Flightbeam's KIAD Dulles - Huge FPS Loss

[Kuragiman 227]

So I did my first YouTube video recording with FSX last night (haven't edited the footage yet) but I was very happy with the departure from FlyTampa's Chicago Midway.   I was pretty much pegged 25+ FPS while recording with FRAPS with full detail and heavy traffic.   The flight was smooth but things turned ugly as I got into the pattern to land at KIAD.  Slowly the FPS started to creep down from 30 pegged to 29, 28,27 and on and on until  I was on final with the airport in sight and the FPS dent down as low as 14 and stayed below 20 the entire time.   While it was not stuttering it was frame clicking for sure at that low level of FPS.  I turned off traffic while landing and only got back a whopping 4 FPS.   Something has to be wrong at this airport.  Does anyone else experience this level of drop in FPS in and around this airport?  I have all of Flightbeam's airports and this is the newest and also appears to be the worst performing.   It made for a disappointing ending to a two hour flight.

[z06z33 763]

Fraps eats fps for lunch

[David Vega 348]

 

Flightbeam's KIAD Dulles - Huge No FPS Loss

 

[Kuragiman 227]

Fraps eats fps for lunch

 

I am aware of FRAPS's overhead.   Did you not read the part about 30 FPS the entire flight WITH FRAPS on until KIAD loaded into view and it plunged to 14 and stayed there.   This is not FRAPS.   I don't think it's the airport either.   I think something didn't install right in the area.  I just wanted to make sure it wasn't the airport itself.   I thought it strange that the FPS should die so much when at KPHX, a much more complex airport, I get hardly any FPS loss at all.   It is so mentally exhausting having to fight with FSX every single day for a perfect flight.  :(  

[brucets 94]

It's not FRAPS!

[ctiger 49]

I just purchased KIAD last week and have been very pleased with the FPS using FRAPS. I do not have a power house like yours. I do not see any major drop in frames in taking off or landing. Locked at 30 I can squeeze out 15-20 fps (which is good for my setup). Most all settings passed middle except AI which is at 45%. I also use DX10 fixer and traffic 360. Of course I am unable to use a PMDG but a Lite JF A320 to maintain double digit frames.

[Mir // Flightbeam 541]

It's definitely abnormal that you get bad performance, KIAD typically performs better than KPHX and KSFO (in some instances)

Always make sure there are no duplicate AFCADs. Ray Smith's KIAD AFCAD has been download quite a bit before KIAD was released and it caused a lot of conflicts. Also MyTrafficX utilizes a custom KIAD AFCAD which must be disabled. 

After checking for conflicts, head over here and check out a few official tweaks you can perform to ease up on frames: http://flightbeam.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=742

The revised AFCAD tweak helps the most in terms of better performance.

 

Hope this helps!

[Kuragiman 227]

It's definitely abnormal that you get bad performance, KIAD typically performs better than KPHX and KSFO (in some instances)

Always make sure there are no duplicate AFCADs. Ray Smith's KIAD AFCAD has been download quite a bit before KIAD was released and it caused a lot of conflicts. Also MyTrafficX utilizes a custom KIAD AFCAD which must be disabled.

After checking for conflicts, head over here and check out a few official tweaks you can perform to ease up on frames: http://flightbeam.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=742

The revised AFCAD tweak helps the most in terms of better performance.

 

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the tips. As far as I know I don't have anything duplicat installed. I have only downloaded one freeware airport ever and only have a handful of payware airports. There is just something wrong overall with my performance. It seems like no matter what I try, something keeps holding my system back from the performance I think it should be delivering in FSX. I know a lot of videos on YouTube are compressed and not true representations of FSX performance but I am not even getting CLOSE to said videos. Sometimes it's smooth, sometimes it's terrible and I think I am having to make way to many sacrifices in terms of settings to get even the results I get. I will check out the link when I get home and can plug them into FSX.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

No problems here with KIAD. I run unlocked on a single screen system and get a steady 35 to 40 FPS with the T7 and NGX with UT2 AI set at 80%, but that is without and recording devices or unnecessary programs besides AS2012 running in the back ground.

 

I have tried running FRAPS in the past and experienced some major FPS hits when flying into complex airports, to the tune of 10 to 15 percent less FPS than normal. If you're running a multi screen setup the FPS hit could be larger.

 

I've read your struggles of performance issues over the past few weeks and really wonder whats going on with your system and or setup since you have a lot of issues with that powerful rig, comparrd to the lack of issues some of us have with less piwerful computers flying the same a/c or sceneries.

[Kuragiman 227]

No problems here with KIAD. I run unlocked on a single screen system and get a steady 35 to 40 FPS with the T7 and NGX with UT2 AI set at 80%, but that is without and recording devices or unnecessary programs besides AS2012 running in the back ground.

 

I have tried running FRAPS in the past and experienced some major FPS hits when flying into complex airports, to the tune of 10 to 15 percent less FPS than normal. If you're running a multi screen setup the FPS hit could be larger.

