P3D v4.4 and settings ... and video samples from Beta

[jay281 33]

On 11/29/2018 at 10:49 PM, Rob Ainscough said:

It's more about what you would NOT notice ... textures will load and have a better chance of staying loaded from very far away provided the memory limit value has not been exceeded.

I haven't noticed any FPS hit from this setting, but if you exceed VRAM then you will see a performance drop.  Do NOT use TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP if you have 8GB VRAM or less. The other settings should be fine, experiment and see what works best for your hardware.

The ENABLE_MEMORY_OPTIMIZATION is different, but you can expect to see more VRAM usage with it set to ZERO.

The setting that will impact FPS the most is SCENERY_DRAW_DISTANCE 

Cheers, Rob.

In the camera config file you can try changing:

NearClipOverride    float    Greater than zero.
Default: Variable    Overrides the near clip plane of the camera. Units are in meters. Setting a near clip value too low could potentially cause z-fighting in the distance due to lose of depth buffer precision.
    
FarClipOverride    float    Greater than zero.
Default: Variable    Overrides the far clip plane of the camera. Units are in meters. This value should be large enough to cover the distance desired to be visible to the camera. If NearClipOverride is used, the FarClipOverride value should be larger than the NearClipOverride value.

Per learning center docs: https://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv4/sdk/cameras/camera_configuration.html

NearClipOverride - increase the value to the highest value required to resolve the z-fighting ... be aware it can "clip" objects close to you if you increase the value.  Range is usually 1.0 to 5.0 ... you'll need it to be set per defined camera in camera.cfg.

Cheers, Rob.

@Rob Ainscough apologies for the questions, NearClip and FarClip settings - do you run any values outside of the default? I'm trying to get my head around this setting.

Also, I noticed the TBM=30 setting was mentioned by another user, can adjusting this still add value? 

I have very similar specs to yourself, albeit without the built-in fridge and extra 2080ti. 

Thanks, James

[AnkH 2,263]

7 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

These settings MAX_TEXTURE_REQUEST_DISTANCE, ENABLE_MEMORY_OPTIMIZATION=0, MaintainSystemCopyOfDeviceTextures=0 should have no impact to FPS.  The setting that will have an impact to FPS is:

SCENERY_DRAW_DISTANCE=128000.000000

OK, might have been a placebo effect. As a matter of fact, I do not see a single FPS more on my heavy test scenarios (LSZH Professional and EDDK by AS). Slightly disappointed, on the other hand, if I have all the improved loading and scenery draw distance, I am happy with the identical performance compared to 4.3, as long as everything remains smooth (and that's what I got as first Impression).

[f.skywalker 28]

what value should  set in 4.4

 

MaxRegionsPurgePerFrame=
POP_FREE_AUTOGEN=

 

Thanks Frank

[slip-stream 5]

Excellent information but my head hurts from trying to piece it all together. Which tweaks would serve me best in order to reduce PR texture blurries please?

i7 @ 4.5ghz 16 ram 1080ti

Edited December 4, 2018 by slip-stream

[swiesma 625]

14 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

Some monitors can do upscaling of lower res to 4K ...

All monitors do some kind of upscaling, otherwise one would have small window when running on a lower resolution and a black frame around it 🙂

[AnkH 2,263]

That is correct, Stefan, however I am not sure if Rob was really talking about the monitor itself doing the scaling (or the graphics card). Usually it is the graphics card that does the scaling, the monitor simply shows what the GPU delivers...

