ORBX Vector - FPS crusher

[do_denver2 18]

So overall I've been pleased with P3D version 2.2, but I have had terribly low FPS in the center of major cities, namely Houston where I have done my testing taking off from KIAH and flying towards downtown, watching my FPS go from 30 at takeoff to 10-15 around downtown sometimes dipping into single digits.  This with a 3770k at 4.7 Ghz, and a new 780 Ti.  

 

I am testing with ORBX Global, Vector, My Traffic 5.4b, REX, OPUS (fairly heavy clouds), road traffic at 10, in the Milviz C310 with sliders pretty much hard right, shadows on but sliders towards the left.  Even in Seattle ORBX PNW I was getting much better FPS.  So finally after testing moving sliders left without much effect, I disabled the Vector layers in the scenery library, and my FPS shot up to 25-30 around downtown Houston, so pretty much a 15 FPS difference.  

 

 

Does anyone else have a similar experience with Vector, or any suggestions on how to still use it with better FPS.  I guess I'll start playing with the settings in vector and disabling some of them to see what happens.

[SolRayz 392]

I have the same issues in heavy urban areas, particularly with cloud cover. I noticed that it is much worse with Global/Vector installed. I have no traffic AI programs installed and terrain/cloud/building/veggie shadows disabled and very moderate settings overall. Otherwise the sim is butter everywhere else and in most other situations.

[pmanhart 176]

Try keeping Vector enabled but reduce the road traffic to nil and see if you gain the FPS back.

 

In all my testing I've found the increased road traffic that comes with the increased road density is what is causing the FPS hit (especially with SimObject shadow projection enabled).

 

Increasing the road density is not the problem, it's the ants moving along it.

[deetee 164]

Don't forget you can also disable certain types of road (à la UTX) in the control panel supplied with Vector 1.15.

[do_denver2 18]

Putting road traffic to 0 got a few FPS back but not enough.  

 

However disabling Secondary roads gave me pretty much all of my FPS back (with road traffic still on and set at 10).  So it seems like those roads are the culprit.  It's unfortunate because the cities look better with them and traffic moving on them.  Unfortunatly just disabling traffic on the secondary roads doesn't help, the roads themselves have to be disabled.  I hope that ORBX is aware of this because it doesn't seem like secondary roads should cause such a drastic performance hit.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Well thats not good news as I was thinking of getting vector for P3D

[deetee 164]

I am surprised as I don't notice any hit with Vector.

There again I keep mine limited @ 30 fps so maybe I just have't noticed!

[do_denver2 18]

 

 

I am surprised as I don't notice any hit with Vector.
There again I keep mine limited @ 30 fps so maybe I just have't noticed!

 

It might depend where you fly.  I didn't really test in many areas, pretty much in Houston, and I had to be close to downtown before FPS plummeted. 

[pmanhart 176]

It might depend where you fly.  I didn't really test in many areas, pretty much in Houston, and I had to be close to downtown before FPS plummeted. 

 

 

That's part of the FPS hit, that entire area is chock full of roads!

 

Other major metro areas that are more compact, like Seattle, don't cause as big of a hit.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Well thats not good news as I was thinking of getting vector for P3D

Rich, you still need to.  I have everything turned on in Vector, and can stay around 30 FPS in most areas not concentrated as urban. In Greater Detroit for instance, I will go down to 15-18, but the sim is still very usable at even those figures.  I is night and day, the way the sim looks, and trust me...the highways, and renditions, are much better in-sim, than seen on even ORBX's carefully picked screen shots.  There are effects that I have not seen in FSX/UTX.  Coming onto the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, you see traffic come from a four lane, to a two lane...really great to watch.  Shorelines are very, very nice.  I did not buy Vector to replace UTX in FSX...but saw that you do for P3D, and have no regrets in having done so.  The program is no dog. It (in my opinion) is truly needed in P3D to advance your 'total immersion' session.

 

Mitch

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Thanks Mitch - good info for sure

[Noel 4,486]

Putting road traffic to 0 got a few FPS back but not enough.  

 

However disabling Secondary roads gave me pretty much all of my FPS back (with road traffic still on and set at 10).  So it seems like those roads are the culprit.  It's unfortunate because the cities look better with them and traffic moving on them.  Unfortunatly just disabling traffic on the secondary roads doesn't help, the roads themselves have to be disabled.  I hope that ORBX is aware of this because it doesn't seem like secondary roads should cause such a drastic performance hit.

So when you put road traffic to 0, does that eliminate all road traffic, or just traffic on roads added by Vector?  I would not want to get rid of all road traffic so this is why I ask.

 

I haven't installed Vector out of perf impact concerns.  I guess you are saying one can get more roads, not secondary ones if you need to minimize perf impact, but still retain more accurate land-water edges, rivers, and so forth while minimizing the perf impact?  If that's true I think it might still be worth it.  Have to have some road traffic.

[do_denver2 18]

 

 

So when you put road traffic to 0, does that eliminate all road traffic, or just traffic on roads added by Vector?  I would not want to get rid of all road traffic so this is why I ask.
 
I haven't installed Vector out of perf impact concerns.  I guess you are saying one can get more roads, not secondary ones if you need to minimize perf impact, but still retain more accurate land-water edges, rivers, and so forth while minimizing the perf impact?  If that's true I think it might still be worth it.  Have to have some road traffic.

 

If you put all traffic to 0 within the sim, that does eliminate all road traffic, including vector.  You get a few extra FPS but as I said this wasn't the cause of the massive FPS drop I experience.  Within Vector, you can choose to display Highways, Primary roads, Secondary roads, and Tertiary roads.  The massive FPS drop was caused by having secondary roads active.  You can also choose to disable just the traffic on each of the type of roads, but still have the roads displayed.  Only disabling the traffic on one type of road doesn't have much of an impact, I had to totally disable secondary roads.  

 

In the end, if I want to go joy riding around downtown, I basically have to turn off secondary roads.  I still have road traffic on which displays on highways and primary roads.

[Noel 4,486]

Thanks for that it helps.   Do you know what was supplied w/ FTX Global as far as roads go?  Is that basically highways & primary roads?  Not quite sure how it differs from Global and/or P3D Default.   It's tempting for sure.  Also if you know, is Vector relatively easy to uninstall?

[do_denver2 18]

Vector and global do totally different things.  To put it simply, vector provides more accurate roads, coastlines, and water bodies to the world plus a few other little things.  On the other hand, global replaces the default ground textures and autogen throughout the world, like grass, farms, jungle etc... Think of it as changing the art that you fly over.   While there is no uninstaller for vector, I think all you have to do is disable or delete the vector layers in the scenery library.