Massive FPS drop with injected AI Planes

[JoeFackel 760]

Hello wisdom of the crowd,

do you know of a tool where i can see a complete list of the AI planes active in the 3D world? I have an massive stutter anytime a new AI plane is spawning in the 3D world and i have to further investigate if its maybe an defective AI model inducing this massive momentary framedrop (from stable 20s down to 3 or less) followed by an stutter.

Thx in advance.

Edited October 23, 2018 by cmpbellsjc
Edited title per OP request

[AnkH 2,232]

Ehm, such a list is entirely depending on what AI traffic you use. If you installed it yourself, you should actually know where the AI traffic models reside inside your folder structure. And you could check those with several freeware tools available for P3D compatibility.

As you use UTLive, I would start off with checking the UTLive models. Did you add any additional AI model yourself? If not, I doubt that UTLive has any incompatible model, but maybe others know this better...

[JoeFackel 760]

Maybe i wasn't clear enough. Of course i know about the custom AI planes and liveries collected by myself. I need a tool which can read the AI planes active in the sim. With Little nav map i can see the planes and the amount of the ai planes but i don't see which has been added in the 3D world just yet, if i could see this i can identify the 3D model and replace it.

At EDDF i've literally NO UTL stock AI aircraft because i've added around 160 custom flightplans with the updated 3D models from TFS, FSP and so on.

[AnkH 2,232]

And you are sure that none of those "updated" models you added yourself is the culprit? And what's about this "3D Sounds" in your signature? Was this designed for P3D?

With AiAircraftTweaker from Lorby-SI you can check each of your AI models if they are designed at least with MDLX. MDL9 or older would be an incompatible FS9 model, but also there I am no expert, sorry.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

Hi,

the P3D SDK still has the Traffic Toolbox.

1. Download and install the SDK (the add-on.xml below assumes that the SDK is in its default location)
2. In "C:\Users\...\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\" create a folder "\TrafficToolbox\"
3. In that folder create this add-on.xml file (C:\Users\...\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\TrafficToolbox\add-on.xml):

Quote

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
  <AddOn.Name>TrafficToolbox</AddOn.Name>
  <AddOn.Description />
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>DLL</Category>
    <Path>C:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4 SDK 4.3.29.25520\World\Traffic\TrafficToolbox.dll</Path>
    <Name>TrafficToolbox</Name>
  </AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

 

After starting the sim you will find the Traffic Toolbox it in the "Tools" menu.

Best regards

[JoeFackel 760]

16 hours ago, Lorby_SI said:

the P3D SDK still has the Traffic Toolbox.

Thx for that hint, the toolbox helped me a lot.

Looks like my P3D has a problem with new AI models as the fps drop occurs only with my updated AI models and much lesser with UTL stock models.

[AnkH 2,232]

I doubt that the new AI models per se are a issue, it is most probably one of those models, maybe two, or some missing textures, wrong textures or whatever. I would really thoroughly check all your AI planes for proper models, proper textures and correct aircraft.cfg's. With the tools mentioned above, this will take some time, but it is worth it.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

... and don't forget the Content Error Log in P3D, which will show you most of the obvious errors, like missing effects, missing sounds, errors in aircraft.cfgs etc.

In my experience, missing files can have quite the impact on the FPS, because the sim starts to search through every folder that could contain the missing file (effects and sounds are worse than textures IMO). Also, the complexity of the aircraft is a big factor. Animated doors, flaps, controls surfaces, complex lighting will all be a challenge for the sim, because it is simulating all of that on AI too.

Best regards

[Joseph29 225]

Maybe I am not understanding your question, but could this be helpful?  https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/543335-list-of-ai-planes

[JoeFackel 760]

1 minute ago, Joseph29 said:

Maybe I am not understanding your question, but could this be helpful? https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/543335-list-of-ai-planes

Seems like this guy has the same problems like me 😎

[Joseph29 225]

Sorry about that I posted the wrong link. Here is the right one. https://www.alpha-india.net/forums/index/.php?topic=28170.0

[John Dowson 65]

If you use FSUIPC, you can also try TrafficLook, available from https://forum.simflight.com/topic/66136-useful-additional-programs/

Regards,

John

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Does TrafficLook work with 64 bit FSUIPC5? I could never get it to show its main window.

[JoeFackel 760]

First, thx to all for your input, i learned a lot about troubleshooting again!

Second, a small intermediate report:
i've cleaned my custom AI database and made some addtional tests. After checking the contenterror log i've fixed serveral problems. The stutters are still there when UTL injects a new AI into the sim but it looks like the stutters are bit shorter than before. No missing textures or old models or repaints, i tried it soley with the custom DLH AI traffic i made, this AI models and repaints are all the latest ones P3D native models and mipped DDS textures that are available.
It also doesn't matter if the injected AI is spawned 40 nm away or on the aiport, if its enroute or "sleeping", the fps drop is the same.

There is still something to check, as soon as i've completed the test i will report. Until then i'm grateful for any new hint you guys can give me.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

29 minutes ago, JoeFackel said:

stutters are still there when UTL injects a new AI into the sim

That IMHO is pretty normal. UTL injects the aircraft using SimConnect, and generating new SimObjects through the API always leads to stutters. How bad they are depends mostly on how many and how complex these objects are, and of course on what else your simulator is currently doing and how high system load is in general.

I have had the same behavior since the old days, it was the same with UT2. Every time I got close enough to a major hub which tiggered  higher-than-normal number of new AI, the system would stutter, sometimes pretty badly. 

Also, some of my other products are very sensitive to fluctuations in the frame rate, and they show these stutters in an exaggerated fashion - that is how I think that know their cause. It is not only with AI either, most of my products create or remove all kinds of SimObjects in the sim programmatically, and that always exhibits the same stutters.

You may be chasing an issue here that can't be fixed. YMMV

Best regards

 

Edited October 11, 2018 by Lorby_SI