ASN fps drop in dense clouds.

[GSalden 4,657]

I am not sure if you have seen it already, but to those of you who encounter massive FPS drops while flying in overcast cloud conditions, I highly recommend you to watch two of my videos, in which I have documented the impact of clouds on FPS and provided some tips on how to improve your performance:

 

Part 1: Cloud Shadows, Sunset/Sunrise and FPS

 

 

Part 2: Active Sky Next, Impact of the volumetric fog on FPS

 

 

I am sure these videos will give you some valuable tips.

 

 

Your videos are very well documented. After watching both I have to start looking where I found which tip.

Could you just write the tips down ( 1, 2, 3 etc )  as a summary ?

 

Thanks,

Gerard

[jason99vmi 157]

This is getting a little tricky ....

 

It seems that using multiple cloud layers with multiple visibility settings can have an impact on your framerate.

 

Or going back to an earlier version will give a better framerate, but will also reintroduce the max visibility issue ( read : stays fixed and the slider does nothing ).

 

Hopefully we are not going back to tweak simulator ...

I love tweak simulator...where you spend all your time making adjustments and flying is just for testing tweaks. lol

[Driver170 42]

I love tweak simulator...where you spend all your time making adjustments and flying is just for testing tweaks. lol

0

 

Thanks to steveW he found my sweet spot AM 85 and setting affinity for ASN and track ir.

 

I've still got ASN 5921 and my frames are still the same as previous versions. P3D V3.2 runs even smoother. I think people should back off settings like what SteveW said P3D is more graphic hungry now.

 

Go fly people and for you gerard when was the last time you done a flight

[jason99vmi 157]

Driver170, on 24 Mar 2016 - 08:25 AM, said:

Thanks to steveW he found my sweet spot AM 85 and setting affinity for ASN and track ir.

 

I've still got ASN 5921 and my frames are still the same as previous versions. P3D V3.2 runs even smoother. I think people should back off settings like what SteveW said P3D is more graphic hungry now.

 

Go fly people and for you gerard when was the last time you done a flight

Exactly. The problem is if you have a older GPU. I run a GTX 760. It seems people with GTX 900s or Titans are usually ok with smoothness and aesthetics. The AA for the sim IS much improved and looks great but looking at the wings of the aircraft for me has jaggy lines unless I go 4xSGSS. I have tried AM=116 and 84 settings but it creates mass ground blurries.

 

I think I have a good balance but from the response of many I think the clouds/volumetric fog are a bit of an issue. It was the Volumetric Fog for me. Turn off I'm pegged at 30.

[Pe11e 812]

Just as I thought that I escaped tweaking FSX, I'm pulled inside another tweaking venture, now with P3D v3. No matter if it's volumetric fog, cloud size to 0.50, AM and stutters, you are just stuck with everyday tweaking because there are SO MANY variables and addons that can kill the sim performance, you can't just escape. The latest example is REX changing the size of the clouds resulting in a serious fps drop, and ASN with numerious fixes because LM changed visibility algorythms.

[Bobsk8 12,735]

Just as I thought that I escaped tweaking FSX, I'm pulled inside another tweaking venture, now with P3D v3. No matter if it's volumetric fog, cloud size to 0.50, AM and stutters, you are just stuck with everyday tweaking because there are SO MANY variables and addons that can kill the sim performance, you can't just escape. The latest example is REX changing the size of the clouds resulting in a serious fps drop, and ASN with numerious fixes because LM changed visibility algorythms.

 

No tweaks, running ASN with soft clouds, no FPS problems, and I seek out bad weather to fly in whenever possible. I am always using the latest betas from ASN by the way. All this on a middle of teh road, three year old desktop, with FPS around 30.  

[sgreen91 182]

Bob you get the gold star for the most helpful reply in this thread.

 

 

[Bobsk8 12,735]

Bob you get the gold star for the most helpful reply in this thread.

 

 

Just trying to point out that I seriously doubt if it is a problem with ASN, or P3D V 3.2 

[jason99vmi 157]

Bobsk8, on 24 Mar 2016 - 10:25 AM, said:

Just trying to point out that I seriously doubt if it is a problem with ASN, or P3D V 3.2

Except if you go back one page you'll see the response from ASN in Gerard's post. Where LM changed something so it effected ASN. Same with REX, if they change something then it obviously affects ASN and P3D.

 

If it was just like one or two people having issues you could say its them but the amount of posts leads me to believe its a larger issue. Guess we'll see what ASN does.

[Afterburner 374]

Your videos are very well documented. After watching both I have to start looking where I found which tip.

Could you just write the tips down ( 1, 2, 3 etc )  as a summary ?

