Beau

Lockheed Martin
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Re: Bug with cloud-altitudes in meters and feet - and performance issue
on: September 4, 2014, 11:24 Quote

Hello all. We found the issue that is likely causing the majority of cloud related issues in 2.3. Some of the cloud math got tweaked during 2.3 development and the size of clouds got doubled. We do plan on releasing a hot fix but will first prioritize known issues to see what fixes we can get in reasonably soon. In the meantime, you can resolve the cloud issue by doing the following:

• Brows to the ShadersHLSL folder. This is in the main application folder where the Prepar3D.exe is. You may need elevated permissions to do this if you installed into program files with standard windows security settings.
• Open Cloud.fx in notepad or another text editor
• Look for this this line (should be around line 300 if you have line numbers enabled in your editor):
• GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width, height );
• Scale the width and height down by half with this change:
• GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.5, height*0.5 );
• Save your changes and close the file

Our system should detect the newer file and rebuild the shader, but if it does not, you can clear the shader cache:

• Not go to DRIVE:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\
• Delete the Shaders folder. This will clear the cache.

As I have posted in a few other threads, you can also disable the volume effect by finding this line:

#define VOLUMIZE

and commenting it out

//#define VOLUMIZE

The volume effect should be a 5-10% hit in the worst case, but the hit was being magnified because there were 4x as many pixels in the bigger cloud sprites. If you like the effect but turned it off for performance reasons, you may want to try turning it back on after fixing the cloud scale.

Beau Hollis
Rendering System Lead - Prepar3D® Team

 

Link:http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=7984.0

 

Hope it helps.It is very good to see LM responding to the cloud FPS hit issue

 

Lyn

 

EDIT: It appears that some of the data did not copy over well so please follow the link to get the exact settings to change. Sorry about that!

Thanks for heads up.

Spirit

FYI ... on my system it was line 301 ... maybe Beau references from 0 rather than 1.

 

Cheers, Rob.

UPDATE!

I recreated a flight I did this morning with the time set to dusk. FPS dropped into the low teens and was pretty choppy. (FPS locked at 33 using Precision X)

After this fix, and resetting the volumize setting back to default, I ran the same flight. FPS dropped to 26.7 at the lowest and no stutters! It was a beautiful sunset flight!

 

This works very well on my system!

 

Lyn

Excellent news! Will try the fix tonight and report back.

How does it looks???

I can say that things look and run much better now!  Don't have number but easily 5-10 FPS improvement when clouds are involved.  

 

I removed both volumize and did the 0.5 scalar fix, definitely an improvement.

I've kept the Volumize as I really like the look, but I can confirm there is less performance hit:

 

 

I did recording while Visual Studio 2012, SSMS (SQL Server), IM, Outlook, and a few other programs where still running in the background.  So I'd say the adjustments are a success.

 

Note: this is Orbx NCA + Vector with ASN Weather which is already hard on performance without any weather.  Hopefully others will see improvements and it's not just my video card

 

Cheers, Rob.

Rob,

 

in this video did you already removed the cranes and windmils in NCA, for some extra fps, and to remove the white lightning?

I tried it and returned back to original, didnt like the new clouds at all.

Im not having too many sttuters.

 

Did the same flight out of KSEA with ASN with the mod ,small clouds , removed the mod, nice and realistic overcast.

Awesome sauce - thanks for the update!

This setting looks MUCH better.  I was concerned, seeing obvious edges at the cloud sprite edges, it was kinda ugly.  I thought it was something I did.  Since I'm working on an install routine, maybe I'll make one for this fix.

I'm not so keen. I now have lots of smaller puffs. rather than the large cloud structures, even on max settings.

 

I'm returning to the original sizing, as I want proper clouds, not silly little puffs, like XPX... the bases look horrid like this :angry:

 

I just hope running the larger size will be possible it future builds :unsure:

Oh yes ,what a great fix !

My sim is greatly improved qua smoothness now!

 

I am so happy i can not tell you!

 

The new beta Nvidea driver is expecting soon,lets hope that would bring some more improvement to!

 

Many thanks for the head up topicstarter!

 

 

I now have lots of smaller puffs. rather than the large cloud structures, even on max settings.

 

I agree with you default weather options now have much smaller clouds, but have you tried moving cloud density slider up to max?  BUT, if you use ASN (haven't tested other weather engines yet) you will get much better clouds and performance.

 

But you might also want to try to changing the multiplier from 0.5 to 0.75 and see how that works (or not for you).

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

 

 

in this video did you already removed the cranes and windmils in NCA, for some extra fps, and to remove the white lightning?

 

I applied the crane and dock fix a couple of weeks ago, left everything else intact.  I also have FB's KSFO with UT2 running at 40/20 also.  In prior tests, this same area in a "clear" day I was struggling with 12-15 fps (without UT and FB's KSFO) ... in a cloudy day (similar to my video) I was dropping into 8 fps.  So it's nice to see I'm worst case 17 fps and averaging 28 fps even with task running in the background.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

 

The new beta Nvidea driver is expecting soon,lets hope that would bring some more improvement to!

 

Yeah I was expecting those to be out by now ... I'm optimistically hoping it's because they are working with LM and it's taking time ... probably not the case, but I'd rather think positive.

 

Cheers, Rob.