Light bloom is a huge performance hog, but I've always wondered. Does light bloom depend on the GPU instead of the CPU? If so, how do latest graphics cards cope with light bloom?

That's a good question. I have always wondered the same thing. I also wonder if 3D lighting is CPU or GPU dependent.

 

I'm going to say, CPU and GPU dependent. We need a "balanced system" to run FSX smoothly.

 

A faster CPU, RAM, GPU, and even an SSD have all helped my FSX performance.

While it does look like light bloom is using the GPU to render itself, I'm wondering why it's still a performance hog even on the highest-end graphics cards. DX10 bloom might work much faster, but the effect doesn't look as complex as the DX9 version.

Light bloom is a huge performance hog, but I've always wondered. Does light bloom depend on the GPU instead of the CPU? If so, how do latest graphics cards cope with light bloom?

 

Bloom is such a beautiful effect I will often avoid complex scenery areas and add on aircraft just so I can do a dawn flight with it on. I'm on a 4.5y/o system and yet I can hop in the RealAir Turbine Duke and take of in FTX Tasmania and enjoy a lovely fly. Another great trick to take advantage of Bloom is to do some island hoping, say Hawaii, where there is so much ocean it takes the load of of processing so one can enjoy the superior lighting effects of Bloom and still enjoy 3rd party airports as you see w/ FSDT's stuff there. Sad the effect is such a performance hog. I have to think the lion's share impact is on the CPU at least in my machine. When you look at some of the awesome nVidia graphic demo routines then try to figure out why Bloom is so hard to process, as I say it must be the CPU that is the target for impact.

Bloom is such a beautiful effect I will often avoid complex scenery areas and add on aircraft just so I can do a dawn flight with it on.

 

I agree. I almost always have it on, but I need to turn it off when I fly in more complex areas. I avoid flying in these too, just so I can have bloom on and enjoy that great effect.

Have you tried running the enbseries hdr plugin? Negligible impact compared to the in-game bloom...

I know about it, but I'm more interested in which part of the hardware bloom depends on.

Folks, if you like bloom then please try the DX10 shaders and setup as outlined in the DX10 forum. I think most of you will be impressed with not only the performance of FSX under DX10 but the bloom effect as well.

Folks, if you like bloom then please try the DX10 shaders and setup as outlined in the DX10 forum. I think most of you will be impressed with not only the performance of FSX under DX10 but the bloom effect as well.

 

I tried it and I was not impressed. It only took effect on runway lights, and it wasn't that strong.

Have you tried running the enbseries hdr plugin?

 

Yes I have. I found the enb plugins, at least the one I tried, imparted a loss of image sharpness, and I was unwilling to give that up in exchange. My hope is that P3D will improve some of this--we'll see.

 

Folks, if you like bloom then please try the DX10 shaders and setup as outlined in the DX10 forum. I think most of you will be impressed with not only the performance of FSX under DX10 but the bloom effect as well.

 

Thanks Mark. I haven't dabbled much in DX10 but perhaps it's time again to give it a try.

It takes several shader paasses to render bloom and that is what slows the system down.

 

I found that the performance hit was too much in DX9, but it was better in DX10. However, for me DX10 gave me too many other problems.

 

I resorted to using the EMB mod, but found the standard ini files were OTT, so I found the ini that was closest to my liking and toned down a few of the settings in it until I was happy.

 

However, I upgraded my videocard a while back and had not thought to give bloom another try, so may give it a go later.

 

One of the main reasons I use EMB is that my UK photoscenery (VFR Real) is way too washed out. The EMB mod has really darkened t and added some contrast. However, the downside is that the VCs are a little too dark.

 

IAN

I found that the performance hit was too much in DX9, but it was better in DX10.

 

While DX10 might be more efficient, the DX10 effect isn't as spectacular and definitely seems lighter on resources.