Hi All, Not sure if anyone else has this problem, but whenever I use an A.I traffic program, (and I have tried them all, "UTL,TG, AIG, PSXT"), my FPS start off great, 45+ at most airports (all Payware), with a good amount of A.I moving around, but over time, the FPS will slowly drop to as low as 3 fps at KLAX, or other heavy airports, and that is just parked at a gate in the NGX. Watching live traffic with PSXseecon traffic slowly becomes a slide show over time and none of the settings are on high, or in any other A.I program. I only enable one program at a time, but with more or less with the same results. I can start the sim (P3Dv4.4) without any A.I and the FPS will stay at 45+ all day and not move, but when I enable a A.I program, FPS can drop 10fps or more straight away. I don't mind loosing 10 or so and even holding at around 30, but it still drops. I have a reasonable system, "I7 7700K 4.5 GHz, 1080ti, 16 meg ram & SSDs". I have reinstalled P3D from scratch several times, and reinstalled addons, including reinstalling the A.I programs. If anyone has any suggestions on comments, they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking.

John.

Are you watching your RAM usage while this happens?  It sounds like maybe you are using some AI models with bad textures or other problems causing a memory leak, and if that happens, eventually P3D will start paging to disk, which produces the kind of single-digit frame rates you're describing.

Bad AI models/textures have bitten me in the butt more than once, and it can be a real bear to sort out.  As a result I pretty much stick with a few well-tested commercial packages (UTL/MyTraffic X) and very few 3rd-party AI acft beyond that.

Regards

 

Hi Bob, Thanks for your comments, I will look at the memory usage in task manager on my next test and report back, although I would of thought UTL would not suffer from bad textures as although my FPS can still drop by half in time when using it, it is not so dramatic as when enabling the freeware A.I. I see you have a meaty set of specs, so do you suffer from any FPS loss when using UTL or another A.I program.

Regards

John.

6 hours ago, bloxboy said:

Hi Bob, Thanks for your comments, I will look at the memory usage in task manager on my next test and report back, although I would of thought UTL would not suffer from bad textures as although my FPS can still drop by half in time when using it, it is not so dramatic as when enabling the freeware A.I. I see you have a meaty set of specs, so do you suffer from any FPS loss when using UTL or another A.I program.

Regards

John.

Generally I keep my traffic levels set well below the point where it would drop frames below the magic 30 fps line (I run a 30 Hz monitor with VSync)--usually ~50% commercial and 40% GA.  I've never seen frame rates plummet as you're experiencing.

UTL shouldn't have the effect you describe if you are only using the stock models that come with it, but lots of folks add 3rd party AI models to the mix, which can then bring the same performance issues to UTL.

Regards

Hi Bob, Sorry to bother you again, but to show you my problem I have posted some screen shots on "Imgur", link below. I am parked at KSFO in the NGX and UTL enabled. As you can see from the first shot I am getting around 40 FPS, but that can be higher depending on the direction I am looking. The second shot is after around an hour later, same view, not moved, and as you can see FPS has dropped to 26 FPS. Now it did seem to stabilise at around 25-26 fps for another hour, but I have seen that drop to 3-5fps with UTL and with freeware liveries on other sessions. BTW, my UTL is all default, (no liveries added). The other screen shots are the task manager showing memory usage, and UTL settings. Again any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 https://imgur.com/a/q0KSCeN

John

Doesn't look like a memory usage issue from the screenies you posted.

The next place I'd look is system temps...if you have a progressive overheating issue on the CPU or GPU, you could be seeing the effects of throttling as the offending component slowly heats up to the device's thermal self-protection threshold.  Something like that could be caused by a bad thermal interface (cured by removing/replacing the thermal paste), a bad or poorly-configured fan or fans, or an inadequate cooling solution that can't keep up with the component it's supposed to cool (especially if it's overclocked).  Temps of >80 on the CPU or >90 deg on the GPU would likely indicate something unhappy there.

Regards

Also, this popped up in another thread today...another Win 10 update causing problems:  https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/windows-10-kb4482887-update-can-degrade-graphics-perf-gaming.html

Might be worth checking out, especially if this behavior just started recently.

