10.40 (Beta 1) is out!

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

I am starting to have problems with SkyMaxx Pro.  Tonight my FRs suddenly dropped to 3-4 and I kept turning off add-ons until I got to Silver Lining (SkyMaxx).  FRs jumped up into the 60s.  Anyone else seeing this?  I could turn it right back on and get in the 40s range, but don't know why, other than entering a weather system, which it was doing, it would do that..

 

John

[vr-pilot 11]

 

 

I could turn it right back on and get in the 40s range, but don't know why

I had this one, too. Got into low FPS, deactivated SkyMaxx, FPS went up again. After re-activating SkyMaxx FPS stayed in high numbers...

But I think that is not a typical 10.40 issue. I had this SkyMaxx effect (once!) in 10.35/36.

Anyway, looking forward to get the 10.40 official release B)

[mdavis 10]

I had some "slideshow" framerates in some areas around Bangkok (VTBD) which I traced to some faulty scenery, I thought.  I removed some recently added scenery in the area and they came back up.  BUT it may have been because I re-loaded X-Plane.  I've also worked on some scenery in WED and run into OOM errors with 32GB of RAM !!  This was apparently because something (WED or XP or ??) wasn't "releasing" RAM after closing.  This was also under 10.35 or 10.36.  I have not had any such problems with 10.40b2 (never got b1). 

 

I have also been checking my log.txt file closely for scenery errors and fixing them.  Most errors are handled properly by X-Plane and do not affect framerates, but if scenery causes me problems, I remove it until I can fix it.  There is a lot of "dirty" scenery out there that doesn't not Validate in WED and which will throw errors into log.txt.  I'm continually amazed that any author would upload "finished" scenery that does not pass WED Validation, and I am amazed at the large number of simple taxi sign syntax errors I see and fix before allowing that scenery into my installation.  I realize these guys are generating a large amount of very complex scenery and doing a lot of editing, but I'm also amazed at the Custom Scenery that is full of bugs.

 

The bottom line is that since fixing or removing all scenery errors shown in my log.txt file, I'm not having any framerate issues.  And I'm running SkyMaxxPro2 and flying all over the world.

 

After editing in WED, I often just reboot my computer.  Since the OS is on an SSD, it takes about 20 seconds so isn't much of a hassle.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Anyone getting microstutters? Am running 377.88 because it is smooth as silk with 10.36.

 

No hit on frame rate though (but not using extended) as don't go above FL25 (will do once IXEG arrives though).

 

cheers

Peter

Hi Peter...I have tried each and every newer driver suite to drive my GTX680 2GB, past the 377.88's..but no other driver, as you have found, gives you the highest mean-average (and as you say, smoooooth) FPS action as this older set does.  At least for anything around the production period of the GTX6xx series.

 

Also, I have found that E-DSF is good at even 2,000 feet as I made my descent into CYTZ...from about 25 miles out...and (my pics of this are on this thread to demonstrate such...) the Toronto Skyline with the C.N. Tower, was clearly out there.  I normally fly G.A. at around 3,500 to 5,500 feet, and have found a world of difference in scope and object details as laid out upon the horizon. I would suggest you keep it as always on, if your CPU/GPU can handle it.  It makes XP into a truly 'other' sim, for sure!  

 

I also find, that the more you run XP.40b1, the better it is...almost like XP now having an 'intelligent algorithm' to tune itself and 'learn' the more you fly it.  I'm not suggesting hard-copy that any of that is in the code..but it is from a user point of view.  The more I run the dang thing...the better and smoother it becomes. I've never seen this kind of behavior in XP, let alone any other sim platform.  It is plain crazy....but...the metrics are there, in FPS and visuals....   

 

Ses

[alpilotx 505]

I also find, that the more you run XP.40b1, the better it is...almost like XP now having an 'intelligent algorithm' to tune itself and 'learn' the more you fly it.  I'm not suggesting hard-copy that any of that is in the code..but it is from a user point of view.  The more I run the dang thing...the better and smoother it becomes. I've never seen this kind of behavior in XP, let alone any other sim platform.  It is plain crazy....but...the metrics are there, in FPS and visuals....   

 

Well ... I can (almost 100%) assure you, that this is vooodoo :p0805:  ... It might seem as if it is like this ... and its understandable, that users like to rather believe in some magic instead of understanding the complex influential factors, which can all (and often in some weird combination) affetc FPS.

I had short write up on this over at the org some time ago:

• http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=81150&p=864489

Here I quote myself from the ORG (for all of you, who can't read over there):

 

Well, remember guys that FPS is not like in tuned first person shooters games which can be pinned at 30 or 60 FPS. With its very complex and extensive scenery structure and extremely wide variety of airplanes it has a gigantic span of possible load scenarios. This openness of the sim is on one side its strength (as it lets us model a wide variety of landscapes and aircraft) and also its misery, because its absolutely impossible to make such different content scenarios all run equally well.

