Crappy cloud drawing

[Soulflight 97]

Hi everyone,my FSX started to make clouds look funny recently. I use REX clouds at 2048 resolution together with ASE in DWC mode, visibility limited to 50 nm in ASE and max cloud layers set to 3. Cloud Draw Distance is set to 4 in FSX.cfg.Now since a few days, it very often looks like this:performance when viewing those clouds is also extremely bad, going down from 20+ FPS to about 3 or 4 after a while of panning around in outside views. The FPS indicator often does not drop despite extreme stuttering. Those squary cloud sections are also flashing and reappearing sometimes....

[kand 205]

ASE2012 stratus layer?

[Soulflight 97]

I still use the normal ASE with stratus setting on 20 %, never remembered having visible squares.....

[Soulflight 97]

Ok, after altering the stratus cloud occurrence to about 15 % the squares seem to vanish. What still is there is the strange performance hit. I also noticed that when viewing large amounts of clouds my GPU load goes up to 100 %, but there is never more memory used then 400 MB (I have 3072MB on my 550Ti).

[ZachLW 37]

Ok, after altering the stratus cloud occurrence to about 15 % the squares seem to vanish. What still is there is the strange performance hit. I also noticed that when viewing large amounts of clouds my GPU load goes up to 100 %, but there is never more memory used then 400 MB (I have 3072MB on my 550Ti).

Sounds about right. What are your AA settings? Inspector? Sounds like you're running AA settings with those hi-res clouds that your 550Ti can't handle.

[Soulflight 97]

In nvidia inspector I use that AA_MODE_METHOD_SUPERVCAA_64X_4v12 set to override and ecept for the cloud issue my performance is quite good.I wonder if there is any way to make my card use more of its memory to ease the load on the GPU.

[ZachLW 37]

In nvidia inspector I use that AA_MODE_METHOD_SUPERVCAA_64X_4v12 set to override and ecept for the cloud issue my performance is quite good.I wonder if there is any way to make my card use more of its memory to ease the load on the GPU.

No wonder you're getting sutters! :( That is a very aggressive AA... Don't expect miracles out of you 550Ti. My 560Ti can't handle that method of AA with any clouds close by. Use something lower. Edited January 28, 2012 by ZachLW

[Soulflight 97]

Hm, I can give it a try as soon as I have landed ;) but my only problem is I love that setting ;) and the stutters were not there for months, only in past few weeks I got them. Don't know if the last driver update was the cause....

[ZachLW 37]

Hm, I can give it a try as soon as I have landed ;) but my only problem is I love that setting ;) and the stutters were not there for months, only in past few weeks I got them. Don't know if the last driver update was the cause....

Interesting. I've found that sometimes I forget modifications I've made to FSX. Be it AA settings, FSUIPC settings, new cloud textures, I seem to forget what I installed to break something else. Not that you've necessarily forgotten something, just a thought!

[Soulflight 97]

Well maybe clarifiying myself will stop you from thinking that I am completely stupid: the stutters I get are different from the normal "bad performance" stutters, with low FPS, you also notice slow reaction time from everything you input to the sim.....however thats not the case in what I am experiencing......let me give you an example: your in outside view looking at the tail of your aircraft, panning to left or right quite fast, in the next frame, instead of circling around the a/c, you jump instantly ahead of the airplane, looking through the cockpit windows. It feels like every few frames there is one that hangs, and then skips the next few ones.sounds quite strange, I know, and I tried to record a fraps video to show what I mean, but just to add to the mystery, the problem is gone everytime while recording a video with fraps. Also the external FPS limiter does not seem to make a difference.maybe now you will notice that I am not playing dumb here but having a problem I never have heard about before.....

Edited January 29, 2012 by Soulflight

[ZachLW 37]

Well maybe clarifiying myself will stop you from thinking that I am completely stupid: the stutters I get are different from the normal "bad performance" stutters, with low FPS, you also notice slow reaction time from everything you input to the sim.....however thats not the case in what I am experiencing......let me give you an example: your in outside view looking at the tail of your aircraft, panning to left or right quite fast, in the next frame, instead of circling around the a/c, you jump instantly ahead of the airplane, looking through the cockpit windows. It feels like every few frames there is one that hangs, and then skips the next few ones.sounds quite strange, I know, and I tried to record a fraps video to show what I mean, but just to add to the mystery, the problem is gone everytime while recording a video with fraps. Also the external FPS limiter does not seem to make a difference.maybe now you will notice that I am not playing dumb here but having a problem I never have heard about before.....

