FSX-MS Help in finding a program (AI related)

[Alberto Zanot 53]

Hello everybody,

i would like to put my traffic slider to 0% in the simulator, have ai traffic injected externally, and flying using the default ATC and traffic.

I am looking since ages for an app that simply does this, but i still had no luck.

Does anyone have any suggestion?

Edited November 12, 2018 by Alberto Zanot

[charliearon 3,023]

Why do you need an app to put your traffic slider(s) at zero?  What happens if you move the slider(s) to zero?

[Alberto Zanot 53]

"Why do you need an app to put your traffic slider(s) at zero?" 
The need is an app that externally compute AI traffic and inject it in the simulator. So user can zero the in-game traffic slider, the simulator does't have to compute AI, and the result is a huge frames per second and performance boost.

"What happens if you move the slider(s) to zero?"
(Read above) it happens that simulator itself does not compute AI traffic.

Have you ever tried to measure performance and frames per second, with 0% AI traffic versus 100% AI traffic?
AI traffic is the most heavy resource demanding feature both in FSX and P3D.

[officercrockey 196]

It is exactly what Ulitmate Traffic Live does... don't know about others. 

[charliearon 3,023]

I agree on the frame rate 0% Vs 100%. That's why I keep my airline traffic at about 35% and the others, like GA, at around 15%.  I get plenty of traffic and not a tremendous hit on FPS.

Keep in mind that any apps or programs needing to run while using FSX will take up CPU cycles, thus affecting frame rates.  Programs like AISmooth, FSrealweather, and so forth.

[Alberto Zanot 53]

@officercrockey Really??! So you put slider to 0? Did you noticed a performance boost?? 

can it run networked on another pc?

Thanks a lot

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

37 minutes ago, Alberto Zanot said:

The need is an app that externally compute AI traffic and inject it in the simulator. So user can zero the in-game traffic slider, the simulator does't have to compute AI, and the result is a huge frames per second and performance boost.

It doesn't work like that. There already are several apps that do this. But the "huge boost" is not happening. It all depends on how the external app injects the traffic. If you use UT2 / UTL, then there will be next to no performance gain. If you are using PSXSeecon or LorbyLiveTraffic, there will be a moderate improvement (but mostly because there are less AI aircraft in play...). 

The main reason is, that the only thing that you really save on is the computation of the flight plan that the simulator does when you are using BGL based traffic. And except for PSXSeecon, everything else (=the actual simulation of the AI aircraft) is just the same with all other solutions. The simulator does not just move 3D objects around, it simulates a subset of the aircraft systems, radios, control surfaces, gear, lights, flaps, it takes the FDE in the .air and the .cfg files into account - and that is where the FPS go down. The more complex your AI aircraft are, the heavier will be the toll. Just imagine the workload for a simple task when the sim tries to calculate the FDE plus aileron, elevator and rudder positions for 100 3D aircraft at the same time - and your own. This will not go away just by injecting the aircraft in a different way (Except for PSXSeecon which AFAIK moves the aircraft either in frozen state or in slew mode).

Best regards

Edited November 12, 2018 by Lorby_SI

[Alberto Zanot 53]

Thank you so much @Lorby_SI for the super detailed explanation.

So basically.... there is no way to do this (PSXSeecon is not an option for me).

(Maybe the only way is to setup a WideView-WideTraffic network configuration, again not an option for me because you need to run P3D on all pc's, and my other networked pc is not capable to run P3D)

Bytheway, someone on the Ultimate Traffic forums wrote me that UTL compute the traffic leaving the simulator free from calculate it. Maybe he's just wrong.
(and @officercrockey aswell)

I've read all the documentation about  LorbyLiveTraffic, but i am not sure that i will see the performance improvement i would expect.

Thanks again!

Edited November 13, 2018 by Alberto Zanot

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

3 hours ago, Alberto Zanot said:

Bytheway, someone on the Ultimate Traffic forums wrote me that UTL compute the traffic leaving the simulator free from calculate it. Maybe he's just wrong.