 

Add to this, that the different scenery + aircraft scenarios can dip your system into undesirable states quite quickly, even without you noticing (other than sudden FPS drops). One such - and most prominent - factor is the VRAM (the RAM on your graphics card). If it peaks (if you run out of VRAM) then it does not gracefully slow down, but can introduce very sudden drops in FPS .... And filling up VRAM is not very hard nowadays (with complex aircraft and complex scenery ... with lots of textures and complex 3D models).  ... Then we can also factor in things like Bus (PCI-E 2 or 3, how many lanes --> different bandwidth), Mainboard limitations, RAM limitations (the main RAM can be filled too - and when swapping begins, everything is lost) ... OS specific stuff (who knows what background tasks an OS comes up from time to time), drivers etc. etc. .... All these can aggravate or improve the situation when one of the resources is peaking ...

 

Add to this the extreme variations in possible rendering settings (+ display resolutions) ... where a single setting can save you from peaking (for example filling up VRAM), and thus saving you from sudden FPS drops ... or the other way around, the same setting (one notch higher), can quickly dip you into "VRAM filled state".

 

And hey, even in the same scenery, sometimes your viewing direction (a big city to the left, open sea to the right, dense clouds in the front, clear sky in your back) can make big differences too ....

 

So, what I want to say is, that a simulator with its billions of possible situations / configurations / hardwares can pose quite a big bandwidth of different FPS situation (from 1 to 200 FPS ... on the same machine) ... and - as I told above - there are "good" reasons to sometimes change FPS quite suddenly.

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

I really don't believe it is 10.40b2 or SkyMaxx Pro causing the problem.  I think that when the upgrade came in, something didn't match up with the codes.  I will delete and reinstall SkyMaxx Pro, and if that doesn't do it, I will revert to 10.36 and bring it back to 10.40.  Hopefully, that will fix it.  

 

As for disabling Silver Lining and then enabling, it re-occurred later, so that was not a permanent cure.

 

Overall, I am very happy with both products and since I have just started flying the BIG boys (777 Worldliner for one) 10.40 with the extended range came through just in the nick of time.

 

John

[scotchegg 4,240]

Some people at the Org have noted frames problems are only with prop aircraft, not jets. Can't check this myself at the moment but if others have time...

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Some people at the Org have noted frames problems are only with prop aircraft, not jets. Can't check this myself at the moment but if others have time...

Scotch...I get 17-30 FPS with all my Carenado props...so...I dunno......

 

 

I will revert to 10.36 and bring it back to 10.40.

 

----------------------------------

 

I did just that...didn't fly or load .36, but then brought back .40b2 ontop of it. I then rebooted my system, and fired up .40b2.  It's been great performance ever since.  My first ever download was disastrous....

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

 

 

only with prop aircraft, not jets

 

Mine occurred while flying a long 777 flight somewhere over Maryland.  Might have been some government installation there jamming my stuff!

 

My props have been fine but my long flights have only been jet and it occurred during a pretty long flight.

 

John

[Robby 0]

Some people at the Org have noted frames problems are only with prop aircraft, not jets. Can't check this myself at the moment but if others have time...

I can reproduce a significant FPS drop, but only with my Carenado planes. I start with very good FPS cold and dark, but performance drops by around 10-20 FPS (!) once I start the engine. If I turn the engine off again, FPS is recovering. This does not happen with the default X-Plane C172.

Machine is i7-2700K @4.9GHz, GTX 770 4GB, 16 GB Ram

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

After many hours flying with .40b2, I feel that my FPS median for most scenery and renderings is around 22-23 FPS...as in this shot flying along the North Carolinian Inter-Coastal Waterway.  Yeah...around 22-23 FPS.  Not bad...and no stutters of any kind. This is with E-DSF engaged. In fact, it only costs me (through observation, just one (1), FPS. That's all...so it is going to stay on from now on, no matter what altitude I am flying.

 

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

  For some reason, I cannot post pictures here, but I flew through the Grand Canyon with the latest UHD mesh and with edsf enabled and my FRs are 53.   This was in a Carenado F33.  My settings range in the Very High range.  Can't ask for more than that!

 

i7-4770

16 Gigs of DRAM

GTX-770 with 4 GB VRAM

Standard Seagate 2TB Hard Drive

ASUS Z87-A motherboard

No overclocking

 

John

[scotchegg 4,240]

What driver are you running John?

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

 

 

What driver are you running John?

 

The 337 version...  Others just don't seem to do the job.

 

John

[mtaxp 666]

FYI Beta 3 is online , those of you who had FPS problems , this will likely fix it.