X-Plane occasional hitching

[mdavis 10]

The "hitches" so far have not been an annoyance to me.  If you really wanted to rule out cloud generation, you could fly under clear skies and see if the problem goes away.  Other than that, I think it's a matter of scenery draw distance and the sheer amount of data that must be loaded at high detail settings.  I could pull my eye candy sliders way back, watch my framerates skyrocket and test that theory as well, I guess.  As I mentioned elsewhere, as you descend on an approach, the scenery and cloud draw distance will decrease (although airport scenery density could offset it), and your speed slows, the computer has more time to pay attention to framerates and has less new scenery to load - presumably it has already been loaded as you come down.  I've never had a "hitch" on an approach flying some fairly complex Carenado aircraft.  Admittedly I have not flown the super-complex big iron in X-Plane yet, but I think it would impact framerates rather than "hitches."

 

With my fast system, framerates are no problem anymore and my CPU/GPU values loaf around 15-22% when flying, so I think it's a loading issue, not a CPU or RAM issue, and I sure don't run out of RAM, either.  I did not install XP on my SSHD but it would be good to hear from anyone who has.  My HDs are super-fast 4TB with 64GB cache on SATA3 6GB/sec cables to the mobo, so only an SSHD could be faster at that point.

 

I hope others will do some experimenting here.  I have out of town guests all week and my play time is limited.  It would be nice to know the source of the "hitches" or is anyone out there who does not have the problem.

[mdavis 10]

Another thought comes to mind here.  If you have ANY background program running that periodically "phones home" for data such as an anti-virus scanner, Microsoft Defender, Adobe plug-ins or any vendor that wants to momentarily take over your CPU cycles to inject its own data, you will likely get a "hitch."  Many of these vendors set their update checker to automatic without offering the user the option of doing it manually at the time of installation.

 

Also, as someone noted elsewhere, turn real weather OFF and see if it makes any difference.

[mdavis 10]

I've been paying closer attention to the "hitches" in a short flight this morning into Paro (VQPR) in a Carenado Cessna 208B.  The only "hitch" I noticed was during a weather update/upload going from mostly clear skies (few clouds) to much heavier clouds as I approached the mountain ranges.  I will continue to monitor what's happening when flying, but that may also account for the fact that I've never had a "hitch" during an approach perhaps because the weather has already been loaded and displayed earlier.  I am using SkyMaxx Pro with some fairly heavy settings, so I don't know if the "hitch" is the internet connection pause, or a system pause while new weather (already loaded) is prepared for display.

[User72 28]

Yeah I get that when weather updates. However I periodically get 2 or 3 second pauses for no apparent reason where CPU usage on 12 threads jumps to 100% before going back to normal. I find I also get micro-stuttering at times too. It's not too bad when fps above 30 but I find it to be intensely annoying. I mainly operate VFR over high res photoscenery (Zoom level 18) with W2XP OSM so I'm looking down a lot to marvel at the scenery. The stutters just destroy the effect. It didn't used to be that way.

[mdavis 10]

I'm still playing with this, trying to find a reason (if not a solution).  I'm guessing at this point that it has to do with cloud generation settings, which are a huge load on the system.  This would explain why weather updates cause a slight pause, especially if XP is looking for information at the same time the system is polling the 'net for an update.  I don't know exactly how XP handles weather, but in FSX, using ActiveSky (for example) the entire weather for the globe was downloaded during initialization before the program began, so if that is the case for XP, it would take a few moments to update the entire weather database each time the server is accessed.

 

I actually crashed my display drivers yesterday when I made a big change in my SkyMaxx Pro settings while flying, so the current nVidia drivers (344.75 as this is written) may be suspect, although I have had no problems with them otherwise.  The did add a new MFAA (Multi-frame sampled anti-aliasing) mode in the latest edition which may not work quite right with XP or FSX.  I also know that in FSX, that it used to be recommended that you use the settings in FSX, not the nVidia driver settings, although I don't know if that is still valid information.

 

Guests leave today, so I'll do some more testing.

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

I have noticed during testing, the hitching only happens during day hours, at night in the same location with same weather set the FPS are higher, and the hitching does NOT occur! 

[mdavis 10]

That would lend further support to the possibility that it is clouds or scenery draw distance that is causing the "hitch."  XP9 used "fog" or "haze" to limit draw distance to help framerates.  In XP10, that is not a factor (unless you have it included in custom weather settings).  At night, clouds are not much of a display factor.

[bgpearce01 36]

I have been searching since I got X-Plane 8 months ago for this exact problem.  My system is almost identical to the OP, 4770k 4.4 ghz, gtx 980 samsung evo ssd etc and its like a hiccup every couple of minutes. None of my other games experience this problem.  I did a clean install this week, and added no plugins and it was still happening.  Now i just have skymaxx pro, pilot view and trackir installed.  I dont think it is the nvidia drivers cause I am constantly swapping out my drivers with betas but have reverted back to the 337 to try to resolve this issue.

 

Its frustrating because I have spent so much time, money and research to get XP10 to run as smooth as possible and its there, with the exception of this.

[BabtridgeMcJoystick 0]

Hi guys

 

EDIT: OK I just did a test with my Centurion, and what I was finding was the hitches are in the same spot every time. I took off from Innsbruck, and the hitch happened when I got to a little bend in the river every time, so It looks like there is something X-Plane is doing when it hits that boundary. It locks for a full second or more with the centurion (complex model), half a second with the C152 (less complex), and about a quarter second with the Cirrus TheJet. Downloadable weather is off. Clouds at 89%, other objects are around medium settings. Most everything else is at or near max, though I am yet to replace my little 1280 x 1080 monitor (yeah I know). Setting NVidia DSR to HD resolutions doesnt seem to impact performance much at all however, if thats any indication.

