Hi all,It is amazing to see how much progress has been made over the past few months in optimizing FSX performance (thank you Bojote/*******!!!). My sims runs great now using the latest tweaks. However, in search of the optimal FSX experience, there is one thing that is still bugging me. Using REX and ASE, I get major framerate swings while flying through clouds. I can have many cloud layers beneath me while flying at 33000 ft and notice only a slight performance impact while looking down, but when descending below, say 18000 ft, the impact is huge. Often my FPS figure will swing between 15 and 45 even though I am using FPS limiter. If stable, I get like 18 FPS instead of the 'normal' 30. On final approach, frames tend to return to normal again.I am using Bojote's latest shader3.0 mod, though I believe that its use is mostly beneficial for ATI cards while I have a NVidia one. I was wondering whether anyone knows any tweak that is particularly interesting to this problem.. or should I just (try to..) live with it?

Hi all,It is amazing to see how much progress has been made over the past few months in optimizing FSX performance (thank you Bojote/*******!!!). My sims runs great now using the latest tweaks. However, in search of the optimal FSX experience, there is one thing that is still bugging me. Using REX and ASE, I get major framerate swings while flying through clouds. I can have many cloud layers beneath me while flying at 33000 ft and notice only a slight performance impact while looking down, but when descending below, say 18000 ft, the impact is huge. Often my FPS figure will swing between 15 and 45 even though I am using FPS limiter. If stable, I get like 18 FPS instead of the 'normal' 30. On final approach, frames tend to return to normal again.I am using Bojote's latest shader3.0 mod, though I believe that its use is mostly beneficial for ATI cards while I have a NVidia one. I was wondering whether anyone knows any tweak that is particularly interesting to this problem.. or should I just (try to..) live with it?

What is the resolution of the clouds you are using in REX? I use FEX @ 1024 DXT format dor both water and clouds. I am also using the Freeware by Open Clouds for the generator. I have my cloud draw distance @ 60.Jim

What is the resolution of the clouds you are using in REX? I use FEX @ 1024 DXT format dor both water and clouds. I am also using the Freeware by Open Clouds for the generator. I have my cloud draw distance @ 60.Jim

I am currently using 1024 DXT format as well, but prior testing showed that it does not really matter what resolution I use. The 4096 resolution clouds did not really affect performance relative to the 1024 ones. Cloud draw distance is set at 80 here, but altering this to 60 does not make a difference in the observed effect (it only decreases my framerate a bit when at cruise altitude, but the visuals are woth the small loss in my opinion). That's why I cannot understand what is happening :(

Clouds are very antialiasing dependent things in FSX. What are your settings there? Especially the supersampling components of any AA mode and everything that filters transparency stuff usually affects the graphics card severely when you have overcast or hazy/misty conditions.One simple text would be to turn of AA completely and then fly through heavy weather and watch the impact or no impactIf there is one, try altering the AA mode and/or reduce the cloud layers and density a bit in your weather programs and FSX.

Hi Alexander,When your up high above the clouds or down low (on approach), the clouds switch to a 2d mode which will improve performance. As you decend toward them, the 3d's pop up and the performance goes bad. Clouds are made up of simple square polygons, but thers thousands of them. As coolp said, antialiasing is the big screw-up here, theres just so many of them to anti-alias. The bum of it is that they dont need anti-aliasing because the texture used for the 3d clouds is transparent at the edges. I tried to find the model used for the clouds to see if theres an AA call that could be disabled but no go.

We have to tell Bojote to fix this AA impact on the clouds. Maybe he can add some nice cloud shadows too.One has to add that his shader 3.0 mod already improved the cloud performance so he seems to be very capable on such things. Big thumbsup on all community efforts here, not only Bojote's.

Thanks for your replies!I was not aware of the fact that the clouds would switch to 2d mode when flying above them, now my performance definitely makes sense. Let's hope that someone will indeed find a way to disable AA for the clouds, I can't imagine how awesome my sim would run in that case :)

HelloHere is more than you ever wanted to know about MS FS cloud renderingThe author is Niniane Wang, the lady who wrote the systemhttp://ofb.net/~niniane/clouds-jgt.pdfhttp://ofb.net/~eggplant/clouds/

Interesting piece of writing, perhaps I will give it a closer look over the weekend. But still, hopefully someone will come up with a solution to the AA problem of clouds :)

Have you tried using NickN's nHancer or Nvidia Inspector profile for your video card?The reason I ask is because with the rig you have you shouldn't have any issues with cloud performance. I'm running an older rig than you with less RAM and an older nVidia card, and clouds even when at very dense levels dont really give me and FPS hit, so maybe its your AA settings for your video card that are set to high or wrong?My nHancer profile it set pretty similar to what Nick posted in his FSX tuning guide found here: http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.htmlor if your using Nvidia Inspector he has a setup guide here if your using drivers above 25x.xx http://www.simforums.com/forums/fsx-and-nhancer-settings-for-new-drivers-updated_topic36586.htmlI'm running Combined 8xS and 16x AF and the REX 1024 DXT clouds and no FPS hit at all. It's worth a shot to check out those video card settings and try them if you haven't already. Worst case you can try them and if you dont have success with those setting you can always revert back.

Hm I have checked my Nvidia Inspector settings, but they are similar to those of NickN (using either 8xS or 8xSQ does not really make a difference for me)! Really weird this issue now that you say you do not really notice a performance hit! I first thought it was ASE that was causing this issue, but using FSX default user-defined weather with only three cloud layers, I see the exact same problem.