P3D4 Dynamic Lights and FPS drop

[Terblanche 28]

I've read the argument of the influence of some 3rd party scenery and the FPS drop when switching on the B744's lights but why will the FPS drop when you switch lights on over the ocean? And why will the same airport (FSDT Vancouver for example) have NO FPS drop when I switch the lights on of a Carenado aircraft that are P3D4 compatible? And if it is only on my system, then I would like to know what is the influence of the QOTSII on my rig because on FSX everything is smooth and NO FPS drop? And lastly - is there a correlation between ORBX night lights and the B744 because in daytime everything is smooth but when the night comes ... ♪♫ ... tralalaa!

Must say, I know P3D4 is new on the market and most definitely the future within the 64-bit environment but goodness gracious between the stuttering and shimmering and endless tweaking trying to solve it, it is more of a frustration at the moment than a joy. Accept when I start up the compatible Carenado aircraft and hip-hop over some ORBX terrain scenery like Norway. Then it is all smooth sailing but the moment I turn on the B744 then everything turns off ... and as I say, if my rig is good enough for a very VERY smooth FSX performance then it should surely be more than good enough for P3D4.

[garrett_frank 150]

I'm with you here. I think I'm at the point where if I want to fly PMDG aircraft, I need to do it during the day, with DL off. If I want to fly at night, well, I can turn AA down so much that all the lights shimmer so bad it's like I'm flying over a Christmas light park.

Can PMDG at least give users the option to install a non-DL light option? So that landing, taxi, turn off lights work and illuminate the ground with any dependency on DL? To be honest, DL is cool--and maybe only slightly cooler than dynamic reflections (does anyone use this?), but it's simply not feasible for any of us that use even moderate AA settings. I'm using a GTX1080Ti for crap's sake...

[Terblanche 28]

10 minutes ago, garrett_frank said:

I'm using a GTX1080Ti for crap's sake..

Me too ... and 32GB of RAM ... and a FSX locked at 30 FPS that hardly ever drops below 25 even at EDDF or EGLL 

[scandinavian13 5,192]

I'm running a 980Ti and it's just fine. There are numerous posts out there with suggestions on how to properly configure things without the sim environment dragging you down.

To the "can we have the option" comment: it's not that simple.

[Terblanche 28]

1 minute ago, scandinavian13 said:

There are numerous posts out there with suggestions on how to properly configure things without the sim environment dragging you down.

Will PMDG be so kind to give us a summary because I've searched and googled and there are a 1000 opinions but very little "suggestions on how to properly configure" - my P3D4 settings are already toned down according to some recommendations and although I prefer to leave Nvidia Inspector as it is, I've followed some advice to set that as well with neither having any effect on the impact of the landing lights.

[laserit 93]

I also have a 1080ti

My experience with the 744 and dynamic lighting is that when I activate and run the Taxi lights or the Landing lights without the other it adds about 6% to my GPU utilization and my FPS remains the same. When I activate and run them both it adds 30% to my GPU utilization. It doesn't matter what kind of order you activate them, singly=6% both=%30

I can maintain frame rate as long as I can make adjustments to keep my GPU from maxing out. 

[downscc 1,327]

What is your AA setting Floyd?  I am aware that SSAA can be a killer on performance for some systems including my 980Ti.

[laserit 93]

19 minutes ago, downscc said:

What is your AA setting Floyd?  I am aware that SSAA can be a killer on performance for some systems including my 980Ti.

4XSSAA

[77west 139]

I am swapping my 1080 for a 1080ti OC tomorrow in the hopes this will help a little with this.

I can confirm I see the FPS drop even at a stock standard P3D airport with AA settings using SSAA, but anything less looks nasty so I accept the hit.

[garrett_frank 150]

9 hours ago, scandinavian13 said:

To the "can we have the option" comment: it's not that simple.

I didn't imply that it was.

[Terblanche 28]

10 hours ago, scandinavian13 said:

I'm running a 980Ti and it's just fine.

As you can see from above, it's not so easy to just bring sliders down and or tweak the GPU ... maybe PMDG can advice on the recommended settings and/or investigate what it is with the QOTSII that hit the FPS for a home run when you switch on the lights. My gut tells me it has something to with the fact that the B744 has an AI-object for the lighting and that there is a tension/strain between the two. But I can be completely wrong.

[77west 139]

I personally believe that this is an efficiency issue with using SSAA in the P3Dv4 code, not a PMDG specific issue. I don't believe it is ONLY related to unoptimized P3Dv3/2/1 ported scenery. This may be an issue for some; but it is not the only cause.

I can't comment on the 744 using an AI object for lighting... I don't even know how you found this out...

[Terblanche 28]

34 minutes ago, 77west said:

I can't comment on the 744 using an AI object for lighting... I don't even know how you found this out...

When I bought the B744 for FSX I had a problem that the landing lights did not work, or it will work on take-off but when I arrived they are gone. Then one day I saw on my Aivlasoft EFB screen on separate computer that there is a AI object right behind my aircraft following me around. When I land it somehow get detached from the aircraft. I then opened a ticket with PMDG and over time they discovered the problem and it was fixed in a later update.

[77west 139]

5 minutes ago, Terblanche said:

When I bought the B744 for FSX I had a problem that the landing lights did not work, or it will work on take-off but when I arrived they are gone. Then one day I saw on my Aivlasoft EFB screen on separate computer that there is a AI object right behind my aircraft following me around. When I land it somehow get detached from the aircraft. I then opened a ticket with PMDG and over time they discovered the problem and it was fixed in a later update.

Very interesting. I know PMDG use some ingenious workarounds to the limitations of the FSX/P3D code but a shadow aircraft is a new one!

[spearmint_flyer 579]

12 hours ago, scandinavian13 said:

I'm running a 980Ti and it's just fine. 

Same here, I have a 970 and it's ok. Most of my low performance comes from having too much scenery loaded. For example NYCX with Imaginesim KLGA and FSDT JFK is allot of scenery to load when flying at 180 knots.