Trying to achieve the Dream of Smooth Stutter Free Simming

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Which is one of the reasons I keep P3D locked at 20 and don't bother with the FPS counter. As long as it is SMOOTH, I really don't care what the fps is nor can I tell if it's changing. the only time I can notice fps fluctuations is when I look at the fps counter.

 

 

Vic

 

20 fps is not smooth....  Literally the difference between 20 and say 60 fps is completely visible at least to me.  (Not that I can maintain 60 fps in P3D).  If you don't use Track IR 20 fps looks ok if you're just flying in the cockpit view straight and level.  But use TIR or do some turns while hand flying... and 20 fps is not a great experience.

 

Before I get flamed (because I just read through page 3 of this thread) - really smooth is in the eye of the behold I guess.  Vic says he gets a smooth experience at 20 fps.  I just cannot agree with that unless, like I said, your head is in the VC and you're looking straight ahead.  Do any panning with a head device or banking, turning, aerobatics etc.... 20 fps is just not enough.  30 is doable but not great for aerobatics either.

 

I used to have no microstutters in P3D 2.4 - but for some reason 2.5 introduced them.  I had to cut back on texture resolution, slid it back to 1m.  Obviously the Orbx crowd wouldn't like that but I have no choice...  once I do this it's smooth again.

 

In general microstutters typically appear when your system is bogged down.  

[vgbaron 3,627]

20 fps is not smooth....  Literally the difference between 20 and say 60 fps is completely visible at least to me.  (Not that I can maintain 60 fps in P3D).  If you don't use Track IR 20 fps looks ok if you're just flying in the cockpit view straight and level.  But use TIR or do some turns while hand flying... and 20 fps is not a great experience.

On your system maybe - but on mine 20 fps is perfectly smooth because I have tweaked my system to get it that way and I have absolutely NO issues with TIR and, believe me I do not fly without it.

 

I read that a lot of people are having a hard time with it so I know it's a problem but don't just dismiss TIR at 20 offhand. It does work just fine for some.

 

Vic

However, at the end, what you as a Flightsimmer finds that looks the best to you on your system , only that counts

Now THAT'S the truth!!

 

Vic

[ryanbatc 12,857]

We must have different eyes then!

[SteveW 1,792]

I can't agree with some assertions:

 

How fast a plane goes, and how far it goes between frames is not a measure of smoothness. The measure of smoothness would be "are the distances covered equal". But if you want to see the plane drawn in every 5 inches, then yes you will need to increase the frame rate to match speed. This has nothing to do with smoothness.

 

TrackIR depends on perfectly equal time between frames, not update speed. Track IR works on the frame event and is one of those addons that will increase the stress on the system as the fps increases.

[reecemj 146]

I was able to get stable 60fps and smooth (as far as my eye can judge) with fps locked at 60 (v-sync being on or off doesn't make much difference with my setup) with the comanche departing and landing at london stanstead (egss) in daylight with fair weather even during turns and panning the view using fsuipc middle-mouse button option.""""""

 

60!!! And stable with vector,global and lc? Whats your address am fedex my rig so you can tweak it. Joking aside that's awesome.

[SteveW 1,792]

Reducing the screen size is good way to increase fps, I get another 10 going from 1920x1200 down to 1920x1080.

[alpha12125 213]

On your system maybe - but on mine 20 fps is perfectly smooth because I have tweaked my system to get it that way and I have absolutely NO issues with TIR and, believe me I do not fly without it.

 

I read that a lot of people are having a hard time with it so I know it's a problem but don't just dismiss TIR at 20 offhand. It does work just fine for some.

 

I am not dismissing your experience, but do you do quickish panning, looking from left to right with TIR when on the runway or VFR flying ? For a lack of better word dont you get any choppiness ? Like mountains jumping between the frames ?

