\

 

Correct. It is always good practice to install any demanding software to a separate drive from the one that has the system OS. But for purposes of "good housekeeping", it still makes sense to maintain the "<drive letter>:/Program Files (x86)" naming convention. Creating numerous folders directly off of the drive's root folder, just makes it harder to figure out later where the various apps are installed. 

 

 

I totally agree, what I always do when installing an application such as P3D is to simply replace the C with an F in my case but I'll always keep the original path.

Sorry some of you guys having problems don't want to here this. But look elsewhere for what's causing the issues. It is not P3DV2.1

I have been playing around with it for a couple of days now and it is stable as all hell. Forgot to mention earlier that I also

installed REX Essentials Textures so I'll ad that to my addons list:

 

Addons list:

 

FSUIPC 4.292 = works with no issues I can see

EagleRotors 206B = Works with no issues I can see

FTX Global Iceland demo = Works but I have to have another look at that!

 

Just to see for myself I ran it in windowed mode will all setting maxed out.

Only aircraft labels and Bathymetry left unchecked.

 

With HT off the Performance tab in task manager showed the first core barely used and the

last 3 hard against 100% half the time and hovering around 70 to 80% the rest of the time.

Memory usage showed 4GB+ all the time and I got an OOM at 4.8GB about 15 mins into the flight.

 

The GPU usage in MSI afterburner was 100% all the time. Forgot to look at the Video RAM usage :(

 

So it seems to me that P3DV2.1 is taking full advantage of the hardware.

 

during this test flight the issues where that TrackIR lagged abit.

 

There where intermittent stutters. The FPS in the VC was in the teen's

However FPS in the external view fluctuated a lot but was persistently hitting 50 and 60FPS.

 

I think SLI is going to be awesome.

 

I am sold but the real test is the addons :lol:

 

Granted I am running it on I7 4770K

 

 

but with unlimited fps get 40 to 80 fps except at large airports like kiad, kbwi, kdca, drops to 18 t0 24. This tells me that the stutter are not being caused by low fps but something else . Have not installed any global textures or other, just the sim.

 

This is the point. Regardless of all the nice looking graphical features, 18 to 24 fps at a busy airport with a plain vanilla install on high end hardware (GTX 780) is ridiculous! And it even gets more ridiculous when you look at GPU and CPU utilization. What's so difficult to understand about it? It has nothing to do with insane settings or whatsoever. Most people here are so excited about P3D2 that they don't see the facts. Sorry to be bold. I also love the look of P3D but right now it is just not working properly...

This is the point. Regardless of all the nice looking graphical features, 18 to 24 fps at a busy airport with a plain vanilla install on high end hardware (GTX 780) is ridiculous! And it even gets more ridiculous when you look at GPU and CPU utilization. What's so difficult to understand about it? It has nothing to do with insane settings or whatsoever. Most people here are so excited about P3D2 that they don't see the facts. Sorry to be bold. I also love the look of P3D but right now it is just not working properly...

So, what is the point of using ANY flight sim then? Benchmark framerates? See how much CPU/GPU you can use? Excuse me but I always thought the idea was to enjoy smooth flight, beautiful stutter free graphics and just plain flying.

 

Sorry but if I have all that, and I do, what the heck do I need to worry about 24fps or 35% utilization. SMOOTH is SMOOTH - there is ABSOLUTELY no difference between SMOOTH at 20fps and smooth at 60fps.

 

Stop chasing numbers and start flying - you'll have a helluva lot more fun.

 

Vic

I turned off the Vector road lights back in the V2.0 because it was a huge VAS consumer.  V2.1 seems to be more sensitive to not being able to maintain a certain frame rate and like I said in my settings post, some key setting will introduce stutters.

 

But it will be a compromise in V2.1 just as it was in V2.0.  I'm curious about the possible SLi support, hopefully now that they submitted to nVidia we'll get a specific driver profile for it.

 

 

 

 

 

I can say that Vector Road Lights was the problem for my constant stutter too. Disabled it and now I have some smooth flying.

