There is one other "fix" included in 10.40b3 - Laminar has included an updated database for the magnetic variation. This is what it does:

 

Since the magnetic poles "wander" around all the time, the magnetic variation (the difference between the direction to the north pole and the direction that a compass needle would point to) changes all the time. This difference is given as "variation" or "declination" and is important for aviation, since most "directions" are given as "magnetic" directions. Example: If you fly across Phoenix, Arizona, you will notice that most roads are aligned north-south and east-west. Since they are aligned to TRUE north, you will have to fly a heading of about 349 deg to follow them.

 

Here is a nifty website to check local variation:

 

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag-web/#declination

 

Lets jump to PAVD Pioneer Field, Alaska. Here the difference between true and magnetic north is pretty big - 18.4 deg east!

 

http://skyvector.com/airport/VDZ/Valdez-Pioneer-Field-Airport

 

In X-Plane 10.36, the variation was 24.2 deg EAST. The current (2015) variation is 18.4 EAST. The variation in 2019 will be 17.03 EAST.

 

The variation displayed in X-Plane 10.40b3 is now 16.68 EAST. The table provided within X-Plane 10.40 is tuned to the year 2019, this way there will be increasing accuracy over the next 5 years, and then decreasing accuracy after that (until someone makes a new table).

 

So what does this mean?

 

This update makes it possible again to use present day aeronautical charts with some accuracy. If you flew an ILS in X-Plane 10.36 in a no-wind condition and referenced a present-day chart, you might have noticed that you are drifting "off the localizer", despite steering the published front course. This effect should now be minimal.

 

Alaska is a pretty extreme example, variation change there is about one third of a degree per year! Most areas of the world are within one tenth of a degree, so magnetic directions should now again be accurate within one degree.

I've been seeing issues with Xpx lately. Tonight having updated to b3, I loaded in to Cardiff and the carenado C340 and my FPS sat at just 1/2 a frame! Like the rest of you, I disabled various plugins, with SMP 2 Being the one that boosted my FPS back up. The thing is, the stutters remained.

 

Know I haven't tested it yet, but I suspect the latest nvidia drivers are causing my stutters, or rather a particular part of the driver. With FSX I've been seeing bad performance due to a nvdsync or something like that was running and taking 25% of my cpu cycles. Ending the process solved the problem.

 

Tonight, just before I switched off for the last time, I noticed the same process running with. Xpx running at the same time. Again it was taking 25% of the CPU. I suspect it's this that's causing the issue. I'll check later.

 

Has anybody else noticed this?

Grab .b3!!!

 

Just updated, rebooted, and I have gained apples-to-apples 6-9 FPS from 22 FPS (b40b2 nominal)  to now  28-32 FPS, at my same KFNT, starting position, with not even moving. At taxi to the active...staying at 28-30 FPS!

 

.40x performance is now blowing away anything in any .30x version I had for FPS output...and this is even with E-DSF now always checked as 'on'.  

 

 

Post Edit: Once in the air, I gained an average of 4-6 (over my median 22 FPS with b.2) FPS that can be easily maintained over complex scenery, and my posted settings.  I am very pleased with this outcome. Laminar (Ben) is honing in...  Most pleased with the effort!

 

Ses

 

GRAB .b3~

I have uninstalled SkyMaxx Pro 2.1.1 and reinstalled  and tonight I had the low framerate (3 - 4) to kick in mid flight.  I disabled the "Silver Lining" plugin and the framerates jumped back into the 50s.  Re-enabled and everything was ok and continued my flight.  I know others are seeing this and would like to know if anyone has figured out a permanent solution.

 

Thanks,

 

John

Jessica have you got hyper-threading set to off in Nvidia control panel? Having it on or auto has been a frequent cause of stutters in newer Nvidia drivers.

Will check.

Did you note that the avionics sound is there but won't sound? or is just me? can anyone confirm this?

I'm still getting severe stuttering with 353.06 drivers. I'm tempted to roll back to 337 series but I don't want to lose GTAV optimisations in the later ones. 

