Afternoon everyone,

This problem has been around for a little while now, and I`ve searched around the internet and have found no answers. My problem is, the last 50 feet above the runway prior to touching down, my fsx lags, and because it does that for a second or two at that altitude I get very hard landings recorded at my VA. Are there any answers or anyone else who is experiencing this problem?

Just for some information, I have external addons such as, Aerosoft AES, REX Essential, Xtreme FSX PC (has helped frame rates go up A LOT).

 

Regards, and if you need more information I will be happy to name then

Are there any particular aircraft that cause it to lag? default, addon? or does it happen with all?

 

Generally, when running complex addons such the QW 146, I turn sliders down, mostly the 'autogen' and 'scenery complexity' sliders. Try that and see if it helps.

Thanks for the reply, it only happens in my commercial payware aircraft.

My sliders are controlled by FSX Xtreme PC, however I think I could change the settings within that programme

Yes, I looked into this issue quite some time ago now - as it was something both myself and pretty much everyone I know involved with FSX experienced to some degree. Some people just get a microstutter while others seem to have FSX "pause" for an entire second's worth of frames and it's caused by a few things. Firstly, one of the major contributions is if you're using addon scenery - if you try landing at an airport with default scenery (airport and city) you should notice the lag is significantly less.

 

Another big cause, I've found, is the detail1.bmp file which loads up right before you touchdown - try using a detail1.bmp file no bigger than 1024x1024 pixels - this made quite a substantial difference for me (it was previously a 4096x4096 texture)

 

Lastly, another cause is the touchdown sound/smoke which loads right before you touchdown and can incorporate a slight microstutter as the sound and texture loads (I get a slight microstutter from this despite running a 2700k at 4.8GHz and run a decent PCI-e soundcard) and only really happens with 3rd party complex addons for me. I actually created a RAM disk for my aircraft sounds and effects and combined with the detail1.bmp it completely eradicated any stutter on touchdown even when landing at an airport with addon scenery.

I have noe experience with this FSX Xtreme PC software and have no idea what it does, so I can't really help you anymore.

 

I actually created a RAM disk for my aircraft sounds and effects and combined with the detail1.bmp it completely eradicated any stutter on touchdown even when landing at an airport with addon scenery.

 

Interesting, I have heard of RAM disk, but never thought of using it for FSX as I only have 3GB of ram. How much ram do you have in total and how much have you allocated to the RAM disk?

I have noe experience with this FSX Xtreme PC software and have no idea what it does, so I can't really help you anymore.

 

 

 

Interesting, I have heard of RAM disk, but never thought of using it for FSX as I only have 3GB of ram. How much ram do you have in total and how much have you allocated to the RAM disk?

 

I have 16GB in total. I created a 1GB RAM disk that gets mounted then automatically starts FSX (via a .BAT file) and subsequently unmounted when I quit out of FSX.

I have 16GB in total. I created a 1GB RAM disk that gets mounted then automatically starts FSX (via a .BAT file) and subsequently unmounted when I quit out of FSX.

 

Hopefully when I get a new computer I can set up something like this. Do you use this software to set it up?

Hopefully when I get a new computer I can set up something like this. Do you use this software to set it up?

 

http://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk/

 

This one. :smile:

I used the other one when I tried it out a couple of years ago, this one looks better though. captKLM, you might want to try this if you have enough RAM.

Another big cause, I've found, is the detail1.bmp file which loads up right before you touchdown - try using a detail1.bmp file no bigger than 1024x1024 pixels - this made quite a substantial difference for me (it was previously a 4096x4096 texture)

 

how do you determine what resolution is the detail1.bmp?

 

I actually created a RAM disk for my aircraft sounds and effects and combined with the detail1.bmp it completely eradicated any stutter on touchdown even when landing at an airport with addon scenery.

 

can you provide some info how you setup the RAM disk for sounds and effects?

My problem is, the last 50 feet above the runway prior to touching down, my fsx lags, and because it does that for a second or two at that altitude I get very hard landings recorded at my VA.

Inquisitive minds would like to know: does this happen at any airport, or only at, let's say, London Gatwick?

Hi Noble, I also would like to understand how to off-load to a RAM disk.. I guess you need to tell FSX where to go look for the files as there on a different drive number i.e. the RAM drive.. Any help you can proved when you have time as I'm sure there are lots of folk who would like to speed things up.. By the way I just checked detail1.bmp and found 10 which seems a little to many.. 4 are in ORBX scenery and the rest seems backups.. there is one in the main texture folder but this is very small i.e. 128x128... Anyway hope this is not to long winded.. regards Bobj

I actually created a RAM disk for my aircraft sounds and effects and combined with the detail1.bmp it completely eradicated any stutter on touchdown even when landing at an airport with addon scenery.

This seems a very good idea....but how do you "tell" FSX that sounds and effects are on to a different drive ?