 

I think Orbx need to update their software for P3D 2.1.

So, what is the point of using ANY flight sim then? Benchmark framerates? See how much CPU/GPU you can use? Excuse me but I always thought the idea was to enjoy smooth flight, beautiful stutter free graphics and just plain flying.

 

Sorry but if I have all that, and I do, what the heck do I need to worry about 24fps or 35% utilization. SMOOTH is SMOOTH - there is ABSOLUTELY no difference between SMOOTH at 20fps and smooth at 60fps.

 

Stop chasing numbers and start flying - you'll have a helluva lot more fun.

 

Vic

 

But my P3D is not smooth with less than 20 fps (but it is very smooth with more than 30 fps). If you have a smooth flying experience with less than 20 fps than you must have a different biological eye than I have. Mine can see 24 pictures a second and when it's less than it just doesn't look smooth. Nevertheless, I'm happy to see that most of you enjoy a simulator in beta stage. So you can use P3D and I most likely will go back to FSX and try the DX10 fixer until LM has sorted out all those problems. It's easy, isn't it? :smile:

SMOOTH at 20fps

 

I have never, in 30yrs of this, seen a "smooth" 20fps with any brand of FS. Sure, smooth at 2fps would be just fine.

But for purposes of "good housekeeping", it still makes sense to maintain the ":/Program Files (x86)" naming convention. Creating numerous folders directly off of the drive's root folder, just makes it harder to figure out later where the various apps are installed.

 

 

This is what I do, and have not had issue with this approach... it makes installing some multiple packages like the 8 vols of Horizon easy as I just change the drive letter during setup. In the past I had some right messes if I was slack or not paying attention when installing... I even managed to place the core files of one package at the drive root, which was a right mess :blush:

 

A file named Program Files (x86) does not make it a system file, its just pretending to be, so has none of the implications of using the C: Program Files folders, if there are any.

 

As for frame rates, I cannot consider 20fps or less smooth, even if its consistent... it looks and feels choppy, and breaks immersions. 30fps is fine, but I would like to have 60fps as that does look and feel truly smooth. If people can tolerate 20fps, then fine, but it does not appeal to me.

For solving the issue in the QW BAe-300 in P3D v2.1 with wheels submerged in the runway, change the following contact points in each  BAe aircraft.cfg:

 

Under [contact points]:

 

point.0: where is -8.45 change to -8.95 

 

point.1 and point.2: where is -8.65 change to -10.05

 

Please back up first the aircraft.cfg! This is  for the BAe-300 but it should also work for the other models and the Avro (didn't test)  because  they all have the same contact points.

I have never, in 30yrs of this, seen a "smooth" 20fps with any brand of FS. Sure, smooth at 2fps would be just fine.

I had my original P3D2 set at 20fps and it was smooth as glass. Set it to 30 and it was still smooth as glass - set it back and that's where it stays. I leave the FPS counter off so it could actually be lower - I really don't give a hoot about FPS *UNLESS* I am testing OR I run into a problem.

 

Guess I am one of the lucky ones but this is the 4th system I've built for FSX and then P3D and I've been *lucky* on all of them.

 

As I said - folks should stop looking at FPS and measure their enjoyment by the flight experience.

 

I am always amazed, and after all these years I should not be, by the number of "my fps dropped to.... or my fps went up to...." posts that prevail after a product release.

 

Vic

Most people here are so excited about P3D2 that they don't see the facts.

 

I see the facts and I accept them and it's not really a problem for me ... perhaps it's your expectation that's the issue?

 

Do you recall when Crysis came out (the first version) ... on my high end system (for back then) with SLi setup I got 5-6 fps on high detail settings and 2-3 fps on maximum detail settings ... I had to turn the setting down considerably to get stutter free playable frame rates.  Keep in mind Crysis is a relatively closed world restricted to very small regions (one at a time).

