DX10 is definitely the place to be for FSX. Paul, Steve, and others have done some great work to resolve many issues with DX10 under FSX.



My settings are similar to Richard's ... I think they work really well for my GTX 680 at 2560 x 1600 (haven't tried the Titan yet).

 

Hi Rob, could you please share your settings for MultiSamplesPerPixel and MultiSampleQuality?

 

Thanks!

Dylan

We can run these settings because we use DX10, Dave. There are a number of articles published around the net which give outlines or overviews of the differences between DX9 and DX10. and here is one by Phil Taylor, written just after SP2 was released. The effect that our config parameters affect the sim differently, and once tweaked, it is able to continuously hold a high frame rate, while appearing to be very, very, smooth.

 

In preventing OOM's, I have a couple of personal rules:

 

1). Put a custom 3gig max/min swap file on a different drive than C, with a 100 MB max/min on C.

2). Check and modify the DeskTop Heap Limitation settings, per the doc included in the above link.

 

.. and then running FSX in DX10 mode, which frees up more system memory, on top of which are the benefits gained from a 64-bit version of W7, using 8 gig of ram. 

 

That combination will work fine for years, Dave. I cannot remember when the last OOM was - I think actually it was when using the Core2Duo e6600 a number of years back.

 

All the Best,

Thanks for the response Paul, but Ive been running DX10 for about 3 months now and love it, but I still monitor my VAS and I was getting really close to the limit with a 6.5 LOD. now im running it with 5.5.  Ive followed the guide and played around with the settings, and different NI sets. Ive even reduced my weather textures. Thats why my jaw dropped with 9.5 LOD. hmmm will have to go through the guide one more time. 

 

Rob but didn't see any with the sun inside the VC (I'm looking to see if you have jagged edges)

 

Here ya go Jim, quick animated sequence I uploaded to YouTube 1080p downgraded some with YouTube quality settings but it does demonstrate the shadows in VC.

 

 

Hi Rob, could you please share your settings for MultiSamplesPerPixel and MultiSampleQuality?

 

Posted them earlier in this thread here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/403301-aa-with-dx10/?p=2631265

 

How are you guys running   so  high LOD when that is a recipe for OOM failures. NGX + FSDT with 4096 textures is sure to be a disaster even though it looks fantastic.

 

I don't know about others, but I don't run that config when using the NGX, BAe-146, or Super 80 Pro.  I keep my LOD at 9.5, but reduce textures to 2048 (in REX also), reduce boat/car traffic to 5%, reduce AI via Traffic 360 and live dangerously close to OOM (have to make sure I don't open any new windows).  But REX weather injection can sometimes trigger an OOM when it goes crazy on cloud layers/density ... I keep weather coverage at 100mi (per REX recommendations).  

 

But for any GA 3rd party AC and/or all default AC, I go back to 4096 and back to normal car/boat traffic and normal Traffic 360 settings.

 

Rob

Hi Rob,

 

Thanks for the video of the shadows in the VC.  Very nice and I saw no jaggies.  It's hard to ascertain any AA issues in my setup too.

 

Best regards,

Jim

I remember cockpit shadows coming up a while ago, too, Jim, I think when the Alabeo Waco bipe was released. It seems some aircraft don't model them, while others do - something like jetways.

 

On the subject of OOM's - while I never get them - I get horrific jaggies all over the screen, which is usually just after RC4 orders up a "turn to xxx degrees, descend to yyy feet and expect vectors for runway zzz!!" .. Qualifying that, a little - it's only with the LH Maddog, (I use Steve's 3.2.1 Patch which is ok for day and night and fixes other grey objects in some measure, too), and I counter it with dropping Aniso back to BiLinear. I suppose it's 'ok'.

 

Current Inspector settings and version. 

It suprises me to see people using DX10 preview say that they need to have the NI "Antialiasing - Setting" set to a particular value to get AA to look good. The only AA settings that matter in DX10 preview is checking the in-game AA check box and these settings in the fsx.cfg:

 

 

 

[GRAPHICS]

MultiSamplesPerPixel=4 // Must have for good AA Can be 8

MultiSampleQuality=16 // Can be 4 or 8 for better performance.

 

This was a most interesting remark FamilyMan and I decided to investigate it a bit this afternoon and noticed something cool.

 

MutliSamplesPerPixel in FSX.cfg is directly tied to the Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling  value in NI... and the GPU gets set to the lesser of the two. If you have '8' in your FSX.cfg and 8xSGSS in your NI, you get 8xSGSS. If you have 4 in you cfg and 8xSGSS in NI, you get 4xSGSS. This would explain why so many have remarked that they see 'little difference' between 4xSGSS and 8xSGSS - their cfg is capping it at 4xSGSS.

