I think to remember that I read somewhere that there is a way to bring FS to using more memory than originally intended to cope with higher end machines available today

 

The only one I can think of is the 3GB switch but that only applies if you are using a 32 bit OS.

And the greater than 2 GB address aware switch in the FS9.exe .

 

Are you using 32 bit textures on AI aircraft or in any scenery ?

 

Is this happening everywhere or just in certain areas ?

Textures on AI aircraft vary, but most of them are in 32bit. If I had to guess I would say about 70 to 80% of them. Same applies for scenery.

 

The problem occurs everywhere. The only weird thing is that it appears to be more evident in Europe. In the US it is there too, but not as obvious as in Europe.

 

Too bad. I use a 64bit OS.

 

 

Too bad. I use a 64bit OS.

 

In regards to your 64bit OS, have you made the FS9.1 executable large address aware so that it can take advantage of the extra RAM?

 

 

 

BTW: maximum values under TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS, TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS and TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS are 4.

 

I beg to differ here. It is my understanding that the maximum for TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS and TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS is 9.9 and TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS must be either 1 or 4, nothing else.

 

I'm sorry I can't provide a direct link to the article. It was a post by Holger Sandmann, on which forum I don't know, so in fact, I have nothing to back up what I am writing. I am going on memory and at my age I always question that source! I will also admit that I am sure this has and is a much debated topic.

 

AI textures should be DXT3 with alpha channel, mips are sort of optional. I do agree that 32 bit looks great, but are not a FS9 native texture and take a much larger amount of disk space and requires more GPU work. See the Pinned topic; "A Huge FPS Increase". I use 32 bit without mip maps for my flyable aircraft only and I make sure everything has a alpha channel.

 

Your use of a large number of 32 bit textures may be affecting your texture load time causing the loss of scenery texture resolution and autogen - just a thought.

 

Regards,

Mel

Hi MEL,

 

how can i make FS9.1.exe aware of a larger amount of available system memory? Is there anything in the settings menu for the file that can achieve that?

 

So I see were i am going. I will try to reinstall all AI aircraft in DXT3 format. Dear, that will take some time, but since I have 2 weeks off, I now can be sure that I won't get bored :-) Hopefully that will help solving my problem. 

 

As for the max values for TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS and so on: From what I understood in Jobia's awesome FS graphics bible ( 500+ pages, unfortunately only in German ), the max values are unlimited, with the value 4 being the maximum value with a visible effect. But I agree, this has been discussed millions of times before and opinions vary for that matter. :-) Some do see a difference with values above 4, others don't. On a side note: Jobia's "bible" is a few years old now, and maybe knowledge of how FS works has increased since then, with max values of 9.9 being a more up-to-date statement.

 

cheers

Mike

Hi Mike,

 

To set the large address aware flag you can use the programs here

 

http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php

 

or here

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112556

 

With most of your AI textures being 32 bit that is more than likely causing your memory starvation.

With 32 bit textures every AI aircraft loaded is using 8 mb just for textures where dxt3

will only use 2 mb, A huge difference, and that's for non mipped 1024x1024 textures. That's not counting any scenery you may have that also has 32 bit textures in it. Even with the large address aware flag set you will probably still have some memory starvation.

 

As an example, in the area around JFK I would normally have 6-800 aircraft loaded at any given time. With 32 bit textures I would be using 480-640 mb of memory just for AI aircraft textures with dxt3 it would only be 120-160 for the same area.

 

The only textures I allow to be 32 bit are clouds, and on user aircraft props, and some glass textures.

Are you using the Aliasing? Trillinear etc? I found that, that helped me!

Hi Scorp,

 

thanks, I will try that. In addition, I will change as much of the AI textures into DXT3 as possible. But, as mentioned, this will take some time, as I use massive AI traffic. 

Coming to your example: Memory starvation would make sense here I the problem would occur around JFK. In fact, the problem is more evident when flying around STR ( like on the screenshot in my first post ). From my understanding, when flying arounf JFK, the problem should be much worse than around STR. But it isn't. That's what's weird IMO.

 

Hi maple-syrup,

 

yes I have AA and trilinear filtering switched on. nVidia insepctor is overriding FS AA settings and runs AA at 8x Multisampling. In addition, nVidia Inspector is running 16x Anisotropic filtering.

 

cheers

Mike

 

 

Jobia's "bible" is a few years old now, and maybe knowledge of how FS works has increased since then, with max values of 9.9 being a more up-to-date statement.

 

I have not read Jobia's work - my German is so rusty it could only cause me trouble! I will certainly not dispute your point of view based on that and the fact that what I 'think' is either equally dated or even older.

 

Do you actually have AA switched off in FS9? Make sure you do, so you are only using the inspector settings.

 

Let us know how the texture changes work for you. Finally, once you have the utility Tommy mentioned installed; Right click on the FS9.exe in the root folder and click on Open with CFF Explorer. In the new task pane that opens click on 'File Header', then in the window to the right, where it reads "characteristics" look to the right side for 'click here', click on that and it will open a new pane. The eighth item down reads "App can handle >2gb address space", put a check in the box and click ok. Then in the first pane click on 'file' and save. Close and you are done. I would also recommend that you delete any FS9 shortcuts and create new ones. I don't know if that is absolutely necessary but it can't hurt and may prevent problems.

 

Regards,

Mel

and the fact that what I 'think' is either equally dated or even older.

 

Maybe, but you are by far not the only one suggesting those values, so it's quite possible you and the others are absolutely right and my knowledge is outdated. :-)

 

I definitely will let you know the outcome of the texture change. But as there is massive work to do on this, it might take a little while. 

 

Antialiasing option in FS is switched on, with nVidia Inspector set to "enhance application settings" in the first place. nVidia Inspector is now set to "Override application setting", so I assume that FS setting would just be ignored. 

 

Installed the tool and fs9.exe is now capable of using more than 2GB memory  :Big Grin:

 

cheers

Mike 

 

 

Antialiasing option in FS is switched on, with nVidia Inspector set to "enhance application settings" in the first place. nVidia Inspector is now set to "Override application setting", so I assume that FS setting would just be ignored.

 

Here again, my understanding is that AA should be switched off in FS9 and thus GPU driver AA should be allowed to work independently of FS9 so that there is no conflict. I will add that I use a old driver and NHancer and not Inspector so there may be nothing at all wrong with your method. Judging from your screen shot I would say - no problem. It is just my opinion that having AA switched off in FS9 makes certain that the override function is not necessary and that no additional GPU work is caused. In the past the override application setting did not always do what it was supposed to do.

 

Good, you got the large address aware tweak done.

 

Regards,

Mel

Any quality loss by converting ai textures to DXT1 rather then DXT3? Or is that not a viable option?

 

As long as the alpha is all white or all black there should not be any difference. I believe that if you use reflective models you need to use DXT3. Seems I remember a discussion about that somewhere.

Hi,

 

so I am now in the middle of retexturing my AI traffic back to DXT3, but as mentioned that will take a while. Hopefully this will lead to a sucess.

 

cheers

Mike

 

 

Not huge but multiplied by several hundred is a saving isn't it? Or will I waste my hours away for no real gain?

 

I hope it will be a saving. But I would say I'd have to multiply those few kb by several thousand  :Nail Biting: Oh man, I have a long way to go.....