Core and AM info in 3.4

[AnkH 2,264]

I also use AM=85 for years now, already in my FSX days and now with P3D. Still provides the best results on my rig with my addons. As long as you do not use your rig solely for FSX/P3D, there is little to no reason to turn off HT completely and switching HT on and off simply for FSX/P3D is way to cumbersome for me.

[Michael Moe 495]

I also use AM=85 for years now, already in my FSX days and now with P3D. Still provides the best results on my rig with my addons. As long as you do not use your rig solely for FSX/P3D, there is little to no reason to turn off HT completely and switching HT on and off simply for FSX/P3D is way to cumbersome for me.

+1 AM=85 HT ON here

 

Now if we could get SLI to work with undocked panels the experience would be heaven :smile: 

 

Michael Moe

[Domobaby 1]

Currently on HT ON, AM = 116. With addons on Core 0.

 

If I move to AM = 85 how do I go about shifting ASN to Core 2 or 3? Just change it in the task manager? I currently start it from a batch file but I can't work out what the correct code should be. 

[ErichB 3,643]

The discussions on affinity masking have become numerous and very long - and is probably one of the most discussed and least well understood tweak applications.  For any long time flightsimmer to understand the principle of what Steve is trying to convey in threads 20/30/40 pages long has become quite a daunting process, let alone for those new to flightsimming.  Picking a thread up halfway through can often be taken out of context and cause confusion.

 

Is it possible to build a concise section into Rob's P3D Manual which specifically addresses affinity masking and the rules/principles governing the application of a suitable affinity mask - and when it is and is not suitable ?

[Dirk98 354]

It does OK, it's a simple way to get OK performance not worrying about addons, but never wins prizes.

You refer to add-ons when speaking about possible AM variants. What do you mean by add-ons? Do you mean only those, that run their own exes behind P3D/FSX?

 

Thanks,

Dirk

Normally on my i7-6700 no HT I run p3d on AM=14. Does it mean EZDOK and GoFlight exe and OS jump on Core 0? Or not necessarily?

Thanks.

[supersym 52]

 

Not sure what you mean here?  I responded to your question over on LM's forum, but will repeat here.

 

The new entries to Prepar3D.cfg should not present any issue you describe, but here are the new entries for V3.4:

 

[GRAPHICS]

SCREEN_CAPTURE_MAX_JOBS=10

VIDEO_CAPTURE_WIDTH=480

VIDEO_CAPTURE_HEIGHT=360

VIDEO_CAPTURE_FPS=30

VIDEO_CAPTURE_BIT_RATE=800000

ViewGroup_Number=-1

 

[PANELS]

QUICKTIPS=1

PANELS_ALWAYS_ON_TOP=1

 

[uSERINTERFACE]

ScreenshotImageFormat=0

 

[AContain]

EnableRibbonVisuals=0

ShowRibbonUser=0

ShowRibbonGroundAI=0

ShowRibbonAircraftAI=0

RibbonFidelity=5.000000

RibbonMaxDistance=3218.689941

 

[NavigationVisuals]

EnableFacilityVisuals=True

ShowAirportVisuals=False

ShowVORVisuals=False

ShowNDBVisuals=False

ShowTACANVisuals=False

ShowILSVisuals=False

ShowAirspaceBoundaryVisuals=False

ShowWeatherStationVisuals=False

ShowWaypointVisuals=False

ShowVictorAirwayVisuals=False

ShowJetAirwayVisuals=False

 

If you can provide a video or more info that might help me understand the issue that would great.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

Thanks a lot  for thoses data very usefull

[G-YMML1 582]

I'm also staying with HT=OFF as I need to take care about the CPU temperatures. As far as external applications concerned, I only use ASN (they did a really good job with regard to CPU usage on latest releases) and RC/PATC. EZDOK is considered as "internal application" even though it runs as an external module. 

 

Thus, maybe we finally came to the point when AM does become obsolete as most of the external apps have been optimized. 

[Dirk98 354]

sorry, double-posting

I'm also staying with HT=OFF as I need to take care about the CPU temperatures. As far as external applications concerned, I only use ASN (they did a really good job with regard to CPU usage on latest releases) and RC/PATC. EZDOK is considered as "internal application" even though it runs as an external module. 

 

Thus, maybe we finally came to the point when AM does become obsolete as most of the external apps have been optimized.

 

Do you run AS2016 and RC/PATC on the same pc with P3D? I understand you can make EZDOK and any other exe run on the specific core you want, and that might be beneficial, init?

 

Dirk.

