Hi all,

 

It started again. My FSX tweaking... I did switch to DX10 some months ago and I absolutely want to stay with it. But somehow, I did still find not the sweet spot of settings and FSX.cfg tuning for my rig. While I desperately try to stick to the rule of adding as little as possible to my FSX.cfg, I continue to test several things when reading them in one of the FS forums. Yesterday, as an example: increase the FFTF value. While FSX has 0.33 as standard, I usually run my sim with 0.12, resulting in increased FPS. However, I realized that if I increase the LOD_RADIUS to 8.5 (which is basically the only acceptable value if using Switzerland Professional X...), it is a matter of fact that with a fast plane (250kts +), the blurries start very soon. Now I tried to increase FFTF to 0.5 and as expected, even when flying low level with 400kts, no blurries at all. However, close to a bigger airport, the FPS drop like hell. Why is that? Why does a setting which obviously affects texture reloading and drawing distance result in a huge FPS loss on major airports but almost no FPS loss outside such areas? I do not know.

 

Second observation: simply reducing the LOD_RADIUS from 8.5 to 7.5 resulted in a remarkable FPS increase at the same airport mentioned above, even with a FFTF value of 0.5. BUT: Flying around with this setting results in comparable low FPS numbers as before, with LOD_RADIUS 8.5, if some time passes by. This is another strange observation I can not explain. To be precise: flying from EDDH to LSZH with the TDS 737 in the VC results in a FPS number at around 10-12 when arriving in Zurich. Landing, taxiing to the gate and save the flight, reboot FSX and there we go, instead of 10-12 FPS, I get almost 20FPS again. Same time, visually the same AI Planes around and using FSX standard wheather theme. Strange...

 

Third: unlimited or limited FPS. I still don't get it. Could please someone clarify again, which FSX.cfg settings are only functional if the FPS are limited and which are not? I have absolutely not reproducable results playing around with this setting: sometimes, my FPS increase in a specific situation when switching from limited to unlimited, sometimes they do not.

 

Verdict: I am lost again. Maybe I should take a step back and delete my FSX.cfg to start from scratch again? What do you think?

 

My actual FSX.cfg tweaks:

 

HIGHMEMFIX=1

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.5

Texture_Bandwith_Mult=215

Pools=0

LOD_RADIUS=7.5

SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=10

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=33

 

everything else is on default and nVidia Inspector settings are as recommended elsewhere here in the forums. I do not touch those for tweaking, as it delivers the best antialiasing and anisotropic filtering I can have.

 

Rig: [email protected], 2x4GB DDR3 2133MHz CL9 RAM, EVGA GTX-780 SC ACX (@1120MHz), Samsung SSD 840 Pro 128GB system disk, Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB FSX disk

Hi AnkH;

You've drifted away from the settings that have been tested and tested again by many knowledgeable members here, over the last 18 months. They're not just my settings, AnkH, and you're trying settings that are technically quite wrong - example "While I desperately try to stick to the rule of adding as little as possible to my FSX.cfg" . This is blatant rubbish. Changeable program and operating system parameters are included in almost every single commercial application and operating system in order that databases, disc writes, filesystem optimization will make the running system as efficient as is possible. Just because they're not included in the fsx.cfg by default - doesn't mean they're not necessary or important. FSX is no different. The thing to remember, too - is we are now running DX10 - and that makes for a whole new ballgame. Forget about DX9 settings - only some still apply.

 

So - let's see if we can fix your problem!

As the How-to guide changes from time-to-time, my strong suggestion would be to re-download it, and read it again - cover-to-cover - particularly the second-to-last paragraph. Then you can delete your fsx.cfg - as you said in your post - it's a good idea, then follow the guide- step-by-step. Don't keep "guessing" and "trying this or that". You need to educate yourself and stop following other people who are also guessing.

