Why is Active Sky Such a Hit on Framerates ????? - SOLVED !!

[Gabe777 132]

Well in the interest of full disclosure -

 

…… I just set a new Theme - loading new files therefore - deleted Shaders. reduced overcast scenario from MAX to HIGH, Reduced SSAA from 4x to 2x, and VOILA ! Problem gone.

Still a large drop - expected - to around 70 or 80, but not down to 20.

I have a feeling the cloud textures may have become defragmented and reinstalling a new theme fixed it.

 

I give up, it's all too stressful ! I need a Gin and Bitter Lemon.

Edited January 2, 2019 by Gabe777

[vgbaron 3,505]

anytime I make any changes that affect graphics, I also delete my shaders folder.

Vic

[Gabe777 132]

So after a little testing - for the benefit of others having problems - biggest hit seems to be setting cloud coverage in P3D itself to MAX - that knocks it for a six. Massive improvement by just reducing one notch to HIGH.

And o course, reducing from 4xSSAA to 2xSSAA (or lower if necessary) helps.

[dal330200 216]

I want to chime in here also...I have a pretty high-end system with an 8700k, 2 SSDs and a 1080ti.  Overcast conditions with AS, either in conjunction with Rex skyforce or without, does hit my system, and it's most-noticeable when I fly in areas with resource-intensive addon airports or cities.  Par for the course.  I've also noticed that my system takes a hit in dense overcast areas when I climb or descend approaching the cloud layers.  Things get much better in the clouds or below them.  Dawn and dusk also contribute to the performance hit.  My guess is that it's other stuff and times of day that impact performance instead of AS itself.  It is what it is, but I don't blame AS or Rex.  There's just too much stuff going on in the sim all at once, and this is particularly true when I fly the NGX, which is one of the biggest performance hogs out there- next to the FSlabs 320.  Remember that complexity adds to our performance woes, and compromises need to be made as needed. 

 

[JasonPC 173]

To be fair I think of this as less of an Active sky problem and more of an ESP cloud rendering problem. The engine just wasn't made for what Active Sky is trying to render. But Active Sky is doing a great job at depicting the actual weather conditions with what it has to work with.

One thing that can help performance is change Maximum upper visibility to 200 from 199 when you are getting bad performance. This will limit the visibility layer to 1 which will impact how clouds look, but it should help with performance.

What's happening is your GPU is going to 100% usage in these situations. Pan away from the cumulus clouds (especially thunderstorms) and performance will bounce back when the clouds aren't being rendered.

[vgbaron 3,505]

25 minutes ago, JasonPC said:

To be fair I think of this as less of an Active sky problem and more of an ESP cloud rendering problem.

You hit the nail on the head Jason. All AS does is tell P3D where to put the clouds - by itself, AS has absolutely NO EFFECT on fps. The engine has always had an issue with AA and clouds. As we go more to 4K resolutions that can operate with much lower AA the problem is diminishing but until the engine is fixed, it will still be a performance hog on most systems. I think the OP should have posted the title as "Why are clouds such a hit on framerates".

Vic

[Dazkent 113]

I belong to a flight simuiator group which includes real life piliots, they told me pillots can't really see more that 75 miles ahead so having it set for 199 sounds kinda crazy to me

 

[Michael Moe 494]

Also remember to turn off cloud shadows in overcast and night inviroment. Its a big FPS eater. 

Michael Moe 

Edited January 2, 2019 by Michael Moe

[jimcarrel 688]

Have you turned the default cloud layers setting in AS down to 3 instead of 5. You can't count 5 anyway?

-my mistake, I reread and see you already did

Edited January 3, 2019 by jimcarrel

[newtie 533]

8 hours ago, mpw8679 said:

In the mechanical world we call this operator error.

PEBCAK

[flyblueskies 142]

18 hours ago, Gabe777 said:

EDIT - Now Solved - see bottom post

 

Unless I all but take off ALL Anti Aliasing, my FPS drops to 10 or 15 FPS from 200  (!!!) ..... when in or going towards cloud.

I have an i7 7700 and a 1080 GTX. No slouch.

