I need help...When I use the FS on-line weather, my FPS crashes/and the sim stutters horribly. With clear skies on the weather theme I can hold a steady 19 - 20 FPS but if I use current weather...slide show and stutters. FPS in the 4 - 8 range. Even if there are no clouds in the on-line weather it stutters. Seems that no weather in the cloud themes is actually a 'null weather' where no clouds in on-line is a 'zero weather'. They only way not to crash the FPS is to use the clear skies weather theme. And since it hasn't had any effect, I used the default buttons on the sliders and I think everything is restored (not sure though). See the extract at the bottom...And in case it matters, it's a full install of FS2004.I've tried various combinations of the tweaks at the top of the forum and searched for stutters in the archives but all to no-avail and am out of ideas other than to go back to FS2002. Including setting the affinity thing - and I do use the pfc.dll. Is this texture related, internet related, or flight sim? Caused by Jeppesen/or FS itself? Does the FS9 version of FS Meteo stutter? ActiveSky? Here's the system (it's a homebuilt that I put together before FS2004 was released because I knew this would be an issue from the screenies MS released advertising the product. I thought this monster machine would cure this problem before it occurred)IWILL server MBDual 2.8GB Xeon ProcessorsGE4 Ti4600 with the 45.23 drivers (freshly installed last nite)XP ProAudigy AudioOn-Board Sound is disabledDiamondtron, 21" monitor. Resolution 1280 x 1024 (anything higher is un-flyable)I sure do appreciate any ideas you might have...BobLPS:From the FS9.cfg[PANELS]IMAGE_QUALITY=1UNITS_OF_MEASURE=0QUICKTIPS=1PANEL_MASKING=1PANEL_STRETCHING=1[OldModules]C177NJ2.dll=1fssound.dll=1C421NJ6.dll=1[Weather]WindshieldPrecipitationEffects=1MinGustTime=10MaxGustTime=500MinGustRampSpeed=1MaxGustRampSpeed=200MinVarTime=5MaxVarTime=50MinVarRampSpeed=10MaxVarRampSpeed=75TurbulenceScale=1.000000DefaultVisibility=0DynWx_MedianDewPointSpread=10.000000DynWx_ProbCloudFormForMedianDewPoint=0.000500DynWx_MaxDewPointSpread=50.000000DynWx_ProbCloudFormForMaxDewPoint=0.000125DynWx_ProbCloudFormForMinDewPoint=0.100000DynWx_DryTempLapsePer1000Meters=9.000000DynWx_ProbCloudFormForDryTempLapse=0.000500DynWx_MoistTempLapsePer1000Meters=3.300000DynWx_ProbCloudFormForMoistTempLapse=0.040000DynWx_MaxProbCloudChangePerMinute=0.040000DynWx_MultiplierForDynamicWeatherLevelMild=0.500000DynWx_MultiplierForDynamicWeatherLevelNormal=1.000000DynWx_MultiplierForDynamicWeatherLevelHigh=3.000000DynWx_MultiplierForDynamicWeatherLevelExtreme=10.000000DynWx_TempChangePercentageForOvercastClouds=0.750000DynWx_TempChangePercentageForMinDewPoint=0.700000DynWx_MaxTempChangePerMinute=0.060000WeatherServerAddress=fs2k.zone.comWeatherServerPort=80WeatherGraphDataInDialog=0DynamicWeather=1LOADWEATHER=1MAX_UNLIMITED_VIS=96560CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=43D_CLOUD_PERCENT=100DETAILED_CLOUDS=1CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=6CloudsImpostorRingRadius=64000.000000DownloadWindsAloft=1DisableTurbulence=1[iNTERNATIONAL]ASLAT=2ASLON=1MEASURE=0[MISC]COM_RATE=7LOG_TIME=1FOREIGN_TRANSLATOR=0[sTARTUP]DEMO=0LOADSIM=1LOADWINDOW=1SHOW_OPENING_SCREEN=0 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Hi Bob, I have way less CPU and GPU power than you but I get better performance. I wonder why? The biggest difference is how we get our weather. Because I have a dialup modem, I prefer to download the Jeppessen weather once, then go offline. I can see how using online weather might cause you stutters every time it gets a new "feed" but that shouldn't cause such a FR hit. Try these things:1. Turn off all shadows,2. Turn off all AI traffic,3. Turn off all autogen,4. Turn off water effects and wather textures,5. Turn off Dynamic Weather,6. Run FS9 with online weather and see if it is better.If perfomance improves, enable each one individually and see where you problem lies. If it does not, then try downloading the weather once (as opposed to every 15 minutes or whatever) and see if that makes a differnce. I hope that this is helpful. R-BTW -- You might also try reducing "Cloud density." It has never made much difference to my performance but some clouds look better to me. R-