 

I tried varying values of MultiSampleQuality from 2 to 32 and could not see any difference in image quality, GPU load or CPU load when varying these. Perhaps it too is associated with an equivalent NI setting that I have off (I did try enabling what I thought were inactive settings in NI with no effect), but if it is, I couldn't find it. Can you describe where or how varying this parameter effects you image quality?

 

Brian

I've read information that collaborates your observation, and that the effect you discovered is actually a "bug" in the driver that has become so popular that nvidia made it a feature.   I was hoping that I had that article linked, but unfortunately not.

 

At least with my 660 ti (and eariler my 550 ti) in my system, the VC (virtual cockpit) become somewhat jaggedy in DX10 preview if I set MultiSamplesPerPixel to 2.  It become really obvious if TSAA is disabled in NI.  The effect of increasing this setting to 4 and 8 is very obvious with my setup.  The second value is less important, but should be set to match the first, at a minimum.

As a footnote, using MultiSamplesPerPixel=8 will really choke performace when flying in cloudy weather.  That is the main reason I don't use this high of setting.  And for your information and reading pleasure, here's that link I mentioned in my previous post http://www.overclock.net/t/1250100/nvidia-sparse-grid-supersampling.  Though this guide talks about having to set compatibility bits and LOD bias, it seems that FSX dials in benefits of TSSGS AA without any of this.  BTW, here's another link giving a nearly exaustive live of compatibily bit settings: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=357956.  I've had mixed results setting this stuff up for other games; note that FSX is not included in this list.

On a side note, and taking Paul's info into consideration, I removed my MipBias setting completely and it does indeed seem to have no impact.

 

I've also starting using 2048 rather than 4096 ... (FSX and REX).  With the exception of REX clouds I really can't see any difference ... going from 4096 to 2048 has free'd up about 300KB or so.  But on a side note, 4096 and 2048 has no impact on my frame rates ... it's just a matter of OOMs.

 

Clouds aren't as nice, but still not bad at all - a compromise I can live with so long as I can keep my 9.5 LOD.

 

http://robainscough.com/images/655641a5a33cfeb6f93c263a9b8bb6b8.jpg

Have to admit the dx10 settings I posted are the best so far and I am using them in dx9 wish flytampa would get on the dx10 bandwagon then all would be great.

As a footnote, using MultiSamplesPerPixel=8 will really choke performace when flying in cloudy weather. That is the main reason I don't use this high of setting.

 

I totally concur. Monitoring my GPU workload, I often hit 100% (not good!) and watched FPS start to fall off while flying through thick cloud. Switching to 4 (4XSGSS), GPU workload was probably cut in half and never bogged down in thick cloud.

 

Too bad. I do like the image at 8.... but I can live with 4.

 

I've also starting using 2048 rather than 4096 ... (FSX and REX).  With the exception of REX clouds I really can't see any difference ... going from 4096 to 2048 has free'd up about 300KB or so.  But on a side note, 4096 and 2048 has no impact on my frame rates ... it's just a matter of OOMs.

 

Another good reason why 64bit is needed. No impact on frames but impacts into the VAS for anyone who disagrees there is no need for 64bit. We all would prefer the 4096 clouds and should be able to have that luxury seeing they are available, but until we break the 4gb restriction, its not going to happen, for me anyway. 

 

We all would prefer the 4096 clouds and should be able to have that luxury seeing they are available, but until we break the 4gb restriction, its not going to happen, for me anyway.

 

The only times I've gotten OOMs have involved complex cloud layers in complex scenery.  I cut back my REX clouds themselves to 1024 and that pretty much took care of that.  The funny thing is, I actually prefer the lower res cloud textures.  Others have noted this as well.

 

Scott

The funny thing is, I actually prefer the lower res cloud textures.

 

Worth trying, see if that frees up any more address space for me which is always the biggest issue I have because I just refuse to give up that 9.5 LOD and 100mi cloud distance -- for some they don't seem to notice the LOD difference, but for me it's very important.

 

I posted more pics in this thread: http://forum.avsim.net/page/index.html/_/pr-ann/just-flight-l-1011-tristar-for-fsx-r1203#commentsStart -- It think DX10 is the only reason I'm able to currently find a compromise between OOM and LOD 9.5, without it I honestly don't know if I'd be investing any time in FSX.  It has me so interested that in what little free time I have, I'm coding an application that I call FSX Manager - basically just allows "configurations" for OS (stop services/processes), and FSX settings, and DX10 fixes all under a single easy to use app (might even expand it to switch GoFlight configurations as I'm pretty sure their GFConfig supports some type of command line).  Will of course make it free and hit up the DX10 fix owners for permission to include their work.