Regards

Hi Bob, I don't think its the temps, check out the screen shots, (link below), I also don't think it is anything to do with the latest windows update as this problem has been bugging me for some time, (since last year). I also had a thought that could it be a hardware problem, but as said in a previous post, FPS are high and constant in P3D without moving A.I, static A.I is also no problem. Look at the screen shot after an hour, same view, and FPS is down to 6 !!. And even after turning UTL off, although the FPS comes back to double digits, they never come back to when P3D is first started, it is as if something is still robbing the remaining FPS. The only way to get them back fully, is to shut down and restart P3D. ???

 https://imgur.com/a/bRl8Uxm

John.

Well, that exhausts my list of the usual suspects.  Some other ideas (mostly long-shots)...reseat your video card and its ancillary power connectors (both ends of each cable if using a modular PSU), check power supply output rail voltages during the slowdowns, make sure antivirus, antimalware, defragger or other support software isn't running scans in the background.

I'd also disable any not absolutely essential add-on software temporarily in the dll/exe xml files and the add-on.cfg files.

The framerate hit from AI does come on gradually--ground traffic appears immediately at an airport, but airborne traffic spawns and comes into view over time, which gradually ramps up load.  Peak load due to AI probably takes 30+ min to appear.  If turning off the traffic in UTL does not result in a return to pre-AI frame rates, it suggests that at least part of the problem is likely not AI-related, so you could be seeing the combined effects of a couple different issues.

Watching your CPU (by core) and GPU loads during the slowdowns might lend some clues as well.

Regards

Thanks Bob, Sounds like it is not going to be easy to track down. This does sound like a unique problem related to my setup/system as I haven't seen other posts relating to this. As regards disabling addons etc, I have done this in the past, to even reinstalling windows and then reinstalling P3D with maybe only one addon airport, NGX & UTL, and still got the framerate hit. I have got quite a few exclusions enabled in windows defender to stop any scans. I will have look at the hardware to see if I can spot any anomalies. Thanks again for your input, it is very much appreciated. I will report back if ever it does get resolved. I am thinking of a hardware upgrade so if I go ahead with that maybe it will get sorted then, who knows.

Regards

John. 

1. You say you tried them all : AI traffic program. Did you uniinstall each of them correctly?

2. You don't mention the amount of AI used. Would you confirm how much?

 

Cheers,

Hi, As I said in my last post that even with just a fresh install of P3D + one addon airport + NGX + UTL and no other scenery or AI programs, I still had the problem. In all of the AI programs I tried including UTL I only set traffic density to no more than 50% and other P3D settings at very modest.

John.

I'd like to see a copy of your p3d.cfg if you can

Hi ppo, Sorry for delay in my reply, my P3D.cfg is below, hope it helps.

