Hi guys

 

I'm quite new to tweaking FSX and DX10 so would appreciate a point being clarified for me.

 

I run FSX in windowed mode on one monitor and have a second identical monitor for other programs like flight planning and charts.

 

I very recently switched to DX10 and notice that although my frame rate is very similar to DX9, it's a lot smoother, so it's like the frame rate has actually increased.

 

But I notice that when I set the frame rate to 'unlimited' in FSX I get about a 25% increase in frames compared to when I have FPS locked to 30.

 

I've been doing my testing at EGLL (UK2000) with lots of AI traffic in the NGX (to simulate basically the most strain the sim will ever be under)

 

In this situation I get around 11FPS in the VC with frames set to 30 and on unlimited I get around 14FPS, which sounds bad but with DX10 it feels like the equivalent of 20FPS on DX9.

 

My question is whether there are any other issues that are caused by having frames set unlimited? Is it a problem, or is it just a case of using whatever gets the best result?

 

Thanks

Welcome to the world of DX10.

Use whatever setting that is giving you the best results :smile: .  I also get better frames when I set my fps to unlimited (especially for complex add ons), so I leave it there.

When flying very simple planes doing VFR, I sometimes lock my frames at 30 within FSX because with very simple aircraft, the fps tend to spike to high numbers which result in some stutters if I don't lock the frames.

I am also in the camp using unlimited FPS with better results . Maybe people with less GPU Power may suffering with Unlimited, i dont know but using undocked panels etc for sure i have way better result with unlimited. 

 

 

Michael

 

m.youtube.com/watch?v=g_QUIXr1fwY

Hi MD and welcome to DX10.

 

Again, there is a bit of a rumor out there that DX10 increases performance.  It does not.

 

DX10 gives us a smoother experience with the best performance we had in DX9 with better visuals.  That is it.

 

Now, I moved on to DX10 via the DX10 and FSX guides with the commercial version of Steve's Scenery Fixer. 

 

 

Did you follow the guides on how to move on to DX10?

 

 

The ONLY tweaks that in my opinion and many people much smarter than I am, are the ones listed first in NickN's Bible for setting up not only

a killer FSXX machine, but also for setting up FSXX.  Keep in mind NickN has over 50 years in the high tech industry and has been with FSX since FSX hit the market.  He knows what he is talking about.  Google NickN's Bible it will take you right to it.   Give the first chapters a good read and it will answer MANY questions you may have as well as one's you didn't even know to ask.  

 

Tweaks?  If you have a good install of FSX from the beginning, you only need the tweaks listed with NickN's Bible, FSX Basic Guide, and DX10 notes. 

Then Steve's patch or Scenery Fixer whichever you decide.

 

If you have all of the above?  Welcome to DX10 and now it is a simply a matter of tuning YOUR particular system to deliver your particular preferences.

 

From your post, it looks like you did what I did.  Get everything set up and then load your most CPU intensive bird in the most dense scenery with the most intense weather graphics etc.  Set sliders to get best Frames there.  THEN?

 

Leave it be.  You will only go UP in frames from that point forward as you fly with better weather, planes, etc et al.

 

Looks like you are right in the slot you need to be or darn close!

 

Nice!

Well, on my old i7-860 with a GTX560Ti 1GB if I set FPS to unlimited (with 1/2 refresh vsync which limits externally to 30fps) and try to run the NGX it doesn't go so well.  The CPU ends up trying to pump out as many FPS as it can and I start getting blurry ground textures everywhere after a few minutes.  Locking the FPS (in addition to a bunch of slider tweaking) basically fixed that problem.  So, for me I need to run locked internally when using the NGX, and I also recently found out I also need to run locked when using even default aircraft in dense urban areas with OrbX's new NorCal region or I get the same problem.  Actually I run locked all the time now anyway because I recently switched over to bufferpools=0 and the way I understand it is you need to be locked internally for that.

ONE OTHER NOTE to my post.  

 

I was MR. IMPATIENT (LOL) with my heavy load strategy and became frustrated with what I thought were crummy frames.  What I learned on one particular run, was to B E  P A T I E N T.  I noticed it took 1 to 2 minutes for FSX to get everything loaded, running, smooth and for my frames to stabilize.  

 

At first it looked like my frames were 12 to 15.  But after 1 to 2 minutes they came back up to about 25 or so with HEAVY settings.

 

I have an SSD that I run FSXX on with an overclocked Phenom II, so my point is that the average user ought to give this heavy load strategy up to 4 to 5 minutes with an average computer build.

 

Take care

Hi MD and welcome to DX10.

 

Again, there is a bit of a rumor out there that DX10 increases performance.  It does not.

 

DX10 gives us a smoother experience with the best performance we had in DX9 with better visuals.  That is it.

 

Now, I moved on to DX10 via the DX10 and FSX guides with the commercial version of Steve's Scenery Fixer. 

 

 

Did you follow the guides on how to move on to DX10?