[Rocky_53 1,579]

3 hours ago, slip-stream said:

Excellent information but my head hurts from trying to piece it all together. Which tweaks would serve me best in order to reduce PR texture blurries please?

i7 @ 4.5ghz 16 ram 1080ti

Keith, even running default P3Dv4.4 default settings you should not see blurring of PS textures any longer, as in previous versions, as they are loaded at the same resolution/size as landclass textures. This has been one of the major changes in 4.4, one which many of us have been eagerly waiting for 😄 You've effectively got the same rig as me and I see a superb advancement in this area. If you wanted to tweak the cfg to get the absolute max from PS at distance, and other textures, although not to the same extent, you could try adding TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 to the [TERRAIN] section of the cfg. There is not a massive difference, but if you're like me and high on the perfectionist scale, then a difference there is 😉

Edited December 4, 2018 by Rockliffe

[GSalden 4,656]

On 12/2/2018 at 6:39 PM, newtie said:

Hi GSalden-

I'm running 3x27" monitors. What is this exactly?

Hopefully not three separate windows dragged to 3 separate monitors. Tried that one a ways back and was a bust, fps wise..

Thanks,

Mark

Just one wide view ( use bezel correction in NV CP )

In P3D - Menu -Manage camera’s

Choose camera name , eg Wideview Corrected

At the right go down the list till the bottom and check Distortion Fix ..

Save

Choose in the View menu your Saved camera .

 

[radial360 2]

Good morning guys!

How are you? Sorry to bother you again but I'm about to receive a brand new build that I will be configuring this weekend.

8086K Liquid OC, 2080Ti also liquid cooled.

Can somebody confirm if these are the correct tweaks that I need to add to the system in order to take full advantage of the hardware without loosing too much performance? I'm running the sim in 4k.

[TERRAIN]
TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10

[GRAPHICS]
ENABLE_MEMORY_OPTIMIZATION=0
MAX_TEXTURE_REQUEST_DISTANCE=320000.000000

[SCENERY]
SCENERY_DRAW_DISTANCE=64000.000000

 

What about TEXT_BAND_MULT=120 like I had in v4.3? Not needed anymore?

 

Any other suggestion? I'm sorry but I got so confused trying to read and research all this threads 🙂

 

Thanks!

[Nyxx 6,993]

On 12/1/2018 at 4:58 PM, Rob Ainscough said:

I'll get back to responding to these questions later today (Sat - PT) as I've got other duties to attend to this AM.  

I would encourage everyone to experiment with these settings as it will NOT cause your system any "harm", worst thing that could happen is you run out of VRAM which might cause a CTD.  Just remember anytime you CTD wipe out shaders and sceneryindexes64 (they get recreated on next start).

Yes, 1024 textures will take much longer to load and the more add-ons you have installed and "ACTIVE" (key being active) the longer it will take, if you want to shorten that time either uncheck the add-ons not being used (via UI Add-Ons or via Scenery Library).  Remember, P3D (and FSX for that matter) loads the ENTIRE planet ... many people have mistakenly thought it only loads what you see, that's NOT correct.

SLI does help P3D IF you run GPU heavy loads, however be aware that SLI increases CPU loads (in my experience CPU loads increase about 17% in P3D) ... what that means is you need to find the balance ... if you're already at 90% CPU load with one GPU adding a second GPU is going increase your CPU load so you end up pegged at 100%, then you'll have to reduce CPU intensive loads like (AI Traffic, Road/Boat Traffic, AG Buildings) ... so it's give and take, if you like better AA and better performance with Dynamic Lights and Dynamic Reflections but don't mind giving up some AI Traffic and a notch less AG buildings, then SLI "might" be worth it.  But I can't stress enough that SLI will increase CPU loads (that's always been the case and isn't P3D specific).

Gotta run, will get back to this later today.

Cheers, Rob.

6

Rob,

I never know you had to delete shaders and sceneryindexes64 after a CTD.

Where is the folder/config whatever it is to delete the "sceneryindexes64"?

Also, I can only disable some scenery as most are "greyed out/not clickable" so I have a huge list that "must" still load in some way. 

What programme can I use to deselect all the scenery am not using for a given flight?

Thanks.