John

[GRAPHICS]
SCREEN_CAPTURE_MAX_JOBS=10
VIDEO_CAPTURE_WIDTH=720
VIDEO_CAPTURE_HEIGHT=480
VIDEO_CAPTURE_FPS=30
VIDEO_CAPTURE_BIT_RATE=3200000
VIDEO_CAPTURE_IS_THREADED=True
VIDEO_CAPTURE_INFO_SEND_RATE=20
VIDEO_CAPTURE_MAX_FRAME_SIZE=500000
VIDEO_CAPTURE_TTL=255
HDR_BRIGHTNESS=0.890000
HDR_BLOOM_THRESHOLD=3.000000
HDR_BLOOM_MAGNITUDE=1.000000
HDR_BLOOM_BLUR_SIGMA=0.800000
TONEMAP_DAY_EXPOSURE_KEY=0.280000
TONEMAP_NIGHT_EXPOSURE_KEY=0.130000
HDR_SATURATION=0.900000
MAX_POINT_LIGHTS=250
MAX_SPOT_LIGHTS=250
RS_MIN_OBJECT_PIXEL_RADIUS=2.000000
MAX_TEXTURE_REQUEST_DISTANCE=1000.000000
ViewGroup_Number=-1
MAP_DRAW_THREADED=1
MIPMAP_VC_PANELS=1
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096
NUM_LIGHTS=4
COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1
AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=1
LANDING_LIGHTS=1
DYNAMIC_LIGHTING=1
DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1
LENSFLARE=0
HDR=0
DYNAMIC_REFLECTIONS=0
SHADOW_QUALITY=2
SHADOW_DRAW_DISTANCE=0
CONTENT_NO_SHADOW=0
INTERIOR_SHADOWS_CAST=1
EXTERIOR_SHADOWS_CAST=1
SIMOBJECT_SHADOWS_CAST=0
TERRAIN_SHADOWS_CAST=0
VEGETATION_SHADOWS_CAST=0
BUILDING_SHADOWS_CAST=0
CLOUD_SHADOWS_CAST=0
PARTICLES_SHADOWS_CAST=0
INTERIOR_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
EXTERIOR_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
SIMOBJECT_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=0
TERRAIN_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
VEGETATION_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=0
BUILDING_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=0
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_LOW=4
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_MID=5
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_HIGH=7
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_ULTRA=12
OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=2048
TRANSLUCENT_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=512
OPAQUE_SHADOW_DRAW_DISTANCE=2000
TRANSLUCENT_SHADOW_DRAW_DISTANCE=2000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_LOW=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_MID=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_HIGH=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_ULTRA=0.850000
EFFECTS_QUALITY=2
EFFECTS_DISTANCE=2
TEXTURE_QUALITY=3
IMAGE_QUALITY=0
MOON_PHASE_LIGHTING=True
See_Self=1
Text_Scroll=1
DYNAMIC_INTERIOR_CAPTURE=False

[WEATHER]
CLOUD_FACING_MODE=0
MinGustTime=10
MaxGustTime=500
MinGustRampSpeed=1
MaxGustRampSpeed=200
MinVarTime=5
MaxVarTime=50
MinVarRampSpeed=10
MaxVarRampSpeed=75
TurbulenceScale=1.000000
WeatherGraphDataInDialog=0
AdjustForMagVarInDialog=1
DynamicWeather=0
DownloadWindsAloft=0
DisableTurbulence=0
CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=6
DETAILED_CLOUDS=1
OPTIMIZE_DENSE_CLOUDS=0
CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=8
THERMAL_VISUALS=0
VolumetricFog=1
DetailedPrecipitation=1
WindshieldPrecipitationEffects=1

[DISPLAY]
ChangeTime=4.000000
TransitionTime=4.000000
TEXTURE_FILTERING=16
MSAA=8
SSAA=0
VSYNC=1
FXAA=1
TRIPLE_BUFFER=1
SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=30
UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0
WideViewAspect=False
FullScreenBackground=True
FullScreenAutoFill=True
ActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255
ActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=0,28,140,64
NonActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255
NonActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=24,33,87,64
InfoUpperLeftTextColorUser=255,0,0
InfoUpperLeftTextColorNonUser=255,127,0
InfoUpperLeftBackGroundColor=0,0,0,0
InfoUpperRightTextColor=255,0,0
InfoUpperRightBackGroundColor=0,0,0,0
InfoLowerLeftTextColor=255,255,255
InfoLowerLeftBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128
InfoLowerRightTextColor=255,255,255
InfoLowerRightBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128
InfoBrakesEnable=True
InfoParkingBrakesEnable=True
InfoPauseEnable=True
InfoSlewEnable=True
InfoStallEnable=True
InfoOverspeedEnable=True
InfoWeaponSystemEnable=True
InfoCountermeasureEnable=True
InfoUpperRightTextEnable=True
Fullscreen=False

[SCENERY]
AUTOGEN_DRAW_DISTANCE=12000.000000
AUTOGEN_TREE_DRAW_DISTANCE_PERCENT=0.900000
AUTOGEN_TREE_MIN_DISTANCE_TO_LOD=2500.000000
SCENERY_DRAW_DISTANCE=32000.000000
MaxRegionsPurgePerFrame=16
POP_FREE_AUTOGEN=1
AUTOGEN_BATCH_LOD=2
AUTOGEN_VEGETATION_TYPE=0
IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=2

[MAIN]
User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter, Submersible, ExternalSim, Avatar
LabelsSupported=Airplane, Helicopter
ShowInfoText=1
Location=440,129,1480,908,\\.\DISPLAY1
ContentErrorReporting=0
Maximized=2
HideMenuNormal=0
HideMenuFullscreen=1

