Well Holy Crap! I found some FPS!

[dho112 17]

Alright, after JUST posting to Daniel Choen about how there are no magic bullets that give you quantum leaps in FSX performance, and how it is actually a longer list of a dozen or two small things done correctly that add up to performance (i.e. loading FSX in the right place, Sliders set correctly, config tweaks, hardware, etc etc...) I am now eating crow!

 

The specs of my machine are in my signature, and its no slouch actually... but I would always stare in longing at youtube videos of FSX footage that looked so much smoother than mine... epsecially on things like approaches to large airports etc...

 

I realize that when you build a machine, as I did, with high spec parts, its actually the implementation and integration of the parts that leads to performance in such a way that someone who spent half as much as you on pieces could end up having a machine much faster than yours using the highest end parts if things like drivers were not working well together, or conflicts or errors in installation cropped up thru configuring dizzying array of settings (especially on high end video cards) It actually took me several weeks to even get my high zoot motherboard (Asus Rampage III Extreme) to even RECOGNIZE my quad SLI NVidia video card setup!

 

But I digress... I plodded on with about an average of 16-19fps at KSFO with medium- very high slider settings at 2560x1440 resolution and just chalked it up to maybe higher resolution just killed FPS, along with being a computer building dork, that messed something up on the integration, and never got anything over 30FPS even flying across open desert at FL370 with no weather.

 

Enter the venetubo website (Bojote is his name isn't it?) and his FSX.CFG optimizer program...

 

I had run it once before after I had already dove into the FSX.cfg files manually once making piecemeal changes seperately that I had read about perusing AVSIM forums...

 

But this time I ran it after a clean install of FSX and all the add-ons and after running the config tweaker from hsi website, there seemed to be about a dozen more "Changes" that it made that I didn't see the first time I ran it... along with ONE very critical one I did not see before...

 

This time is said that I had my FPS limited to 40FPS in FSX (which I always do), and that there would be a SIGNIFICANT increase in performance if I used an external FPS limiting piece of software and set FSX internally to "Unlimited" (I had set it too unlimited before and not really seen any improvement"

 

Well, I downloaded the tiny FPS Limit software from his link and ran it, then I set FPS to "unlimited" within FSX... Saved, closed, started my TrackIR5, reopened... picked my 737-800WL NGX Delta jet, the cockpit appeared, I waited for it to fully initialize, moved my head around to scan the cockpit...

 

Then I had to pick my jaw back up off the desk... I took the track IR headset off and placed it down... walked out of my office room to get an iced tea, thinking during the whole walk to the kitchen that it was some cruel glitch and when I came back it would all be back to reality once everything stabilized in FSX including Ultimate Traffic 2 loading up all its jets at KSFO and starting them taxiing...

 

I came back, put the headset back on... panned around the cockpit again... Hmmmm... Shift-z

 

30 frames per second...

 

Hmmm... I kept watching the counter... it was flicking back and forth between 27-30fps even when I was staring in the direction of what must have been about 15-20 jets parked at SFO (I checked using the external views... which were now so fast and fluid that using my old muscle memory from the way it was before, the view flicked all over the place like pilot induced oscillation)

 

"Ok" I thought... this will all end soon and something will kick this back down again...

 

I started up FS2Crew went thru the ENTIRE cold and dark setup procedure, took off on a short flight to KLAX, still everything was so smooth it was like being IN a life action video...

 

Now at FL350... clouds were set to max viewing distance... again panning around and again, almost incomprehensibly smooth...

 

I hit Shift Z again... now the counter was flicking quickly back and forth between 30 and almost 60FPS! Which I found confusing until I remembered something I read in the FPS Limit program read me file; that the FPS limit was locked by default to 30FPS, and what line to go to to change that...

 

I'm still a little stunned at the moment... To be certain, this little development represents a huge breath of new life in FSX and PMDG for me... so I haven't as yet made the change to the line locking it at 30 FPS, to be honest I don't want to jinx it, its working so SO well right now...

 

I think for the first time in my computer building experience I have finally built and implemented a machine that actually performs to the level that is actually appropriate! Thanks to Bojote!!!

 

I'm going back to his website right now and kicking CASH his way thru his paypal donation link!!!

 

I'm sorry, I just had to share this...

 

p.s. I have NO affiliation to the venetubo fsx.cfg tweaking website whatsoever!

[Boeing or not going 578]

His tweaks have been around for almost 2 years. They do help but lead to some instability depending on how much addon scenery you have.

[FSMP 95]

The $64,000 question is ... what did his TWEEKS change on YOUR system, from the DEFAULT, to gain you such an increase.?

 

Have you yet gone back into your config file, and compaired it with a STANDARD default one, as generated by YOUR machine, (as created if you did not have a config file when you started it) ?

 

Those DIFFERENCES would be interesting to know :)

[dho112 17]

His tweaks have been around for almost 2 years. They do help but lead to some instability depending on how much addon scenery you have.

 

I noticed that the dates on the website were from pretty far back, but as far as the instability issues, I haven't seen any as yet... If I do I think I remember there was a conservative mode as an option to the tweaks, and I'll try that if it turns out I have to...

 

Trying not to get too excited about the whole thing, just staying realistic just in case :)

 

The $64,000 question is ... what did his TWEEKS change on YOUR system, from the DEFAULT, to gain you such an increase.?

 

Have you yet gone back into your config file, and compaired it with a STANDARD default one, as generated by YOUR machine, (as created if you did not have a config file when you started it) ?

