I have a 12 hour flight running in FS9, cooking in the background..and decided to taxi around LatinVFR's Miami v3 (yep...I do that on some long hauls...lol)

 

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The following comment with P3D v3.2.3 in play...

 

Anyway...

 

I have always maintained, that it takes more effort CPU'ish...to filter out elements of a dev's graphic files...to restrict to the screen output, than it actually BOOSTS your FPS to do so.

I personally have seen time and time again...whether it be within FSX, or P3D, any versions...that when I start dumping down visual output, to the screen...bringing down feature sliders, I get LOWER...yes..LOWER FPS in the scene, than when I have things unrestricted..(slider at full right).

 

Yep...and frankly I don't CARE what some are going to post...that that is an impossibility....REALLY?

 

The sim works harder processing what to keep out beyond the graphic threshold of the file it is accessing.  That is my view.

 

The reason that I have posted this..was in tooling around the LatinVFR airport, I was getting around 15 FPS on average for a 360 degree rubber-neck at my x/y coordinates.  I then went into TRAFFIC and turned on to the highest setting, the Airport Traffic slider. I immediately had airport vehicles, trams, baggage trams, catering bins, push-back, etc...all around (clutter..) the gates, and I GAINED 4 FPS for the effort!

 

Yes...I gained 4 FPS.  I went from 15...to 19-22 at the exact same location.....

 

I then shut down Airport Traffic...and lo and behold...yes...I went back down to 15 FPS.

 

This isn't a new experience for me...across FSX, and P3D. I have posted this find before...but have been shot down by the FPS police..that you CAN'T increase the work load...and expect better FPS performance.  Well..to those that wish to sing that song...ok...ok....but I will sing 'my' song...that in reality, it COSTS CPU cycles for the program to hold back, dummy down, filter...you call it as you will...than to have the scene rendered out as the Dev has produced it....to its full graphic development.  

 

I have seen this on my system, time and time again...ORBX...other than ORBX...when I let the graphics engine rip...with nothing holding back...I always pick up 25 percent greater FPS, and smoother animation, than having things throttled to death, JUST to hope to gain a better FPS outcome.  

 

So...here is my pic with Airport Traffic at full right...and the benefit?  Going--------------->zoom, from 15 FPS prior in the scene, to 19 FPS as I taxi.

 

Time and time again...so...OPEN UP YOUR SIM...you won't kill anything...let your system render the 'juice'....and actually SEE what the heck is in the scenery, AND that  you have PAID FOR....

 

Back to tooling around the new properties...and of course...having a blast while doing it...

 

Cheers,

 

FPS police can kick in now...LOL...and I STILL will walk away with 4 FPS more...as well as the eye-candy the dev wanted me to see, in the first place. I paid 100 percent the asking price for the scenery...and it is my M.O. that I want 100 percent of the visuals of that scenery....100 for 100...that's my M.O.

 

Max output, and ripped, Ses

Back to LatinVFR Miami v3  (BTW...most, most excellent scenery...!)

Post edit:  ASN and REX kicking it as well...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This honestly does look good for what you have running.  Regardless of what other people may say to the contrary, if it works for you, then do the happy dance!

 

-Jim

Actually, I find the same with cloud shadows, Mitch. Traffic is usually killer, but I haven't tried it at 100%... :wink:   

Actually, I find the same with cloud shadows, Mitch. Traffic is usually killer, but I haven't tried it at 100%... :wink:   

Dylan...go to an FPS challenged spot in any of  your purchases...note down the FPS reading as you pan around slowly...to a full 360. Then, open the sim wide up...other than water at High, and Shadows at the sim default.  But scenery of the three full open.  A.I. commercial at 35...no G.A....Airport Traffic at 100...Dynamic reflex at Medium, All reflections in water, blah blah..and then see what the same x/y in FPS will give you...I'll bet you anything you RISE in FPS...not decline, or..depending on your system, you might decline 1 or 2...but gain tremendous visual outcome, far gaining user experience, than the loss of a few FPS, if that indeed occurs. Then start a slow taxi...and note the numbers with all the new gate eye-candy..etc...

