I get "periodic" shutters in my sim, which means my framerate drops 10 - 15 FPS every few minutes for a few seconds and then goes back to normal.My config is: AMD 64 3200+ 1G ram $ 6600GT PCI express. I use Ultimate Terrain, Flight Evironment (256bit DXT cloud texture) & ASVMy FPS normally stays above 20 at big airports with AI in my PMDG 737 while the periodic shutters can happen at anytime including cruise over nowhere. So I don't think it's related to heavy sceneries. My FPS in Cruise is normally around 28 (locked at 28) but it can go down to 14 - 18 during the shuttering.Suggestions are appreciated.Jason

Hi Jason,Any Anti-virus doing a scan every few minutes?Hope this helps,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.comhttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6...development.jpg http://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-proud.jpg http://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

Thank you for your reply. I use FSautostart to start my sim. I stop all my antivirus program with it. So I don't think that's what's causing the shutter.Thanks again, and by the way your product ROCKS.Jason

Are you running Peter Dowson's Autosave utility?--Bryn

Hi Bryn,Autosave? I don't think so unless it's in there without me knowing it. How do I check?Thanks.Jason

My spyware program will always make FS2004 have periodic stutters, if I don't shut it off.

JasonI use UT and Flight Environment as well and I noticed the stuttering has been more pronounced. This would not likely be ascribable to FE since I'm using the DXT3 textures (make sure you're using this if there is a stuttering problem). However, setting your 3D clouds at 100% will clearly effect the stuttering issue when you have any real cloud cover whether DXT3 textures or not. However, clearly for me the load times and stuttering have increased because of UT (I have both Canada/Alaska and US). Part of the problem is that I'm running everything maxed out for UT. Try taking some features out. I like UT largely because of that great night lighting and is almost worth in and of itself the price.P4 3.6 mhz HT 1 gig ram ATI X800XT 256 mb.

UT USA did cause some shuttering problem for me especially (or more noticeably) on take-offs and landings. I solved it by disabling enhanced water and coastline option. I know it's a significant loss but I surely don't want shutters on the runway. I guess I'll run a few test flights in Europe. If the shutters are not there likely it's UT that's still giving me shutters.Thank you for your input.Jason

I have something similar. I described this morning in message 295508 here:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...&mesg_id=295508I do not know the answer yet.Gabor

I've flown in Europe quite a bit and there clearly is less load times and stuttering because of the above. However, I'll likely get UT Europe when it comes out, lol!

It's strange, but I have this crap now too. A winter texture thing? Who knows? I've tried everything and it never did this before, yet I've installed no scenery, no new traffic or programs. Sucks.

You almost have exactly the same config as I...except i have the trackIR & CH throttle my wife got me last week. :) sorry I had to show off.Well the shutters are not the end of the world for me after all. I guess we just have to accept the fact that the bit more we add to FS9 the bit more performance problem we have to take. Fly the stock FS9.1 on our machines and we shall have no shutters or low performance. It's all about finding the "sweet spot".UT is an excellent product. So are about every other addon I have left on my sim. And it's about the "sweet spot" I'd happily live with for the rest of FS9 life. One last puzzle I am waiting is the Radar Contact 4 I ordered a couple of days ago.Happy flying my fellow simmers. Jason

This is a problem that people seem to talk about from time to time. I remember a thread topic# 270798 that discussed this issue great length and it really didn't seem to resolve the issue.(sorry, I have no idea how to find the link for the thread - url shows as www.avsim.com)I think this issue is similar to an odd pain that your doctor can't diagnose. He ends up prescribing you an anti-depressant because he believes it is in your head.I have these studders as well and I have had them with various hardware setups, configs... They always seem to return and they are definitely not a FPS issue. Here is what I posted in that tread last summer"I have excellent performance always for the most part. When things get complicated (lots of ai, very detailed scenery...) I may get a slow down in the frame rates, but that is understandable. The problem is the long pauses, with texture refreshes that I encounter. They can not be attributed to any additional video requirements. Sometimes the FPS never even drop. I can have massive clouds, tons of ai and great scenery and everything is fine. Then, all of the sudden, I get a long pause with a refresh. The one thing that I have noticed is that these pauses seem to coincide with ATC. If ATC is busy, I seem to get pauses. Maybe?The strange thing is I had the pauses with the my last rig. I even went through the FSGS unification process with my last rig and I still got the pauses (BTW, Mike is a great guy and I recommend his service).I figured that I needed to ditch the on board sound so I got an external sound card. Still, I had pauses.Now I have a new rig. Everything new except the video card and the HD's. I am still using the same drives in raid 0 configuration. I still have the pauses. I'm sure it is not the video card because that is not the only vc I used with my old rig and still experienced pauses. I also had pauses with my ti4600. So, here I am, with a very nice system. I have great performance except for these occasional long pauses with texture refreshes that seem to correspond this atc interaction but a new sound card, video card, mobo, ram, CPU, fsgs unification, fs reinstall, XP reinstall or anything else short of getting new HD's doesn't seem to solve the problem.I'm a little buzzed so I will give you a short time line just in case the description above didn't make sense. Every time I upgraded, my rig was faster and smoother but I still had pauses.Original system: Asus P4G8X, P4 3.06, 1GB pc2100, ti4600 = pauses1st upgrade: Asus P4G8X, P4 3.06, 1GB pc2100, BFG 6800GT = pauses2nd upgrade: Asus P4G8X, P4 3.06, 1GB pc2100, BFG 6800GT, external sound card = pauses3rd upgrade: Asus P4G8X, P4 3.06, 1GB pc2100, BFG 68ooGT, External sound card, FSGS unification = pauses4th upgrade: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum, Athlon64 3800+ 939, 1GB DDR400, BFG 6800GT = pausesNow, the obvious answer is that I need to replace my HD's with a couple of raptors or raid 0, but I would like to get to the bottom of this before I spend the $. The atc interaction and the pauses may be a coincidence or maybe not. I don't know. One thing I do know is that I have spent way too much money and time to fix this problem. BTW, I am using the following programs:Active Sky 5Active CameraFlight Environment (only since the last upgrade)"

It definitely seems like an ATC problem to me as well. If I'm taxiing to the runway and the tower is talking to AI, then it almost always stutters. I've never really not had this problem, only lately it's worse. It's irritating as ####, because I run a clean system and only three add ons - A payware plane, Ultimate Traffic, and Active Sky 6. I have no scenery except default. The only exception is the RealAir Scout scenery - a small airport. I obviously have AFCADs for all the major airports and I'm positive they suck up resources, but without them, the AI doesn't work the way it's designed.I've tweaked my computer so much it's crazy. Every trick one can find to help enhance the performance, I've done. Now AV apps running or anything when flying. I use 128 x 128 bit DXT clouds (I've tried 32-bit). My FS settings are even low compared to most people.Is there some way to get the sound to buffer somewhere into memory so when ATC talks it doesn't disturb the system?

well I used fSGS tweak...and yes i was a great service. ATC does shutter on my computer, but it's a diffrent shutter for me. It's shorter is much more predictable - A sec. shutter right before the ATC talks.What I know about tweaking sound is you can decrease sound acceleration in DirectX to something less than full acceleration to get better performance. It's also recommended my some to lower sound quality in the sim, but I've heard people saying that "high" quality actually gives the least shuttering.Anothing thing I am fooling with in relation to this problem is textbandwidth in FS9.cfg. But nothing I've tried seems to have hit right on the problem so far.Thanks for the brain storming guys. Yes I, too, have tweaked my computer so much it's crazy. But all for a sim I can be in peace with.Jason