 

You also need to keep in mind that not all airports are the same - for example, FB's KSFO vs Aerosoft's Thessaloniki (which actually covers more area and has more detail than FB's KSFO) ... both highly detailed airports, Thessaloniki has no FPS impact and is very good with VAS, FB's KSFO has very high VAS usage and significant FPS impact.  Thessaloniki was design for P3DV2.x, FB's KSFO was not.  The very real process is that we're going to need 3rd party to decide if they want full commitment to P3DV2.x (beyond just installer changes) ... clearly some (not all) 3rd party are trying to leverage an older process and hoping it works well enough in P3DV2.x.  Nothing wrong with this approach, it gives 3rd party the time to catch up and understand some of the difference between FSX and P3DV2.x DX11.  If Thessaloniki is an example of what can be accomplished if one targets P3DV2.x, then the future looks very good to me.

But my P3D is not smooth with less than 20 fps (but it is very smooth with more than 30 fps). If you have a smooth flying experience with less than 20 fps than you must have a different biological eye than I have. Mine can see 24 pictures a second and when it's less than it just doesn't look smooth. Nevertheless, I'm happy to see that most of you enjoy a simulator in beta stage. So you can use P3D and I most likely will go back to FSX and try the DX10 fixer until LM has sorted out all those problems. It's easy, isn't it? :smile:

Then I respectfully suggest you look to YOUR system and setup to find the cause rather than just blame P3D. If EVERYONE had the same issue - I would agree with you totally - but since there are a great many who do NOT have these issues - it's in your lap.

 

But, rather than get frustrated - stay with FSX and enjoy your flights! That's the final test. Easy, isn't it?

 

Vic

I felt I might have been a bit too pessimistic in my last couple of posts without actually trying this new version out myself so...I started by making a complete system image backup of my PC to make sure whatever I do will be reversible and I then installed P3Dv2.1 using the full installer. These are my finding:

 

- the installation went without any issues and completed in about 5 minutes (probably this quick because it was a clean install and it was installed to a SSD disk)

 

- the IQ without changing anything and without touching NI was far better compared to v 2.0 as I recall it

 

- both the performance (smoothness) and FPS were amazing, the FPS in the v/c using the default startup situation was approx 120 FPS and after takeoff circling the airport and it's surroundings FPS dropped a bit but never went lower than approx 85 FPS

 

- TrackIR5 worked perfectly fine "out-of-the-box" without doing any changes what so ever

 

- tried what others have reported how the right mouse button will exit P3D, in my case this did not happen but instead the normal menu where you change views etc popped up just like in FSX

 

- no matter how much I was changing views, going in and out of the menus etc I couldn't force a crasch

 

This was only a very, very quick test and to sum it all up I would say that doing a clean install and using the default settings the new version at least in my case seems to be very stable. What I was also very positively surprised by was how good things looks with the default settings. Very hard to put my finger on it but it just "feels" so much more real than FSX. I guess it's a combination of the incredible smoothness, the shadows and the HDR feature.

 

However what I've said previously still is true, until you're able to use your favorite addons in P3D without any issues you won't be able to enjoy it for anything else than enjoying the positive things I've listed above.

 

This might very well be enough for some but not for others. I do all my normal flying online on VATSIM flying to complex payware addon airports using a complex a/c such as the NGX in real weather provided by ASN using FTXG for ground textures, FS Global Ultimate for mesh etc etc so in my case I still think P3D will have to wait until I know all these addons work correctly but at least now I know I have something really nice waiting for me as soon as all addons I use catch up!!

Crap, I just got the memory error popup. I was on AP @ 3000 ft with a little bit of left rudder plugged in so I could do a circle around KSEA area. I left for about 30 minutes, came back and had the message. I fired up the same saved flight and GPU-Z and I was only using 1.5gb of the 4gb available on the card. I have 8gig of system memory but CPU-Z does not show useage.  Someone posted the same issue in this thread and he had stated that it was VAS. Not sure what that means. Is that GPU mem?

 

What tool can I use to monitor system memory?

 

Bob

 

 

The mipmapped VC issue has apparently been fixed by LM in 2.1.

 

Mipmapped VC isn't working for the Q400, but does work on some other Aircraft ... seems to be aircraft dependent.