As we all see every day - there are success stories on this and other forums, and there are failure stories. Those the fail are not following what Steve, myself, cvearl, ncooper, Jose, Tangerine, Patrick Doherty, Andrew, jcomm, DellyPilot, Ron Atwood, Julian Evans, and a host - way too many to list here - of other guys, do and have done over that 18 months. I try to track the successes and the failures, too, and in almost every case - the failure is doing something, or trying something which is outside the scope, or not in accordance with the How-To" guide. Educate yourself. Read up on AA from posts by graphics prgrammers, teachers, Nvidia/AMD engineers - Steve also. Read up on frame killers. Read up on BufferPools. Read up on the sites which lay out the differences between Direct3d 9 and Direct3d 10 - even the Wiki's will give you good information. ok!

 

I put a note in above "the second-to-last paragraph" because you have said "Inspector settings are as recommended elsewhere here in the forums"... AnkH - there are hundreds of recommendations made "here on the forums"... it's meaningless.

We can only help you if you help us - ok?   :wink:

 

All the Best,

 

pj

That is as close to a rollicking from the usually placid and easy going Paul J as I have EVER seen!  So be told Ankh,(The key of life eh?) or you'll go up in a puff of Chipmunk exhaust fumes! B)

:lol:   Hi Ron (I modded the post to include you as anyou are now officially "successful")

 

Thanks for the humour!

 

Getting FSX to run the way we want is a serious subject, though: I'm not rollicking AnkH or anyone in particular - one has only to have followed Nick Needham's career through his documention on the "simforums.com, or similarly - more recently - Word Not Allowed's contributions here, and Jim Young's/Avsim's efforts - all intended to provide some help and guidance for the folks whole don't have the same level of computer expertise. There is so much to learn, and so much written about FSX and "how to make it perfect", that the average person is rarely able to sort out the wheat from the chaff. I would say we've all been in AnkH's position at one time or other - and have got past it, as I'm sure he will. It's a learning process.

 

We are very fortunate - in our DX10 world, firstly, because we have good blogged technical details, with documented examples for evidence from the guy who started it all - Steve Parsons. This is the basis of the "How-To" guide, and it could not have been created by me without that blog. Secondly - we are in an era wherin our hardware and our documented knowledge of that hardware - is advanced to the degree where FSX can be setup to run quite smoothly and with the high level of detail which can meet most simmer's expectations.

The challenge we face - the hardest part, however - is how to transfer that knowledgebase into the brains of those simmers who don't posses that "computer expertise", and find it overwhelming. That is the aim of the "How-To" guide, and it's the only DX10 doc that we have - that will get a user up and running in the shortest tiime possible.

It, and some of the other docs - need to be read - and understood in order to avoid issues like the one AnkH is now having. Hopefully, he doesn't see this as a "rollicking", and that he does what I've recommended. I would much rather he be a member of the "success" story group!

 

Anyway - thanks again for the humour, Ron,

 

All the Best,

 

pj

 

(ARME, RAF, Retd..)  B) :lol:

Thanks Paul for those clarifying words. Let me put some things straight first: I am using M$ flightsims now alread for many years and I always try to get the best out of it. So I blame myself of being quiet experienced in tuning and tweaking FS(X). Thanks to guys like you and all the ones you mentioned, I can continue my learning process and try the things on my build to see how well it goes.

 

Maybe another problem of mine is: to high expectations. Actually, I am really thinking of having two independent FSX.cfg's on my rig, one for IFR flights from one busy airport with AI to another, and one cfg for VFR scenic flights with slow planes and smaller airports and little AI traffic. Could be, that this is the only solution to my "problem", as it seems almost impossible to achieve both at the same time. Reasons:

 

1. image quality: for me, basically only LOD_RADIUS=8.5 gives acceptable terrain drawing distances for VFR scenic flights. The FSX standard value of 4.5 looks rubbish to me. However, LOD_RADIUS=8.5 alone does not the full deal, I also do not want to have the terrain blurried after some minutes of flight. What do I do: crank up FFTF. With FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.5, I have still 30FPS in a small plane, crisp and clear terrain also in some distance away from my plane and no blurries, even if flying with 400kts low level. BUT: no chance to have more than 10FPS in QWSIM Avro VC on a busy airport with this setup.

 

2. IFR flights: I really love to perform IFR flights with airliners from the VC perspective. As mentioned under 1., the FSX.cfg setup for VFR scenic flights results in 10FPS max. What do I do: tweaking. Now, I know that with LOD_RADIUS=6.5, FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.15 and all other settings the same, I get a steady 20FPS in the QWSIM Avro VC at busy airports (exception: LFPG from Aerosoft).

