Interesting Performance Find (VAS and FPS)

[777simmer 117]

I was also adviced that in order to use bufferpools=0 you also need to set the water at x2 High. (to avoid artifacts like flashes).

 

And water high x2 adds quite an additionale load (additional shader pass)

 

So to get the same effect but without having to set water x2 High you can try this:

[bUFFERPOOLS]

UsePools=1

Poolsize=8388608

RejectThreshold=262144

 

I am just passing things on from my notes here, I dont even know what all these setting do to our hardware.....just thought I would share.

[DAL1850 51]

p.s. for guys with high lod radius settings - i can't remember exactly how high you can go, but keep in mind that above certain value FSX will actualy use default value. But you can keep that high settings if you feel better that way :lol:  

 

I thought I read somewhere that max was 9.0 (which is insane). I only started messing with this parameter after installing my first set of photoscenery and it made a very notable difference in the quality of the terrain rendering. But you pay for this exponentially (memory) with every tick above 4.5. A setting in the 6's or 7's looks amazing but puts a significant strain on VAS (especially if you're working with 4K scenery textures) and added load on the graphics bus. I do not recommend changing this for anyone with < 4 GB of memory, running 32-bit Windows, or a weak CPU/GPU. You would likely not notice a difference with this setting if you use stock ground or low-res third-party scenery and/or have your max visibility capped to 60 nm or less.

 

Some of the newer "launchers" allow this value to be tweaked at startup time so you can vary this value based on the aircraft complexity, location (photoreal or not), and conditions of your flight (as some have done). I have not been able to run a high LOD with the PMDG planes *and* 4K textures without an eventual OOM. I either have to cap the textures to 1K or 2K, and/or limit the LOD radius to 6.5 or lower.

 

HD clouds are also a frame killer too (especially on ATI). I've moved away from those entirely; I haven't missed them.

[wanabflyer 53]

I have given up on the BP=0 tweak. No matter what I did, even with my water set at 2x high, I could not eliminate artifacts. I have now been using the RT tweak and kept the value reasonably low. This way I seem to have achieved roughly the same effect as BP=0 but without the artifacts.

 

Regards,

[Fatback 84]

Which is the setting that "pops" scenery faster to the screen? As in if I'm switching from external to cockpit view what setting is that will allow the cockpit graphics to load faster. And what is the tradeoff, fps? 

[DAL1850 51]

Which is the setting that "pops" scenery faster to the screen? As in if I'm switching from external to cockpit view what setting is that will allow the cockpit graphics to load faster. And what is the tradeoff, fps? 

 

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT

 

The default is 40. Mid-range systems can get away with 80. I would not go higher than 120 on a higher end system. Do NOT use 400 as was recommended in FS9.

 

This can be kind of a sketchy field to mess around with (I've not seen it increase performance but I'm sure the wrong setting can probably decrease it) but it does help with the terrain texture load times as you're panning around. If you overdo it and apply too high a value you'll get artifacting and all manner of texturing badness (and possibly a crash).

[Fatback 84]

I have mine set to 120 and FFTF is 0.20 but I'm still getting slow texture load times switching from VC to external and back again. FFTE doesn't affect it? 

[Boeing or not going 578]

I don't mess with TBM anymore. I keep it at 40. It makes the sim much more stable. Instead I added a line right below that line that was found by Bjote. TextureMaxLoad=30

 

Much faster texture loading with that addition.

[DAL1850 51]

I have mine set to 120 and FFTF is 0.20 but I'm still getting slow texture load times switching from VC to external and back again. FFTE doesn't affect it? 

 

It can. There's certainly more than one reason texture load times could be slow - so not every knob and lever affecting terrain texturing will make a difference. FFTF will throttle how what percentage of the update loop is given to rendering vs simulation (a larger number gives more cycles to the renderer). 0.20 is modestly aggressive. If you set it back to 0.33 (default) does the load time improve? You could also try reducing your TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD to 1024 if it's set to something large like 4096.

 

 

I don't mess with TBM anymore. I keep it at 40. It makes the sim much more stable. Instead I added a line right below that line that was found by Bjote. TextureMaxLoad=30

 

Much faster texture loading with that addition.

 

Gonna have to try that. My TBM is currently 120 and TML 6 (I have no recollection as to why this is set to 6).

 

EDIT: This post...

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/281312-texturemaxload-vs-texture-max-load/

 

...suggests that TML and TBM are multiplied together so it's really their product that is significant than their individual values. This post...

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/fsx-tweaks-demystified_topic37948.html

 

...suggests something similar but recommends leaving TML at 6 (the default) and futzing with the TBM instead. I suppose it all amounts to the same at the end of the day if the formula above can be believed. The post strikes me as a little misinformed because the formula references the graphic adapter's DDR memory bandwidth and multiplying by a magic constant, but they're inserting the GPU's memory clock speed (1100Mhz instead of the bandwidth which is 70.4 GB/s) instead and basing all their figures on that.

 

Personally, I don't really put much stock in these magic formulas...i just bumped the numbers until the drop outs went away or artifacting occurred. Will try the 40/30 combo just for giggles though!

 

UPDATE: I tried a variety of combinations and could not identify any advantages. The only time I experienced a problem is when either of these value was set too low (then drop outs occur), but 40/30, 120/10, 80/15, even 120/30 all performed (subjectively) equally for me. I think this is a case of, "If the pipe is big enough, making a fatter pipe will not guarantee faster running water." (especially when the amount of water is finite).