[PANELS]
IMAGE_QUALITY=1
SAVE_AND_LOAD_PANEL_STATE=0
MAX_VC_TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=4096
PANEL_OPACITY=100
QUICKTIPS=1
PANEL_MASKING=1
PANEL_STRETCHING=1
UNITS_OF_MEASURE=0
PANELS_ALWAYS_ON_TOP=1

[CONTROLS]
Controls_Default=Standard
Controls_Current=Standard
KBDAIL=64
KBDELEV=64
KBDRUD=64

[TextInfo.1]
Latitude=1,1
Longitude=1,2
Altitude=1,3
Heading=1,4
AirSpeed=1,5
WindDirectionAndSpeed=1,6

[TextInfo.2]
FrameRate=1,1
LockedFrameRate=1,2
GForce=1,3
FuelPercentage=1,4
HealthPoints=1,5

[TextInfo.3]
Latitude=1,1
Longitude=1,2
Altitude=1,3
Heading=1,4
AirSpeed=1,5
WindDirectionAndSpeed=1,6
FrameRate=2,1
LockedFrameRate=2,2
GForce=2,3
FuelPercentage=2,4
HealthPoints=2,5

[SlewTextInfo.1]
Latitude=1,1
Longitude=1,2
Altitude=1,3
Heading=1,4
AirSpeed=1,5

[SlewTextInfo.2]
FrameRate=1,1
LockedFrameRate=1,2
HealthPoints=1,3

[SlewTextInfo.3]
Latitude=1,1
Longitude=1,2
Altitude=1,3
Heading=1,4
AirSpeed=1,5
FrameRate=2,1
LockedFrameRate=2,2
HealthPoints=2,3

[Avatar]
DefaultAvatar=Army Infantry

[DynamicHeadMovement]
LonAccelOnHeadLon=-0.020000
LonAccelOnHeadPitch=-0.010000
RollAccelOnHeadLat=0.010000
YawAccelOnHeadLat=-0.100000
RollAccelOnHeadRoll=0.100000
MaxHeadAngle=5.000000
MaxHeadOffset=0.300000
HeadMoveTimeConstant=1.000000

[VirtualCopilot]
VirtualCopilotActive=0

[USERINTERFACE]
SHOW_SCENARIO_WINDOW=1
BroadcastGPSData=0
PAUSE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=0
PROMPT_ON_EXIT=1
RestoreTimeOnMove=1
ScreenshotImageFormat=2
ShowMessageText=True
SHOW_MISSION_CAPTIONS=1
Map_Orientation=2
MUTE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=1

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.0.0]
Mode=1920x1080x32

[TrafficManager]
AirlineDensity=0
GADensity=0
FreewayDensity=25
ShipsAndFerriesDensity=0
LeisureBoatsDensity=0
IFROnly=0
AIRPORT_SCENERY_DENSITY=0

[AContain]
ShowLabels=1
ShowUserLabel=0
ShowLabelManufacturer=1
ShowLabelModel=1
ShowLabelTailNumber=1
ShowLabelDistance=1
ShowLabelAltitude=1
ShowLabelAirline=0
ShowLabelAirlineAndFlightNumber=1
ShowLabelFlightPlan=1
ShowLabelContainerId=0
ShowLabelAirspeed=0
ShowLabelHeading=0
LabelDelay=2000
LabelColor=FFFF0000
EnableRibbonVisuals=0
ShowRibbonUserObject=0
ShowRibbonUserAvatar=0
ShowRibbonAircraft=0
ShowRibbonGroundVehicles=0
ShowRibbonBoats=0
ShowRibbonAvatars=0
ShowRibbonWeapons=0
ShowRibbonCountermeasures=0
UserObjectRibbonColor=FFFF0000
UserAvatarRibbonColor=FFFF8000
AircraftRibbonColor=FF0000FF
GroundVehicleRibbonColor=FF00FF00
BoatRibbonColor=FF00FFFF
AvatarRibbonColor=FFFFFF00
WeaponRibbonColor=FF800000
CountermeasureRibbonColor=FF640080
RibbonFidelity=5.000000
RibbonMaxDistance=3218.689941

