In my new install of P3D 2.0, FTX Global and Norway landclass (no airports etc. yet) I again noticed what I noticed earlier on already: that clouds are very heavy on the system. And quite a bit out of proportion, I think.

 

I just finished a flight in Norway where fps wouldn't drop below 30. It was rock solid from start to finish. When I landed fps and parked fps was around 33. Great. Then I decided to change the weather a little: I had the default theme enabled which I think is fair weather. I have clouds distance at 80 (which is medium) and density at maximum. I ONLY changed the cloud coverage to overcast while standing still on my parking spot and fps immediately dropped to 25/26...!!!

 

That's a bit too much, if you ask me. No wonder I started to get OOMs when I used heavy weather for the first time. (I am not saying the weather itself caused the OOM but everything together flooded VAS at some point. I didn't get an OOM now.)

 

In FSX I have flown with very heavy OpusFSX weather and although I could maybe notice a little change in performance, it never was as bad as this! This reminds me of the problem ATI users have with clouds in FSX! Are you also experiencing this huge drop in performance when you get more clouds?

 

BTW I am still using default clouds right now. I will see tonight what happens when I use REX clouds (cumulus only).

In my new install of P3D 2.0,

 

Jeroen which texture resolution do you use ;-)

Edited December 4, 201312 yr by n4gix
Removed excessive quote!

Jeroen which texture resolution do you use ;-)

 

1024. With REX clouds I always even use 512!

1024. With REX clouds I always even use 512

 

I use default clouds and don't have the issue at the same resolution... with heavy Opus weather...

As for AA i don't use SSAA

I use default clouds and don't have the issue at the same resolution... with heavy Opus weather...

 

Okay, then I suppose my GPU (GTX580) is a limiting factor here: I see you have a GTX770. Maybe all the weather or at least the cloud rendering is done using the GPU...? Still, when being parked on the ground and doing nothing else, even a GTX580 shouldn't drop from 33 to 25 when you load overcast, I think.

 

Anyway, I know for sure now that I won't be flying with real time weather and only with 'light' default themes...!

Okay, then I suppose my GPU (GTX580) is a limiting factor here: I see you have a GTX770. Maybe all the weather or at least the cloud rendering is done using the GPU...? Still, when being parked on the ground and doing nothing else, even a GTX580 shouldn't drop from 33 to 25 when you load overcast, I think.

 

Jeroen was running yesterday a GTX 660TI 2gb which didn't had the issue also.

 

Maybe the reload messed things up, I personally would try again but then with default clouds and

the same theme to start with and see the results and go from there.

Actually VAS is almost he same as FSX in my case and settings.

Cloud density slider defaults to "medium"

 

Maybe maximum is too much in v2?

Cloud density slider defaults to "medium"

 

Maybe maximum is too much in v2?

I'm flying with maximum on a GeForce 780, so that cannot be stated categorically. I also find that as long as I do not have too much AA, the amount of cloud coverage does not affect my frame rate too much.

2

Cloud density slider defaults to "medium"

 

Maybe maximum is too much in v2?

 

Could be although I have the idea that 100% cloud coverage is 100% cloud coverage...? I know that some Medium settings in P3D are the equivalent of some Max settings in FSX but it would be a bit odd if this was also the case with clouds. And it would also be a bit odd if P3D can't handle full coverage (so you would always see some blue in the sky). I will have a look at of though, of course.

 

 

 

Maybe the reload messed things up, I personally would try again but then with default clouds and

 

the same theme to start with and see the results and go from there.

 

Yes, I will see what happens when I change things before flying. I already asked on the LM if clouds are now completely rendered by the GPU and if that could be the problem here.

 

 

In my new install of P3D 2.0

 

Jeroen, you mention 'new install'; I'm curious if this is this a re-install of P3Dv2?

 

I only ask because I've done a reinstall (3 of them actually, now) of P3Dv2, and my clouds are messed up, making the sim un-flyable to me if I care to use weather.  They do this strange rotate thing when I pan around, like they are completely 2d flat clouds, which they are not.  The volumetric fog is also not working correctly.

 

These issues only cropped up on a re-install; the first installation I had done was fine.

Could be although I have the idea that 100% cloud coverage is 100% cloud coverage...? I know that some Medium settings in P3D are the equivalent of some Max settings in FSX but it would be a bit odd if this was also the case with clouds. And it would also be a bit odd if P3D can't handle full coverage (so you would always see some blue in the sky). I will have a look at of though, of course.