 

Thanks,

Gerard

 

Yes, I can summarize the tips:

 

1. Changing the cloud shadow texture size in Prepar3D.cfg from 512 to 256 pixels will improve cloud performance during sunsets/sunrises with activated cloud shadows without significantly worsening their quality. (If you go much further below 256 px, you will gain more FPS, but you will see blocky artifacts on cloud shadow edges).

 

2. Disabling the volumetric fog will boost your FPS in heavy overcast conditions. If you want to use the volumetric fog, make sure that you (or your weather program) use only one visibility layer (instead of multiple) to restrain the FPS drop.

 

3. Instructing ASN to suppress the update of local weather may help you reduce FPS drop while the weather engine downloads and injects new weather into the simulator.

 

4. For absolutely maximum cloud performance, disable the volumetric fog and apply the //# VOLUMIZE tweak.

 

 

I hope that I didn't leave out anything important. Soon, I will create a third part to clarify that my cloud size was modified by REX 4 TD without my knowledge, and that the larger cloud dimensions were responsible for the massive FPS drop on my system.

[Pe11e 812]

What baffled me the most is the fact that some users that also use ASN + REX soft clouds combination and never had any fps issues or stutter issues. They have either a monster GPU, or locked frames at 30, or both?

Yes, I can summarize the tips:

 

1. Changing the cloud shadow texture size in Prepar3D.cfg from 512 to 256 pixels will improve cloud performance during sunsets/sunrises with activated cloud shadows without significantly worsening their quality. (If you go much further below 256 px, you will gain more FPS, but you will see blocky artifacts on cloud shadow edges).

 

2. Disabling the volumetric fog will boost your FPS in heavy overcast conditions. If you want to use the volumetric fog, make sure that you (or your weather program) use only one visibility layer (instead of multiple) to restrain the FPS drop.

 

3. Instructing ASN to suppress the update of local weather may help you reduce FPS drop while the weather engine downloads and injects new weather into the simulator.

 

4. For absolutely maximum cloud performance, disable the volumetric fog and apply the //# VOLUMIZE tweak.

 

 

I hope that I didn't leave out anything important. Soon, I will create a third part to clarify that my cloud size was modified by REX 4 TD without my knowledge, and that the larger cloud dimensions were responsible for the massive FPS drop on my system.

 

1. I've gained maybe 5% after reducing cloud shadow texture size, nothing significant.

2. Now I'm confused do ASN use multiple visibility layers by default in the latest official build? (open beta released today with an option to disable multiple visibility layers).

4. What is //#VOLUMIZE tweak, and how to apply it?

[Afterburner 374]

1. Did you measure your FPS in an overcast condition during sunset or sunrise with the original and reduced texture size?  If you do it during daytime, the difference is in fact much less significant.

 

2. In the newest version (available since yesterday), ASN provides an option to activate or deactivate multiple visibility layers.

 

3. In the cloud.fx file inside the ShadersHLSL subfolder (which is in your main P3D directory), look for the "# VOLUMIZE" entry and comment it out by putting two slashes in front of it, so that you end up with "//# VOLUMIZE".

Then save the file, and delete the "Shaders" folder found in c:\Users\[uSERNAME]\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3. That tweak should give you 10% - 20% extra FPS.

[Pe11e 812]

1. Did you measure your FPS in an overcast condition during sunset or sunrise with the original and reduced texture size?  If you do it during daytime, the difference is in fact much less significant.

 

2. In the newest version (available since yesterday), ASN provides an option to activate or deactivate multiple visibility layers.

 

3. In the cloud.fx file inside the ShadersHLSL subfolder (which is in your main P3D directory), look for the "# VOLUMIZE" entry and comment it out by putting two slashes in front of it, so that you end up with "//# VOLUMIZE".

Then save the file, and delete the "Shaders" folder found in c:\Users\[uSERNAME]\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3. That tweak should give you 10% - 20% extra FPS.

 

1. Yes and yes. The difference was 55 fps with 512px and around 60fps with 256px. So I was wrong it is around 10% better fps, sorry.

2. Yes, I'm aware of that, that's why I asked about latest official version which doesn't have the option to enable/disable multiple visibility layers (for example b5921). 

3. Hmm maybe I will try it, but I must ask will be any difference in sim? Cloud will not be volumetric after the tweak? Although clouds never were volumetric if you ask me.

 

Thanks!

[GSalden 4,657]

Thanks !

 

I now use 256 cloud shadow textures :-)

Volumetric fog was already off.

I prefer Volumize on as my Titan X can handle it.

 

I remember there also was a cloud.fx tweak where somewhere the word sprite had to be changed in group....

 

Don't know if it is relevant.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

1. Did you measure your FPS in an overcast condition during sunset or sunrise with the original and reduced texture size?  If you do it during daytime, the difference is in fact much less significant.

 

 

Volumize works - thanks for that but clouds definitely dont look as good either - its all good - nice to have options at the moment I am using  //