I've noticed some aircraft (Turbine Duke is one) tend to accentuate the deleterious effect the presence of a visible mouse pointer on the screen can have on frame rate.  I'll frequently see 10-17% or so reduction in frame rate during the 5 seconds or so the pointer remains visible after I've stopped moving it.  Both of my last complete builds manifest this behavior.  Here is a comment that supports this indeed happens, from the author of the recent article regarding Benchmarking FSX/P3D:

 

Benchmarking Procedure

 

After starting FSX, open the FRAPS interface, and check for the yellow framerate display in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, as seen in the image below. Next, click your mouse on the FSX screen to bring FSX into focus, wait about five seconds for the mouse cursor to disappear. If it doesn’t, framerate will be reduced slightly during the test flights. In this case, close and reopen the test flight, after which the mouse cursor should disappear.

 

My question is:  is there a parameter in FSX that controls the period the mouse pointer remains visible, so that it could be reduced for example to a lower value, or better yet, 0 seconds, to hopefully eliminate this unfortunate behavior?  I think it's highly relevant for at least some aircraft because as I say 10-17% is meaningful.

 

Thanks in advance!

Good Question :good:

It's noticeable in the NGX as well.

If someone finds a way to shorten the pointer fade time, that would be great.

One would have to scavenge the SDK, if there was a parameter to shorten the time. Be great if you could set a remark in the FSX cfg to achieve this.

In NGX you can put mouse pointer in top left corner of the screen, this will have same and instant effect like when pointer disappear, so you don't need to wait for fps increase. There is also FSUIPC feature to hide pointer, bit i didn't tried this and i don't know how is.

 

I read that problem with pointer is something too difficult to solve for developers, but this can help

I made a habit of dragging the mouse to the topright of the screen... It shortens the time you have to wait until performance is normal again. But I would also love to see another kind of solution for this!

My solution is mainly to click on a static part of the VC cockpit; mouse pointer seems to have most deleterious effect when it's hovering over the display areas depicting the outside view, or running any kind of animation (gauges) inside.

 

I've been familiar with this phenomenon since FS on Win98..... Or was it '95...... Sigh.

 

 

I've been familiar with this phenomenon since FS on Win98..... Or was it '95...... Sigh.

 

Can't believe this issue has been around that long.  I can't fly the iFly 737 for this very reason.  The impact on fps on the iFly is huge compared to others like PMDG MD-11 where I don't even notice it..

My solution is mainly to click on a static part of the VC cockpit

 

I mentioned this same issue quite a while back suggesting if someone knew of a way to create a layer between the mouse pointer and other parts of the VC--something that essentially was a shadow below the mouse pointer and therefore would be 100% obscured by the pointer.   I thought of this because any popup does the same thing.  If you click on any popup window then place the pointer on it the issue is negated.  When you think about how many $$ people will spend to see this kind of improvement it is a wonder it hasn't been addressed yet.

 

 

There is also FSUIPC feature to hide pointer, bit i didn't tried this and i don't know how is.

 

Wow, let's hope so!  Thanks I'll check it out when I get home on Sunday.

I mentioned this same issue quite a while back suggesting if someone knew of a way to create a layer between the mouse pointer and other parts of the VC--something that essentially was a shadow below the mouse pointer and therefore would be 100% obscured by the pointer. I thought of this because any popup does the same thing. If you click on any popup window then place the pointer on it the issue is negated. When you think about how many $$ people will spend to see this kind of improvement it is a wonder it hasn't been addressed yet.

 

 

Wow, let's hope so! Thanks I'll check it out when I get home on Sunday.

I may be wrong but I think this is a side-effect of the way Windows has worked intrinsically since its inception - i.e. fundamental in its architecture.

 

MS would have to break completely with this fundamental to solve it, and other similar issues.

 

Which I don't think will ever happen.

 

Whether there are hack workarounds that help, I'm not informed enough to say.

i know i read somewhere about this, no too much hope that will ever be fixed in FSX

I would like the opposite; I would like to have the cursor on permanently. My frame rates drop by a significant amount when I have a FS9 native aircraft in FSX and the cursor disappears.

Run in windowed mode?

 

Does this also happen in DX10?

 

 

Whether there are hack workarounds that help, I'm not informed enough to say.

 

If you park the mouse pointer over a popup window of any kind, for example the ATC window, or EFIS or any popup, the detrimental impact on frame rate instantly ceases, as is the case when the mouse pointer disappears after the preset time interval.  All one would need to do is create what amounts to a popup windows whose dimension is the same as the mouse pointer, so that the mouse pointer itself would sit on top of it in the z order and obscure it, simulating what happens when one parks the mouse pointer over a popup.  I guess the trick too would be programming to get the pop up to glue itself to underneath of the mouse pointer.

 

 

All one would need to do is create what amounts to a popup windows whose dimension is the same as the mouse pointer, so that the mouse pointer itself would sit on top of it in the z order and obscure it, simulating what happens when one parks the mouse pointer over a popup. I guess the trick too would be programming to get the pop up to glue itself to underneath of the mouse pointer.

 

But then, wouldn't that render the mouse as inoperable, at least in terms of interacting with the VC?

 

Interesting, I've brought this up in the past, and it seemed like I was the only one who had performance issues when the cursor was visible.  I guess not. :lol:

 

For me, it most definitely happens to a greater extent on certain planes; some planes there's barely an impact, while in others it very huge - 25%-35% of my framerate.  At least, I'm able to quickly slide the mouse onto one of the other monitors.  I also find too that the cursor disappears really quickly on my touchscreen monitor.