Nasty stutters with AI traffic - despite OK fps...

[JSACKS 0]

I have been consistently irritated how my very satisfactory XPS Gen 4 machine (3.8Ghz) stutters significantly with FS9 when I fly into or low over or around a busy airport withonly a moderate amount of AI traffic (I use Ultimate Traffic) such as KJFK or EGLL even though my frames might be anywhere from 12 to 17/sec at such times. When I say "significantly", I mean more or less continuous stutters, especially if I am in SPOT view and pan around or if I am just in the cockpit looking out.However, if I turn AI off totally, the stutters vanish and frames rise instantly to the cap of 22 or 24, whatever cap I've selected. I normally fly with 30% AI traffic to keep stutters (and rear-ending!) to a minimum.I have found--as I think many probably have-- that in FS9, you can have decent frames and still get horrible stutters. Interestingly, my system can handle 100% 3D clouds, full sky CB clouds/lightning, etc., and although frames might be low (in the range of 12-16) in such weather, there is a relatively low level of stuttering as compared with AI traffic. Why does AI traffic knacker fluidity thus and despite reasonably OK frames ? JS

[ryanbatc 12,835]

Not sure, same thing happens to me...JFK/east coast area owns my system if i have UT on....I have it uninstalled right now and I can fly anywhere and get 20FPS....it's nice, even without UT.

[Guest FxF3]

Me 2 I think that FS9 dumps the traffic bgl out only when neede from the harddrive that causes the micro studder at least it seems to me.I had so many AI addons that i finaly went back to 2 the usa and europeAI traffic 2005 which are great for us cheapskates.:( They also have little trucks that service them. Do a google on David Hays. He has tons of AI packages.

[Guest JOHNWW2006]

Hi GuysRfields is a guru on this but I think this is something to do with not having enough afcads.Everyone knows they need an afcad at the airport they fly to to see the traffic (well most people do anyway)BUT not having enough spaces at the airports around (even though you cant see them, they are loaded in your 108nm radius) you can cause a number of stutters.So say your trying to land at egll and have its afcad, you probably have gatwicks too (egkk)But, 108nm easily includes stanstead, luton, birmingham, southampton bristol possibly bournemouth and even brussels in the right sort of approach.So install as many afcads as you can where you most fequently fly!!

[kerosene31 349]

FPS around the NY/NJ area has always been tough, especially when you add traffic to the three major airports there. Flying into one busy airport is always a strain on a PC with traffic on, put 3 of those close together and you really get a drop in performance.

[duckbilled 310]

I have very similar problems and I know they are not graphics related - I can handle clouds, complex scenery and the visual representation of a large amount of ai. After watching filmon for a while, I came to the conclusion that the stutters were caused by the actual loading of the ai when it enters the sector. Filemon shows that fs is searching through every aircraft that I have looking for the proper ai aircraft to load. With 7000 textures, it seems like fs takes a really long time to find what it is looking for. The result is very long pauses that are very different from the typical stutters that you get from a lack of video horsepower. Since this is has happening to you in high traffic areas, you may have the same issue - lots of aircraft in the air means that a lot of ai have to be loaded. You may not be able to see the aircraft but they are in your sector and they may be causing fs to slow down.This is just a theory of mine and I have never been able to fix it. Right now, FS9 is uninstalled on my system so I can focus on my personal life but I will be installing FSX as soon as it arrives. Hopefully things will be better with the new sim. I understand that we will be able to customize FSX a little bit so that FSX prioritizes tasks differently.

[JSACKS 0]

A good theory, Jeff. I'm sure it's true !JS

[RFields5421 1]

Does you FS hang at 92% or 98% of loading traffic when you start it at those airports?That is a sure sign of insufficient parking.When FS tried to "initialize" an AI aircraft on the ground - and it cannot find a parking spot - it loops several times before giving up.If you have 30 traffic files which want to put AI aircraft into KHPN while you are flying near KJFK - and there is no open parking - each individual traffic file is going to load the aircraft, load the textures - and then try to park the aircraft.After a few - that file will give up, then the next of the 30 files will repeat the same cycle.And every five minutes or so, or every time an AI aircraft moves and opens up a parking spot - the whole cycle will be repeated.I would urge you to download the FS2004 TrafficToolBox SDK - and load the TrafficToolBox.dll into your modules folder.Setup your screen so you can watch the AI traffic load in the Explorer view. Look for airports where AI aircraft get hung in "initialize" and then disappear - those are your problem airports.Also watch the counter at the top of the screen for the number of active AI aircraft. If it counts up to 600 aircraft in the loading process, then cuts back to 400 when the sim acutally starts - then you've got a 33% capacity issue.Right now my test box is running at KILG - there are 502 active AI aircraft - with KPHL, KEWR, KBWI all active at the same time.Finally remember the AI slider is not the % of the AI traffic to display - but a threshold of where to cut off the AI traffic - depending upon how the flight plan is written.Ultimate Traffic, My Traffic, Traffic 2005 and Project AI all have their AI %'s randomized and work pretty well. The vast majority of other AI flight plans are all set to 1% - which means that anything over 1% on the AI slider is 100% of the aircraft.You've got to watchout for those.

[Guest FxF3]

Heres a tip. If you want an almost if not stuter free FS9 and you have a pretty good computer. Get your self a good AI package it can be free or payway does not matter. And remove the stock traffic bgl folder from your world scenery folder. Its something called traffic.030528. Something like that. Put it in a safe place then try it. See what happens. Now for you guys that have 850 million flight plans this will of couse pork that but to me I could care less whey the AI flys to I only want to see it take off and land as I taxi out, and for my FS9 to be smooth landing and flying.Remember to put that file in a safe place so you can use it again if you don't like it. If you have no other AI package but FS9 then it will remove all your AI. So don't do it if your FS9 is stock.

[JSACKS 0]

Will this procedure work for me with my Ultimate Traffic AI traffic? I am done with installing more add-ons; my FS9 folder is 25GB !Thanks for the post.JS

[Guest FxF3]

>>Will this procedure work for me with my Ultimate Traffic AI>traffic? I am done with installing more add-ons; my FS9>folder is 25GB !>>Thanks for the post.>>JSAny AI package that creates its on bgl will work

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi JS, adding to Reggie's excellent comments about the amount of AI-movements... As far as I would dare to judge, the only thing 'personal' in 'personal computer' is the 'personal limit' each FlyTendo has with regard to AI!! :-) IMHO, AI-lovers would ideally have the latest or second latest generation CPUs... ;-) Maybe also worth considering? - London and particularly the NY to Philadelphia stretch are 2 of the 4-5 densest FS regions with heaps of AI (others are Chicago and LA). In these 4 areas, AI movements will easily hit a 'multiple-multiple' of other dense regions. For example Hong Kong, Mexico City, S