...isn't any slider setting on either the masks;  Scenery Objects, Terrain, Shadows, Water, Special Effects....

 

no sir,

 

...it seems to be all to do with Clouds...and if you have a rainy, heavy cloud scenario going on with for what I use: ASN...then THAT is the performance killer.

 

I did a test...  I have my P3D, set to a locked 30 FPS....

 

I turned off ASN, removed it out of the loop...fired up ORBX Weather number 4...and set weather to change as Medium.

 

I cranked up every setting Mask Heading in the dang darn sim....(lol).

 

I flew at a steady 29-30 in South Dakota. The scenery density looks amazing!

 

There is heavy rain, at the moment in the area....in real time....because I first flew with ASN pumping it out...

 

I then fired up ASN, once more, and it gave me that heavy rain and cloud right back for comparison.

 

7-12 FPS.

 

So, on my system at least...I figure it is any heavy full-sky cloud and/or heavy rain environment...will suck the FPS.  So...what to do?  Well...I really like what ORBX # 4 'canned' weather gives you visually. It gives you great cloud weather to fly through...cold air...for change up...wind elements along the flight path...great shadow interplay on land and ocean...and more than anything else...(for me...) gives me 27-30 FPS...

 

So...I guess each system is truly different...and as to what settings really matters to you. For myself, it is the Water Section fully enabled. It is all the TERRAIN sliders fully enabled, as well as Shadow (at Medium) with all sub-buttons enabled, less the last single 'left field' button, and finally Special Effects with both sliders full on.  With all of the above, and with a moderate amount of clouds...I can keep at close to 30 FPS.  If I see that ASN is starting to give me rain and heavy scud-overcast...I will then abandon 'real-time' weather..and bring on line, good old ORBX Number 4...and carry on...   That's what I have to do, to keep this sim fully cooking...and putting out the FPS numbers.  Rain is interesting....but a beautiful day to fly through is..in my flight simulating opinion, all that much better....and I think that most simmer's system to date, can handle that with P3D, very,,,very...nicely!  Have at it....you all!

Its cloud shadows. Turn them off in heavy weather

This is a known issue. Here's a couple of things that will help when you're flying in this type of weather:

 

1.) Reduce the maximum cloud layers in ASN from 5 to 3.

2.) Reduce the maximum cloud draw distance in ASN from 90 to 80 (or less).

3.) Turn off cloud and terrain shadows (this helps, even though these shadows are not visible in these conditions).

4.) Reduce cloud density (this was the biggest FPS boost for me, but others have different results).

This is a known issue. Here's a couple of things that will help when you're flying in this type of weather:

 

1.) Reduce the maximum cloud layers in ASN from 5 to 3.

2.) Reduce the maximum cloud draw distance in ASN from 90 to 80 (or less).

3.) Turn off cloud and terrain shadows (this helps, even though these shadows are not visible in these conditions).

4.) Reduce cloud density (this was the biggest FPS boost for me, but others have different results).

Oh...ok..thank you Arwen.  I'll try all of the above as you suggest.  Also, I noticed that you take no performance hit going from a LOD setting of 6.5, to 9.5. Now..I have read that P3D doesn't go actually beyond 6.5...or at least I thought that I had read that somewhere...but I have noticed that there was light orb popping into view at the standard setting. Even with no pop at 1. With a LOD setting of 9.5, there is absolutely no auto-gen or vector light orb 'popping' into view of any kind. So, perhaps that person was simply wrong...

Vanilla P3D for me is simply miraculous. As soon as I add Global/Vector(especially Vector) and then REX/ASN, things begin to go downhill fast.

Its cloud shadows. Turn them off in heavy weather

Thank you for that tip...will try all suggestions on this thread. It is great how we all step up to help each other enjoy this sim to the max....good stuff!

 

Mitch

Vanilla P3D for me is simply miraculous. As soon as I add Global/Vector(especially Vector) and then ASN, things begin to go down hill fast.

I know that the sim is 'killa' as Vanilla.  But, I am puzzled as to why you are taking such a hit, when adding the usual ORBX candy.

 

Ray...I have poked and prodded about 27-30 now...and at worst, within a ORBX region, with a lot going on...about a steady 17-22.  I did go down to 7-12 today in very heavy weather playing out right now in South Dakota.  That prompted this thread.  I'm going to try out Arwen's and Do_Denver2's suggestions regarding this type of weather...

 

Still...you should be near about where I am, with your spec's right?

 

Mitch

Vanilla P3D for me is simply miraculous. As soon as I add Global/Vector(especially Vector) and then REX/ASN, things begin to go downhill fast.

 

It's weird that FTX Global causes a hit. Isn't it just a texture replacement?

Vanilla P3D for me is simply miraculous. As soon as I add Global/Vector(especially Vector) and then REX/ASN, things begin to go downhill fast.

Mine's holding up pretty well with Global, REX & ASN.  (I don't use the highest cloud texture resolution in REX)

I'm getting the same FPS, maybe even higher (45-50) in most situations. But there is some stuttering going on anything lower. 

 

I should say that I did reduce cloud layers to 4 and it did help a bit. I will try lowering it further. Unfortionately, this will most likely affect realistic looking overcast.

I had to disable the AS_btstrp.dll in the dll.xml to get FSGRW working in P3D and that brought an immense increase of performance.

I did a test...  I have my P3D, set to a locked 30 FPS....

 

 

This doesn`t make sense to me, when you are testing the cap should be set to unlimited.

 

Maybe the ORBX weather makes an impact of 30FPS (ORBX off would then be 60FPS for example) and ASN just gives another 20FPS cost which would mean it is the amount of weather you are loading rather than the one company making the weather.

 

Also if you select clear skies and the FPS doesn`t go up from 50 or something, you also know there is something strange going on.

Which you don`t know now because you capped at 30.