A first glimpse at Prepar3d v2.3

[gandy 18]

To add to what Ed has put,

 

A couple of issues that seem to go un-noticed is your pc ram, people tend to buy the ram with out checking to see if its compatible with their motherboard.. we are not rolling with ddr1 anymore you see so you need to check a few things.. is your memory on the compatibility list for your motherboard. The other reason that can cause stutters in the sim is badly set up memory, sometimes using an xmp profile is not always the best way to use your memory as the profile does not always provide the best compatibility so its best to check the manufacturer specs for your ram and set up according to that for the best results as both fsx and p3d are memory sensitive its best to make sure you use the correct memory timings.

 

I will throw in the next one out of good will and knowing it will mess with your heads a little, some sandforce controllers built in to ssd drives are known to cause stutters with certain apps while i cant say fsx or p3d is one of them it is something that you should look in to if all else fails.

[Arwen 289]

I also get very few noticeable stutters. But, what I did notice months ago was that these stutters only happened when my CPU usage was approaching 100%. Reducing my settings a bit (and finding an Affinity Mask setting that works better with my system) has mostly eliminated these stutters. Also my system is only mildly overclocked, so I'm wondering if using high overclock settings are contributing to the stuttering issues for some users.

 

As I see it, all LM can do is continue to optimize P3D. Currently there's seems to still be too much for the CPU to handle (based on my CPU/GPU usage while running P3D). Hopefully this will be improved in v.2.3, but some users are always going to get stutters as long as they insist on using P3D graphic settings that are too high for their system.

[Guest]

Ladies/Gents,

 

There are stutters, if they didn't exist LM wouldn't be trying to address them in 2.3.  Give them time, hopefully they'll succeed and/or make progress.  Some people are more tolerant to stutters than others (I'm very tolerant but I do have my limits).

 

I'm doing my best to demonstrate them to LM with video and GPU/CPU usage data including frame buffer loads, bus loads, etc. etc.  I'm hoping for feedback that says something other than "there is a problem with your system" (this is why I'm going back to V2.0 testing to demonstrate that there isn't a problem with my system).

 

Yes, 60 fps will need to be achieved for less stutters, but that will require considerable graphical compromises - so lets hope for a better solution.

 

If you run SGSS AA it will stutter as GPU loads hit 99%, if you run unlimited with NO Vsync you will hit GPU 99% regardless of graphical settings.

 

I'm about to reload a clean P3D V2.0 to do more comparison testing because for some reason V2.0 demonstrated far fewer stutters.  I do my testing on clean installations as well as loaded installations and yes I'm using up a few TB keeping all these clean and loaded versions around.

 

I spent 90% of my free weekend just testing and will continue to do so, I will remain positive because I know I'm working with an early Beta 2.3 build.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[WarpD 824]

Fair enough - But how does X-Plane accomplish it?

 

I get FPS all over the place in that sim and as long as it's not below about 23 (for me) it's always super smooth.

Who says they do? I see stuttering as well as other performance issues with X-Plane.

[Arwen 289]

Who says they do? I see stuttering as well as other performance issues with X-Plane.

totally agree! P3D actually runs better on my system than X-plane 10 does . . . and I'm using Orbx scenery and ASN with P3D.

[rparson99 32]

A good barometer in gauging whether your rendering load is taxing your system is to move the sliders to the left. If you get super smooth performance, then adjust the sliders until you start to see the trouble.. . Then back off a bit. At the end of the day, we all could use more horsepower, and LM's effort to make the code as efficient as possible helps there too.

 

If you are still getting stutters all throughout, suspect your system configuration.

[alulekk 3]

Fair point about backing off on sliders, but to Robs point...something changed when his exact same setup is running v2.0 smoother than v2.2/v2.3beta.

Not sure why people are arguing that.

 

Re: XPX - Must just be me then. Runs smooth as can be for me.