O one more question. I run a 1070 8GB and only run 1080x1920. I use the P3D UI to give me EXP=9 and have LOD set to 6.5. I really love how PR and all textures look can you think of any tweaks that might even improve any more on them two setting? to get even better texture/PR loading. Not that I feel I need it but just asking if you know anything that can help even more?

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by Nyxx

[Michael Moe 495]

11 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

Rob,

I never know you had to delete shaders and sceneryindexes64 after a CTD.

Where is the folder/config whatever it is to delete the "sceneryindexes64"?

Also, I can only disable some scenery as most are "greyed out/not clickable" so I have a huge list that "must" still load in some way. 

What programme can I use to deselect all the scenery am not using for a given flight?

Thanks.

 

Hi David

 

Lorbis scenery organizer

http://www.lorby-si.com/downloads.html

 

I must admit i went back to the "old "scenery configurator that only deals with the entrys in scenery.cfg as i had some issues with Lorbi.

I was not quite "safe" with it as i it gives me som errors with priority that P3D is not giving me or the scenery configurator for that matter.

I believe Lorbi can flush the scenery indexes as well.

Thanks

Michael Moe

[RALF9636 1,955]

20 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

What programme can I use to deselect all the scenery am not using for a given flight?

 

SIMstarter

[joepoway 241]

1 hour ago, radial360 said:

Good morning guys!

How are you? Sorry to bother you again but I'm about to receive a brand new build that I will be configuring this weekend.

8086K Liquid OC, 2080Ti also liquid cooled.

Can somebody confirm if these are the correct tweaks that I need to add to the system in order to take full advantage of the hardware without loosing too much performance? I'm running the sim in 4k.

[TERRAIN]
TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10

[GRAPHICS]
ENABLE_MEMORY_OPTIMIZATION=0
MAX_TEXTURE_REQUEST_DISTANCE=320000.000000

[SCENERY]
SCENERY_DRAW_DISTANCE=64000.000000

 

What about TEXT_BAND_MULT=120 like I had in v4.3? Not needed anymore?

 

Any other suggestion? I'm sorry but I got so confused trying to read and research all this threads 🙂

 

Thanks!

That pretty much covers them the Scenery Draw Distance can be pushed to 128000 as Rob has mentioned above but that would most likely have a frames impact. Assuming your system can handle what you’ve done in combination with your slider settings this should provide the clearest sceneries with the least loading/unloading while maximizing VRAM. 

I would suggest monitoring your CPU and GPU loading as well as VRAM load with the monitoring software of your choice to assure you’re not bumping up against your max VRAM or running your processors as 100% 

Joe

[Radial9 69]

On 12/1/2018 at 11:24 AM, warbirds said:

Detailed as always Rob, thanks. One question for you - I am thinking of going SLI and adding a second 1080ti instead of shelling out a grand or more for the new cards. Does SLI really help P3D and how?

 

Paul, thanks for asking. I'm considering doing exactly the same thing. Getting ready to retire and will most likely buy a new high end i9 rig from Jetline Systems rather than build my own as I have done in the past. Their systems come with a 1080ti. I already have one in my rig now.

Great info here Ron. Thank you for the efforts and the sharing!

Cheers,

Bob

[Langyboy63 22]

On 11/30/2018 at 6:03 PM, American 833 Heavy said:

Gonna be upgrading to 4.4 now.

Rob what about these 2 settings :

MaxRegionsPurgePerFrame=
POP_FREE_AUTOGEN=

Any recommendation what I should be setting these at?

My CPU is an AMD TR 2990WX No OC just Turbo Boost enable and HT off and SLI RTX 2080Tis. 32GB DDR4 Ram XMP 3200 CL14.

Thanks.

I know that setting the Maxregion to 1 from 16 had some good effect in 4.3, not sure how it would work in 4.4.

If I am right I think it is a throw back to 32bit and helped avoid a LOM CTD, now in 64 bit, a reducing it to 1 should not be a problem with the increase in memory it allows, not sure how this effects performance, perhaps someone could elaborate on this and the POP_FREE setting