 

Anyway, bug filed.

I am not expecting anything from LR regarding weather and AI hence I don't use Xplane anymore so never bothered to update as I don't fly in Xplane anymore  but I did update it today. And I may still fly it.

 

I sold my desktop a few days back and now just on the Toshiba laptop which has 8 GB RAM and a 1 GB Dedicated Nvidia GT525m and an i5 2430m which is downclocked to 1.6 Ghz so it does not go above 95 degrees else it will start throttling. (I am planning for a full i7 with Nvidia desktop or a gaming laptop )

 

After updating to 10.40b3 I kept HDR ON with Extended DSF enabled and Texture resolution to Very HIgh and objects to "a lot" ,  Shadows to static / water to none / trees to the max / roads to max.

 

Either it is my imagination or no i have no idea but in certain places like Mont Blank / Banff I am seeing better performance where the performance was not good. Now in my hometown VABB I was getting above 25 fps with max settings but now it seems 0.2 fps . Now happened here ?

 

I do have another Lenovo Flex 2 laptop which is I can try on. But it is only with 4 GB RAM.But has a 4th gen i5 and a GT820m with 2 GB. Though the battery and the HDD performance of this laptop is horrid.

 

I am using the latest Nvidia drivers. I have threading enabled and disabling it has made no difference.

 

I do not understand the LOD thing hence Extended DSF does not make any difference to me. 

 

Weather is very very important

 

Let's see how the Ferrari's match up with the Mercs at Spielberg this weekend.

Wish this was available on Steam :(

Wish this was available on Steam :(

it will be once the RC is released. probably in one month or so. The good news is by the time its updated it will have no bugs

I have had an occasion or two where my framerates dropped to a slideshow.  On one occasion it was due to a "bad" custom scenery installation in the loaded tile vicinity.  My log.txt file was showing multiple errors for "bad ramp locations," a scenery package that used "ramps" to place lighthouses outside of the loaded tile area.  Removing that scenery restored framerates.

 

On one occasion, I switched back and forth too quickly too many times from X-Plane to my moving map (FS Commander or Plan-G, I forget which I was using on that flight) and apparently either X-Plane or the other app overloaded the CPU in some manner and created a threaded mess.  I saved the situation, rebooted and framerates returned to normal for the duration of the session.  That one was my fault, not likely X-Plane unless either of the apps or Win 8.1 failed to "release" RAM during the swap.

 

Extended DSF has had absolutely no framerate hit on my system, but I have a LOT of RAM to work with.

Update on sudden framerate drop...

 

I have been flying the 777 Worldliner and the instructions were to disable Gizmo.  This also disables the cloud display in SkyMaxx Pro.  Missing the clouds, I assumed that the "get weather now" was  getting no clouds.  Today, I found that with Gizmo 64 bit (current release), it doesn't seem to impact the 777 and it also gave me clouds and no sudden framerate drops.  

 

I am a happy camper....

 

Thanks,

 

John

There should be absolutely no reason to disable Gizmo to use the 777 John...... 

There should be absolutely no reason to disable Gizmo to use the 777 John...... 

In the instructions...

 

Q: XP locks up with scratching or squeaking sound

A: The 777 Worldliner uses the SASL plugin to generate a 3D sound environment. The sound module is known to conflict with the Gizmo plugin by X-Aviation. If you have the Gizmo plugin installed, you have to deactivate it prior to loading X-Plane for a 777 session.

 

Then, this from Ben...

 

Posted 06 January 2014 - 11:47 PM

I believe this note stems from the days of 32 bit Gizmo, which was crap.

 

There should be no conflict between Gizmo64 and modern SASL products.

 

 

There IS however an outstanding memory leak that I'll have a patch out for shortly; this leak applies to Gizmo64/SkyMAXX... it was Gizmo64's fault, buggy activation scripts.

 

 

TL;DR:

 

Gizmo.plugin bad.

Gizmo64.plugin good.