FSX-MS FSX - Scenery, Graphics and Tweaking. Is this as good as it gets?

[Raven9000 272]

G-BANX, on 19 Oct 2015 - 6:20 PM, said:

Not tried anything else yet, just taking it one step at a time...

If you applied Bojote's online tweak tool, you're definitely not "just taking it one step at a time"....

[G-BANX 1]

Hi All,

 

I've been away with work and not had a chance to get on-line, thanks all for the posts. I'm going to sit down properly and start another 'tweaking session' this Friday evening  There is lots of really useful info here and I'm grateful for the community's response To everyone who's post I haven't quoted thank you also.. I literally have 10 mins so only had a brief scan and quick reply

 

To answer only a few posts... Please see quotes below..

 

Try setting HT  to 'on' in the bios config and Affinity Mask to 170 in the fsx cfg, I have the i7 4790K(no OC) and Z97 MB, those are my settings and I'm getting good results in FSX and P3Dv3. I only have a R9 270X video card so your GTX 970 is a high end GPU which should give better results.

I already have HT on and Affinity mask to 84. I'm also running No Overclock

 

I recently upgraded my system to something roughtly equivalent to the OP's, and I have some questions:

 

1: Is the system overclocked (beyond the 4790K's 4.4GHz Turbo mode)?

2: Haswell's love fast memory... have you considered upgrading to at least a 2400 speed kit?

3: You designate the WD 1TB Green HDD as "Windows"... is the OS installed on that drive?

4: DX9 or DX10?

 

Finally, could you posted your FSX.cfg?

 

Greg

No Overclock, Just the default turbo to 4.4

Unfortunately my budget wont allow me to spend any more

'Windows' is my HDD for my operating system - Win 7 64bit.. FSX is installed on my SSD on its own

DX9

Yes I will post it now

 

G-BANX,

 

I'm going to disagree with a few folks here regarding your systems settings (tweaks) and I'm going to expand on the Hyper Threading. To qualify my advice I'd like to say that I'm a former computer engineer, I've been in flight sim for over 30 years, and I work in FS development and product testing.  As Tom Allensworth used to say, all that and a $50 will might get me a cup of coffee, but I thought you'd like to know who's giving you advice.

 

The processor your running does a far better job managing threads than any processor before it's time, so the standard advice for this processor is NOT to assign an Affinity Mask setting as you're essentially forcing the processor to operate with one hand behind it's back. If you really have to run with Affinity Mask, then I'd recommend a setting of 84 (Hyperthreaded) or 14 or 12 non HT.  Again, it's better if you don't use this setting except for special circumstances.

 

As to Hyper-threading, it really depends. If you're just running FSX, a web brower and little programs at the same time then I'd set HT to off.  If however you're streaming your flights, then depending on your stream settings (mostly the higher quality stuff) then you may see greater performance with HT turned on. If not, then  off is what I recommend.

 

With your processor, the only other tweaks I recommend are HIGHMEMFIX=1 and if you're running a rectangular monitor then WideViewAspect=True. If you're flying Intermediate Level Commercial aircraft then I'd leave my LOD at 4.5 (going higher does not increase quality, it simply helps to reduce the impression of scenery object popping.

 

With your processor, you are not going to notice anything by overclocking (your frames need only be at 30fps for a righteous experience).

 

To increase the quality of your textures, you can apply the Texture_Max_Load=XXXX setting.  The default is 1024 and can go as high as 4096, but most people use 2048 as it provides very good level of detail (don't confuse this with LOD) and the higher you go the more VAS (memory) you're going to use up.

 

You can read about the settings above and a few more important settings in the AVSIM FSX Setup Guide pinned to the upper right of most all AVSIM pages. Note please that in the GUide the LOD setting of 6.5 is recommended, but again if you're going to fly the PMDG NGX or PMDG 777 into detailed airports then I'd recommend you stay with 4.5 to avoid out of memory (OOM) errors.  Same goes for using high end weather textures.

 

NVIDIA Inspector can also help to increase your quality.  Google NVIDIA Inspector, FSX, and GTX 970.  Please let me know what you come up with.

 

Finally, I recommend getting more involved in tweaking than flying unless that's your thing. You're rig is one of the very best for FSX.  Oh, watch that water cooler if you do overclock, you'll likely need to move up an H110.  Also, inspect the radiator, lines and pump for leakage monthly. Just had a fellow tester have the radiator on the H80 develop a large bubble that weeped fluid.

 

I hope this advice has helped you.

 

I wish you well, and happy flying!

Wow, this is a very in-depth post, thanks for taking the time to post this.. I'm going to leave this until Friday as I literally have 10 minutes to get on-line today but thank you again!

