Why is the Weather / Clouds so FPS and Processor Intensive?

[Guest byoung]

I am just wondering why certain cloud patterns seem to hammer the FPS so much.I hope this will be one of the primary focus of FS 2006.I haven't been able to figure out which weather patterns are the most taxing to FPS. And even with no scenery visibility the FPS is still pegged?? Sometimes the same patterns affect FPS differently.Rain for one is pretty taxing.Weather experts, please chime in on this thread!Barry

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, In Weather display, You have to reduce the cloud draw distant to 30 mile, Try to reduce the density of clouds, this will affect when there is many clouds layers at the same time more then 2. -You can download HIFpsV2.zip max optimized performance or ffpvv2.zip, use only one of these http://fsw.simflight.com/FSWdownload.html-FPS with clouds decrease when AA is enabled with some samplesystem configuration with gforce cards, You are running a Laptop for fs2004 which do not help on many thing. Try 1024x768 32 bits.Clouds do reduce FPS no matter what's you do, it's a scenery on the sky, the only way is to limit the clouds layers to 2 and the less complexity of the clouds formation, which will be a step back. In the mean time system's continue to increase grow for the next version, not worry about that's. Ps: FPS is a problems and limitation on many many thing with fs, for those are comparing real life and fs...there is tons of years to go..ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

[Guest byoung]

Hi Chris,Thanks for the info. I installed your FPSFIX when FS 2004 first came out.Are these files HIFpsV2.zip max optimized performance or ffpvv2.zip different than the one you suppled then?Thanks!Barry

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, -HIFpsV2.zip have the best performance possible for fs2004.-Ffpv2.zip have better performance then fs2004 default and little lower performance then HIFpsV2.zipPs: You can't use both at the same time.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, You can use HIFPS.zip it's a new one, preserve most of the default fs2004 quality and had better performance compare to default, chose in the zip DTX or 32 bits. ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

[Tabs 2,790]

I think it has to do with the sheer number of individual sprites that are being rendered at a time to create a convincing looking cloudscape - it saturates the video card's fillrate. Hopefully in FS2006, MS will turn to the latest methods of doing such rendering fully using DirectX 9 or 10 if it's out by then...

[Guest allcott]

And don't forget the background processing to present the winds and other atmospheric data! It might not be visible, but it's all having to be crunched by the CPU!Allcott