 

Regards

Ok, in regards to the detail1.bmp if you're finding there's more than one it's most likely because some 3rd party textures you use decide to install into the FSX directory, and some addon scenery name files *detail1* - but the one FSX actually loads up (and the one I'm referring to) is in the Scenery\World\Texture folder and is called detail1.bmp (not the water ones)

 

To check the resolution of the file, depending on what type of texture it is (DXT, non-DXT) you may be able to open it in Paint/Photoshop - however the best thing to do for all things textures when it comes to FSX is download a free tool called DXTBMP (link here - http://www.mwgfx.co....rams/dxtbmp.htm) which will enable you to open all BMP/DDS textures in FSX and check the resolution and what it has been saved as. If you don't want to go to this trouble just to check it, you could just look at the size of the file; I have a 1024x1024 detail1.bmp and it is 682kb - so chances are if your detail1.bmp has a greater filesize (especially >1Mb) you probably have a higher resolution texture.

 

REX actually provide two detail1.bmp for free on their forum (in the FREE Stuff! subforum) and they're both called "Grass Texture" so you can have a look at the screenshots for both and pick which you prefer (Note: if you download Grass Texture I make sure you copy over the detail1.bmp from the 1024 folder. If you prefer Grass Texture II the only texture is 1024 anyway)

 

 

Ok, in regards to the RAM disk - it isn't that complicated but it is a bit long winded.

 

http://www.softperfe...oducts/ramdisk/

 

That is the one I use and I'll try to explain how to set it up.

 

Once you've downloaded and installed it, run the software. You need to decide what files you want to copy onto the RAM Disk so you can determine what size to make the disk (and image). I'd recommend having the main FSX\Texture , FSX\Sound and whatever 3rd party aircraft you fly frequently - their sound folders (you can actually copy over the ENTIRE aircraft folder present in SimObjects\Airplanes but the RAM Disk size will quickly add up).

 

Once you've determined the folders you're going to have on the RAM Disk work out the size of all the folders and in SoftPerfect RAM Disk go to Image -> Create Image. I'll quickly explain why you need this "image" - obviously RAM is volatile memory and when you shut down your PC it's not going to "remember" all the files you've put on the RAM disk (or even that you created a RAM disk) when you start your PC up again. So this image essentially stores all the files you have on the RAM Disk on one of your hard-drives and loads it up when you boot your PC.

 

Ok so, once you've gone to Image -> Create Image click on the little folder in the white-space of "Image File Name" and to name the image and tell it where you want to save the file. Then in "Size MB" put in the size of the RAM Disk - add ~100MB to the size of all the folders just for a buffer. So if all the files you wish to copy over comes to 652MB then create a 750MB disk. You also want the "File System" to be NTFS and in "Volume Label" just leave blank.

 

Now go to Disk -> Add - set the "Size (MB)" to be the same size as the image you just created and click on the small folder in the white space of "Image File Name (optional)" and select the image we just saved in the previous step. Set "Drive Letter" to whatever you want and make sure you tick "Save Contents to Image" and set the "File System" to NTFS.

 

Ok, so now you should have a RAM Disk created and it should be associated with the image. This means that whenever you put something on the RAM Disk, it automatically gets compiled into the image so that it loads up when you restart your PC.

 

Now this is where the fun begins.

 

What you now need to do is copy and paste over the folders you want onto the RAM Disk from the FSX folder to the RAM disk and then rename the folders in the FSX folder to SoundBAK or SoundOld (don't delete them). If you're only copying folders from the root FSX folder then this is a bit more simple - however, if you are copying folders not from the root FSX directory (i.e. you're copying over the sound folders of aircraft which are in FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\X\Sound) you have to take care.

 

Ok so, what you need to do is open up cmd (In Windows search cmd from "Search Programs and Files" when you click the start button or just start it from All Programs\Accessories.)

 

If you've copied over the main FSX texture and sound folders you need to point the CMD to the root FSX folder from C:\Users\Name. To do this type

 

cd C:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X

 

Or wherever you have FSX installed.

 

Now for each folder from the root FSX folder you copied over, you need to do this.

 

mklink /D Texture X:\Texture

 

 

Clearly X represents whatever drive letter your RAM disk is. What this does is create a directory symbolic link between the Texture folder in the root FSX folder to your RAM Disk. You can check this has worked, because it should create a "Texture" folder in the FSX folder (technically a symlink) which when you double click takes you to the Texture folder on the RAM Disk. If it does this, it has worked.

 

You need to do this for all the folders you have on your RAM Disk but you need to be careful. If you've copied over the NGX sound folder from FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX and put that sound folder in X:\NGXSound

 

Then this is what you would do to link the two up.

 

In CMD you'd first change the directory to the NGX folder in FSX - so you would do this.

 

cd C:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX

 

Then to create the symlink

 

mklink /D sound X:\NGXSound

 

Just to clarify, the format of the above command is this

 

mklink /D (A) ( B )

 

Where (A) is the name of the folder you copied over in the place you changed the directory to (so in this case to the 737-800 folder) and ( B ) is where you want the symlink to point to - so to the RAM Disk and whatever you've named the corresponding folder on there.

 

The good thing about this process, is no matter how complicated it looks you can always verify whether it has worked or not, because you should be able to double click on the folder and it take you to the RAM Disk - if it doesn't do this, then when you run FSX, it isn't going to be able to find the files.

Xtreme FSX PC has had very bad reviews, normally resulting in worse fps than before. You should try to just delete you old fsx.cfg and let FSX make a new one. Then use the tips the others have mentioned here.