How much to gain moving third party apps to networked computer?

[jasonstory44 0]

Just curious, I've recently networked 2 computers. Was just curious how much there would be to gain by moving active sky, chase plane and possibly an ATC program to the second computer and using FSUIPC/FSwide to connect?

also gotta figure out why FSwide won't install using my serial number for FSUIPC but I guess that's another issue. 

 

Thanks Jason

[BobP 56]

56 minutes ago, jasonstory44 said:

Just curious, I've recently networked 2 computers. Was just curious how much there would be to gain by moving active sky, chase plane and possibly an ATC program to the second computer and using FSUIPC/FSwide to connect?

also gotta figure out why FSwide won't install using my serial number for FSUIPC but I guess that's another issue. 

 

Thanks Jason

Hi Jason,

I  run AS16, PFPX,ASCA, Aivalsoft EFB, Plan G and Radar Contact on my win 7 client. Many times I have all running at once which keeps a decent amount of load off my sim computer. No only that, the ability to do all that without leaving the airplane. That to me is extremely valuable. 

Bob

[jasonstory44 0]

Thanks Bob.  And it's FSwide that allows that interface?

[BobP 56]

Yes, that is correct. 

Bob

[RichUK 474]

Also Simcoonect and or fsuipc depending on software needs,

[jasonstory44 0]

Ok have those both installed already. Getting an incorrect registration when I try and install FSwide.  Though I know there's an issue with it on the new FSUIPC 5 installer. Posted over on that forum and tried to follow Petes sticky about the issue but no luck. 

[RichUK 474]

Pete will no doubt fix you up with your widefs issue. Stuff like AS uses simconnect rather than fsuipc so that will require a little setting up on vboth your FS and client machine too if you haven't done that already. There is a pretty good guide written by the AS folks and I believe Rob wrote one here on Avsimn too.

[glider1 90]

There is no such thing as something for nothing. Networking apps is only going to benefit FPS if you can't use an affinity mask and you have a slow CPU. All apps you add to the sim use the same amount of resources on the sim no matter where they are located.

Networked apps still burden down the sim just as much as if they were on the same machine since they hit simconnect or equivalent which need CPU resources on the sim machine. So if you use an affinity mask, you don't need apps to be networked since they run on cores that the sim is not using.

If you have a powerful CPU running at 4.5GHz or higher, there is almost no benefit to networking apps even without an affinity mask because the operating system will tend to put the app onto cores that the sim isn't using.

A few years ago, it did benefit have apps networked because the operating systems didn't allocate CPU resources properly and running apps on the same machine caused stutters.

If I am wrong, please correct me.

 

 

[Guest]

I'd highly recommend moving as much as you can off the main FS PC to a networked PC.  Networked 3rd party products like HiFi ASP4/ASCA, FSCommander, XFPX, others usually come with their own monitoring tools that you can run full screen on those monitors you have attached to the networked PC(s).

On my networked PC I run FS Commander full screen on a smaller 4K monitor (and sometimes switch to Google Earth for flight tracking) and ASP4/ASCA map view on another 2K monitor so I can see weather and wind and also monitor my flight track.  Similar goes for ProATCX.  If you tried to run all this on one computer with 3 monitors you would see an FPS hits even with cores to spare as you'd use more GPU resources.  However, with high end CPU/GPU it's probably less of an FPS hit if you manage the affinity for each app with over many cores.  But keeping in mind TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 you can easily see 9-10GB VRAM usage, adding two more monitors and even with their D2D output that will consume more GPU VRAM and could push you over the edge.

Certainly NOT required, but there is a benefit to networked PCs.

Cheers, Rob.

 

EDIT: the networked PC doesn't need to be a powerful PC, but I would recommend you go with a fast network setup 1Gbps so that data transfer are quick, especially with HiFi ASCA.

[jasonstory44 0]

thanks Rob

[Egbert Drenth 250]

I'm using a networked PC for many, many years now.
Not because of any performance gain or something but because I can run/view add-ons on another screen without have to leave FS/P3D.
For example: ActiveSky, Little NavMap, vPilot, EFB, etc ,etc. 

Highly recommended

[KL Oo 695]

4 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

EDIT: the networked PC doesn't need to be a powerful PC, but I would recommend you go with a fast network setup 1Gbps so that data transfer are quick, especially with HiFi ASCA.

 

Hi Rob,

I thought ASCA had to be on the server (P3D) computer. As in the textures needed to run off the main P3D PC, they couldn't be on the client. Am I mistaken? Can ASCA textures reside on the client?

 

[geolpilot 88]

59 minutes ago, KL Oo said:

 

Hi Rob,

I thought ASCA had to be on the server (P3D) computer. As in the textures needed to run off the main P3D PC, they couldn't be on the client. Am I mistaken? Can ASCA textures reside on the client?

 

I have ASCA running fine on my client (Laptop) with AS4. Even with the "Dynamic" texture loading option set. That is why Rob recommended a fast network setup (1Gbps) so that, when ASCA passes texture sets across to the server machine, that can happen as fast as possible.

[ZKOKQ 984]

11 hours ago, jasonstory44 said:

chase plane

I think ChasePlane only riuns on the Sim computer. I could be wrong

[garydpoole 183]

6 hours ago, Egbert Drenth said:

I'm using a networked PC for many, many years now.
Not because of any performance gain or something but because I can run/view add-ons on another screen without have to leave FS/P3D.
For example: ActiveSky, Little NavMap, vPilot, EFB, etc ,etc. 

Highly recommended

I can second this - so useful being able to view programmes (especially AS) without switching sim.