[WarpD 824]

Fair point about backing off on sliders, but to Robs point...something changed when his exact same setup is running v2.0 smoother than v2.2/v2.3beta.

Not sure why people are arguing that.

 

Re: XPX - Must just be me then. Runs smooth as can be for me.

I haven't said anything regarding whether things have changed, etc. What I stated is that the hardware has limits, and people really need to learn to accept that. Currently no one accepts that at all.

 

On my system I can induce stutters, but I have to do certain things to make it happen in Prepar3D. It's all about scene complexity. I can reduce the complexity and not see stutters because I'm running at 60fps, matching the refresh of my LCD monitor.

 

I can switch to an analog monitor (yes, I still own some!) and never see a single stutter at all. Not one.

[alulekk 3]

I guess that just highlights how tricky this problem is.

 

I can dial things WAY down to nothing, FPS lock to 60 to match my monitor and still get stutters.

 

My PC has plenty of horsepower for that test and it shouldn't be happening.

 

There's no argument to "win" here. As Rob stated - LM knows that "something" is up, beyond people jacking their sliders on lower hardware and/or not matching FPS to refresh rates.

[WarpD 824]

You're overclocking... if you have to overclock to get proper performance, your PC does not have "plenty of horsepower".

 

I have never, not ever, overclocked hardware. Not once. I never will. I have seen it lead to problems in software behavior.

 

You also indicate you are running "OS X 10.9.3"... so I assume you're running a Mac? If so... all bets are off regarding viability of good performance.

[alulekk 3]

Warp...I've run P3D plenty non overclocked. It made no difference for me.

 

And yes there is plenty of horsepower to run with basically all the sliders off and be stutter free. But it doesn't.

 

Are you just trying to "argue"?

Why can't you accept that some of us are seeing a legitimate problem?

 

We don't all have your situation. That doesn't make us "wrong" and you "right"

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

I can switch to an analog monitor (yes, I still own some!) and never see a single stutter at all. Not one.

 

"Dang it...that's it...I'm going downstairs to the basement and bring up my old 22 inch ViewSonic  ViewMaster CRT...dangnabbit!"......

 

Now...er..how do I plug it in, again?   

[n4gix 4,947]

I can switch to an analog monitor (yes, I still own some!) and never see a single stutter at all. Not one.

I still have a couple analog monitors as well, Ed. I've noticed that the slow decay of the phosphor's luminescence definitely creates the illusion of "motion interpolation" similar to that of film.

 

If you reduce the brightness and/or contrast to minimize the degree of "decay" it is then possible to begin to see the "stutters" that are a natural byproduct caused by the nature of modern LCD on/off pixel displays.

 

There is an interesting article here* that covers the issue of "motion interpolation" clearly.

 

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_interpolation

[Matthijs 79]

I'm doing my best to demonstrate them to LM with video and GPU/CPU usage data including frame buffer loads, bus loads, etc. etc. I'm hoping for feedback that says something other than "there is a problem with your system" (this is why I'm going back to V2.0 testing to demonstrate that there isn't a problem with my system).

 

.....

 

I spent 90% of my free weekend just testing and will continue to do so, I will remain positive because I know I'm working with an early Beta 2.3 build.

Rob, Does this mean that there are no performance improvements noticeable in V2.3 with this (early) beta?

[Guest]

 

 

Rob, Does this mean that there are no performance improvements noticeable in V2.3 with this (early) beta?

 

I'm seeing less drastic drops in fps with cloud shadows enabled in the early 2.3 beta ... so from that perspective there is a performance improvement.

 

But I'll continue testing, I need to load up 2.2 and 2.0 ... flight recorder doesn't work in 2.0 so it'll have to be "close" manual flight using same settings (without cloud shadows obviously).

 

But again, this is an EARLY 2.3 BETA ... people should NOT project this is how 2.3 final release will be, LM have made it clear there is more work being done on 2.3.

 

Cheers, Rob.