What Was Your Most Stable Version?

[dal330200 216]

Hi Everyone,

 

I've been immersing myself in the forums, here and elsewhere, to research the VAS/memory management problem that most of us who have 3.4 are struggling with.  I'm convinced that it's a memory management problem.  In any case, I'm curious to find out what the last version was that did NOT have these VAS problems.  Maybe I can ask LM to let me roll it back since I started with 3.4 and can't get earlier versions. 

 

My VAS problems are pretty much identical to what everyone's been talking about recently. 

 

I'm still in the process of tweaking things, but maybe it will be worthwhile to see if an older version is a better option for decent performance/eye-candy until this issue gets addressed.

 

I can hold my own for the most part with out going near OOM unless I'm in the 777 coming into JFK, and next worst airports are at LAXv2 and DFW.  I don't have my sliders to the right, except for those run by the GPU, and am using low res textures.  Traffic rarely above 10% unless I'm going into a smaller airport and I'll kick it up a little.  Frames hover in the low 20s at most addon airports in the Airbus and 737, and of course, performance is spectacular in default ac.  The CS 777 is a performance hog, knocking me down to 12-15fps in most cases at any airport, under any condition.  Vectors are limited to primary and secondary roads and my cloud textures are also low. 

 

I guess what I'm getting at is I understand the VAS problem, and am learning how to manage settings in order to get the most performance vs graphics.  But, after 2 weeks of constant tweaking, researching and testing, version 3.4 just doesn't give back VAS once it takes it away.  The only way I can regenerate the memory is to save the flight, make it default, and restart P3D.  Fortunately because of the SSD, the process only takes about 1-2 minutes.  However, I'm wondering if a previous version would perform better, and if so, which one should I ask for?

 

Thanks,

 

John

 

 

I7-6700k @4.4-4.6ghz (don't know which is more stable yet)

16gb 2100 DDR4

GTX1060 4gb (little better than the 960, but not by much- may return it)

SSD for P3D and all addons

ORBX Vector, HD Airports, Global, North America

AS16

PMDG ngx

Aerosoft Airbus

Captain Sim 777 (unflyable), will upgrade to PMDG once I can get performance up

Various popular FSDT, Flightbeam, Taxi2gate and Fly Tampa for USA and CYYZ, and Aerosoft (EGLL) airports

MT6 (had UT2 migrated fine, but took a big performance hit and AI liveries too much to manage and update. 

 

 

[WebMaximus 372]

Hello John,

 

I went back to 3.2 after having the same VAS issues so many running 3.4 experienced and since I went back I have zero VAS issues or any other issues for that matter.

 

I'm back being able to enjoy myself flying instead of constantly being worried if I will make it to my destination gate or if I will once again end up on my desktop.

 

So if you're able to somehow get version 3.2 that one comes highly recommended. 3.3 was also OK but I read many people saying 3.2 was the best one so that's why I went with that version.

 

Hope you'll be able to lay your hands on it and have your issues sorted!

[reecemj 144]

http://www.avsim.com/topic/500442-clients-of-older-prepar3d-v3-versions-officially-available-for-download/.....John this may help.

[steve howlett 137]

same here..blurry textures.so i went back to 3.2..put on realism shaderpack and it looks great.

don't know why.to be honest i couldn't care less.:-)

 

     steve

[Bobsk8 12,580]

3.4 No tweaks, no OOms, no problems. 

[dal330200 216]

Bob, what addons do you use or specs do you have? 

[Bob Scott 7,716]

3.3.5 here

[Noel 4,487]

3.0 here  :smile:

 

Long ago I lost patience w/ what is required to upgrade/debug every 4 months or however often incremental upgrades come now and truth be told 3.0 works great and has since day one, a long time ago now.  I know LM benefits from the massive beta testing family of users, but I'd much rather see a bigger upgrade once every 1-3 years, beta tested to a very high level, and leave it at that.  This lowers the pressure on content developers to be able to relax until it's time to address changes.  I know the new architectural in 3.x helps along these lines, but I'd rather be flying than upgrading any day, and am surprised at all of the users here who will do these upgrades like clockwork, just for a couple new features along w/ the cost of discovering new problems have arisen.  

[Bobsk8 12,580]

3.0 here  :smile:

 

Long ago I lost patience w/ what is required to upgrade/debug every 4 months or however often incremental upgrades come now and truth be told 3.0 works great and has since day one, a long time ago now.  I know LM benefits from the massive beta testing family of users, but I'd much rather see a bigger upgrade once every 1-3 years, beta tested to a very high level, and leave it at that.  This lowers the pressure on content developers to be able to relax until it's time to address changes.  I know the new architectural in 3.x helps along these lines, but I'd rather be flying than upgrading any day, and am surprised at all of the users here who will do these upgrades like clockwork, just for a couple new features along w/ the cost of discovering new problems have arisen.  

 

 

I went from 3.2 which was good, to 3.3 which was a disaster, rolled back to 3.2 and then to 3.4. I am done now, unless they come out with an upgrade that guarantees me 15 more fPS with all sliders to the right, I am not messing with hot fixes, cold fixes, upgrades or downgrades, which usually wind up breaking something or other anyway. My current version works well, no crashes, good FPS, no stutters, and I finish every flight with zero problems. I doubt seriously if LM can improve on that. 

[qqwertz 772]

Since HF2 was released 3.4 is probably the most stable version for me. I get excellent performance on my system and VAS is well under control.

 

Peter

[Noel 4,487]

 

 

I doubt seriously if LM can improve on that. 

 

Two things that would get my attention would be:  enhancing the built-in ATC which could be tricky since the voice strings would have to be done by other folks presumably, and making the map drag-able, meaning you can click your mouse and move the map, plus use the mouse wheel to zoom in/out.  I think a lot of users would appreciate those features, though I know the massive beta testing family apparently isn't the target audience for the finished product.  Sorry, off topic....

[dal330200 216]

Thanks for your suggestions and feedback everyone.  I decided to roll back to 3.2, which went uneventfully for the most part.  The performance increase is nothing short of remarkable, and even when I think I'm going to go OOM, the VAS seems to hold it's own.  I did some intense VFR flying around some of the payware airports with all of the settings maxed and had no problems.  Of course, as soon as I loaded the 737, Airbus or 777 I needed to start moving the sliders back a bit.  Then I decided to install some shader packs and everything went haywire after that, so I did a fresh install, which was probably a good idea anyway.  Let's see how she holds up over the next couple of days as I put the sim through its paces.  I have to say that I never saw such good graphics, smoothness and realism.  I used to be big on FSX until I stopped simming altogether about 8 years ago, so now that things are seemingly running well under this version, I'm glad to be back.

 

Can't wait to see what happens in 2017 with LM's BIG news...maybe its going to put VAS and OOM to rest until developers test the limits of the 64 bit version as the merry-go-round continues.

 

Happy New Year,

 

John

[WebMaximus 372]

That's a great report to read John, happy new year to you too and happy flying!

[reecemj 144]

John what other scenery are u running? I been thinking about going back to 3.2. I remember that version being a little smooth than 3.4 on my system.

[fluffyflops 1,847]

3.3.5 here

Same here, best version of the sim since I started in 2001