 

So, that's the basis I have now. If you tell me now, that there is a solution for this, meaning that I can tweak my FSX.cfg in a way that both scenarios, IFR and VFR scenic, results in at least 20FPS (or smooth gameplay, which is impossible with 10FPS...), I am happy to learn new ways to tweak my .cfg.

 

And Paul: for the nVidia Inpsector settings, I was referring basically to your guide. But as I am not at home now, I can't list the precise settings I use, I will do that later.

 

 

I am really thinking of having two independent FSX.cfg's on my rig, one for IFR flights from one busy airport with AI to another, and one cfg for VFR scenic flights with slow planes and smaller airports and little AI traffic. Could be, that this is the only solution to my "problem", as it seems almost impossible to achieve both at the same time.

 

Absolutely - this is by far the best way to configure FSX, and have posted my opinions on this methodology for at least three years, and have used batch files for at least six years. My latest "effort" is here, in VB 2012. It is very basic, as i have no particular training in VB (a number of other languages, yes, but all cmd line, VB is my first gui language) Each button will load a different fsx.cfg, dll.xml, exe.xml, FSUIPC.ini, scenery.cfg, etx., and will also use pop-ups, asking whether or not to use EZCA, SweetFX , Alacrity to start TrackIR, and will then start FSX. Pretty simple.

 

There are a couple - maybe three or four other apps that will do this much better than mine does: Orbx has "Go", where one creates profiles that can be used any way you wish. A more recent one is "FSX Starter", freeware - from here. This is probably the easiest of all apps. to use.

 

Anyway - we all come here to learn how to make FSX better, and that learning goes both ways!

 

All the best,

 

pj

Well, then this freeware tool would be an option, I have to consider this, thanks for the heads up.

 

Here are my Inspector settings, maybe you find something to adapt:

 

 

 

 

BTW: in some other forums/FB pages, somebody came up with the thought, that maybe my i5 could be the problem. This guy even tells me, that he has always 35FPS also on busy Aerosoft airports. I simply do not believe this numbers, but well. If it really is my i5, what should I do? I certainly do not buy a "new" CPU now...

BTW: in some other forums/FB pages, somebody came up with the thought, that maybe my i5 could be the problem. This guy even tells me, that he has always 35FPS also on busy Aerosoft airports. I simply do not believe this numbers, but well. If it really is my i5, what should I do? I certainly do not buy a "new" CPU now...

 

Good Morning, AnkH!

 

First - there is nothing wrong with your i5. The "maybe my i5 could be the problem" gives the clue right there - an IT guy - even an experienced BestBuy "Geek Squad" tech would not give such a suggestion. Maybe it doesn't work because it's raining. Maybe it doesn't work because your house is too cold. Maybe this - or maybe the bus is late today.

 

"he has always 35FPS also on busy Aerosoft airports. I simply do not believe this numbers"  :lol:  Agreed!! Anyone who has been around FSX - and has a very capable machine - knows this - this guy is full of BS. Right now - there are many scenery areas, and many FSX configurations that will cripple FSX on my machine - so don't feel too bad about not getting your "best performance expectations" yet.

 

I do know, however - that you're still not reading the How-To guide, because there are pieces missing, you've posted two pics for Inspector (instead on one) and there are a number of lines which are quite wrong, or don't work with DSX's DX10. You need to use each line in the guide - don't "cherry-pick" the lines or pages that you think are important - ALL are important for a successful setup. You posted on the Orbx forum the "Verdict: posting a full FSX.cfg is usually not really helpful. "..... No, AnkH... no - every piece of a cfg, every component of the pc, every line in the Inspector, and what else you do to optimize the pc - is important to a person who is diagnosing a problem. If you know what is important - then you wouldn't have a problem - right!

 

A quick note re the Inspector pics: 8x SGSS is very, very hard on the graphics system, while the imporovement over 4x is negligible. As the base Inspector - use this one, and tie it in with the DX10 Fixer set to 4x.