No, they are both correct. But calculating when and where an AI should appear is not what brings your FPS down. The simulator is held up simply by showing you these simulated aircraft models - not matter what they do or how they have been injected. No external program can make that go away. You can only lower the amount of traffic or use simplified AI models, that will bring your FPS up (no doors, no gear, no flaps, no moving control surfaces, simple FDE, no lights). (AFAIK) PSXSeecon keeps control over the injected aircraft models, so there is a little bit less load than with all other solutions (simulator doesn't have to calculate the FDE and systems). LorbyLiveTraffic will give you a small performance boost too - but as I worte - that is only because there aren't that many aircraft in your sim in the first place.

Allow me a car analogy: a 1000kg block of lead will slow your car down. It doesn't matter how it got there and it makes only marginal difference if you put it on the roof, the back seat or the trunk.

Best regards

Edited November 13, 2018 by Lorby_SI

[officercrockey 196]

15 hours ago, Alberto Zanot said:

@officercrockey Really??! So you put slider to 0? Did you noticed a performance boost?? 

can it run networked on another pc?

Thanks a lot

I know Lorby is very knowledgable and I do not want to doubt what he says.

BUT: I can only tell you that UTL has almost no influence on my FPS whatsoever. I can be on a big airport with 100+ AI-aircraft and it will be almost the same. Sometimes when I am at a very performance heavy airport I turn it off in the hope to gather a few FPS more but it never really makes any difference and I turn it back on. 

To buy now might be a bit risky because development seems to have halted but for me it was a good purchase. 

 

EDIT: But I can't give you a comparison to normal traffic, so maybe lorby is right here and it would be the same. Last time I used bgl traffic was on P3Dv3 and there I could not use that many AI planes at all... So maybe the change was in P3Dv4.. I don't know

Edited November 13, 2018 by officercrockey

[Dave_YVR 972]

1 hour ago, officercrockey said:

I can only tell you that UTL has almost no influence on my FPS whatsoever. I can be on a big airport with 100+ AI-aircraft and it will be almost the same. Sometimes when I am at a very performance heavy airport I turn it off in the hope to gather a few FPS more but it never really makes any difference and I turn it back

Use those very same aircraft with BGL traffic and there will be ZERO difference. It all comes down to the amount of traffic you have within your bubble of traffic. 

[Alberto Zanot 53]

Hi @Lorby_SI , is LorbyLiveTraffic windows x64 compatible only? I tried to install it on the other machine (win10 x86) and it doesn't start.

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

26 minutes ago, Alberto Zanot said:

Hi @Lorby_SI , is LorbyLiveTraffic windows x64 compatible only? I tried to install it on the other machine (win10 x86) and it doesn't start.

Only the P3D V4 variant is 64 bit (otherwise SimConnect wouldn't work). All the others are 32bit.

Make sure to install the vcredist package, the SQLite database needs that.

If a program doesn't start on a Windows machine, there should be an entry in the windows event log with an error message. 

Best regards

[Alberto Zanot 53]

(otherwise SimConnect wouldn't work)

But on the x86 machine i run activesky that use SimConnect (properly configured), and it "dialogue" very well with the x64 P3D machine.
Are you sure the reason is SimConnect?

btw i am trying LorbyLiveTraffic on the same machine and it works fine.
just a question, Opensky-ADSB: only 4 airplanes at Rome Fiumicino?? sounds strange

Edited November 13, 2018 by Alberto Zanot

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

10 minutes ago, Alberto Zanot said:

(otherwise SimConnect wouldn't work)

But on the x86 machine i run activesky that use SimConnect (properly configured), and it "dialogue" very well with the x64 P3D machine.
Are you sure the reason is SimConnect?

Yes, I am sure. I compile all my P3D V4 programs to be 64 bit only.

If ActiveSky is using an old version of the SimConnect libraries, then this will work for them - with V4 too.

But I don't do that. I only use the native SimConnect libraries that come with the appropriate simulator version - which are 64 bit for P3D V4 - and so all of my P3D V4 apps naturally are 64bit too.

You could try the P3D V3 version of LLTX. But I can't guarantee that it will work.

Please be advised that a few features of LLTX will not work on a networked setup. The app was not really designed to operate like that.

Best regards

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by Lorby_SI