Well,I moved everything full scale left. I get 8 - 9 fps in flight. 12 static on the ground. Of course, everything looks like FS95 or worse....And it stutters just as bad as it ever did. And just to be safe...I have VCOMs SystemSuite5.0 which is a disk utility that has a wizard and goes in does it's thing defrag, clean-up, compress, yada, yada, yada. It takes about 14 hours to fully run on my machine. I ran the full wizard. No change there except I recovered 840 MB of disk space...Any other ideas?

Well,More Information coming as I work through this. Nothing I do seems to have any affect on the stuttering whatsoever. I have noted that the stutter occurs every four seconds, lasts less than a second, and in that moment, the FPS goes to 1.0. And I'm using the default Lear for my benchmark and testing.And only occurs with on-line weather, both dynamic and static. There is no stutter at all with the clear skies weather theme.I have also noted that both the CPUs are running about 50 degrees C. Is this normal? That seems awful hot. The fans are running normally and the case has always been open. I never put the back on it for cooling reasons. Could this be the cause of the stutters?Thanks in advance for the helpBobL

Although I don't think your problem is heat related and doubt that 50* C would be too hot, why don't you try something? Put the cover on your case and then monitor the internal temperatures. I had a PC once upon a time that would overheat unless ALL covers were properly installed. Otherwise the the airflow was misdirected (really undirected). What other programs are running when you have FS up and running? What happens to your frame rate if you do not downloaded weather but use a weather theme other tahn "Clear skies?" R-

I'll try the case tomorrow.>What other programs are running when you have FS up and running?< None at the moment although I'd like to try RC3. I have it (RadarContact) but with the stuttering already I haven't tried to run it. I've even used Cntl - Alt - Del to crash Nortons and Zonealarm to make sure nothing else is running. The only processes being reported (other than FS9) are id'd as "SYSTEM" in the processes window.I haven't tried another weather theme but something interesting...I flew in an add-on Aztec from Miami to Dade Collier to Key West tonight utilizing all the defaults on the sliders and dynamic weather. During taxi/takeoff from Opa Locka, FPS of 6 and stutters. As I crossed the Swamp, southern FL had towering Cumulus all quadrants tonight. FS did a marvelous job with the eye-candy. It was phenomenally beautiful and even modeled a silver lining as the sun set in the west. However,...Stutter City, every four seconds. Like Before. At 3000, the FPS were 12 - 18 except during the stutter when it went down to 1 FPS. When I made seafall heading to KEYW, the clouds cleared up except for a few far in the distance, beautiful sunset, FPS went to 24 (where I have it locked) and stuttered every 12 to 15 seconds. About 12 miles from KEYW, descending through 2200, I hit a fogbank. Vis went to 1/2. Had to fly a VOR approach. 700 and 1/2 and totally unplanned for. Oh, it was great!!!Guess what...Dynamic weather...good frames...no stutters. It's got to be the cumulus textures.Are there any replacement textures available anywhere? Do you think one of the new 256 MB video cards would help with this? BobL

Hi Bob,I also had something similar on my machine. Maybe the solution lies outside of Flightsimulator and rather in the XP settings. Check this and tell me if it helped:In the Explorer, go on the main FS9 directory path (e.g. program filesFS 2004 )- right click on the FS 2004- select properties- on the 'general' tab, press the button 'extended'- untick 'index directory for faster access'The labels may be named differently, I am running a German version of Win XP. Anyway, since I stopped the indexing on the FS directories, the stutters are history. I wonder if this works for you and others as well.Joerg

I checked this setting and it was already 'un-checked'. I then checked it, applied the change. And then un-checked it again just to be certain.Still no change in the stutters. Thanks for the suggestionBobL

