Hi,

 

I am looking for some help and advice with rebuilding my FS9 after a new installation of WIndows.

 

My computer specs are as follows;

 

Window 7 Premium Home Edition 64 Bits

Intel 760 GPU overclocked to 3.8Ghz

MSI GTX 660 OC GPU

Cooler Master 212 FAN

8G Ram (2 x 4G stick)

Separate 1TB sata hard drive for FS9

 

So it should eat FS9 for breakfast.

 

I have only installed one airport add on scenery for testing purpose and 100% of my AI traffic.

 

I fly commercial airlines so I have a lot of AI traffic at the airports to make it realistic.

 

The sim runs fine with everything at MAX, and I am getting between 35-40 FPS and excellent graphics using Nvidia Inspector.

 

The problem is the "stutters" which I have read about in the past but never experienced them myself.

I get a stutter every few seconds, I would guess they are micro stutters, very annoying.

 

So far this is what I have tried;

 

1. Reduce settings in FS9, but all that happens is the FPS shoot up !
2. Set CPU affinity to all 4 cores and priority to HIGH.
3. Set texture bandwith in FSG.cfg to 400.
4. Reduced Nvidia Inspector settings, all that happens is the graphics turn nasty.
5. Defrag using Iorbit Smart Defrag , many many times.
6. Updated all Nvidia drivers and carried out a proper clean install.

Nothing I do stops the stutters.

 

Can anybody suggest anything I have not listed as I am not going to complete all of my scenery add ons until I get FS9 running as it was before.

 

Many thanks

 

Simon

FS9 runs only one core, so that effort is a wash.  Hopefully you didn't install FS in the default app folder, but rather make a new folder for just FS.  I don't add AI, so can't help you there, but your system should run FS at 60fps without hesitation and without the overclocking.  Can't help with stutters either as I have never experience that problem.  

Simon you haven't mentioned whether you have anti-virus/malware programs active.  Several of these programs are notorious for disturbing your FS9 enjoyment.

 

I would also be inclined to reinstall an older version of your nVidia graphics drivers.  Some of their recent drivers have been problematic insofar as FS9 is concerned.

 

Also perhaps you might run DxtFixerX available from the Avsim library.

 

Best of luck.

Thank you very much for the replies.

 

I run Avast and this is switched off when I run FS9.

 

Donor - do you suggest what Nvidia driver I might use ?  so many available and not seen any reports of a solid one.

 

Many thanks

 

Simon

I have run the DXTFixerX and it did bring up a lot of errors and fixed them, but I still get the stutters in fs9.

 

Simon

Hi.

 

 

So far this is what I have tried;

 

1. Reduce settings in FS9, but all that happens is the FPS shoot up !
2. Set CPU affinity to all 4 cores and priority to HIGH.
3. Set texture bandwith in FSG.cfg to 400.
4. Reduced Nvidia Inspector settings, all that happens is the graphics turn nasty.
5. Defrag using Iorbit Smart Defrag , many many times.
6. Updated all Nvidia drivers and carried out a proper clean install.

Nothing I do stops the stutters.

 

Can anybody suggest anything I have not listed as I am not going to complete all of my scenery add ons until I get FS9 running as it was before.

 

 

What Forkedtail says is true, but this can be utilised to make things run smoother.

 

 

FS9 runs only one core, so that effort is a wash.

 

 

Reserve one core solely for FS9. Let weather, on-line connections, FSUIPC et c. share another and shunt everything else to the remaining two cores out of the way.

 

Set FS9's priority to high, leave everything else as it was - probably 'normal'.

 

I'm not certain (though without any concrete reason) that texture formats will be causing stutters and I suspect it's simply that something else is grapping CPU or memory or page-file-access time and causing regular brief delays in FS9. It may even be something as simple as the identification and loading of the next LOD of terrain textures or vector scenery, especially if the stutter occurs regularly every few seconds.

 

Does it happen when AI is set to 0%, or when you fly over ocean with no land in sight, or when scenery complexity and autogen are set to zero?

 

You might consider putting your page file in a potentially better location, or running some of the utilities found here:

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb545021.aspx

 

Cheers,

D

Update,

 

I have changed the CPU setting but nothing happens apart from the FPS drop significantly unless I run FS9 on all 4 cores.

 

I have now narrowed this down to AI aircraft.

 

With 0% AI aircraft no stutters.  Anything above 20% gives FS9 the stutters.

 

As I said in my first post I do have a lot of AI aircraft all in separate AFCAD files in my scenery/world/scenery folder (probably 500 maybe more).

 

Could the stutter be the sim looking at the flight plans to see whats landing at the airport ?

 

If so how do I solve this as I know many simmers out there run realistic full commercial AI set ups.

 

Not a single one of the other settings in FS9 helps at all at any level.

 

Simon

Todays update.

 

I installed Nvidia drivers 314.22 and 340.49 as these are supposed to be good for FS9.

 

But I noticed no deference in the stuttering at all.

So my analysis still points to the AI aircraft and the speed that the CPU can get the information from the AIRCRAFT folder in FS9.

 

Is there a way to prioritise this folder ?

 

Grasping at straws I hear you say !

 

Thanks

 

Simon

Update,

 

I have changed the CPU setting but nothing happens apart from the FPS drop significantly unless I run FS9 on all 4 cores.

 

I have now narrowed this down to AI aircraft.

 

With 0% AI aircraft no stutters.  Anything above 20% gives FS9 the stutters.