 

Those DIFFERENCES would be interesting to know :)

 

Its hard to tell because there were about 14 or so changes listed... I'll grab the original file and sift thru line for line but for now I'm thinking the external frame limiter and one change that involved turning off antialiasing transparency, which was previously turned on globally... That one I can actually check quickly as it is just a single toggle in my Nvidia console... I'll post the results on that one change later after dinner...

 

I'm not looking at this as a miracle of performance more than I think its just rectified grievous errors I had in my setup that were keeping me from performance that was "reasonable" for the equipment that I have...

[tcas_climb 45]

what speed is your processor? do u have it OC'd?

[Jigsaw 8]

His tweaks have been around for almost 2 years.

 

Longer. I barely even remember a time without an FPS Limiter. Good that you finally discovered it. ;)

 

Btw.: the Bojote tweaks can improve the performance, but cause a lot of graphical glitches (flashing textures tiles etc.) which drove me nuts. For me it wasn't worth the boost, because I couldn't enjoy FSX with those anomalies.

[FS737Pilot 12]

can you post a link to it? I've never used it before. I know PMDG used to have a link to the good UIautomationcore.dll and to his website but i cant find those anymore.

 

thanks,

mitch bowman

[M_Sauce 6]

Have you guys tried the Nhancer FPS limiter instead? I'm currently using Nhancer to limit FPS to 30, but interested to know if using this other software limiter instead would get better results.

[pfpeter 3]

can you post a link to it? I've never used it before. I know PMDG used to have a link to the good UIautomationcore.dll and to his website but i cant find those anymore.

 

thanks,

mitch bowman

 

http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

[xxJohnxx 21]

I had also a little bit more FPS when using an exernal limiter, however I wasn't a fan of this Java limiter. I have changed to an other limter, which is copied in the FSX main directory, and it worked a litlle bit better than the java version. All the short jumps (from 30 to 60 for instance) were gonne.

However I get the best results when I let my NVIDA graphic card handle my FPS. In the PMDG generall forum is a thread how to set your NVIDA inspector to rjn FSX a better and smoother.

[FS737Pilot 12]

http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

 

thanks. What is the optionVsync for? How do i know if hyperthreading is active?

 

mitch bowman

[ukflight 11]

If you have an nvidia card and use Ryan's suggestions for settings the FPS limiter is included in nvidia inspector.

[dazz 69]

I realize that when you build a machine, as I did, with high spec parts, its actually the implementation and integration of the parts that leads to performance in such a way that someone who spent half as much as you on pieces could end up having a machine much faster than yours using the highest end parts if things like drivers were not working well together, or conflicts or errors in installation cropped up thru configuring dizzying array of settings (especially on high end video cards) It actually took me several weeks to even get my high zoot motherboard (Asus Rampage III Extreme) to even RECOGNIZE my quad SLI NVidia video card setup!

 

It's not "the implementation and integration of the parts". Problem here is that people keep picking their hardware without considering what software they'll be running on it.

Your hexa core CPU - SLI GPU config has far more grunt than a 2500K in multithreaded apps and games that can take advantage of multi-GPU, but that doesn't apply to FSX.

You basically have half of your CPU power and a 75% of your GPU power completely wasted since FSX only takes advantage of up to 3 cores and 1 GPU.

Also the new generation of "mid-range" CPU's run faster clock for clock and core for core thant Gulftown's 980X for a fraction of the price, so they will actually be faster in FSX.

Those $1000 rigs with a 2500K + 560Ti run FSX better. Of course you need SLI if for multimonitor (not anymore with the new GTX680) but no more than a dual SLI.

[Tomaz Drnovsek 440]

From what you wrote I would think the fact that you unlocked FPS is giving you extra performance - and it appears your FPS limiter is not working (if you get 60FPS when locked at 30). Specially if you already used Bojote's tool before and didn't get this performance boost.

[dho112 17]

 

 

It's not "the implementation and integration of the parts". Problem here is that people keep picking their hardware without considering what software they'll be running on it.

Your hexa core CPU - SLI GPU config has far more grunt than a 2500K in multithreaded apps and games that can take advantage of multi-GPU, but that doesn't apply to FSX.

You basically have half of your CPU power and a 75% of your GPU power completely wasted since FSX only takes advantage of up to 3 cores and 1 GPU.

Also the new generation of "mid-range" CPU's run faster clock for clock and core for core thant Gulftown's 980X for a fraction of the price, so they will actually be faster in FSX.

Those $1000 rigs with a 2500K + 560Ti run FSX better. Of course you need SLI if for multimonitor (not anymore with the new GTX680) but no more than a dual SLI.

 

Actually, implemention and integration was my problem, as the system was running for a while not recognizing the second gtx590 for quad SLI, and a driver issues were causing problems as far as sound... Things of this nature :)

 

For me and FSX these errors had to be overcome (not so much the quadSLI issue) but things like internal framelimiting and 3d settings and configurations ) in order to unlock frames that my machine was "witholding" which I think is also a problem for many as much as hardware capability beyond what is recognizeable by the software. In fact, I would wager that implementation and integration mistakes (driver issues, hardware configurations, software settings etc) are just as common in machines with specs perfectly suited to the software being used like one intended for FSX.

 

FSX and PMDG is a fairly recent discovery for me, and A-10c and Blackhawk are titles I spend more time with as well as other combat simulations which take more advantage of more of the capabilities of my machine. It also does double duty to more responsible and lucrative efforts with the work I do in AutoCAD, Revit Architecture and 3DS Max and the other two monitors on either side of the main are never on for FSX, but shooting the LOWI approach in bad weather is far more exciting than a virtual walkthru of a renovated Victorian :)