Stutters Cured-Simple Solution-Lesson Learned!

[lownslo 592]

2 hours ago, DaveCT2003 said:

..I often recommend the above settings AND removal of Affinity Mask settings for forth generation I7s and later - UNLESS the person is running other demanding software (one program or a cumulative affect) in concert with P3D.

Thanks for the clarification, Dave.  Those pesky add-on programs so many of us use in conjunction with and alongside the simlulator can make an Affinity Mask worth its weight in gold!

Greg

[CaptKornDog 284]

I’d love to use NI frame rate limited again with current drivers and avoid the DXGI Device Hung error.  Forced to use recent drivers for other programs.

[shivers9 1,174]

1 hour ago, pmb said:

I get more and more confused.

LOL I am with you! LOL! I think the subject is confusing due to the fact that every one of us has a different machine and software and settings. I need to upgrade hardware in the worst way. Just waiting for the new stuff to filter down in a few weeks. I know this for sure.....I will not be even try the new RTX stuff until at least version 3080TI or 4080TI GPU's pop up. It may make some pretty pictures in a year or two but I really do expect it to eat up most if not all the performance increase we have been waiting for over the last 4 or 5 years. One thing that is clear is that every new whistle and bell cost some performance. No freebies in the flight sim world. 

[Jeff Nielsen 1,386]

1 hour ago, pmb said:

I get more and more confused.

It's my impression all those threads go in circles. One ends up with the definite conclusion you MUST apply an AM, at least if running with HT on. The next one ends up with the agreement to NOT apply an AM, but use the internal limiter (or whatever it's called). The third one suggests to run the internal limiter at unlimited, but VSync/TP on and set the monitor rate to 30 Hz, if possible. The next one concludes using an external limiter and VSync/TP off and not use an AM. And so on.

I think it's a continuous optimization within the magic triangle

                                                 Stutters

                                              |                |       

                                  Blurries                Low fps

You always shift the center of gravity more to one of the three but at the cost of the two others. The only way to escape is better hardware anway.

And to provide a more positive feedback. After quite some experiments, I found the best overall experience on my system (see signature) monitor set to 30 Hz, internal limiter unlimited, VSync/TP on, no external limiter. No AM either. (I have quite a number of programs like Active Sky/ASCA/Skyforce/FSFlightControl/SPAD.neXt shifted to a networked machine). This works well, as long  as I can maintain the 30 fps, which I can under most "normal" conditions, but not in heavy environments/with AI/bad weather, where I just have to live with a few stutters (call it long frames, if you like) now and then.I

Kind regards, Michael

PS: I just recalled, I completely forgot that nice FFTF factoring in.

I have not tried the AM setting

[pmb 5,137]

8 minutes ago, Jeff Nielsen said:

I have not tried the AM setting

But you wrote you took off Prepar3d from cores 0 and 1 using Process Lasso. This isn't exactly an Affinity Mask, I know that, but I think it's not unsimilar either.

Although, if applying an AM, I wouldn't mask out cores 0 and 1, but  core 1 alone, at best (which is the least used among my cores without an AM anyway).

Kind regards, Michael

Edited August 28, 2018 by pmb

[Jeff Nielsen 1,386]

9 minutes ago, pmb said:

But you wrote you took off Prepar3d from cores 0 and 1 using Process Lasso. This isn't exactly an Affinity Mask, I know that, but I think it's not unsimilar either.

Although, if applying an AM, I wouldn't mask out cores 0 and 1, but  core 1 alone, at best (which is the least used among my cores without an AM anyway).

Kind regards, Michael

I meant to say I didn't add it in the .cfg file...sorry about that.  I'm not sure how to go about doing it the cfg file way other than I've seen some AM calculators out there.  I think you use those.  I ran across this one the other day when I saw someone's post:  http://www.gatwick-fsg.org.uk/affinitymask.aspx?SubMenuItem=utilties .  Like I said I haven't tried it, but it might help you.

[pmb 5,137]

11 minutes ago, Jeff Nielsen said:

I meant to say I didn't add it in the .cfg file...sorry about that.  I'm not sure how to go about doing it the cfg file way other than I've seen some AM calculators out there. 

I use SimStarter which comes with an integrated Affinity Mask calculator where you choose the active cores and it inserts the proper lines into the config file. I tried a few popular settings for my machine time ago, but none of them gave me a really great advantage.

Kind regards, Michael

[evaamo 549]

Those of you running P3D 4.3 with frame rate setting on unlimited... how are you dealing with blurries?

I agree with Michael, this is a confusing and never-ending vicious cycle ...

[Jeff Nielsen 1,386]

10 minutes ago, evaamo said:

Those of you running P3D 4.3 with frame rate setting on unlimited... how are you dealing with blurries?