 

As I said in my first post I do have a lot of AI aircraft all in separate AFCAD files in my scenery/world/scenery folder (probably 500 maybe more).

 

Could the stutter be the sim looking at the flight plans to see whats landing at the airport ?

 

If so how do I solve this as I know many simmers out there run realistic full commercial AI set ups.

 

Not a single one of the other settings in FS9 helps at all at any level.

 

Simon

 

Hi.

 

FS9 is coded to use only one core; it can not run concurrently on several, only flip between them. So if you get a better framerate when it's set to utilise all four that means there was something else using the single core to which you had originally assigned it, causing it to switch to another core.

 

If 20% traffic causes stutters it may be related to a specific AI aircraft. BUT... does the stutter happen at every populated airport regardless of what's actually flying around there? And again, does the stutter occur at airports that have no AI?

 

There's an application (Lee Swordy's Traffic Tools?) that will allow you to decompile traffic bgls so you can see which particular planes are set to appear at 20% or greater traffic density. That might narrow things down.

 

I don't think keeping aircraft in scenery folders will work so I assume you refer to the traffic bgls. On the other hand I don't see how it's possible to put AI or traffic into an afcad.

 

I'm not sure if splitting traffic bgls among several scenery folders will have an adverse effect though it's possible. I believe AI only occurs within 40 nm or so of the user's POV so things may slow down if a relevant flightplan has to be retreived from a scenery layer that's not otherwise being used by FS9. I keep all my flightplan bgls in their own scenery layer (../AItarffic/scenery/ ). I don't know if it makes any difference but it seems a little more organised than just leaving them where the download or installer dumped them.

 

You may have a bit of work to do in reorganising your folder structure and moving files to more suitable locations...

 

Let us know how things go.

 

D

It definitely sounds like an AI problem but with your system it should be able to handle massive amounts so the problem may lie with some of your repaints. Did you check the DXT files in the aircraft folder or just your scenery? Making sure all your AI textures are DXT3 with Alpha channel will help performance...

 

But the most likely cause is MISSING REPAINTS... If the traffic file is calling up a particular aircraft and that aircraft is unavailable for any reason (been deleted, incorrect cfg file etc.) the computer will keep searching for it and that will have serious effects, especially in high traffic areas where those particular AI aircraft are supposed to be displayed. Even a single missing aircraft will have noticeable effects and the more missing aircraft there are the worse it will be...

There's an easy way to check on this. There is a version of MyTraffic (2005 I think) that is available as freeware. Move all your traffic files to a safe location. Rename your aircraft folder and create a new, empty one with just the C172 in it as the default. Then run MyTraffic. Your skies will be filled with low-impact AI traffic. If  you've got full AI traffic and no stutters, you have identified your problem...

Let us know if that works and then I can suggest a solution. (The method I used was very time consuming so someone else may have a better idea)

Cheers

Ian

Dave & Ian,

 

Really appreciate you taking the time to assist me.  Seems i've been looking into this for hours and days now with no positive improvements.

 

As I said earlier today I tried some different recommended drivers and this did not solve the issue.

 

I have also run DxtFixer again and this shows no errors in my dxt files.

 

I also ran ACA2005 and checked that all my flight plans had aircraft etc and the only errors that It came up with was a few missing lightmap files.

 

I have added a couple more of my add on sceneries this evening.  Bangkok VTBS which is a frame hogger and fsdreamteam New York KJFK.

 

No stutters were evident at VTBS but I had a few at KJFK, but not as many as Heathrow where I get the most regular stutters.

 

I will keep trying various options and update you as I go.

 

I will get this working.

 

SImon

Quick update.

 

Added a few more of my add-ons tonight Frankfurt EDDF, Schipol EHAM and Paris LFPG.

 

No stutters at any of these airports and the traffic is really heavy at these airports.

 

So back to Heathrow for more tests.

 

I then removed British Airways from the traffic files, and hey presto no stutters.

 

I then removed all other traffic and left British Airways running and got the stutters.

 

I am sure my set up should run FS9 with just one airline installed !

 

So its either the British Airways traffic plan or the ai aircraft , maybe a bad texture.

 

I have tried a new British Airways flightplan, and still get stutters, so I think it maybe one of my British Airways textures.

 

This may of course be a total coincidence !

 

Will report back tomorrow.

 

Simon

Be aware that some AI textures are as heavy as for flyable models. So no surprise to get stutters with some traffic.

 

Bernard

Simon - I think it's an almost certainty that your problem is either some bad textures or a missing aircraft in  your BA traffic file. Probably the easiest way to find out would be to change the aircraft.cfg files of the BA aircraft so they show up as "flyable" and you can view them. Or just try deleting the file and downloading the latest WofAI BA file and using that instead....

Sounds like you are close to a solution.  Good luck

Ian

Hi.

 

Don't rely on DXTFixer to find all texture problems. I think it only checks dxt3 format texture files so it will overlook 32-bit textures, 24-bit no-alpha bitmaps, possibly dxt1 and so on.

 

You will need to check your BA planes manually. It shouldn't take too long (maybe one evening's work...). Use Traffic Tools to decompile and identify which planes are associated with the relevant flightplans, then follow Ian's advice and fly each one yourself. You can reconfigure them as player planes rather than AI using AI Aircraft Editor (Owlsnest Tools, or via Scruffy Duck who provides the airport editor ADE9X).

 

Regards,

Dave