Nobody mentioned photoreal scenery? I'm not convinced that TML is a major factor yet, I've only had a few hours with P3D2.5 and PMDG77X but I did make it KATL:to FSDT KLAX with 4096 TML and plenty of VAS remaining. LOD is a major factor.

 

Thanks. LOD stays on top. Photoreal is not part of P3DV2 sliders but nice to know.

 

Michael

Orbx Vector is another VAS killer. It can easily consume 300 Mb VAS when all options are selected. I always turn off secondary and tertiary roads as well as the power lines. No traffic or traffic lights for primary and secondary roads. Helps with fps and VAS.

 

LOD is for sure one of the most important levers for saving VAS. If I'm really short on VAS, I turn it down from 4.5 (my usual setting) to 3.5. Saves about 150 Mb (depending on location of course).

 

Today I completed a flight from Aerosoft Heathrow Extended to Taxi2Gate Istanbul flying over FTX Global, FTX Vector and openLC Europe. Short after takeoff, free VAS was down to 700 Mb. I thought, I would not make it to Istanbul, but it stayed at 700 Mb all the way to Istanbul and the destination airport consumed only another 200 Mb so that I landed with 500 Mb of free VAS. So with the right settings P3D v2.5 can handle the PMDG 777. And it's just a wonderful plane. Definitely one of my best all time buys. Loving it...

Lots of AI traffic also.

As an example load FSDT Klax or T2G VHHH, get in the 777,then turn AI up to 100%

 

VAS slowly depletes as all the different AI livery variations load then OOM comes along quickly.

 

I spent a long time getting rid of the default Liveries in UT2 and also assigning several variations to many of my favourite airlines.

 

But I'm thinking of going and cutting back the number of livery variations to 1 per airline/type.

 

I believe if Liveries are the same model and same textures, eg all Qantas 737 use the same livery, then VAS is less affected.

 

I'm also replacing retiring aircraft. Eg 767 for Qantas is replaced with A330. That's less variations to load. Can also use same model for both types of A330.

Seeing as I use no AI, I only use it for vatsim.

What are your guys experience with clouds? To they take VAS, or is more vram that it consumes (video memory)?

I would really like to check the "enhance overcast" in ASN.

Regardless of settings, the biggest VAS hoarders are complex scenery addons...period. I experimented with DDesign Miami X and LatinVFR Miami, and never made it out of the gate...lol. I uninstalled both, since it's simply not worth it at this point, despite the fact that performance with those addons was somewhat negligibly effected.

 

The 32bit VAS limitation within P3D will be the biggest thorn in the side of scenery developers going forward, I'm afraid.

GEX is costing me 400MB+ for some reason. Only OOM I've had since 2.5 was after installing the GEX trial. Flew an Aerosoft Airbus from Milan (default) to Vienna (FlyTampa) and never made it. OOM on final.

Man FS needs 64-bit fast...

If you are using the PMDG 777, disabling RAAS in dll.xml will save VAS. I want to say in excess of 100MB, but it's been awhile since I checked. Don't want to be accused of trolling.

This is a routine I use every time before flying.  Don't know exactly how much VAS it saves, but there is a "huge" difference with and without the technique, per the performance tab in Task Manager. I gathered parts from the late Michael Greenblatt and parts from Rob Ainscough, so I don't profess any authorship.  In this order:

 

1. Delete any temporary files by going to C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp (I put a shortcut on the     desktop for this).

2. Empty the recycle bin.

3. Run C Cleaner.

4. Run P3D.

5. Select you starting airport and parking space.

6. Select your aircraft.

7. Select weather, traffic, options, etc.

8. Save the flight.

9. Exit P3d and in task manager make sure no other P3D aux programs are running.

10.Restart the computer.

11.Go to C:\Users\User\Documents\Prepare3dv2.x files and click on the flight name, which will have a P3D icon in it.

11. After the flight loads, load your flight plan, and run any peripheral programs, like FSGRW, ASN, GTN 750, etc.

12. Go fly!

 

I know this seems like a lot to preflight, but it really takes about only five minutes.  If I don't use the technique, with my setup I get OOM's every flight.  Using it I get none.

 

Also, again per Rob, every time you switch views from inside the cockpit to outside and vice-versa, it uses VAS that's lost forever.  So, because I fly from the virtual cockpit, unless there are compelling reasons to go to outside views, I don't.