 

The major issue, is that you aren't following the guide, AnkH: You say you are, but your pics, the lack of PC specs in your profile, using DX9 settings, your belief re what is important in the cfg, your Orbx post with 9 or 10 comments, but without offering direction or solution - all these things tell me that you are still in the "what if" mode, and you need to move into the "set the known good baseline first" mode - which is the guide!

 

When everything is set per the guide - test, test, test, using one saved flight, started in the air, over a heavy scenery, with static cloudy weather, and noting the frames and smoothness. Repeat this several times. Then, when you're ready - change the 4x in the Fixer - to 8X CSAA. Repeat the tests, and verify any change. Change to 2x. You need to do this for BufferPools, TBM, FFTF, cloud, traffic, the scenery and mesh sliders, until you have the highest frames with the lowest fluctuation. Then you're there.

 

Certainly there will be (mostly slider) variations because of component differences, but all pc's can use the guide, but the only parameter settings which will be different - are the sliders:- lower sliders for the 3.8 - 4.4 gig - 560Ti low-end pc's, mid-range for the 4.5 to 4.7-gig & 680 mid-range machines, and higher settings for the 4.7 - 5.0+ gig with the 780 machines.

 

OK! Bare in mind, AnkH - these posts and the Guide are meant to help you reach the same goal which we all have - FSX running as perfectly as we can make it, and because the forums have no "face-to-face' interaction, and we can't talk to each othe directly, or see each other - some things can be misinterpreted, we can inadvertently say things which "the other guy" is offended by. I don't want you to take my posts here as a criticism of you or your efforts - I want only to see the magic words "WOW! - It looks great! It's never run so well! That will be my reward. Just hang in there, do your best.

It may take a while, AnkH, some frustration and some patience, but I can tell you - there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I have a "Word" document, filled with successful members posts going back six months or more that prove it. I would like to add yours.

 

All the best,

 

pj

:Shame On You:

Ok, I finally took the step back, switched via DX10 Fixer back to DX9, deleted the FSX.cfg and started from scratch following the guide. Now I have my Inspector configured EXACTLY how it is shown on the screenshot from Paul and I configured the FSX.cfg EXACTLY how it is mentioned in the guide. For a start, I switched only LOD_RADIUS to 8.5 and FFTF to 0.22, to perform some tests. As before, the FPS are unlimited in FSX and locked to 60FPS in Inspector, as this gives me significantly more FPS in all scenarios except heavy AI filled addon airports. Fine. Now I will continue as Paul suggested, but I can already say that I am close to the point. It still seems that at least on some of my airport sceneries it is impossible to have more than 15FPS, as even with absolutely basic settings (LOD_RADIUS=4.5 and FFTF=0.1) I do not get more than those 15FPS (e.g. on LFPG with custom weather and AI traffic in VC of standard 737). The fact that I had so many Inspector settings wrong is somehow embarassing to me, as I really thought that all my settings were according to the guide and some other screenshots I found here on avsim.com. Whatever, changed that now, thanks for the heads-up again. For now, I run my FSX with those FSX.cfg tweaks:

 

HIGHMEMFIX=1

Bufferpools=0

TEXTURE_BANDWITH_MULT=120

AffinityMask=14

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.22

LOD_RADIUS=8.5

 

Inspector settings are as on the screenshot of Paul in his last comment with the exception of the 1/2 refresh rate (have it on "Force on" now), DX10 Fixer AA setting: 4x. Everything else is now PRECISELY as mentioned in the guide except that I did not lock the FPS. I simply can not afford the 2-3 FPS I lose on Zurich airport by limiting the FPS internally to 30, 31, 32 or 33.

 

I hope that the thread title is going to be wrong in the next few weeks, as I am really thinking that I will "be there" soon. At least it looks like. Using the standard FSX LOD_RADIUS of 4.5 together with the FFTF=0.1 as recommended in the guide, I do have almost no blurries and very high FPS, but my "hard-core" test scenario (LFPG) does not generate more FPS compared to LOD_RADIUS=8.5 with FFTF=0.1 or 0.22. I think I have to accept that, as mentioned. For all other tested scenarios, both the FPS and the speed of texture reload was ok up to 300kts, that's fine.