 

I see you have your operating system installed on an economy 5400rpm drive. That is very slow, to be honest I think you have shot yourself in the foot a little bit with that awesome set-up and then slowing it all down like that.

 

If I were you I would grab a cheap SSD off ebay, only needs to be small and migrate your windows onto that and use the mechanical purely for file storage and applications that don't need speed.

Yeah, what a douche!! I actually didn't mean to order that... Late evenings in front of the pc trying to spec a machine and I simply ordered the wrong bloody one! I didn't actually realise this until I started this post lol

 

[AContain]

LabelColor=FFFF0000

LabelDelay=1000

ShowLabelAirline=0

ShowLabelAirlineAndFlightNumber=0

ShowLabelAirspeed=0

ShowLabelAltitude=1

ShowLabelContainerId=0

ShowLabelDistance=1

ShowLabelFlightPlan=1

ShowLabelHeading=0

ShowLabelManufacturer=1

ShowLabelModel=1

ShowLabels=1

ShowLabelTailNumber=0

ShowUserLabel=1

 

[ATC]

AutoOpenAirTrafficWindow=1

COMM_MSG_AI_ATC_COLOR=FFFF7840

COMM_MSG_ATC_AI_COLOR=FF00FF00

COMM_MSG_ATC_USER_COLOR=FFB6FFB6

COMM_MSG_NONE_COLOR=FFFFFFFF

COMM_MSG_USER_ATC_COLOR=FFFFD21B

PilotVoice=0

ShowATCText=1

UsePilotVoice=1

 

[bUFFERPOOLS]

PoolSize=50000000

RejectThreshold=524288

 

[CONTROLS]

Controls_Current=Standard

Controls_Default=Standard

KBDAIL=64

KBDELEV=64

KBDRUD=64

 

[Display]

ActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=0,28,140,64

ActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255

BLOOM_EFFECTS=0

ChangeTime=4.000000

InfoBrakesEnable=True

InfoLowerLeftBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128

InfoLowerLeftTextColor=255,255,255

InfoLowerRightBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128

InfoLowerRightTextColor=255,255,255

InfoOverspeedEnable=True

InfoParkingBrakesEnable=True

InfoPauseEnable=True

InfoSlewEnable=True

InfoStallEnable=True

InfoUpperRightBackGroundColor=0,0,0,0

InfoUpperRightTextColor=255,0,0

NonActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=24,33,87,64

NonActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255

SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1

TextureMaxLoad=30

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40

TransitionTime=4.000000

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0

WideViewAspect=True

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.50

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.75

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.50

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=0.75

 

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970.0]

Anisotropic=1

AntiAlias=1

Mode=1920x1080x32

 

[DynamicHeadMovement]

LONACCELONHEADLON=0

LONACCELONHEADPITCH=0

ROLLACCELONHEADLAT=0

YAWACCELONHEADLAT=-0

ROLLACCELONHEADROLL=0

MAXHEADANGLE=0

MAXHEADOFFSET=0

HEADMOVETIMECONSTANT=0

 

[FACILITIES]

CITY=

COUNTRY=

GTL_BUTTON=1232

STATE=

 

[FlightPlanMap]

LineWidth=2

show_ac_twr=1

SHOW_AIRPORTS=1

SHOW_AIRSPACE=1

show_airways=1

SHOW_APPROACHES=1

SHOW_DATATAGS=1

SHOW_FLIGHTPLAN=1

SHOW_INTERSECTIONS=1

SHOW_JET=0

show_markers=1

SHOW_NDBS=1

SHOW_TERRAIN=1

SHOW_VICTOR=0

show_volume_boundaries=1

SHOW_VORS=1

show_waypoints=1

SHOW_WEATHERSTATIONS=1

SHOW_WEATHERSYSTEMS=1

 

[GRAPHICS]

AC_SELF_SHADOW=1

AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=1

AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=0

ALLOW_SHADER_30=1

COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1

D3D10=0

EFFECTS_QUALITY=2

ForceFullScreenVSync=1

ForceWindowedVSync=1

GROUND_SHADOWS=0

HIGHMEMFIX=1

IMAGE_QUALITY=0

LANDING_LIGHTS=1

NUM_LIGHTS=8

See_Self=1

SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=1693500672

SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED_10=1693500672

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=2048

TEXTURE_QUALITY=3

Text_Scroll=1

 

[iNTERNATIONAL]

ASLAT=2

ASLON=1

MEASURE=1

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=84

 

[Main]