 

 

 

 

Yes, I will see what happens when I change things before flying. I already asked on the LM if clouds are now completely rendered by the GPU and if that could be the problem here.

 

Well I run maximum cover and draw distance 70:-)

Jeroen, you mention 'new install'; I'm curious if this is this a re-install of P3Dv2?

 

I only ask because I've done a reinstall (3 of them actually, now) of P3Dv2, and my clouds are messed up, making the sim un-flyable to me if I care to use weather.  They do this strange rotate thing when I pan around, like they are completely 2d flat clouds, which they are not.  The volumetric fog is also not working correctly.

 

These issues only cropped up on a re-install; the first installation I had done was fine.

 

That doesn't sound too good...! Yes, it was a reinstall of P3D. I only noticed a rotating cloud this evening when I accidently moved my TrackIR the wrong way and looked straight up in the sky. But this would be very odd...! When I reinstalled I made sure all files were completely gone, also the shaders cache and the files in hidden folders.

 

I just tested what happened with a fresh flight, so before starting the engine or flying. Clouds at Few: 34 fps, clouds at Overcast 27 fps. That's still too much.

I also tested REX clouds (only cumulus) and even though the size of the REX file is around 350 Kb (the original cumulus being around 80 Kb) the results were the exact same.

 

Concerning changing the coverage to anything lower than Max: that's a no go for me. I tried it and as expected the sky looked a lot like Broken (which I also gave a try)! Obviously there wasn't an overast anymore. And in the end I of course want to be able to fly also with heavy real weather. Mind you, OpusFSX usually adds a lot more layers to the mix: I never had problems with that in FSX so I would like to also not have problems with it in P3D. ^_^

Test results. ^_^ With my fps limited at 34.

 

Few - 60 mi 34.1 fps - 70 mi 34.1 fps - 80 mi 34.1 fps - 110 mi 34.1 fps

Scattered clouds: exact same as few

Broken - 60 mi 28.4 fps - 70 mi 27.6 fps  80 mi 26.4 fs - 110 mi 25 fps

Overcast - 60 mi 25.1 fps - 70 mi 23.9 fps - 80 mi 22.9 fps - 110 mi 21.3 fps

 

So with Few and Scattered there is nothing to worry about. With Broken fps starts to drop and there is a difference of around 1 fps for every distance settings. Things get worse with Overcast.

 

Hopefully a new GPU will fix this. And all my other problems too. ^_^ As I said, for now I will only fly with light weather themes, that's for sure!

Test results. ^_^ With my fps limited at 34.

 

Few - 60 mi 34.1 fps - 70 mi 34.1 fps - 80 mi 34.1 fps - 110 mi 34.1 fps

Scattered clouds: exact same as few

Broken - 60 mi 28.4 fps - 70 mi 27.6 fps  80 mi 26.4 fs - 110 mi 25 fps

Overcast - 60 mi 25.1 fps - 70 mi 23.9 fps - 80 mi 22.9 fps - 110 mi 21.3 fps

 

So with Few and Scattered there is nothing to worry about. With Broken fps starts to drop and there is a difference of around 1 fps for every distance settings. Things get worse with Overcast.

 

Hopefully a new GPU will fix this. And all my other problems too. ^_^ As I said, for now I will only fly with light weather themes, that's for sure!

 

Interesting you could also test with this setting too Jeroen in the cfg file OPTIMIZE_DENSE_CLOUDS=0 to 1 just curious...

 

Also you cloud save the clouds as DXT5... now it's 32 bit very small file size but still.

 

 

That doesn't sound too good...! Yes, it was a reinstall of P3D. I only noticed a rotating cloud this evening when I accidently moved my TrackIR the wrong way and looked straight up in the sky. But this would be very odd...! When I reinstalled I made sure all files were completely gone, also the shaders cache and the files in hidden folders.

 

That's extremely interesting that you noticed a rotating cloud... That said, all my clouds were behaving like that.  Extremely disconcerting when panning around.

 

I had also done a complete clean, making sure the shaders cache and all the configuration files were all removed.

 

The only thing that had changed on my system was on my first install, I had a ATI 6970; on my subsequent installs it's a 780Ti.

 

My issue aside, I can tell you that with a powerful card, I don't get as much of a noticeable performance hit from clouds being at maximum density / distance.