I am using this "multi-default.xml" approach for over a year. I have one default.xml for areas outside FTX's coverage. one for FTX AU coverage and one for FTX NA plus US, Canada and Alaska coverage.It did take quite some times for checking and changing to make sure that each default.xml is tailored to the area being flown. But so far so good.Additionally, before this *******' post, I saved all my default.xml files in UTF-8 already. I didn't change the first line in the file from UTF-16 to UTF-8, however. By doing this, file sizes are reduced significantly. No ill-effect at all ( don't have "the next time you open FSX you'll see that the A/C in the welcome screen has no textures" and all autogens are normal as they should be) and get a little bit of improvement. I was not as bold as ******* to change UTF-16 to UTF-8 since I didn't know what impact it would bring. You know it's quite annoying when you mess up with something good that you gained through lengthy experiments.Tom

[irocx 292]

*******, your video (along with your seeming reluctance to continue sharing your findings) made me slightly "green in the gills" :( Stunning. Might you reconsider?

[Holger 0]

Hi there,

If you are curious as to how PNW 'feels' with everything maxed out including autogen check this fraps (yes, the performance killing 'fraps') doing tight turns west of KSEA after the proposed changes. Fraps will take 5-10 FPS away, but in this case it is steady at 30 FPS. So, as you can see the performance gain was 'MASSIVE'

Thanks for posting that video because it nicely demonstrates the issue with losing PNW content. The video shows plenty of houses (though some footprints remain visible, which shouldn't happen with full autogen) but there's almost no tree in sight and none of the light poles that make up the 3D night lighting. You've taken at least half of the PNW autogen away and thus it's no wonder there's an improvement in fps and fluidity.Like John said in the ORBX thread, we'll have a closer look at your findings but there doesn't appear to be a free lunch once again ;-)Cheers, Holger

[bojote 20]

You've taken at least half of the PNW autogen away and thus it's no wonder there's an improvement in fps and fluidity.

Hi there Holger,True, thats why I never made it public ;) I had the courtesy of bringing it to your attention and that of John first. If people want performance like in the video, they will simply reduce their autogen and will have the same fluidity I'm sure. I just hope they don't start flooding the forums with fraps captures of F-16's flying over KSEA lol.Take care and again, thanks for taking my suggestions into consideration. It's always a pleasure to help.