I agree with Michael, this is a confusing and never-ending vicious cycle ...

I have LOD setting to 9.5 in the .cfg file.  Using high def terrain textures in the settings.  I'll try and post some picks of my settings.

[edpatino 1,964]

12 minutes ago, evaamo said:

Those of you running P3D 4.3 with frame rate setting on unlimited... how are you dealing with blurries?

I agree with Michael, this is a confusing and never-ending vicious cycle ...

Take a look at this utility, works fine for me:

https://www.fspsstore.com/fsps-products/fsps-fftf-dynamic-fsx.html

Cheers, Ed

 

 

[Bob Scott 7,721]

28 minutes ago, evaamo said:

Those of you running P3D 4.3 with frame rate setting on unlimited... how are you dealing with blurries?

I agree with Michael, this is a confusing and never-ending vicious cycle ...

I deal with it by using a 30 Hz monitor with VSync turned on.  This is, in effect, a hardware-driven 30 fps frame limiter.

I think it's a vicious cycle mostly when people do not understand what AM does and does not do.  If you don't have a good understanding of how Windows handles thread processing across both physical cores and virtual processors...how cache memory serves the virtual core pairs, how P3D's process is structured w/r/t the main thread, the primary rendering thread, and scenery loading threads, and much of the same about each and every other add-on that will run on the same machine, then you're very likely to misuse the AM values mentioned in these discussions.  So if you don't feel like you have that kind of in-depth knowledge on how P3D handles multithreading on a multi-core CPU (with or without HT enabled), then no AM is probably the best answer, because if you mess with it without knowing what you're doing, you're either going to choose the wrong value, or be left to experiment trial-and-error without really knowing why a particular value may work now, but not later when something else changes.

It's an advanced performance configuration, and misused it can, as the OP noted, negatively impact performance just as easily as it can help.

I think of it like people that put high-octane gas into a vehicle, believing it will enhance performance, and not understanding what effect the higher octane actually has...resulting in very expensive exhaust with no performance boost in vehicles that don't actually need it.

Regards

 

[evaamo 549]

4 minutes ago, edpatino said:

Take a look at this utility, works fine for me:

https://www.fspsstore.com/fsps-products/fsps-fftf-dynamic-fsx.html

Cheers, Ed

 

 

Thank you, Ed.

Cheers

-E

[Bob Scott 7,721]

8 minutes ago, edpatino said:

Take a look at this utility, works fine for me:

https://www.fspsstore.com/fsps-products/fsps-fftf-dynamic-fsx.html

Cheers, Ed

Given that this is a P3D thread, a word of warning--the product in this link is for FSX, and will not work for P3D.  There are separate P3Dv3 and P3Dv4-specific versions of this program.

Regards

[evaamo 549]

25 minutes ago, w6kd said:

I deal with it by using a 30 Hz monitor with VSync turned on.  This is, in effect, a hardware-driven 30 fps frame limiter.

I think it's a vicious cycle mostly when people do not understand what AM does and does not do.  If you don't have a good understanding of how Windows handles thread processing across both physical and virtual cores...how cache memory serves the virtual core pairs, how P3D's process is structured w/r/t the main thread, the primary rendering thread, and scenery loading threads, and much of the same about each and every other add-on that will run on the same machine, then you're very likely to misuse the AM values mentioned in these discussions.  So if you don't feel like you have that kind of in-depth knowledge on how P3D handles multithreading on a multi-core CPU (with or without HT enabled), then no AM is probably the best answer, because if you mess with it without knowing what you're doing, you're either going to choose the wrong value, or be left to experiment trial-and-error without really knowing why a particular value may work now, but not later when something else changes.

It's an advanced performance configuration, and misused it can, as the OP noted, negatively impact performance just as easily as it can help.

I think of it like people that put high-octane gas into a vehicle, believing it will enhance performance, and not understanding what effect the higher octane actually has...resulting in very expensive exhaust with no performance boost in vehicles that don't actually need it.

Regards

 

Thanks for the long reply, Bob.

I use an AM that "emulates" having HT off, whilst allowing me to actually keep HT enabled in BIOS, resulting in a smooth performance.

I had good results with setting the frame rate limiter to unlimited until 4.3, where more blurries are becoming more evident.

Now I basically select my internal (inside P3D) frame rate limiter to 31 and, even if I'm getting lower FPS, the blurries are less noticeable tho the smoothness is still there.

Cheers

-E

Edited August 29, 2018 by evaamo

[edpatino 1,964]

7 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Given that this is a P3D thread, a word of warning--the product in this link is for FSX, and will not work for P3D.  There are separate P3Dv3 and P3Dv4-specific versions of this program.

You're quite right. My bad.

Thanks, Ed