 

 

The ONLY tweaks that in my opinion and many people much smarter than I am, are the ones listed first in NickN's Bible for setting up not only

a killer FSXX machine, but also for setting up FSXX.  Keep in mind NickN has over 50 years in the high tech industry and has been with FSX since FSX hit the market.  He knows what he is talking about.  Google NickN's Bible it will take you right to it.   Give the first chapters a good read and it will answer MANY questions you may have as well as one's you didn't even know to ask.  

 

Tweaks?  If you have a good install of FSX from the beginning, you only need the tweaks listed with NickN's Bible, FSX Basic Guide, and DX10 notes. 

Then Steve's patch or Scenery Fixer whichever you decide.

 

If you have all of the above?  Welcome to DX10 and now it is a simply a matter of tuning YOUR particular system to deliver your particular preferences.

 

From your post, it looks like you did what I did.  Get everything set up and then load your most CPU intensive bird in the most dense scenery with the most intense weather graphics etc.  Set sliders to get best Frames there.  THEN?

 

Leave it be.  You will only go UP in frames from that point forward as you fly with better weather, planes, etc et al.

 

Looks like you are right in the slot you need to be or darn close!

 

Nice!

 

Sound advice there Jet, many thanks.

 

What I have observed is that the overall smoothness of DX10 is far greater, making the low frame rate a lot more tolerable when it happens, as it's less of a "slideshow".

 

I followed the (excellent) how-to guide and already am well on my way to DX10 bliss - haha. I have had a couple of fatal errors but I am still tweaking trying to find the right combination of settings for my particular PC.

 

My PC is of a perfectly reasonable spec, so I'm sure I can get it to a place where my sim experience is great, in the main, it's just about finding the perfect setup now!

ONE OTHER NOTE to my post.  

 

I was MR. IMPATIENT (LOL) with my heavy load strategy and became frustrated with what I thought were crummy frames.  What I learned on one particular run, was to B E  P A T I E N T.  I noticed it took 1 to 2 minutes for FSX to get everything loaded, running, smooth and for my frames to stabilize.  

 

At first it looked like my frames were 12 to 15.  But after 1 to 2 minutes they came back up to about 25 or so with HEAVY settings.

 

I have an SSD that I run FSXX on with an overclocked Phenom II, so my point is that the average user ought to give this heavy load strategy up to 4 to 5 minutes with an average computer build.

 

Take care

 

Yes that's definitely true. I normally spend at least 10 minutes parked at the gate, setting up the FMC etc whereas in my testing, I just plonk it straight on the active runway for testing purposes.

Maybe late to the discussion but it's worth checking out some test results. I've been comparing unlimited to fixed (internal). I took a reading in unlimited with a heavy load on FSX and it seemed to hover mostly around 16 fps. So then I set fixed fps to 15 and compared the two results, flying the same route. I cut the fixed fps flight short as it was obvious by then the differences are with unlimited far more time spent with a lower and inconsistent fps throughput often below 10fps, rather than the far smoother 15fps fixed setting hardly ever dropping below 14fps in this test:
 


Fixing at 30 fps when the system has no hope of keeping that frame rate, shows a poor result with the general fps hovering around 15, but no where near as smooth as fixed 15. However we lost around 1fps to unlimited setting, although unlimited was far more unstable:

Thanks, Steve. I decided to lower my framerate limit in FSX to 28 instead of 30. I'm now getting 28 FPS consistantly under heavy loads, and she's running very smooth. I've got BP set to

 

[bufferPools]
UsePools=1
Poolsize=5242880
RejectThreshold=524288

 

Seems to be the sweet spot on the i7 4790K and GTX 780 Ti

For FSX(DX9) and P3D I use Unlimited and then, in NI, I set 1/2 refresh rate and 58FPS limiter.  I also restart Aero after FSX launches.

I also restart Aero after FSX launches.

What does that do?

For FSX(DX9) and P3D I use Unlimited and then, in NI, I set 1/2 refresh rate and 58FPS limiter.  I also restart Aero after FSX launches.

 

1/2 refresh in NI forces it to try to keep 30fps fixed (if you have a 60Hz monitor). The internal fixed fps should be set to match that, and triple buffering set in NI. So if you have a 120Hz monitor it would be better to set 60fps fixed in the sim. I usually go for 1/3 refresh and 20 in FSX with a 60Hz monitor. Don't forget to turn off partial vsync in NI when using unlimited.

Steve, did you create that graph? Or is there an application for that?

 

 

Andrew

What does that do?

 

 

All I know is that it makes my FPS go up quite a bit.  I have an FSUIPC script that restarts it after FSX is running.

 

EDIT: I run in windowed mode.  It probably doesn't do anything in full screen mode.

Steve, did you create that graph? Or is there an application for that?

 

 

Andrew

 

That's Excel, I've got a file output of frame rate in csv format from IF10, I think there's also an FSUIPC script can do it..