fsx-se Pretty Good Rig, but still only 10-15 FPS! :-(

[Jimm 437]

33 Locked.

 

It's duel meaning.... 1)   Change your texture resolution setting to 1024 x 1024 in your FSX settings.    Some add-ons will be like "4096k REQUIRED!"    Those are the add-ons to be weary of.    2)   Those very add-ons I just said to be weary of have 2k and even 4k textures.   Programs like DXTBMP and Optimize Textures can be used to re-size texture sheets down 1024 x 1024 sheets.   There are other threads that go into detailed discussion about what you should and should not resize.    I personally use Optimize Textures to gives all of my payware airport the quick 1024k compression treatment.  It makes automatic backups of your original texture folder so you can restore it if you don't like the results or you screw something up.

 

I also re-sized my virtual cockpit textures for the PMDG 737ngx and added MIP MAPs to them.  This solved my personal issues with readouts being to jaggy or shimmering.

 

Also note, my screen caps are from Prepar3D and not FSX but that does not matter.  The two engines are very similar for the point I am trying to get across.   My graphics look a little more insane because of a free program called Reshade.   I use it to change color palettes, perform all my AA needs and add other lighting visual FX to make the simulator look how I want it to look and how I think real world should look.   Reshade is free at Reshade.me and works in all version of FSX and Prepar3D with little risk to damaging your installation.   There is nothing to install.  Just follow the instructions, point the Reshader Mediator program at your FSX.EXE file and have fun with the shader packages trying to find your favorite look.  Discussions of Reshade as well as people profile settings have been talked about recently on AVSIM.  Search for it if you are unsure about using this program.

 

Another performance tip if you use Active Sky NEXT for cloud gen is to stop drawing 120 miles worth of clouds and you don't need 5 layers of clouds either.   You can get away with 3 cloud layers and I set my cloud draw distance to 83 miles and my visual distance to 80 miles because this is about what you see in real life at 38000 feet... the horizon blurs out into a grey mess because of atmospheric conditions and your own eyes limited ability to view extremely long ranges.

 

So on my rig I do 1k Textures, 1024x1024 Resolution, 83 mile cloud draw on High Detail, 30% AI Traffic or less (depends on airport), No AI car or boat traffic and Lock my FPS at 33 with Triple Buffering on and I sustain 33 FPS in most situations.   Certain airports and weather conditions can still push me into the mid-20's but I never stutter or have texture loading issues.   Again I am Prepar3D but FSX, properly tuned, should have similar results. 

 

Happy flying.

So let it be written, so it shall be done.  Thus speaketh the word of Kuragiman.

 

You made me a believer!  :im Not Worthy:

 

-Jim

[hmsdreadnought 12]

Probably already stated here - but I'm OCing my rig to just around 5 and I'm still getting low frames at complex airports with a realistic plane like the PMDG 737.   Complex weather and  ground textures will bring even the most powerful rigs to their knees...

[Dirk98 354]

33 Locked.

 

It's duel meaning.... 1)   Change your texture resolution setting to 1024 x 1024 in your FSX settings.    Some add-ons will be like "4096k REQUIRED!"    Those are the add-ons to be weary of.    2)   Those very add-ons I just said to be weary of have 2k and even 4k textures.   Programs like DXTBMP and Optimize Textures

 

K-man, I can't find Optimize Textures program. Could you post a link to it?

(is it Optimizer Textures from Skyrim?)

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

33 Locked.

 

It's duel meaning.... 1)   Change your texture resolution setting to 1024 x 1024 in your FSX settings.    Some add-ons will be like "4096k REQUIRED!"    Those are the add-ons to be weary of.    2)   Those very add-ons I just said to be weary of have 2k and even 4k textures.   Programs like DXTBMP and Optimize Textures can be used to re-size texture sheets down 1024 x 1024 sheets.   There are other threads that go into detailed discussion about what you should and should not resize.    I personally use Optimize Textures to gives all of my payware airport the quick 1024k compression treatment.  It makes automatic backups of your original texture folder so you can restore it if you don't like the results or you screw something up.

 

I also re-sized my virtual cockpit textures for the PMDG 737ngx 

 

A couple of questions:

 

1. If you set texture resolution 1024 x 1024 to display in FSX, do you really need to resize airport textures?

2. Isn't there a lower resolution (1024x1024) option somewhere in PMDG 737NGX settings?

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

[Cjr60611 31]

 

 

K-man, I can't find Optimize Textures program. Could you post a link to it?
(is it Optimizer Textures from Skyrim?)

 

Hey Dirk

 

Using it now, definitely helps!

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801/?