 

Now, I come back to some addional FSX.cfg entries which are not mentioned in the guide but keep popping up here in the forums, as well by Paul and other experts.

 

SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=xx

MAX_ASYNC_BATCHING_JOBS=xx

TextureMaxLoad=xx

 

I still only find confusing explanations for those entries. I know that all is ending up by testing on your system how the different settings perform, but I do not even UNDERSTAND what those entries do. For the moment, I do not have those lines in my FSX.cfg. Is there any reason, why I should add them?

 

In the end, I absolutely want to end up in Paul's wordfile now, and I am sure I will get there B)

Something came to my mind reading hardware related things today: do you think that changing the processor managment could provide any help regarding the blurries? Due to the fact that I have my PC running sometimes several hours idling (for downloads etc.), I have my rig configured the way that my i5 throttles down to 1.6GHz when idling. I know that setting the "minimum processor state" to 100% instead of 1% will basically fix the processor speed to the maximal speed (which is 4.5GHz in my case). Could that do any good for FSX? Could it be a problem that my CPU throttles down to 1.6GHz while flying and because of that the blurries appear? If yes, is there a way that changes the setting directly when I start FSX? I ask because I do not want to switch this setting manually each time I fire up FSX, I am sure that I will forget about it and then I have my CPU running always at 4.5GHz which is a waste when the PC is idling...

Hi Ankh!

 

Well - you're running at 4.5 GHZ with a 780, throttling between 1.6 and 4.5... this is the way most rigs run - for power consumption, heat, wear and tear, etc.. reasons - certainly mine sits more often at 1.6 than at 5.0, but I have had her at 4.9GHz steady for months without incurring any "issues" - with no "throttling" at all.  The life of a proc is perhaps 7 - 8 years - maybe 6 - 7 years if held at full throttle, but by then you're looking at an upgrade anyway. I don't think it causes any visible fluctuation in FSX, because these things - throttling - happen in microseconds.

 

If you have blurring ground textures you're going too fast, too low to the ground! To prevent blurring you need to increase your FFTF back upward, and lwer some of the frame-eating parameters. I've posted the frame killers in a number of places. I've noticed a huge differenc in draw speed by coming down from 3840 x 1024 to 2560 x 1600. It can draw faster, so less blurries.... same thing on your rig. You have too much of something, and you need to test fly and test fly, and test fly, changing only one thing at a time. This could be as simple as the wrong memory timing, too much cloud, too many ships, cars, AI, could be missing Alphas and or mipmaps. I don't load scenery areas that I don't use - maybe you do. I shut down Google Updater - maybe you don't. You have to ask yourself "what haven't I done to make this "a lean system": you need to say "what is loaded that doesn't need to be" Do you run AI and GA when you're flying tubes?

 

SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=xx ..............  thousands of hits on Google. Tie this with FFTF. Disregard the Bojote suggestions for this - your running 4.5 GHz and a 780.

MAX_ASYNC_BATCHING_JOBS=xx............ Same here. Google.

TextureMaxLoad=xx..................  Leave this one out of the cfg altogether. It does basically what TBM does. Defaults to 6.

 

There are only a few things in FSX which have a large impact on frame rates or stuttering, and a lot of things which have small impacts, but the small ones combined will have a large impact, so it's important to minimise everything, find out which is which individually: find out (as with the Swap Wait) - what it does - until you decide which pieces you would like to improve "I need cars" or "I need more AI", or "better water" . You have to create "headroom", and that's the purpose of minimising everything. You will find, for eg that pulling back the Mesh resolution makes little visual impact, not does it have much impact on performance. You will also see that pulling back Image Complexity has little visual impact - but has enormouse framerate impact.

I said it earlier - it takes patience to get FSX where you want it, and it's not done by spporadically guessing at this or that. Make the machine lean, make it fast, then add the components that you can't do without. That should take you two - three maybe even four weeks, because you have to research this stuff. It took me almost nine months to get to where I am with DX10 and FSX - and I'm still scratch in the dirt, and learning every day. Actually I should ne thanking you - because I'm doing the research work that you should be doing!

 

All the Best,

 

pj