No one thinks you're stupid nor was it implied! Just try the different AA. Try 8xQ just to test if you still get the stutters. Arguing about it without testing seems nonsensical to me.What you describe sounds exactly like what I'm thinking it is (Graphical IQ too high). Please keep in mind that the 550Ti isn't particularly strong, and again, AA_MODE_METHOD_SUPERVCAA_64X_4v12 is very, very aggressive --for any modern GPU--.It's just a test. Then you can troubleshoot from there if the above isn't the case. Edited January 29, 2012 by ZachLW

[Soulflight 97]

Sorry, its just my experience from years in forums to stop the flaming as soon as possible ;)I already did the testing and yes, the sutters are gone that way. They come back in a lesser extend when using 8xSQ, which also is supersampling.This still confuses me because the Super-VCAA was once found by the community to run more smooth than 8xSQ and on my old GTS250 Card it actually did, I even was able to run ENB mod on top of it but stopped doing so because its incompatible with FSX's highmemfix and causes random crashes.It would be a shame and a reason to dump the card if I would not be able to use any supersampling on it, considering i got a 3072MB version.

[ZachLW 37]

Sorry, its just my experience from years in forums to stop the flaming as soon as possible ;)I already did the testing and yes, the sutters are gone that way. They come back in a lesser extend when using 8xSQ, which also is supersampling.This still confuses me because the Super-VCAA was once found by the community to run more smooth than 8xSQ and on my old GTS250 Card it actually did, I even was able to run ENB mod on top of it but stopped doing so because its incompatible with FSX's highmemfix and causes random crashes.It would be a shame and a reason to dump the card if I would not be able to use any supersampling on it, considering i got a 3072MB version.

I think AA_MODE_METHOD_SUPERVCAA_64X_4v12 method was talked up by a few folks too quickly, without giving it proper testing. This mode gives good FPS and is perfect until you get a few hi-res clouds in sight, at which point stutters get worse with every cloud in view, and panning is nearly impossible. It's not your card and it's not the drivers. It's just not an AA method conducive to flying with pretty clouds and autogen.I use 8xSQ with transparency Multisampling and Supersampling off. Either one of those options on can cause mild to severe stutters. Just devote 30 minutes or so to finding the AA method (in heavy weather) that gives you acceptable performance and visual IQ. Edited January 29, 2012 by ZachLW

[TheGrunt 44]

I think AA_MODE_METHOD_SUPERVCAA_64X_4v12 method was talked up by a few folks too quickly, without giving it proper testing. This mode gives good FPS and is perfect until you get a few hi-res clouds in sight, at which point stutters get worse with every cloud in view, and panning is nearly impossible. It's not your card and it's not the drivers. It's just not an AA method conducive to flying with pretty clouds and autogen.I use 8xSQ with transparency Multisampling and Supersampling off. Either one of those options on can cause mild to severe stutters. Just devote 30 minutes or so to finding the AA method (in heavy weather) that gives you acceptable performance and visual IQ.

This is very true. I also once tested SUPERVCAA-mode and I immediately noticed it was a performance hog with heavy hi-res clouds probably because of texture transparency of cloud textures. Also, certain type of (near)overcast weather with rain showers, hi-res clouds (4096) with any heavier AA are the ultimate test for BP=0 setting. I tought mine was alright, until I last week took A2A P40 out near Portland, Oregon. Soon, scenery was full of spikes (spikes happen, when GPU maxes to 100% with BP=0) so I fixed it with lowering clouds to 2048 and so far it seems good. For AA i use 16xQ, which performs pretty nicely.Claiming that SUPERVCAA is best option is pure nonsense. It was poorly tested, probably with low texture resolution and easy weather. If it would work nicely, for example NickN would surely recommend it.

[Soulflight 97]

OK thanks, but I still think there is clearly something wrong here. May GPU does simply not perform as it should. I used nickn's inspector settings now, with 8xSQ and forced 16x AF, These settings cause exactly the same stutters in bad weather as the Super-VCAA Setting, setting AF to app controlled again does ease it up a bit, but according to Tabs from PMDG Support AF is virtually for free on modern cards.During my test i had GPU-Z running and despite the major stutters I got the GPU load and memory usage never went above 75% and 375MB of VRAM. Could this be the bottleneck of having DDR3-VRAM?

Edited January 29, 2012 by Soulflight