How big of an impact has SGSS on P3D?

[urgeflaske 1]

So i have been using SGSS x4 in NI on P3D. But yesterday i decided to turn it off. I lost all the stutters i had been experiencing and gained about 5-10 fps. I also noticed that my GFX card temp was on 75c when flying with SGSS turned on. With it turned off it dropped to 55c.

 

So the question has to be asked. What am i gonna miss out on with SGSS turned off?

[pmb 5,137]

You wan't miss anything, but you will win shimmering in the distance and jaggies, e.g., on some runway lines.

 

However, it depends. There are people with 4k monitors who say they don't need SGSS. I use a 3440x1440 widescreen where I still see an improvement with SGSS, but it's certainly a tradeoff.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[AnkH 2,233]

SGSS is the most demanding antialiasing option you can use regarding GPU load and loss of performance, yet it is in my eyes the only antialiasing option consequently eliminating the shimmering in the distance and, for me more important, on AI traffic paints using a lot of lines, such as the China Eastern paintjob. However, if you have cloudy weather conditions with REX cloud textures (even the smallest ones) along with decent AI traffic, the performance really suffers. You will find in the forums here several people who played around using different combinations of other antialiasing algorithms (such as MSAA, FXAA, TSAA and stuff) to circumvent the use of SGSS and some of them even claim that there are combinations resulting in a similar elimination of shimmering and jaggies as SGSS does, but in my case, nothing is comparable (pity). So, as a compromise, I currently use only 2xSGSS in NVI, still eliminating most of the shimmering (although not as good as 4x...) but with a less pronounced performance loss. Personally, I would really love if someone finds an alternative combination of AA modes really achieving comparable results, but so far, nobody has.

[jason99vmi 157]

I run the 4xSGSS because I just couldn't take the jaggies looking at my aircraft wings and edges of the runway etc. I'm still able to hit 30 fps most of the time but yes in heavy clouds, rain, etc will cause a performance loss that may be hard to deal with.

 

Turning off Volumetric Fog gave some of that fps back going thru clouds but creates a haze layer. But I think ASN is working on the visibility settings.

 

Many have reduced size of cloud texture size via REX or in the cloud.fx file. That helps a bit as well.

 

So plenty of trade offs/workarounds when using SGSS.

 

I have a GTX 760 so if you have a better GPU you can push the setting a bit more.

[G-YMML1 580]

Actually, the only disadvantage of 4xSGSAA is when you're flying through overcast clouds. I still don't understand why LM haven't turned off old-style clouds' AA processing from P3D code. It would save a LOT of FPS and GPU overall power. 

 

In other situations, 4xSGSAA is ok, assuming that you have quite powerful GPU. For AI Traffic fans, 4xSGSAA is a must-have future, otherwise you'll get tons of shimmering and jagging.

[Cargostorm 151]

Just use 2xSGSAA - it is a good compromise between AA and performance. P3D still needs AA (in many cases) to avoid cockpit or airport shimmering.

[jose88 50]

Do you guys use Nvidia Inspector to setup all AA setting and turn off in P3D? Or setup in P3D instead?

[G-YMML1 580]

NVI - 4x SGSAA

P3D - 4x MSAA

 

MSAA value must be equal to SGSAA one

[urgeflaske 1]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

 

I have i7-4790K with GTX980 4GB and i thought i could run all the settings pretty high, but i guess not.

[Cargostorm 151]

No, as you said, you cannot. I do use however different profiles for VFR, IFR, Night flights using Simstarter. And ProcessLasso to optimise addon processes. That helps.

[jason99vmi 157]

Cargostorm, on 05 May 2016 - 10:37 AM, said:

No, as you said, you cannot. I do use however different profiles for VFR, IFR, Night flights using Simstarter. And ProcessLasso to optimise addon processes. That helps.

Cargo- Just curious what you change for night flights? I too have configs for IFR, VFR in SimstarterNG but don't adjust anything for night flying.

[Cargostorm 151]

Jason, you can lower all settings that do not play a big role at night. Usually you will not see much when it is dark :-)

 

1. Autogen to normal or less, because you do not see much vegetation and buildings at night,

2. Terrain tesselation can go to a lower setting,

3. LOD is at default 4.5 but for daytime VFR it is at 5.5. You could even set it at 2.5 for night flights.

4. Mesh resolution can go down to 20m or less (152m...)

5. Texture resolution can be set to 2m or less (5m...)

6. No photo scenery.

 

I switch on road traffic, which gives you moving lights at night.

[Wanthuyr Filho 83]

I run the 4xSGSS because I just couldn't take the jaggies looking at my aircraft wings and edges of the runway etc. I'm still able to hit 30 fps most of the time but yes in heavy clouds, rain, etc will cause a performance loss that may be hard to deal with.

 

Turning off Volumetric Fog gave some of that fps back going thru clouds but creates a haze layer. But I think ASN is working on the visibility settings.

 

Many have reduced size of cloud texture size via REX or in the cloud.fx file. That helps a bit as well.

 

So plenty of trade offs/workarounds when using SGSS.

 

I have a GTX 760 so if you have a better GPU you can push the setting a bit more.

 

I too have the GTX 760 4 GB and despite not using any SGSS (i use the 8x MSAA internal setting of P3D) I notice pretty much a severe FPS loss wheneven I have a much clouded sky. The more complex clouds it presents, the worst is the FPS. Is this correct? I thought that MSAA would barely affect FPS cloud-wise...

Thanks!

[jason99vmi 157]

The issue of the clouds is a known issue for everyone.  Even better GPUs are struggling with this.  Like i said turning off Volumetric fog helped.  And doing some of those cloud reductions helped.  Hopefully LM can work on optimizing this and/or REX.  

[JimmiG 244]

I find 2x DSR combined with regular 2X MSAA inside P3D does a slightly better job than 2x SGSS at eliminating shimmering while also performing slightly better. The drawback is that your entire desktop gets smaller due to the scaling, which can be annoying if you Alt+Tab out of the sim.

 

With my GTX 970, 4x DSR or SGSS is not viable with the settings I use, due to the stuttering. I could probably back down on a few settings in order to use 4x, but I prefer to drop to 2x and keep my settings higher. It's not "perfect", but it's good enough, especially when the cost of "perfect" is at least $700 in a faster video card.