DX10 VC Shadows

[fakeflyer737 991]

Do you guys find that using Shadows in the VC (DX10 Fixer) smashes your FPS? I'm not sure if this is normal or if I'm having a problem.

[ZKOKQ 984]

Your having a problem Ron. I would post on Steve's forum

[fakeflyer737 991]

OK thanks Julian, but do you see zero FPS hit when use shadows?

[ZKOKQ 984]

No Ron, not at all. I have shadows enabled in the PMDG 777 with no issues. Wonder if you have a setting that is not right ?

[fakeflyer737 991]

Well Im trying it for the first time in the new Aerosoft Airbus 320 and there are so many options in the DX10 for shadows I don't know which ones to check or uncheck and the manual isn't explaining things very well. Do you fly jets with the shadows?

[ZKOKQ 984]

Yes, but i would restore the new mdl file for the AS A320, as the new version comes already enabled, and that could be why you are having fps issues. It could be forcing shadows twice, I assume

[SteveFx 258]

There are no simple answers.

 

The cost of VC shadows is the cost of drawing the aircraft twice plus some extra texture sampling on the main pass.

 

There are no significant performance affecting options in the DX10SF shadow dialog to worry about.

 

For most people running fairly high AA most of the GPU processing goes into anti aliasing during the main pass which contains clouds and autogen so the cost of VC shadows is fairly insignificant overall.

 

However for someone running without any AA on a low spec machine with low weather and scenery settings the extra cost for a complex aircraft could reduce frame rates.

[fakeflyer737 991]

There are no simple answers.

 

The cost of VC shadows is the cost of drawing the aircraft twice plus some extra texture sampling on the main pass.

 

There are no significant performance affecting options in the DX10SF shadow dialog to worry about.

 

For most people running fairly high AA most of the GPU processing goes into anti aliasing during the main pass which contains clouds and autogen so the cost of VC shadows is fairly insignificant overall.

 

However for someone running without any AA on a low spec machine with low weather and scenery settings the extra cost for a complex aircraft could reduce frame rates.

 

 

ahhh I see, I run 8x in the Fixer and 8SGSS in NVI...which is really high AA for a GTX 680 but it looks so nice, no shimmering. I'm getting a 970 soon so hopefully that will help with the shadows.

 

thanks for the help guys

[ZKOKQ 984]

There are no simple answers.

 

The cost of VC shadows is the cost of drawing the aircraft twice plus some extra texture sampling on the main pass.

 

There are no significant performance affecting options in the DX10SF shadow dialog to worry about.

 

For most people running fairly high AA most of the GPU processing goes into anti aliasing during the main pass which contains clouds and autogen so the cost of VC shadows is fairly insignificant overall.

 

However for someone running without any AA on a low spec machine with low weather and scenery settings the extra cost for a complex aircraft could reduce frame rates.

Steve, what I was trying to tell Ron, was that you can't enable VC shadows using the fixer toolbox as the new A320, comes full enabled by Aerosoft. So using the toolbox to enable will cause issues, I assume. Just do nothing and VC shadows will be there.

[SteveFx 258]

Hi Julian,

 

The model has a flag (its one bit actually) which the toolbox can turn on.

In this case the model is now shipping it with the flag already set on so the toolbox wouldn't do anything if it was run.

 

The ForceVCShadows setting tells FSX to ignore the individual model flags and create VC shadows for all aircraft.

 

There is no way to turn shadows on twice so to speak.

[ZKOKQ 984]

Ok, cheers, thanks for that info Steve. I thought, wrongly it may have led to Ron's drop in FPS, which I certainly don't experience. You learn something everyday