As most who glance at my posts know, I run FSX with all graphic sliders full right. At the full setting, ( and having just bought 1WA6 (Fall City)..the only FSX N.A. airport other than the new Swanson which I don't yet have..) with fly-overs of the area, I get between a low (i7-975/nVidia GTX 285) of 12 FPS (with most three or more continuous seconds at around 17-18 FPS), and all the way up to my roof-top setting of 30, locked down.

 

Well, today I thought to try an experiment of sorts...

 

From full right sliders with the above mentioned FPS performance for 1WA6 and surrounding area...I kept notching down both Scenery Complexity and AUTO-GEN one notch to the left...and then kept flying in circles around the airport, with touch and go's.

 

What I found astounded me...and I think that I have a theory of sorts for what is happening....

 

I actually got WORSE FPS performance the closer I got to the mid level settings. Worse performance! I went from a low of 12 at full open, to a low of 5-7 fps...and my 3 second or more median FPS came in at around 15-17 rather than 17-18!

 

Here's what I think is happening....the scenery and the way FSX creates the scenery registries has all the elements registered in memory, no matter what setting you have. It doesn't parse at start-up. So...if you dummy down your setting from what FSX has already parsed INTO memory, it has to spend a moment to SCRUB and filter the output to whatever you have set it to display. This takes CPU cycles...and in fact is detrimental to why you are trying to dummy down from full scenery buffer display....in the first place, ....to pick up a few more FPS.

 

I tried this all over FSX for the last hour...and the same applies. If I let FSX 'rip'.....it is smoother in animation EVEN if some FPS drops sporadically. Also, I get about 15-25 percent MORE FPS by having both SCENERY sliders at full max.

 

Try it out for yourselves.....I think that what I have described...is exactly what is happening with the way FSX loads scenery buffers. It gives all, unless you present an impediment, by sliding down the buffer content...and forcing FSX to spend time deleting scenery objects, etc...before sending to your GPU. I could be totally 'out there'...or I could be dead on. As for my system...FSX operates much better with full scenery buffer content being sent and displayed. Something to think about for your system....

 

Mitch

What! I don't think I totally get what you are saying. So set your sliders to max, ie very dense, load up the sim somewhere, then shut down, and those settings are held in memory. Then go back to the area you want to fly, adjust the settings to less, to the left, backing off of max, and the result is lower fps, poorer performance?

 

Its not computing with me. I can be at an airport, and lower the settings and I see an immediate improvement of fsp.

I tried something similar yesterday, I was trying to figure out what was up with my FPS. Out of frustration I put all my sliders to the left and I my FPS went lower instead of higher so i dont know whats going on.

What! I don't think I totally get what you are saying. So set your sliders to max, ie very dense, load up the sim somewhere, then shut down, and those settings are held in memory. Then go back to the area you want to fly, adjust the settings to less, to the left, backing off of max, and the result is lower fps, poorer performance?

 

Its not computing with me. I can be at an airport, and lower the settings and I see an immediate improvement of fsp.

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Hi, What I am saying in a nutshell, is that if I from a full setting on an FSX flight session, start to dummy (slide to the left....) and continue on with my flight...I get 15-25 % LESS FPS than if at a full-out max setting. No..don't shut down....just start with your system at both sliders full right. Then take note of your FPS. Then start taking each slider down to the left, one setting at a time, press APPLY...and then fly the exact same scenery area. Like I said, I can only detail what happened in my case, my system, but if it allows someone to put both sliders to the right, where they never would have (thinking drastically less FPS performance...before this post) it might put a major smile on the kisser....for having taken the time to read. :)

I think you might be right, since it's not the first time I read about something like that. I think ******* tweaks mentioned that IIRC.

I tried something similar yesterday, I was trying to figure out what was up with my FPS. Out of frustration I put all my sliders to the left and I my FPS went lower instead of higher so i dont know whats going on.

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What's going on...is probably my tree-stump theory! Slam the sliders to the right....and keep 'em there! You NOW..are actually getting the MAX your system can give up. Yessir!

 

Post Edit: AND....you are getting every bit of detail showing that is IN the scenery...and what you paid for! Orbx at both sliders full right....is, well....YOU ARE THERE!

 

 

 

Mitch

Okai just tried this with my FPS-test-save, NGX @ mega airport amsterdam

(stock settings both scenery = dense+sparse)

 

-In VC (NGX), stable FPS:

stock scenery: 14

max scenery: 13

 

-moving around above the airport:

stock: 15fps

max: 12fps

 

Guess it doesn't work me.

Don't see how actually flying over the airport should make a difference as loading new scenery should only spike fps rather than affect constant fps

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Hi, What I am saying in a nutshell, is that if I from a full setting on an FSX flight session, start to dummy (slide to the left....) and continue on with my flight...I get 15-25 % LESS FPS than if at a full-out max setting. No..don't shut down....just start with your system at both sliders full right. Then take note of your FPS. Then start taking each slider down to the left, one setting at a time, press APPLY...and then fly the exact same scenery area. Like I said, I can only detail what happened in my case, my system, but if it allows someone to put both sliders to the right, where they never would have (thinking drastically less FPS performance...before this post) it might put a major smile on the kisser....for having taken the time to read. :)

 

OK i'll try that. Cold start in FSX with the sliders to the max. I tried that with Orbx Melbourne and my machine just about died.

So basically FSX is putting all its eggs in one basket and when you tell it to remove some eggs it just puts easter grass over some of the eggs and tells you it removed them..

So basically FSX is putting all its eggs in one basket and when you tell it to remove some eggs it just puts easter grass over some of the eggs and tells you it removed them..

:LMAO: :LMAO: :LMAO:

OK so I tied it as Swanson, and I get completely opposite.

 

full sliders at start up = 10 fps (right on the airstrip) and = 17 over the general area with limiter set at 30 fps

drop sliders to dense = 17 fps (right on the airstrip) and = 24-30 over the general area with limiter set at 30 fps

NickN mentions something similar in his FSX tuning posts over at simforums...but not to the OP's extent.

It is never, ever a smart thing to do to run all your settings on max in FSX. Regardless of the rig. It is just pointless and counter-productive to a good experience in the sim. Take Water settings etc, there is virtually no visual difference in the top two settings, but a huge performance difference.

 

If it's really important to you to tell everyone that you "are one of those people who has all their sliders to the right", then go on doing it, but you are getting far from the best experience in FSX from doing so; again, regardless how powerful your rig may be.

Mitch, no. I think this is something else. Definitely not what you describe.

Tested myself:

Set Scenery+AG to fully right. Loaded FSXMark11, ran for 1 minute with FRAPS. AVG 34FPS.

Did not quit FSX. Just ended flight. Set sliders to one notch down. AVG 36FPS.

Same procedure, one notch down. AVG 38FPS.

 

I am DEFINITELY getting better FPS on lower settings.

 

Maybe it's different when you don't quit the flight, but seriously, what's the point of that?

With my rig, I don't see much difference between max and middle of the road settings. Not sure if this has to do with using UsePools=0, but there seems to be many things in fsx that defies gravity so to speak. Everyone knows that the most common phrase on the forum is "Your mileage may vary". Only LM really knows what is happening on the inside. It would be really nice to hear from the developers as to why FSX behaves so differently from one box to the next even though the hardware between the box's are very similar if not exact. FSX behaves like a female in many ways. If there are any females monitoring this thread, I do not mean that in a disrespectful way. I guess the best way to describe it is that both are very emotional to some degree.