Pan away from the cloud - 200 fps in the Twotter….. pan towards he cloud or in the VC - less than 25 fps.....

I have cloud textures at lowest possible size and only 3 layers.

This program is a joke, and you need to start from scratch.

Simply unusable..... I hate to think what it's like with all the settings jazzed up.

Bottom post currently shows:

9 hours ago, newtie said:

PEBCAK

So, I think you must mean:

15 hours ago, Gabe777 said:

So after a little testing - for the benefit of others having problems - biggest hit seems to be setting cloud coverage in P3D itself to MAX - that knocks it for a six. Massive improvement by just reducing one notch to HIGH.

And o course, reducing from 4xSSAA to 2xSSAA (or lower if necessary) helps.

Just trying to confirm  your solution...

Edited January 3, 2019 by flyblueskies

[Gabe777 132]

Yes. I was on the gin and tonic so came across as a blithering word not allowed ! (Really " I dee eye oh tea ", not allowed ? Lol.)

Anyway, my findings were 3 fold:

1. Reinstalling a fresh weather theme and clearing the shaders folder, improved matters,by doubling my fps back to 40. There MAY have been a fragmentation issue ... clearing the shaders may have been enough... not 100 % sure.

2. Reducing P3D weather settings from Max to High, almost doubled them again... to 80. (This is compared to over 200 in clear skies in the Aerosoft Twin Otter.

3. Reducing SSAA to 2x always helps anyway... but not massively as I have a 1080 GTX.

 

But ...1 and 2 above got rid of the 80 percent drop in fps under overcast conditions, that I hadn't experienced before.

There is a huge difference between High and Max cloud coverage, for sure. Almost like it redraws the cloud layer to fill in the gaps in order to create 100 percent coverage.

The other thing I noticed, is that since enabling cloud reflection in the ocean, heavy weather has a much harder affect.... even at 20,000 feet inside the cloud, I'm guessing it is still being rendered on the ocean surface even though you cannot visually see it ?!

So, I may create a Simstarter profile for heavy cloud conditions that disables cloud reflections onto the ocean / water surface... shame, as it's awesome !

Anyway, things are much better now.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Gabe777

[flyblueskies 142]

7 hours ago, Gabe777 said:

Yes. I was on the gin and tonic so came across as a blithering word not allowed ! (Really " I dee eye oh tea ", not allowed ? Lol.)

Anyway, my findings were 3 fold:

1. Reinstalling a fresh weather theme and clearing the shaders folder, improved matters,by doubling my fps back to 40. There MAY have been a fragmentation issue ... clearing the shaders may have been enough... not 100 % sure.

2. Reducing P3D weather settings from Max to High, almost doubled them again... to 80. (This is compared to over 200 in clear skies in the Aerosoft Twin Otter.

3. Reducing SSAA to 2x always helps anyway... but not massively as I have a 1080 GTX.

 

But ...1 and 2 above got rid of the 80 percent drop in fps under overcast conditions, that I hadn't experienced before.

There is a huge difference between High and Max cloud coverage, for sure. Almost like it redraws the cloud layer to fill in the gaps in order to create 100 percent coverage.

The other thing I noticed, is that since enabling cloud reflection in the ocean, heavy weather has a much harder affect.... even at 20,000 feet inside the cloud, I'm guessing it is still being rendered on the ocean surface even though you cannot visually see it ?!

So, I may create a Simstarter profile for heavy cloud conditions that disables cloud reflections onto the ocean / water surface... shame, as it's awesome !

Anyway, things are much better now.

Thanks Gabe777, really appreciate the information and a good possible idea on Simstarter.

[Rene_Feijen 125]

For me, cloud shadows makes a huge difference, from 50 fps to 10 fps.

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by Rene_Feijen

[24CarotMagic 0]

On 1/3/2019 at 5:40 AM, Gabe777 said:

1. Reinstalling a fresh weather theme and clearing the shaders folder, improved matters,by doubling my fps back to 40. There MAY have been a fragmentation issue ... clearing the shaders may have been enough... not 100 % sure.

Was it the ShadersHLSL folder?