> Guess what...Dynamic weather...good frames...no stutters. It's got > to be the cumulus textures.> Are there any replacement textures available anywhere?Yes, as a matter of fact, there are. Go to http://fsw.simflight.com/This is Chris Willis' Flight Simulation Works Group. Click on the topmost link; I believe it is captioned "FPS and Fix Ver 2.0" or similar. It is not marked as pertaining to FS2004 but it is. I don't remember what all is included but you'll get new, frame-rate-friendly, cloud textures for sure. I had forgotten about those. They seemed to make a big difference on my system. R-

Well, now...after messing with this for the full weekend (not really but close...)I've discovered two things. By using some of the tweaks, depending on my altitude of choice and changing some of the sliders in-flight I can strike a balance between the out-the-cockpit view and FPS. I have to make a choice based on the aircraft/altitude to fly. Rather than one setting fits all like FS2002 was, you have to change everything based on what your going to fly. I'd still like to know if one of the new 256 cards would work better than the Ti4600 that I have.The disheartening thing that I've learned is that nothing I do affects the stutters except not to use internet weather. I tried all the weather themes. Even the T-Storms in the weather theme don't cause stutters. But regardless of what the weather is, clear, storms, fair, gray and rainy, and regardless of the connection whether a static internet snapshot or dynamic updates, the stutters return and I get one every three to four seconds. It's not every fifteen minutes when it updates. It's three to four seconds.So, a question for the users of the FS9 version of Meteo and Activesky...Do you guys stutter?BobL

> Do you guys stutter?N-n-n-no. But seriously f-f-folks . . .Do I recall that some versions of FSUIPC caused stutters? Can someone else help me out here? Was there a version of FSUIPC that stuttered and if so what was the version number?Also a couple of other things, Bob:1. It is my understanding that if you fly with real (downloaded) weather that "Dynamic weather" should be turned off. Have you tried that?2. Have you downloaded the FSW's frame rate frienly clouds that I suggested earlier?R-

Regarding question #01I suppose the obvious question is how? Using the World>Weather menu, I select the download (one time/static) radio button for that or select the 'update every 15 minutes' radio button for that. It's one or the other. And for the weather themes I select that radio button. Is there an additional switch I need to turn on/off somewhere for download/dynamic weather?Regarding question #02Yes. I can't tell any real difference in frame rates. Maybe 1 - 2. Terrain Complexity and Extended Terrain seems to have the biggest impact so I can strike a balance. Turn them on or up at altitude. Turn them down or off as I descend into an airport. They have absolutely no impact on the st-st-st-st-stutters...And if I'm not mistaken, the cloud textures for the weather themes vs downloaded weather are the same. So if it doesn't stutter with the weather themes and does with downloaded or dynamically updated weather, logic would suggest it's not the cloud textures but something to do with the internet. And I use cable modem if that is important.I appreciate very much your help. Thank youBobL

Re: Q #01, yes, there is another switch. Here is some data from you config file, which I extracted from your original post:> WeatherServerAddress=fs2k.zone.com> WeatherServerPort=80> WeatherGraphDataInDialog=0> DynamicWeather=1 <---------------- Change this 1 to a 0 (zero)> LOADWEATHER=1> MAX_UNLIMITED_VIS=96560You can see this in FS2004 as a slider in the bottom left-hand corner of the World > Weather dialog box or under the Options > Settings > Weather menu. As I understand its purpose, it changes your FS weather over time. Notice, in your config file, the variables right above the extracted info. These seem to be the criteria upon which the changes are based. I have read, on these forums, that one should disable "DynamicWeather" when using either type of downloaded weather. Based on those threads, I've never turned it on, so I can't say if that causes stutters but try it.You wrote, "... logic would suggest it's not the cloud textures ..."Experience suggests that using the word "logic" in the same sentence as the words "FS9," "stutters," and/or "frames rates" is a mistake;)R-

Hi RonI changed the dynamic weather setting to zero tonight and bad news...it still stutters. So far nothing we have done has affected teh stuttering one way or the other. And I did but the FSW clouds back in. No better...no worse. I did notice in the cfg a couple of lines...*******MAX_UNLIMITED_VIS=96560********and ********CloudsImpostorRingRadius=64000.000000********Any idea what these are?? I'm particularly interested in the first one. When FS2000 was the state of the art, I found that setting the max vis down to 20 miles cured a lot of my problems. I'm wondering what the unit of measure is here. Surely this isn't miles... Is the 96560 yards, meters, pixels, inches?