HideMenuFullscreen=1

HideMenuNormal=1

Location=0,0,1920,1080,\\.\DISPLAY1

Maximized=1

PerfBucket=7

ProcSpeed=11021

SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes

SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft

SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles

SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats

SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals

SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc

SimObjectPaths.6=SimObjects\IVAO_MTL

User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter

 

[MAPVIEW_MAP]

SHOW_AIRPORTS=1

SHOW_AIRSPACE=1

SHOW_APPROACHES=1

SHOW_DATATAGS=1

SHOW_FLIGHTPLAN=1

show_flight_history=1

SHOW_INTERSECTIONS=0

SHOW_JET=0

SHOW_NDBS=1

SHOW_TERRAIN=1

SHOW_VICTOR=0

SHOW_VORS=1

SHOW_WEATHERSTATIONS=1

SHOW_WEATHERSYSTEMS=1

 

[Misc]

Com_Rate=7

 

 

[PANELS]

DEFAULT_VIEW=0

IMAGE_QUALITY=1

PANEL_MASKING=1

PANEL_OPACITY=91

PANEL_STRETCHING=1

QUICKTIPS=0

UNITS_OF_MEASURE=1

 

[PointOfInterestSystem]

CycleSetting=0

 

[REALISM]

AutoCoord=False

AutoTrim=False

CrashDetection=False

CrashTolerance=0.000000

CrashWithDyn=False

GEffect=False

General=1.000000

GyroDrift=False

GyroEffect=0.000000

ManualLights=False

PFactor=0.000000

RealMixture=True

StressDamage=False

Torque=0.000000

TrueAirspeed=False

UnlimitedFuel=False

AllowEngineDamage=False

 

[RWW_WEATHER_MAP]

SHOW_AIRPORTS=0

SHOW_AIRSPACE=0

SHOW_APPROACHES=0

SHOW_DATATAGS=1

SHOW_FLIGHTPLAN=1

SHOW_INTERSECTIONS=0

SHOW_JET=0

SHOW_NDBS=0

SHOW_TERRAIN=1

SHOW_VICTOR=0

SHOW_VORS=0

SHOW_WEATHERSTATIONS=1

SHOW_WEATHERSYSTEMS=1

 

[sCENERY]

DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1

IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=5

LENSFLARE=0

MAX_ASYNC_BATCHING_JOBS=3

SmallPartRejectRadius=3

 

[sIM]

SYSCLOCK=0

 

[slewTextInfo.1]

AirSpeed=1,5

Altitude=1,3

Heading=1,4

Latitude=1,1

Longitude=1,2

 

[slewTextInfo.2]

FrameRate=1,1

LockedFrameRate=1,2

 

[slewTextInfo.3]

AirSpeed=1,5

Altitude=1,3

FrameRate=2,1

Heading=1,4

Latitude=1,1

LockedFrameRate=2,2

Longitude=1,2

 

[sOUND]

AmbientUI=0

AmbientUIMusic=FSX01

AmbientUIMusicVolume=-6.000000

PrimaryDevice={DEF00000-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}

SOUND=1

SOUND_FADER1=0.810000

SOUND_FADER2=0.800000

SOUND_FADER3=0.800000

SOUND_FADER4=-0.000000

SOUND_LOD=1

SOUND_QUALITY=2

UISound=1

VoiceDevice={DEF00002-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}

 

[sTARTUP]

DEMO=0

LoadWindow=1

SHOW_OPENING_SCREEN=1

STARTUP_DEMO=0

 

[TERRAIN]

AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3

DETAIL_TEXTURE=1

LOD_RADIUS=5.500000

MESH_COMPLEXITY=100

MESH_RESOLUTION=23

SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=2

TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=29

WATER_EFFECTS=6

 

[TextInfo.1]

AirSpeed=1,5

Altitude=1,3

Heading=1,4

Latitude=1,1

Longitude=1,2

WindDirectionAndSpeed=1,6

 

[TextInfo.2]

FrameRate=1,1

FuelPercentage=1,4

GForce=1,3

LockedFrameRate=1,2

 

[TextInfo.3]

AirSpeed=1,5

Altitude=1,3

FrameRate=2,1

FuelPercentage=2,4

GForce=2,3

Heading=1,4

Latitude=1,1

LockedFrameRate=2,2

Longitude=1,2

WindDirectionAndSpeed=1,6

 

[TrafficManager]

AirlineDensity=0

AIRPORT_SCENERY_DENSITY=0

FreewayDensity=0

GADensity=0

IFROnly=0

LeisureBoatsDensity=0

ShipsAndFerriesDensity=0

 

 

[uSERINTERFACE]