 

 

t's duel meaning.... 1)   Change your texture resolution setting to 1024 x 1024 in your FSX settings.    Some add-ons will be like "4096k REQUIRED!"    Those are the add-ons to be weary of.    2)   Those very add-ons I just said to be weary of have 2k and even 4k textures.   Programs like DXTBMP and Optimize Textures can be used to re-size texture sheets down 1024 x 1024 sheets.   There are other threads that go into detailed discussion about what you should and should not resize.    I personally use Optimize Textures to gives all of my payware airport the quick 1024k compression treatment.  It makes automatic backups of your original texture folder so you can restore it if you don't like the results or you screw something up.
 

Kuragiman - you are the man!  Downloaded the Optimizer and used on some of the add-ons I have and you can clearly feel the performance difference but, not the visual change (thumbsup).  Unfortunately, as stated a few times in this post, certain add-ons just don't run smooth.  For me it's LatinVFR KSAN - not able to get anywhere near the performance I get at other add-on airports.  Even after making the adjustments with optimizer.  

 

Nonetheless, another airport that was giving my trouble was Taxi2Gate KSEA.  The optimizer worked wonders with that one!  Went from 10-15FPS to 20-25FPS!!!

 

Thanks for the tips!!!

[Guest]

For me, autogen made all the difference: I tried to keep it on very dense or even extremely dense, because cities don't look good when there are only a few scattered buildings around. Killed my fps on takeoff and landing though. So I got rid of autogen completely, added two layers of clouds instead and now I am enjoying good FPS (20-30) near airports and more beautiful weather during cruise.

[Dirk98 354]

Hey Dirk

 

Using it now, definitely helps!

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801/?

 

 

Yes, that's what I found on skyrim mods site.

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

[jjjallen 37]

Something seems amiss.  What airport are you at?  KSFO?

 

Taking a loaded airport like ORBX KORS, in a moderately hungry plane, WITH a traffic addon (traffic is the best FPS killer) and fair weather you should be able to squeeze 40 - 50 fps out of a strong to very strong build IF your system is tweek'd to within an inch of it's life.  New hardware (aka SkyLake) / OS's (aka Windows 10) do this way better than in the past.

 

Your system should do 20-30 at a loaded KORS IMO

 

Cheers

jja

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Complex weather and ground textures will bring even the most powerful rigs to their knees...

Ground textures don't affect FPS at all. The default textures are the same size as the ORBX and GEX ground textures.

 

Complex weather shouldn't make much difference either provided you're using DXT format cloud textures in either 512 or 1024 sizes and you don't have excessive drawn distances being used (over 120 miles) and more that 3 or 4 layers of clouds being rendered.

[Boeing or not going 578]

33 Locked.

 

It's duel meaning.... 1)   Change your texture resolution setting to 1024 x 1024 in your FSX settings.    Some add-ons will be like "4096k REQUIRED!"    Those are the add-ons to be weary of.    2)   Those very add-ons I just said to be weary of have 2k and even 4k textures.   Programs like DXTBMP and Optimize Textures can be used to re-size texture sheets down 1024 x 1024 sheets.   There are other threads that go into detailed discussion about what you should and should not resize.    I personally use Optimize Textures to gives all of my payware airport the quick 1024k compression treatment.  It makes automatic backups of your original texture folder so you can restore it if you don't like the results or you screw something up.

 

I also re-sized my virtual cockpit textures for the PMDG 737ngx and added MIP MAPs to them.  This solved my personal issues with readouts being to jaggy or shimmering.

 

Also note, my screen caps are from Prepar3D and not FSX but that does not matter.  The two engines are very similar for the point I am trying to get across.   My graphics look a little more insane because of a free program called Reshade.   I use it to change color palettes, perform all my AA needs and add other lighting visual FX to make the simulator look how I want it to look and how I think real world should look.   Reshade is free at Reshade.me and works in all version of FSX and Prepar3D with little risk to damaging your installation.   There is nothing to install.  Just follow the instructions, point the Reshader Mediator program at your FSX.EXE file and have fun with the shader packages trying to find your favorite look.  Discussions of Reshade as well as people profile settings have been talked about recently on AVSIM.  Search for it if you are unsure about using this program.

 

Another performance tip if you use Active Sky NEXT for cloud gen is to stop drawing 120 miles worth of clouds and you don't need 5 layers of clouds either.   You can get away with 3 cloud layers and I set my cloud draw distance to 83 miles and my visual distance to 80 miles because this is about what you see in real life at 38000 feet... the horizon blurs out into a grey mess because of atmospheric conditions and your own eyes limited ability to view extremely long ranges.