[TERRAIN]
LOD_RADIUS=4.500000
TESSELLATION_FACTOR=85
MESH_RESOLUTION=21
TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=25
AUTOGEN_VEGETATION_DENSITY=2
AUTOGEN_BUILDING_DENSITY=2
DETAIL_TEXTURE=1
HIGH_RESOLUTION_TERRAIN_TEXTURES=0
WATER_REFLECT_CLOUDS=1
WATER_REFLECT_USERAIRCRAFT=1
WATER_REFLECT_SIMOBJECTS=0
WATER_REFLECT_TERRAIN=0
WATER_REFLECT_AUTOGEN_VEGETATION=0
WATER_REFLECT_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS=0
WATER_REFRACT_CLOUDS=0
WATER_REFRACT_USERAIRCRAFT=0
WATER_REFRACT_SIMOBJECTS=0
WATER_REFRACT_TERRAIN=0
WATER_REFRACT_AUTOGEN_VEGETATION=0
WATER_REFRACT_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS=0
ENABLE_BATHYMETRY=0
WATER_CLARITY=30
WATER_DETAIL=2
UseGlobalTerrainView=False

[ATC]
AutoOpenAirTrafficWindow=1
UsePilotVoice=1
ShowATCText=1
PilotVoice=0
COMM_MSG_AI_ATC_COLOR=0XFF8C00
COMM_MSG_ATC_AI_COLOR=0X00008B
COMM_MSG_ATC_USER_COLOR=0X006400
COMM_MSG_USER_ATC_COLOR=0XA52A2A
COMM_MSG_ATIS_COLOR=00000000

[INTERNATIONAL]
ASLAT=2
ASLON=1
MEASURE=0

[REALISM]
PFactor=1.000000
Torque=1.000000
GyroEffect=1.000000
CrashTolerance=1.000000
General=1.000000
UnlimitedFuel=False
AllowEngineDamage=True
TrueAirspeed=False
AutoCoord=False
RealMixture=True
StressDamage=True
GEffect=True
ManualLights=True
GyroDrift=False
CrashWithDyn=True
CrashDetection=False
AvatarNoCollision=False
OnCrashAction=0
MomentumEffect=True

[ATTACHMENTS]
WeaponHighlight=False
HighlightDuration=1.000000
AutoWeaponSwitching=False
UnlimitedWeapons=False
UnlimitedCountermeasures=False
IgnoreAttachmentWeight=True
IgnoreAttachmentForces=True

[RECORDER]
RecordAITraffic=True
RecordAirportVehicles=True
RecordLeisureBoats=True

[SIM]
SYSCLOCK=0
OPTIMIZE_PARTS=1

[SOUND]
SOUND=0
SOUND_QUALITY=2
SOUND_LOD=0
PrimaryPlaybackDevice={DEF00000-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}
VoicePlaybackDevice={DEF00002-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}
VoiceCaptureDevice={DEF00003-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}
SOUND_FADER1=0.500000
SOUND_FADER2=0.500000
SOUND_FADER3=0.210000
SOUND_FADER4=-0.000000

[STARTUP]
DEMO=0
STARTUP_DEMO=
LOAD_SCENARIO_TOOLS=1
LoadCorePlugins=1
LoadVirtualReality=1
EnableVirtualRealityOnStartup=0
EnableVoiceControl=0
EnableVoiceControlDebug=0
LoadWindow=1

[PointOfInterestSystem]
CycleSetting=0

[FACILITIES]
COUNTRY=
STATE=
CITY=
GTL_BUTTON=4096

[MISC]
Com_Rate=7

[DEBUG]
ScenarioErrorReporting=0

[MULTIPLAYER]
VoiceVolume=-0.000000
FrameSyncRate=0
 

 

It could be an overheat problem of your CPU or mainboard (VRM) which would throttle down your CPU. This can be caused by improper overclock, bad/broken cooling or defect hardware/connections. You could try a CPU stresstest (prime95 or OCCT). Let it run for two hours and see what happens (watching temperature). With MSIafterburner/rivatuner, you could also observe your temperatures (OSD) while P3D is running.