Horrible FPS Loss with Clouds?

[Mejjo 33]

Hi everyone,

Using P3D V4 here with i7700K @ 4.8 ghz - GTX 1070. 

I'm using Active Sky 2016 for the weather. I have followed their advice to set cloud cover to maximum, However when flying ( all views ) i get a horrible FPS drop with some nasty stutters. I am using default P3D clouds. 

Would purchasing ASCA make a difference? I've played with the settings but i just cannot work out why i'm getting this horrible performance. 

[vc10man 732]

Interesting post, coz that's the hardware I want to set up my P3Dv4 with, using AS2016.

[gboz 157]

33 minutes ago, Mejjo said:

I'm using Active Sky 2016 for the weather. I have followed their advice to set cloud cover to maximum, However when flying ( all views ) i get a horrible FPS drop with some nasty stutters. I am using default P3D clouds. 

What AA settings are you using?
Supersampling usually does not work well with heavy cloud density.

gb.

[Mejjo 33]

Hey,

Thank you for the reply. I am using 4xMSAA It's what seems to work best for me, I have tried the others but the performance is worse with them. 

[G-YMML1 582]

1 hour ago, Mejjo said:

Hey,

Thank you for the reply. I am using 4xMSAA It's what seems to work best for me, I have tried the others but the performance is worse with them. 

Make it 2x. The difference will be huge

[stripealipe 87]

Get GPU-Z and check your GPU usage when flying in these scenarios as you'll be able to see if you're pushing your card to 100% or near. This way you'll be able to see if it's your GPU or maybe something else.

[Afterburner 374]

Dense clouds generated by AS always take a toll on the GPU, especially during weather reloads under dense overcast conditions. When AS reloads the weather in that scenario, it adds another dense overcast layer to the existing one, while it lets the old layer gradually fade away. If you run high AA settings and have other GPU-intensive eye candy activated, having two overcast layers generated temporarily puts a lot of strain on your GPU. The performance improves as soon as the old layer has faded away. 

I don't think using ASCA will improve the performance, because the default P3D cloud textures are relatively fps-friendly. I would play around with AS settings (e.g. reducing the maximum number of cloud layers, using only one visibility layer, etc.)

[Drumcode 1,893]

4 hours ago, Mejjo said:

Hi everyone,

Using P3D V4 here with i7700K @ 4.8 ghz - GTX 1070. 

I'm using Active Sky 2016 for the weather. I have followed their advice to set cloud cover to maximum, However when flying ( all views ) i get a horrible FPS drop with some nasty stutters. I am using default P3D clouds. 

Would purchasing ASCA make a difference? I've played with the settings but i just cannot work out why i'm getting this horrible performance. 

I have the same setup. What time of the day are you experiencing the drop? How much RAM do you have? The only performance issue for me is the dusk, apart from it my system runs P3D like a champ. Any chance you could post screenshots of your graphic and lightning config?

Also, I'm assuming you're running W10? Check out YT, there are some videos on how to configure Windows 10 for gaming rigs, by default there's a lot of nonsense turned on in it.

[vgbaron 3,618]

ASCA will help but not completely resolve the issue. Also set your cloud layers to 3 and see if that helps. Also check you other settings and drop some of them to find the right balance.

If your other "non cloud" settings are too high, your cpu/gpu combo won't have enough to smoothly handle the clouds.

Vic

[Gridley 257]

I have almost exactly the same hardware as you but a GTX 1080.  I'm using ASP4 with ASCA and weather has a minimal impact on FPS for me.  As others have stated, for me the biggest performance improvement came from turning off FXAA and setting AA to 4xSSAA with 16x anisotropic filtering.  FXAA kills performance for me.

Another thing to try is reducing the number of cloud layers in ASP4 - I have it set to the default which I think is 5 layers, but reducing to three can help tremendously in complex weather.

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

I am experiencing the same thing with a 7700k clocked at 4.9 ghz. Frame rates with clouds at places like KMSP with moderate-high settings is around 20fps, which itself isn't that bad, but the stutters are horrific!

[vortex681 806]

1 hour ago, Gridley said:

As others have stated, for me the biggest performance improvement came from turning off FXAA and setting AA to 4xSSAA with 16x anisotropic filtering.  FXAA kills performance for me.

Because of the way it works, FXAA is supposed to be the fastest type of AA with the least effect on performance - the main downside being that it tends to blur the image. I'm surprised you found it less efficient than SSAA. See https://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/12/what-is-fxaa/ for a more detailed explanation.

[Mejjo 33]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the replies. I am going to play around with the settings and try to find the right balance. I will also download GPU-Z to monitor the GPU usage. It's just proving hard to find the right balance, If i drop the AA setting down to 2 i get horrible jagged lines on all my PMDG aircraft ( mostly on the wings ) Which bugs me as i like to leave it on a outside view in cruise. I have tried FXAA, that does help with the jaggies but as the above post stats it will cause blurs and makes the virtual cockpit look horrible. 

It seems its just trying to get the right balance which i'm struggling with. I moved from FSX and used Nvidia Inspector, Should anything be used for P3D in that?