 

So on my rig I do 1k Textures, 1024x1024 Resolution, 83 mile cloud draw on High Detail, 30% AI Traffic or less (depends on airport), No AI car or boat traffic and Lock my FPS at 33 with Triple Buffering on and I sustain 33 FPS in most situations.   Certain airports and weather conditions can still push me into the mid-20's but I never stutter or have texture loading issues.   Again I am Prepar3D but FSX, properly tuned, should have similar results. 

 

Happy flying.

Having your fps "locked" at 33 fps does not mean it always stays at 33fps. Can you provide a screenshot, sitting in the virtual cockpit of the PMDG 777X on the ground at an addon airport showing 33 fps?

 

The screenshots you gave are nice but they do not have the fps displayed, exterior views always have higher fps than in the vc, and I see no AI traffic at these airports you are flying at.

[hmsdreadnought 12]

Ground textures don't affect FPS at all. The default textures are the same size as the ORBX and GEX ground textures.

 

Complex weather shouldn't make much difference either provided you're using DXT format cloud textures in either 512 or 1024 sizes and you don't have excessive drawn distances being used (over 120 miles) and more that 3 or 4 layers of clouds being rendered.

 

I was imprecise in my language.  Complex and numerous physical 3d models like add on airports will bring a system to its knees.  Clouds tend to be OK with a robust graphics card.  

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I was imprecise in my language. Complex and numerous physical 3d models like add on airports will bring a system to its knees.

Not necessarily. It really depends on how the developer designed the scenery and if they are using newer design techniques. Take Dubai by FlyTampa for example. Huge scenery of both the city and the airport and virtually no performance penalty. As a polar opposite, take a look at some of the older ORBX Australian airports like Brisbane and Melbourne. You have to turn off most of the options and resize the majority of the textures to make it usable. The fact is, some developers can make huge airports that perform the same or better than the default versions and some developers can make a relatively small regional airport that can bring a system to its knees. The trick is to research the products prior to purchase and see what the community says before you buy. After a while you'll have an idea which companies you can trust to put out good performing sceneries and which ones might be a crap shoot.

 

 

 

Clouds tend to be OK with a robust graphics card.

How robust are you talking? I ran FSX for 3 years on an E8400 paired with an EVGA GTS250 1GB http://www.evga.com/articles/00465/ with DXT 512 and 1024 clouds with no issues. Now I run an EVGA GTX670 2GB card with a 2700K and have no issues either. I think a robust card is only a necessity if your running multi monitor setups or very large high res displays. Using 20 to 35 inch monitors shouldn't require anything to extreme.

[Kuragiman 227]

A couple of questions:

 

1. If you set texture resolution 1024 x 1024 to display in FSX, do you really need to resize airport textures?

2. Isn't there a lower resolution (1024x1024) option somewhere in PMDG 737NGX settings?

 

1.   Yes.  Because the simulator is still loading the 2k/4k sheet into VAS for usage.   It's a pain and we shouldn't have to do it.   Airport installers should come with resolution options imo.

2.  Yes.  There is.  But their 1024k cockpit does not have Mip Mapping on it.   And one would ask the question; Why would you mip map the cockpit since you are going to be right there in front of it all the time anyway?   A valid question and I am not a programmer or a profesional texture artist but I just know that doing my own 1024k texture with Mip Mapping for the NGX got rid of shimmering on the gauges and panel work.   I think it has something to do with Field-of-View.   

 

 

Kuragiman - you are the man!  Downloaded the Optimizer and used on some of the add-ons I have and you can clearly feel the performance difference but, not the visual change (thumbsup).  Unfortunately, as stated a few times in this post, certain add-ons just don't run smooth.  For me it's LatinVFR KSAN - not able to get anywhere near the performance I get at other add-on airports.  Even after making the adjustments with optimizer.  

 

KSAN is a mean airport to deal with.   Optimize Texture did not really do much for you on this one because if you look in the texture folder for KSAN 'ALL' of the textures are BMP files instead of DDS (Optimize Texture ignores those BMP files).   BMP is the old way of doing texture maps in FSX and I wish DEVS would knock it off.   It's far less effective than DDS files.   BMP files have to be edited using DXTBMP which can read BMP files encrypted like the ones in KSAN.    Most of KSAN's texture sheets are already 1024x1024.   There were only like 3 sheets I ended up compressing and turning into DDS files (don't forget to FLIP the texture when going from BMP to DDS).    Those 3 files are actually part of the enormous drain on the FPS when arriving at that airport.   They are the main texture sheets for the concrete and asphalt aprons and taxiways around the airport.  I was able to squeeze about 3-5 FPS out of KSAN by compressing those textures down from BMP to DDS 1024k texture sheets.