 

I just took off from LatinVFR Miami v3...and I consistently stayed at least 4 FPS greater with Airport Traffic at 100 percent, than with it even turned right off....

 

My comments stand...it costs you CPU cycles with the sim experience degraded, than with it full out, as the Dev's truly wrote the code for it to be at...  The entire coding works in conjunction...and when you start filtering visual output, or features...the sim has to parse what you what you want, .....what you don't want...instead of full throttle...and that costs cycles to figure it all out. That is what my experience has been all along...from FSX----to my present version of P3D 3.2.3.  

 

I subscribe that there is the theoretical...and then..there is the applicable.  They DO NOT always behave as one would literally expect the outcome to be...no sir.

 

My 4 FPS gain...and even more eye pleasing graphics...busts that Sacred (throttle the graphics and gain worth-wile FPS) Cow.

 

Cheers!

 

MItch'er

Fully agree, enjoy what works for you. It doesn't for me. Might be that your CPU behaves differently or it is a tiny piece of configuration that makes the difference. For me, the general rule applies, more things thrown at the sim result in less performance. However, there are some that hardly make a difference, e.g. shadows and AA. But traffic and autogen kill fps faster than I can check.

You are right. I have always noticed that airport traffic does not really have an effect on fps. I have it far right.

 

But can you say the same for everything else? Probably not.

 

There are some settings that don't kill fps but there are some that do.

 

Regards,

Don't bother with fps. Smoothness is king, regardless of fps. I don't care if fps is 15 or 115 as long as the sim feels smooth. And I specially don't care in small fps increments under specific circumstances I never encounter during normal use.

Don't bother with fps. Smoothness is king, regardless of fps. I don't care if fps is 15 or 115 as long as the sim feels smooth. And I specially don't care in small fps increments under specific circumstances I never encounter during normal use.

 

 

I am with you on that.

Don't bother with fps. Smoothness is king, regardless of fps. I don't care if fps is 15 or 115 as long as the sim feels smooth. And I specially don't care in small fps increments under specific circumstances I never encounter during normal use.

I agree, but it's still for myself, and indication that the more I open the sim up...the smoother it gets, with an increase in FPS performance, not a decrease.

 

I get smooth in P3D v3.2 right down to 11 FPS, so as you say, FPS standing out by itself, matters not.  I had some 13 's as I obtained the threshold of the runway at LatinVFR's Miami, fully stoked, and for the few moments the 13's stayed around...it still was smooth and jerk free. ...so I truly no longer care. What my point was..and always was...is that it is my opinion that it actually costs you sim performance, when you start choking the life out of it...by a left hand leaning on the slider filters.

Don't bother with fps. Smoothness is king, regardless of fps. I don't care if fps is 15 or 115 as long as the sim feels smooth. And I specially don't care in small fps increments under specific circumstances I never encounter during normal use.

+1

This topic is about one slider setting right?

 

Stating that you should start with all sliders to the right is really hard Mitch.

 

Some sliders like terrain shadows and some others like dynamic reflections can really put your system to an unbalanced system in my opinion.

 

Traffic and stutter can go hand in hand on my system but road traffic is much much better than with FSX.

 

Will try airport traffic slider and report back

 

Thanks Michael Moe

Don't bother with fps. Smoothness is king, regardless of fps. I don't care if fps is 15 or 115 as long as the sim feels smooth. And I specially don't care in small fps increments under specific circumstances I never encounter during normal use.