[G-YMML1 582]

sorry, double-posting

 

Do you run AS2016 and RC/PATC on the same pc with P3D? I understand you can make EZDOK and any other exe run on the specific core you want, and that might be beneficial, init?

 

Dirk.

Yes, it's the same PC I use for all external applications. EZDOK does not look CPU-hungry for me, so with my I7-6700k@4.7 I can afford not to worry about it. ASN was a primary suspect in excessive CPU usage in the past, but as I see now, this behavior was fixed by HiFi folks. I don't see big CPU consumption via Process Explorer. However, my selection of external goodies is very limited (ASN+RC/PATC): some folks have 4-5 external applications running simultaneously with P3D, so perhaps AM tweaks is still a big deal for them.

 

I want to give a shot, get rid of AM entries and forget about the cores' assignments and then see how 3.4 runs as tweaks-free application. Who knows, maybe it's time to say good bye to this routine

 

Cheers

[jason99vmi 157]

ErichB, on 04 Oct 2016 - 05:33 AM, said:

Is it possible to build a concise section into Rob's P3D Manual which specifically addresses affinity masking and the rules/principles governing the application of a suitable affinity mask - and when it is and is not suitable ?

Yes! that would be great since this topic is brought up soooo often and then each person wants Steve to evaluate their system individually. If we can meld Steve's and Rob's knowledge on this it would be fanstastic!

[RaptyrOne 1,409]

 

 

Remember that four cores are always better than three, but you must manage addons, place them on the last two cores.

 

I am not entirely clear on this point: how do I make the addons use the last two cores. The only addon that I manually start up before running P3D v3.4 is AS2016. That and maybe Track IR if I feel like using it on the day. So I must do something to make (force) AS2016 start and run on either of the last two cores.

 

I presume this excludes in-sim addons such as MyTraffic6, GSX, FSUIPC etc that will automatically run inside the sim?

 

I am running i6700K with no AM entry and HT is active.

 

Thanks!

[G-YMML1 582]

Greg,

 

You can do this manually via Process Explorer. Right click on a process, ASN for instance, then select or de-select cores you want for this process. Very easy and straight-forward. 

[SteveW 1,792]

By "manage addons" I mean those exe apps running along with the sim, the panels, weather engine, Traffic app and so on. If the app manages its own AM then use it. Use a .bat for starting all, groups, or individual apps: Start an app with Affinity batch file (.bat). The activity of those should be kept off of the first core used by the sim, the first two cores even better. Overlaying that activity onto the cores collecting data has the least effect on the rendering stage.

 

Starting apps and then moving them by unchecking Processors in the Task Manager Details page popup menu may seem to work OK but does not always have the expected or desired result so it is best avoided overall if possible. For example starting P3D with no AM creates a job on each LP and unchecking those processor boxes results in bunching up those jobs onto less cores. This can happen with various apps and introduces higher loads onto cores otherwise less loaded. All apps are best started up with the affinity they require/desire already in place.

[Dirk98 354]

By "manage addons" I mean those exe apps running along with the sim, the panels, weather engine, Traffic app and so on. If the app manages its own AM then use it. Use a .bat for starting all, groups, or individual apps: Start an app with Affinity batch file (.bat). The activity of those should be kept off of the first core used by the sim, the first two cores even better. Overlaying that activity onto the cores collecting data has the least effect on the rendering stage.

 

Starting apps and then moving them by unchecking Processors in the Task Manager Details page popup menu may seem to work OK but does not always have the expected or desired result so it is best avoided overall if possible. For example starting P3D with no AM creates a job on each LP and unchecking those processor boxes results in bunching up those jobs onto less cores. This can happen with various apps and introduces higher loads onto cores otherwise less loaded. All apps are best started up with the affinity they require/desire already in place.

 

And how about those add-ons that are launched by P3D's EXE.XML? Particularly EZDOK and GoFlight as an example? If not using AM (AM=0) is it a good practice to somehow make them run on the last 2 cores, cores 2 and 3 in my case  (6700K here)?

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

 

PS: Is it the same in respect to a 4-core CPU to use AffinityMask=15 as not to have [Jobscheduler] section at all in prepar3d.cfg?

[SteveW 1,792]

Yes any of those exe apps are the same you can run them from exe.xml with a .bat simply call the bat that runs the exe.

 

Yes if you have a four core no HT and use no AM then P3D will make a AM=15 pattern = 1111. If you have HT on with the four core P3D will make an AM=255 pattern 11,11,11,11 (I use commas to delimit cores), Whereas FSX would make an AM=85 pattern 01,01,01,01.