Just throwing this out there.

 

It really is quite amazing when you think about it how all of these addons have to coordinate and talk to each other and not get in the way. FSX/P3D have to deal with its own issues not to mention a bunch of other programs trying to talk at same time. All this while it has old 32 bit code.

Weather engine, Ground services engine, Scenery addons, Traffic addon, Air Traffic Control Addon, Moving Map Interface, VAFS, first officer addons, and aircraft that are far more advanced than I think Microsoft had ever imagined or intended, putting additional strains. etc etc.

No Wonder it has a meltdown with CTD, OOM, freezing etc. Yet careful manipulation we teter on the edge of a stable sim, pushing its limits. All the while the majority of us hardcore simmers generally have pretty fantastic specs for hardware. Higher end graphics card, Quad Core Cpu's overclocked, Fastest memory possible, SSD storage, 1-3 large high resolution monitors. Despite this, FSX/P3D brings it to its knees at times. Dont think there is many programs that fall to its knees with our specs. Autocad, video editing, and the like do that? Course they are 64bit now.

 

I dont know much at all about programming, im more into hardware from my background, but the 4gb limit of win 32bit, is such a massive limitation. We can only imagine I would think what removing that limitation would do. The aircraft and Scenery would become that much more complex. I think we have to take the plunge sooner than later and will have to forgo all our addons, and accept the fact we have to do so in order to get a 64bit coded sim. FSX provided many years of enjoyment, but its time for it to retire where it will be honored from its past history but we graduate to bigger and better things.

 

So as a question to all , Would you favor retiring FSX to get a 64bit sim even if it meant losing all our precious addons for incompatibility reasons?

(Its a Big Question, I have spent alot of money on all these addons as Im sure the majority of all of you have)

Considering I just started FSX simming not too long ago, no I'm not willing to fore-go my current FSX and addons. If I had been dong this for 8 years I may think differently.

 

OOM errors is so far the only thing that really irks me and I find running in DX10 mode has stopped this issue so I'm happy to taxi along as FSX is.

 

Not to mentions, we still need faster cpus to run this loaded game perfectly.

We have all most probably gotten to a point where we are spending most of our time tweaking and little time flying - unless I'm doing something wrong! Then again, whether it's a 32-bit or 64-bit system, we'd surely fall into the same trap as newer add-ons would once again test the limits of whatever the latest/greatest sim or system could handle. Is there no end to our madness?

How I feel about FSX/P3D at times.

Meh, lets add another one. :Black Eye:

 

It really shows its age and those 20 extra dlls or outside of the sim modules are a fragile bunch of surely wonderful concepts. On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to that 64bit X-Plane and how it turns out.

We have all most probably gotten to a point where we are spending most of our time tweaking and little time flying - unless I'm doing something wrong! Then again, whether it's a 32-bit or 64-bit system, we'd surely fall into the same trap as newer add-ons would once again test the limits of whatever the latest/greatest sim or system could handle. Is there no end to our madness?

 

So True! Perhaps a programmer can chime in, but I would think a 64bit program would be leaps and bounds in capability. We wouldnt be fighting to maintain 20 or 30fps all the time. maybe 45. As opposed to other modern games which are at least 60.

I'd pay $500-1000 for FS11 in a heartbeat. FSX is a struggle, but still no replacement in sight...

We wouldnt be fighting to maintain 20 or 30fps all the time. maybe 45. As opposed to other modern games which are at least 60.

Don't take performance gains as granted. Stability, yes. The X-Plane devs wrote a bit about what a 64 sim can't do. http://developer.x-p...it-will-not-do/ Very informative read thanks to a tip.

 

Well, if it brings some more performance. Even better. :biggrin:

Interesting Article. I wasnt expecting it to fix bugs. Thats purely software that is written.

 

As per the article ... "64-bit will do one and only one thing: allow X-Plane to use significantly more virtual memory without crashing. If you crash because you run out of address space, 64-bit will help you. "

 

That is huge with all the potential addons that would exist once again. Then a 16GB machine would cope a whole lot better.

 

"With 64 bits, some settings will become possible for some users that were strictly memory bound before. For example, if you couldn’t run extreme texture res and extreme forests only due to memory limits, 64-bits will let you use extreme res and forests, and that probably will look better than having to pick one or the other."

 

 

4096 Cloud Textures! Maybe

I was just pointing out that LM seems to be holding out on 64bit, but I think its all around better and we just have to take the hit with our existing addons in order to move forward and reap the benefits of the above.

The real benefit would be to move away from the ESP terrain engine alltogether (FSX+P3D) and go for an engine like Outerra instead. 64-bit is the future for sure, but still a few years ahead.

Don't mind using a better sim, but this doesn't mean that I have to stop using FSX. I'm sure many here still use FS9 in addition to FSX.

I think the X-plane idea is about right. 64 bit will allow more VAS, preventing OOM but will do little or nothing for the processing bottlenecks,

 

scott s.

.

I have an online buddy, who shall be nameless. The times I've heard him, over Teamspeak, say "Man, my FSX is really poppin!'". Two days later he says "Man, my FSX is suckin' big time" or words to that effect. He fiddles and pokes at it, trying to get that last bit of 'performance' then he breaks it.

The point I'm trying to make is, you can't make a silk pig out of a sow's purse. You're all trying to get more out of FSX than it has to give! Get it as nice as you can, then leave it alone!

I've got FSX loaded to the gills with addons, use 1024 DXT textures only and default max radius, no blurries, good FPS and most importantly no OOM's. It remains a mystery why some struggle with OOM's and CTD's. I chalk it up to too many addons using larger than 1024 texture sheets and users setting larger radius values than default. Combine that with all of the above mixed together is a resulting OOM. Personally, I dont think 2048 or 4096 textures look that much better, especially for clouds vs. 1024's and the better performance and less memory they use.

 

Its a pain, but I resize most stuff that is beyond 1024 in size from developers and most of the time the looks are barely noticeable and give no memory hogging performance problems.

 

Given what we have I think a lot of people set unreasonable expectations of what the sim can do when using stuff it wasnt designed for in the first place, especially when using monster rigs.

 

Just my .02, but I am a happy camper with what the sim gives with most popular addons from PMDG, FT, FSDS, etc provided I take the extra steps after installing these products and dont try to max ever setting.

Get it as nice as you can, then leave it alone!

 

For real!

 

I've never had any of the problems people report some of the time. Not once. Im in DX10, and she is smooth as a babys butt... But I don't fly tubes with a co-captain and ground support.. so i'm asking less of my machine then others.

How I feel about FSX/P3D at times.

 

Meh, lets add another one. :Black Eye:

 

It really shows its age and those 20 extra dlls or outside of the sim modules are a fragile bunch of surely wonderful concepts. On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to that 64bit X-Plane and how it turns out.

 

That gave me a jolly laugh! As I pondered the picture it made very good sense. Perhaps some day my old computer and fsx will run so Hot running all these programs it will create a small sun. Something to look forward too.

 

It is amazing all of these programs talking with each other. I can't even phatom what the flow chart to this program would look like on paper.

 

Jim