DisplayFuelAsWeight=1

Map_Orientation=2

OpenATCOnCreate=0

PageID=1

PAUSE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=0

PROMPT_ON_EXIT=1

SelectAircraftManufacturer=All

SelectAircraftPublisher=PMDG

SelectAircraftType=All

ShowAllACPaintSchemes=1

SHOW_MISSION_CAPTIONS=0

SITUATION=FLIGHTS\OTHER\FLTSIM

 

 

 

[VirtualCopilot]

VirtualCopilotActive=0

 

[Weather]

AdjustForMagVarInDialog=1

CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=7

CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=6

DETAILED_CLOUDS=1

DisableTurbulence=0

DownloadWindsAloft=0

DynamicWeather=0

MaxGustRampSpeed=200

MaxGustTime=500

MaxVarRampSpeed=75

MaxVarTime=50

MinGustRampSpeed=1

MinGustTime=10

MinVarRampSpeed=10

MinVarTime=5

THERMAL_VISUALS=0

TurbulenceScale=1.000000

WeatherGraphDataInDialog=0

WeatherServerAddress=fs2k.zone.com

WeatherServerPort=80

WindshieldPrecipitationEffects=1

 

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970.0]

Mode=1920x1080x32

AntiAlias=1

Anisotropic=1

 

[AccelerationPack]

ControlsFirstRun=0

HomePageFirstRun=0

 

 

 

If you applied Bojote's online tweak tool, you're definitely not "just taking it one step at a time"....

 

Sorry, I should of said... The tweak was applied at the beginning because that's the only thing I know for tweaking

[Boeing or not going 578]

Turn hyperthreading off you will get better performance. Also buy a SSD if you can and install it as a secondary drive dedicated only to FS

[G-BANX 1]

nvidia inspector settings

 

[Boeing or not going 578]

Do you have an SLI setup? You have 2 entries for video cards in your fsx.cfg file. Try removing the file and let fsx rebuild, then follow someof the guides. If you run DX9 you dont need to check antialiasing in game only the nvidia inspector. Try locked fps at 30 rather than unlimited too. And disable hyperthreading in your bios and adjust your affinity mask setting based on the new number of cores used.

[fppilot 4,335]

Wow! Lots of varied opinion here. OP. Look at my profile and see that we have systems that pretty much mirror each other. I am working with a clean install of Windows 10 and FSX Gold/Acceleration. I have tons of Megascenery 2 states and Ultra Res cities. I have done little tweaking to my fsx.cfg file since the fresh system. One thing I did notice was the same effect you pointed out in your original post that started this thread. Increasing LOD to 6.5 fixed that for me and I noticed no discernible taxing of my system as a result.

 

The effect you experienced was loading. As an avid and experienced photographer I had to chuckle at the one comment pertaining to focus point. Your screenshots are not a photograph, they are a screen capture, and in a screen capture there is no depth of field other than what is there in the rendering of the scenery on the screen. Pixels. There is no lens, there is no focal plane. Just got a kick out of that one.

[Boeing or not going 578]

Wow! Lots of varied opinion here. OP. Look at my profile and see that we have systems that pretty much mirror each other. I am working with a clean install of Windows 10 and FSX Gold/Acceleration. I have tons of Megascenery 2 states and Ultra Res cities. I have done little tweaking to my fsx.cfg file since the fresh system. One thing I did notice was the same effect you pointed out in your original post that started this thread. Increasing LOD to 6.5 fixed that for me and I noticed no discernible taxing of my system as a result.

 

The effect you experienced was loading. As an avid and experienced photographer I had to chuckle at the one comment pertaining to focus point. Your screenshots are not a photograph, they are a screen capture, and in a screen capture there is no depth of field other than what is there in the rendering of the scenery on the screen. Pixels. There is no lens, there is no focal plane. Just got a kick out of that one.

Your tweaking setup is going to be much different because you run megascenery which means less processing required since photoscenery doesnt use a lot of autogen or buildings. Only the ultra cities scenery are harder on processing power.

[SteveW 1,792]

Those suggestions made of Hyperthreading disabled being somehow "better" for the sim is purely a result of insufficient knowledge of the CPU and insufficient knowledge of how Windows multi-threading works. If you get better performance with HT disabled, you got your AM wrong with HT enabled (and is required with HT=On), and you've wasted money on your HT capable CPU.

 

Try an AM=250=(11,11,10,10) gives on the left two cores with four data collection threads and the other two threads are the main UI/Rendering, and thread pool, on core 0 and 1 on the right. Of course, all these cores are available to all the other apps and processes on the machine, but the JOBSCHEDULER will keep new processes off of core 0 once the sim is in full swing. This should be good for most scenery and keeps the main thread at full pace.