 

ORIGINAL POST: My apologies for not coming back to the thread sooner, I have been fighting with P3D / FSX to try and get ORBX up and running Thats what I get for treating myself to all the sims to see which one I like best lol.

 

Now I think about it, I did have the weather download thing active. I know this because I loaded up somewhere and they had 26 knot crosswinds. My little cessna decided it wanted to roll, and roll, and roll... (is that normal?). I think I turned the weather download off after that but don't recall if it stopped hitching, I will have to test.

 

I have no addons at all except a little Cessna 152 and.. something else. IDK I had a binge in the Carenado sale. No scenery packs or anything at all. I was flying a default Cessna at the time. Oh yeah it was the Cessna Centurion with the glass cockpit is the other one.

 

But yes its odd, lots of very capable hardware yet still the hitching. Its not a show stopper, but when you have splashed out on lots of expensive silicon you feel compelled to sort it!

[BabtridgeMcJoystick 0]

OK I am on a bit of a mission now. I am using the same flight path each time, departing Innsbruck on runway 8, then flying roughly bearing 070 once leaving the runway threshold until I meet a bend in the river.

 

 

With object settings at "a lot" you should see two triangles of static carvans (depending on your scenery packs). Its at this point I always get the lock up, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. Hopefully people can repeat this.

 

I tried the following, repeating twice to make sure of the result. Values were changed independently, not cumulatively:

 

Reducing clouds completely to zero: Still get hitching

Reducing trees to zero: Still get hitching

Reducing Objects to zero: Still get hitching

 

Then I got tired Weather download is off, Anti-virus is off. No TrackIR. Most other sliders at max or ON etc. Latest NVidia drivers. Nothing conclusive, but I will try other things.

 

By the by, whilst trying to take screenshots, I met PSYCHO BOEING. The first time I met him, he raced to the end of my runway (yes, my runway lol I was already on it), wafted back and forth with smoke pouring off the tires, then basically did a handbrake turn and hammered it towards me. Result:

 

 

 

 

Scuse the jaggies, its running on a monitor from 1783. NASA were in a massive hurry. I saved it as a situation and twice he decided to ramp himself up the side of the mountain, and the third time he just sat there. So I took off over him

[bgpearce01 36]

Haha cools pics.  Ok so your incurring one of these in the same spot? Now that I think back I would see it in roughly the same position after takeoff.  And you have turned weather off which is kinda what my thinking was too, but ive tried it without weather updates.

 

So maybe it is hitching when it loads a new scenery tile?  I havent seen anything in the one second range but i do get the 1/4 sec ones, using baron and 320neo.  I did a flight from la guardia to miami couple of nights ago and didnt notice it altitude.  So from what you have said here im thinking it has to be scenery based.

[BabtridgeMcJoystick 0]

It could well be, though of course that would be quite dismaying given its running on one of the fastest SSDs available :( I wonder if it doesnt like DDR4? My CPU is running at 4Ghz too.

 

Now I think about it I have my nvidia 3d settings configured for my oculus rift, I will try making an XP profile. Are there any good recommended ones anyone knows of?

[BabtridgeMcJoystick 0]

Hmm cant edit my older post so have to start a new one.

 

Done some more testing this morning (nice being on annual leave lol) and it looks very much like it DOES come down to clouds. I tried putting every slider to zero, (and the key piece) turned off clouds in the weather tab by setting to 'clear' at all altitudes and setting to minimum on the rendering tab. Whilst there was still the very occasional, tiny stutter, it was smooth.

 

Then I gradually started turning up all the other settings, until I had all the sliders pretty much at full apart from objects which I left in the medium / high range - just so it looks nice and filled out. Tiny little hitches, only a fraction of a second, started to come back, but were infrequent and not as invasive as before. Turning texture resolution to very high made a small impact, but this seemed intermittent.

 

Then I turned the clouds back on. I had read a performance guide (very old) that suggested certain types of cloud are worse than others, but to be honest it doesn't seem to make that much difference which ones I selected. Once clouds were on, the one-second hangs came back, even with every other setting at minimum.

 

So, to get rid of hitching, I either need to disable clouds, or find the right combination that doesn't affect my machine too much. However, it does seem odd that with everything else at minimum and clouds on, the problem persists especially on very capable hardware. Possible incompatibility? I am running an X99 rig. I really hope a solution can be found.

 

Also I got a replay of psycho boeing driving up the side of a cliff if anyone wants to see

 

[bgpearce01 36]

There has to be something to help smooth out the clouds being injected/rendered.  If I am going to disable clouds I might as well uninstall.  I already purchased skymaxx because of the performance optimization and realism.  Do the developers not experience this problem or do they just see it as normal?

[mdavis 10]

Great work, guys!!  Yes, even with SkyMaxx Pro (which is supposed to help framerates), my system is as fast as anything out there right now, and I'm getting slight pauses for loading.  I'm not running XP10 from an SSHD but it is on a super-fast 4TB drive with 64GB cache on SATA3 6.0GB cables which is nearly as fast.  I'm tied up trying to D/L the new v3 mesh, but I'll do some playing with cloud puff sizes and draw distances which are suspect.