 

If you trust the formula Bojote posted, then 120/6 with worst case of 4Kx4K 32-bit textures results in a pipe that allows 1.5GB per frame, or 45GB/s @ 30fps. This easily fits well within most modern graphics cards capabilities (my 6870HD will handle 150GB/s). I seriously doubt that FS is pushing anywhere near this much data per frame, though, so my 120/6 and your 40/30 are likely way beyond adequate. This is probably a gross over-simplification, but interesting stuff just the same.

[martin-w 3,234]

I never claimed or advertised anything here was "new"...only that I changed my settings with favorable results and I thought to share *what worked for me* on the off chance others might benefit by checking their own configuration against their hardware/software setup.

 

On this note, I'm really surprised by some of the snarky snobbery in this thread. I thought it was maybe the altitude causing all the nose bleeds, but now I'm starting to see that there are just an abundance of noses that are just high up in the clouds.

 

If you have something objective to contribute, contribute, otherwise go soak your head. Check the attitude with a flight attendant.

 

 

I had no wish to offend you. Think you may have misunderstood. I just interpreted your post as something you had discovered and were offering to the community. No criticism or snobbery intended.

 

 

Oh, to live in the land of frame rates locked at 60fps! Is that with the T7? That's amazing when you consider 8 years ago we were all moaning about how we would ever squeeze 20 or 25 fps with stock aircraft and no blurries. My Alienware is already a dinosaur lol.

 

It's possible for me because I have a powerful PC, and importantly, I avoid hyper detailed add-on airports. I also have sliders high enough to be acceptable in terms of eye candy, but low enough to provide high frame rate.

 

I run with GEX, UTX and REX. I don't bother with high def clouds as I find them unrealistic.

 

3770K at 4.4.

GTX 580

[Christopher Low 5,332]

I can't understand why some guys are getting visibly blurry terrain textures with a LOD radius set to 4.5. The only time that I see blurry textures in my UK photoscenery is when I switch to Tower View (or zoom out from the cockpit). So long as I stay inside the VC at normal zoom levels, the terrain textures look perfectly fine.

 

Maybe it's because some of you guys have HUGE monitors? I run FSX at 1280x1024x32bit resolution on a 19" TFT monitor.

[martin-w 3,234]

 

And water high x2 adds quite an additionale load (additional shader pass)

 

 

 

I discovered some time ago, that setting Nvidia Inspector to application controlled AF, increased frame rate dramatically over REX water. I posted about this on the REX forum back in Feb 2012...

 

http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/forums/index.php?/topic/15731-rex-water-frame-rate-loss-fix/

 

Since then, REX have included the DXT1 compression option for wave animations. Still helps to set application controlled though myself and others find.

I can't understand why some guys are getting visibly blurry terrain textures with a LOD radius set to 4.5. The only time that I see blurry textures in my UK photoscenery is when I switch to Tower View (or zoom out from the cockpit). So long as I stay inside the VC at normal zoom levels, the terrain textures look perfectly fine.

 

Maybe it's because some of you guys have HUGE monitors? I run FSX at 1280x1024x32bit resolution on a 19" TFT monitor.

 

I have lod at FSX default, I never see any blurries.

[777simmer 117]

Mmmm interesting. Is DXT1 compression used per default now, or do I have to do something in REX to make use of that?

(I have not noticed frames loss over REX water, but have not realy concentrated on that either. I will take a look)

 

As for LOD. I allways use default 4.5 LOD

When I fly high I definately see a circle around the aircraft where scenery is sharp and outside of this circle things are blurry. I think this is normal and I do not have a problem with it. Increasing LOD should increase that circle of sharpness but when I am in FL380 I dont care about so much that I am willing to suffer OOMS over it.

 

When I fly low I think I have the same circle of sharpness, but because you can not look as far when you are low anyway I see no need to increase the LOD here either.

 

What I was told is, that increasing LOD is exspecially nice if you fly in mountanuous areas where that mountain range you are flying along might look blurry with LOD 4.5 but looks nice and sharp with LOD 6.5

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Ah, so the problem is more to do with blurry textures visible from high altitude? I never fly above 5000 feet, so maybe I just haven't noticed this before?

[777simmer 117]

Well, that is my experience yes.

 

I mean I do see a circle of sharpness in 5000ft as well, but the blurry textures start well ahead of my airplane.

Would be nice if it was sharp everywhere?

Sure, but I does not not bother me to the point of wanting to risk OOMs.

 

When in FL380 this same circle of sharpness (if looked upon the aircraft from the outside) seems to be just below the aircraft (visual illusion because of being so high....the LOD circle is still the same size). It gets blurry beyond that circle quick but I dont care.

Would it be nice if......yes.....but OOMs

[martin-w 3,234]

Mmmm interesting. Is DXT1 compression used per default now, or do I have to do something in REX to make use of that?

(I have not noticed frames loss over REX water, but have not realy concentrated on that either. I will take a look)

 

 

 

It's in the options manager page. Right hand side under optimization. At the bottom. Wave animation.

 

You may already have it set. If you do notice any frame rate loss over water, do try AF at application controlled Rob. It should get rid of it completely.

As for LOD. I allways use default 4.5 LOD

When I fly high I definately see a circle around the aircraft where scenery is sharp and outside of this circle things are blurry. I think this is normal and I do not have a problem with

 

 

 

Yes, that's to be expected. When people refer to blurries, I usually interpret that as slow texture loading, rather than less visibility at distance. Having a default visibility limit is no issue for me at all. Don't really know why some require more.