 

[bUFFERPOOLS]

PoolSize=50000000

RejectThreshold=524288

 

BUFFERPOOLS is little understood. These values shown are not useful to the bufferpool.

 

Instead:

[bufferpools]

UsePools=1

Poolsize=2000

[ieydis 51]

Mark,

 

I have some great news for you.  Your CFG file could use a lot of help.   :smile:   I run a similar machine to yours and get excellent results using a CFG similar to yours except with the below changes:

 

[BufferPools]

UsePools=1

Poolsize=8388608

RejectThreshold=126976

 

[Display]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=80

 

[GRAPHICS]

AC_SELF_SHADOW=0    // Huge FPS hog.  turn it off.

 

[MAIN}

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.15

 

[SCENERY]

SmallPartRejectRadius=1  // A small perf hit but you will see less popping of scenery

 

[TERRAIN]

WATER_EFFECTS=4   // Another huge performance hit as you have it at 6.  Dial it down.  You will see real FPS gain.

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=1000     //limit the number of autogen trees and buildings.  Another easy fix with a substantial gain.

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=1500

 

Just these changes alone will make a substantial improvement to your frames and smoothness without sacrificing eye candy or inducing OOMs (aka LOD Radius=6.5).  No BS.

 

Ilya

[SteveW 1,792]

 

...revisiting the Affinity Mask comment regarding 250. If we have an addon that starts first and hogs LP0 (first logical processor on core 0), then assigning a mask for the sim to avoid core 0 would be better, but at the expense of some data collecting. We can use 248=(11,11,10,00), this avoids core zero where our addon resides, puts the main sim thread onto LP 3 (core 1) and provides the thread pool and a data collector on core 2, and a pair of data collectors on core 3. The problem with masking is that processes started by the sim run in the affinity of the sim. Upward of 40 threads are spawned running the sim and these have to also fit on those assigned LPs.

[Boeing or not going 578]

Those suggestions made of Hyperthreading disabled being somehow "better" for the sim is purely a result of insufficient knowledge of the CPU and insufficient knowledge of how Windows multi-threading works. If you get better performance with HT disabled, you got your AM wrong with HT enabled (and is required with HT=On), and you've wasted money on your HT capable CPU.

 

Try an AM=250=(11,11,10,10) gives on the left two cores with four data collection threads and the other two threads are the main UI/Rendering, and thread pool, on core 0 and 1 on the right. Of course, all these cores are available to all the other apps and processes on the machine, but the JOBSCHEDULER will keep new processes off of core 0 once the sim is in full swing. This should be good for most scenery and keeps the main thread at full pace.

 

[bUFFERPOOLS]

PoolSize=50000000

RejectThreshold=524288

 

BUFFERPOOLS is little understood. These values shown are not useful to the bufferpool.

 

Instead:

[bufferpools]

UsePools=1

Poolsize=2000

Almost every write-up I've seen shows HT to be either not beneficial in any way, or harmful to performance if turned on. You're the first person I've read on the internet suggesting HT should be on and anyone that gets worse performance must be doing something wrong.

[SteveW 1,792]

...that's correct. Unless pushing an overclock, then you can lose out on a little system multi-threading performance and switch off HT to gain more GHz, and fps, with less heat. In that case with HT=Off most CPUs don't need an AM, maybe unless you have an 8core, in which case you may want to mask off a couple of cores, the sim doesn't need more than 6.

 

You're the first person I've read on the internet

Disagree. Depends on what you read.

[G-BANX 1]

Ok, so posts and advice is becoming very varied now   but, everyone runs different machines and different addons so this is understandable... I have applied the following tweaks

 

SmallPartRejectRadius=1

 

[bufferpools]

UsePools=1

Poolsize=2000

 

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=80

 

[TERRAIN]

WATER_EFFECTS=4  

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=1000  

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=1500

 

AC_SELF_SHADOW=0

 

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.15

 

Here is a link to my findings.... Whilst my FPS has improved slightly I'm still suffering with IMO 'severe' autogen 'popping'

(again, this video was made via my phone)

[G-BANX 1]

and after changing bufferpools to

 

[BufferPools]

UsePools=1

Poolsize=8388608

RejectThreshold=126976

 

however, it does appear that i get better FPS with

 

[bufferpools]

UsePools=1

Poolsize=2000

[lownslo 590]

FSX will always have at least some autogen popping because the sim lacks alpha fade.  The situation can be mitigated somewhat... to begin try lowering FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION to .10 or .11, and raise TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT to 120.  Your system (especially the video card) can handle these settings easily.

 

Greg