 

I've read your struggles of performance issues over the past few weeks and really wonder whats going on with your system and or setup since you have a lot of issues with that powerful rig, comparrd to the lack of issues some of us have with less piwerful computers flying the same a/c or sceneries.

 

I know.  It's getting frustrating.   I can't find a hardware problem.  Everything seems to be running great on every single game I own BUT FSX.   Even if I turn off all AA and crank AF down low the performance is not there.    I built this machine so I could do fancy FSX videos and fly all over the place with super graphics like I saw in all the videos but something isn't set.   In the 4 billion configurations that can be done, it's probably one simple thing I am missing in the sea of crap you can do to try and get performance, short of cheating and compressing the video time through Sony Vegas PRO.  

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

You could always blow up your install including your OS and start fresh using a comprehensive guide from NickN. This includes checking and installing all the current chipset drivers for you mobo, CPU, not necessarly the GPU though, tuning the OS for optimum performance as described in the guide and following the steps to the T, not skipping things. Then finally tuning FSX starting barebones without a lot of .cfg edits.

 

The only thing you might need to experiment with then is whether to use the 1/2 refresh vsync tweaks with FPS locked or run unlimited FPS. Nick will say that running unlocked may work better for you if running multi screens and complex planes and scenery witg lots of AI.

 

Aside from that or if you've already done all of the above them either something is not set correctly, your expectations are too high for the settings you want to run, especially if your running FRAPS.

 

If your aim is just to make videos you may need to set the sim to specific configs that work well for recording, meaning trimming certain settings for traffic, scenery complexity, or other FPS intensive settings that might not come into view for a video. Most video guys dont run all out for recording, they set certain features that will be what will be seen or focused on in a vid.

 

If you want to video witg settings cranked then you mighy need to defer to editing tricks like running slower speed to record then speeding up video play back.

 

There's no free lunch in FSX. You may need to make concessions to certain settings for the type of flying you do, or just not run FRAPS unless your making a special video that you're going to publish.

[Kuragiman 227]

I have actually got the entire system tweaked per Nick's guide.   Here's the funny thing.  Today I booted up and loaded directly to KIAD at Gate 50 on Concourse B where I stopped last night and setup a benchmark profile.   I loaded in several times in a row.    I loaded in with FRAPS's FPS counter going and the FPS at the gate today was 34 FPS instead of 19 every time I booted in.     Turning on AI traffic, drops that to about 29 FPS.   Now here is two things I am curious about:

 

1)  That FPS goes stable to 32-34 FPS but the second I move the mouse cursor on screen, the FPS drops to 25 FPS.  When I stop moving the mouse it goes back up to 32 FPS.    Why is moving the mouse causing a bloody 7 FPS loss?  @_@    I have EZDOK running in IDLE priority but I am not panning around the view.  I am just moving the mouse cursor on a static view and 7 FPS loss.  That is outrageous.  @_@   

 

2)  There is a white cursor in the upper left corner of my screen.   It has always been there.  Today, I grabbed it and found I could expanded it and move it around, like it's a cockpit gauge but it is just a white square with grid lines running through it.   What add-on has stuffed that box up in the corner?   If I just to Close it, the screen just blinks and the box returns.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

1. The mouse FPS loss is a known issue that affects other addons as well. There's no fix, just try to not use the mouse when you need more FPS. Assign stuff to your keyboard key or joystick so you dont need to use the mouse as much.

 

2. The little white square is there on purpose, dont fiddle with it. Forgot what purpose PMDG said it does, but its needed. If you fly the NGX for a few years like I have, you might get so used to it you wont even notice it any longer.

 

Now that yoy know about the mouse pointer FPS issue you can try avoiding using it when you need more FPS.

[Kuragiman 227]

And curiosity #3.   I turned on the Performance Manger and let it run on top while I worked in FSX...   Why are my 12 Cores banging away at a whopping 24% total usage?  @_@    That's it?   That's all FSX is using.. is 24% of an i7 4.6ghz 6-Core 12 Hyperthread Mega $500 processor? @_@  That can't be right.    I know I see a couple of the cores up around 90-100% but the overall usage is 25%.   That is either a misreporting by Windows 7 or FSX really needs to use more of my processor.

 

I just turned back on all 3 monitors.    32 FPS when staring ahead and not touching the mouse.     Touch the mouse, same drop to 25 FPS.  Turn on VoxATC traffic and it plunges down to 22 FPS when idle, and dips into the mid-teens when panning around.

 

Can I please get... more processor use so it can handle all these extra AI planes running around?     That is with AI traffic set to 40% in the VoxATC slider (Which translates too FILL THE ENTIRE AIRPORT UP WITH TRAFFIC!   XD ).

[ZKOKQ 984]

 

 

Can I please get... more processor use so it can handle all these extra AI planes running around? That is with AI traffic set to 40% in the VoxATC slider (Which translates too FILL THE ENTIRE AIRPORT UP WITH TRAFFIC! XD ).

I thought it was suggested to you in another thread about ATC, that VOX ATC is hammering your CPU ?

 

That is the reason I prefer addons like weather and ATC to run via network.

 

What happens when Vox is not running ?

 

And as Jim posted above, don't touch the white box