For me, autogen made all the difference: I tried to keep it on very dense or even extremely dense, because cities don't look good when there are only a few scattered buildings around. Killed my fps on takeoff and landing though. So I got rid of autogen completely, added two layers of clouds instead and now I am enjoying good FPS (20-30) near airports and more beautiful weather during cruise.

 

Autogen is one of highest costs to your simulation experience.   It makes it look pretty but you will have to pay the piper for it and if your computer specs aren't up to it or you have your simulator unbalanced it will hurt your FPS and murder your VAS.

 

 

Having your fps "locked" at 33 fps does not mean it always stays at 33fps. Can you provide a screenshot, sitting in the virtual cockpit of the PMDG 777X on the ground at an addon airport showing 33 fps?

 

The screenshots you gave are nice but they do not have the fps displayed, exterior views always have higher fps than in the vc, and I see no AI traffic at these airports you are flying at.

 

I don't fly the 777 as it is a Big Pig.   I own it but that's because I do livery paints for it and needed the model.      I have little interest in flying that aircraft, as pretty as it is.  I don't have the time to do the flights it is built for.   As a result I haven't done much optimization work on my 777 and DO NOT get 33 FPS with that beast.  I get more like 20-25 right now.   My simulator has been modified for performance for the 737NGX.  And you are right.  It doesn't say 33 FPS.  It bounces around from 31.1 to 33.  I'll get you a screen cap today during my Twitch.TV flight.

[AnkH 2,233]

Does this resize tool need a lot of input? Or can you simply select the FSX main folder and let it run? Or do I need to select each and every folder containing textures on my own and run the tool for each and every folder seperately?

[Boeing or not going 578]

 

I don't fly the 777 as it is a Big Pig.   I own it but that's because I do livery paints for it and needed the model.      I have little interest in flying that aircraft, as pretty as it is.  I don't have the time to do the flights it is built for.   As a result I haven't done much optimization work on my 777 and DO NOT get 33 FPS with that beast.  I get more like 20-25 right now.   My simulator has been modified for performance for the 737NGX.  And you are right.  It doesn't say 33 FPS.  It bounces around from 31.1 to 33.  I'll get you a screen cap today during my Twitch.TV flight.

 

With all due respect when you say "I have complicated addon aircraft but still get over 30fps" that means you can throw any aircraft at your setup and get high fps. Now you admit the PMDG brings it to it's knees, thus proving my point of "put a complicated addon aircraft and in the virtual cockpit you will see fps in the teens no matter what your setup" to be correct.

[Kuragiman 227]

With all due respect when you say "I have complicated addon aircraft but still get over 30fps" that means you can throw any aircraft at your setup and get high fps. Now you admit the PMDG brings it to it's knees, thus proving my point of "put a complicated addon aircraft and in the virtual cockpit you will see fps in the teens no matter what your setup" to be correct.

 

NO WHERE above did I say anything about owning a plethora of complicated aircraft nor did I insinuate every complex aircraft out in the 3rd party library universe can achieve 30 FPS.  Please re-read through what I consider to be helpful information that I have posted above before you misquote me or interject something I didn't say into your comments.   Also if you think a few frames lost from 33 is 'bringing my PC to it's knees' you should re-evaluate what constitutes good frames rates and overall performance.

 

Let me clarify since I was perhaps vague in my earlier posts above.   I am referring to the aircraft that I fly the most, the PMDG 737NGX, which is one of the most complicated aircraft you can purchase and it *CAN* and does quite frequently on my setup run above 30 FPS at Payware airports in *MOST* weather situations.   How about you let me actually post the screen caps you requested once I get home before you accuse me trying to hood wink the community and steal everyone's lunch money?   :smile:   It would be appreciated.

 

You also have me now wanting to prove the PMDG 777 *CAN* run at 30 FPS also!  I am gonna make it happen!   Challenge accepted!

Does this resize tool need a lot of input? Or can you simply select the FSX main folder and let it run? Or do I need to select each and every folder containing textures on my own and run the tool for each and every folder seperately?

 

No.   DO NOT point it at your FSX/P3D root directory.  You need to drill down through your sub-folders to the Texture folder of the airport or aircraft you want to texture optimize and run the tool on that directory.   It will make a backup of the directory before it does it's thing.    Be sure to look at the options on the main menu and understand them.  There are several threads on AVSIM already regarding how to use this tool properly that are fairly new.

 

CAUTION:  DO NOT try to texture optimize the Global scenery texture folder.  Keep Out!  Do not touch!   Do not pass go!  Do not collect $200 dollars!