That is a good point here.  I could never really figure out how this works in P3D, versus FSX but when I fly, I sometimes bring up the count just to see what it is, but never really put a lot of stock in what it indicates.  It used to be with FSX, that the fps counter was a good indicator of how your sim was running with the settings you have, but in P3D, it's as if it isn't needed and all you need to do is observe the smoothness.  For example, last night, I flew from EGPF to EKCH, which was about 2 hours or so.  I had a rather smooth flight the entire time, but my fps counter fluctuated between 40-70fps.  My first thought was "wow, I did something right for a change, the sim is running MUCH better" and then I realized that for the most part, all of my flights in P3D v3.2 have always been this way.  The folks at LM did something to the code to provide a smoother experience but the fps counter isn't really a reliable indicator.  I have flow in to other airports from 3rd parties have noticed some stutters, but nothing that would cause an issue with the flight.  The fps counter would show much lower at those places but the smoothness was still pretty much spot on.  I wish i could explain further what I see, but I can honestly say that for now, I really don't use the fps counter to judge if my settings are too high, wrong, or otherwise.

 

The way I see it, I'll take what I can get.  If my sim is running smooth, great, leave it at that.  I personally see no reason why I need to apply any further tweak, bump any other settings because what I get just works.  Since my reinstall of P3D and associated add-ons I use, the sim is running much better than before and I don't get any out of memory errors, P3D exits clean and if I were to nitpick on anything right now, maybe it is the occasional pause when on approach, but again, nothing detrimental to flight operations.

 

I think what Sesquashtoo set out to do is admirable, but I don't see why we need to keep rubbing each others' noses in it that one sim is better than the other.  I say go with what works for your system and be happy with that.  As long as we can get in an aircraft, take off, cruise and land without an issue, then we did something right.

 

-Jim

This is where Pero's SimStarter really shines.  Any change you make in the sim is temporary since SimStarter manages the settings for you.  You can experiment without making any of the changes permanent.  So, you go in and max out your sliders.  If things aren't good you can go to your sliders in the sim  and move it in the opposite direction to see what affect it has...see what has the heaviest cost...what isn't worth the impact it's taking.  Once you get it settled you can make a change to an existing config or copy your old one, make the changes in SimStarter and you have a new config to work with.  I have two configs at the moment...a Normal one and a "New York City" one for denser areas.  I also need one for night...not much point in loading up tons of autogen at night...load up on road traffic or air traffic instead. 

 

Some things like AF, you can't change in the sim so, for that, I can create an 'Experiment' config and monkey with things in there...start the sim and try it out.  No harm to my existing profiles. 

 

But I am going to give Mitch's thoughts a try today.  Why not?

 

Gregg

 

 

This is where Pero's SimStarter really shines.  Any change you make in the sim is temporary since SimStarter manages the settings for you.  You can experiment without making any of the changes permanent.  So, you go in and max out your sliders.  If things aren't good you can go to your sliders in the sim  and move it in the opposite direction to see what affect it has...see what has the heaviest cost...what isn't worth the impact it's taking.  Once you get it settled you can make a change to an existing config or copy your old one, make the changes in SimStarter and you have a new config to work with.  I have two configs at the moment...a Normal one and a "New York City" one for denser areas.  I also need one for night...not much point in loading up tons of autogen at night...load up on road traffic or air traffic instead. 

 

I must be missing something but I have the idea I am doing the exact same but with just the settings in the sim itself and the option to save and load cfg's. I have a cfg for GA and one for the Airbus (main difference is autogen and type of AI) and I select the cfg I want to use on the scenario screen. Seems you don't need Simstarter for this...?

I must be missing something but I have the idea I am doing the exact same but with just the settings in the sim itself and the option to save and load cfg's. I have a cfg for GA and one for the Airbus (main difference is autogen and type of AI) and I select the cfg I want to use on the scenario screen. Seems you don't need Simstarter for this...?

 

IF you use only two different master configs, yes, you do not need SIMStarter for it. But SIMStarter also allows you to change all other Settings on a nice GUI and especially allows you to make scenery profiles perfectly aligned with FTX Central v2 for example. In my case, when flying VFR, I really do not need all scenery active for example. That's why I have a SIMStarter scenery profile for each continent seperately, as I never fly with a GA plane from Europe to the US...