 

I am asking because what you describe is so against everything that literature says that i am intrigued. I mean even in movies they have guidelines on how fast you can pan a camera on 24 fps so you get a smooth transition. The whole reason why e.g. The hobbit moved to 60fps so they could do faster camera movements and still keep the smoothness.

[SteveW 1,792]

If it's any help, I'm sitting here now panning in TiR and it's set at 20fps fixed, and it's great, no problems.

[kmkc6403 8]

I dont know if it makes a difference, but i have P3D on my mSATA card that plugs directly into my Motherboard. I have few if any stutters as i knew them in older computer builds with FSX, and P3D is just as smooth as butter.

 

Could it be having a "more direct" route with an msata that plugs into the board have something to do with it? My specs are in my sig. I run p3d with it all maxed out and get 60fps (vsync on) and even in NYC and seattle it barely dipped below 40fps.

 

I have ftx global, vector, REX for textures, and ASN running when I fly.

[mickatmian 52]

20 fps may be smooth in that the frames are evenly spaced I get that, but for me it is just a unplayable jerky mess. I would much rather have a few stutters and sim at 30fps, until the hardware catches up that is !!!! :wink:

 

Yeh I know been saying that for ever. well since fs 1? and the DX 33

 

Mick

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Frankly I think having the sim and the sim's core files on different drives can be bad.  I have win7 on another slower sataII ssd.  That might be the reason why I get slowdowns sometimes.

 

It makes logical sense (UAC problems aside - which can be fixed by disabling UAC completely) to have FSX/P3D on the same drive as your OS...  because there's still config files loaded by your addons and the sim on the OS disk.

[SteveW 1,792]

"it barely dipped below 40fps"

 

If it's dipping while set to fixed fps it's not got look ahead frames, it's kind of running at unlimited, varying the time between frames. I would set that system to 20fps fixed, about half what it can do.

[timers15 11]

What finally fixed me was OOM's.  I could never let go of "must have highest visual quality."  So I would put up with stutters so paused screens would look incredible.

Well the OOMs started in P3D.  So I tried lowering all my settings.  It worked.  If I looked closely I can see the difference but the smoothness and reliablity more than made up for it.

Virtual cockpit still looks good and terrain looks good. I just wish I had let myself figure this out before.

 

BTW I also did the same thing to FSX and now I don't need all those tweak utilities AND get 30fps.

 

Eye candy is a hard addiction to beat.

 

PC i7 3770 8GB 3.2-3.8 turbo Ghz, 970GTX

[G MIDY 101]

For those who lock FPS externally like me it might be worth notching your lock up to 65fps, this can be done very nicely in Inspector. It is difficult to attain all the time but it seems far smoother obviously when it hits it. Anything below 40fps is completely unacceptable on my monitor - <40fps looks choppy to the point that it starts to hurt my eyes, I have tried setting my monitor to 30hz but that was a very painful experience.

 

I don't know if Vsync works with Prepar3d properly but in my situation it seems that stutters are caused by adaptive vsync flicking on and off due to FPS being for example 1 fps below 60, turning vsync to standard however causes problems all the time rather than some of the time. That could be completely a placebo effect though, I rarely mess with it because to be honest there is no real fix beyond messing with things until becomes acceptable.

 

For those having lateral stutters or movement related stutters, try turning down your pan rates, it helps considerably!

[rickdeckard 1]

I was able to get stable 60fps and smooth (as far as my eye can judge) with fps locked at 60 (v-sync being on or off doesn't make much difference with my setup) with the comanche departing and landing at london stanstead (egss) in daylight with fair weather even during turns and panning the view using fsuipc middle-mouse button option.""""""

 

60!!! And stable with vector,global and lc? Whats your address am fedex my rig so you can tweak it. Joking aside that's awesome.

 

Please note that i've got 60fps with comanche, i need to limit fps to 30 with the NGX.

 

please find in the link below my settings, hope it helps but results may vary depending on your hardware/software.

 

 

https://goo.gl/photos/g2FexD4oUdtk5NPb8