Is AI traffic CPU or GPU bound?

[captain420 3,099]

I am using AIG-OCI for my AI and with it really hurts my performance with it on. I would like to know if it's CPU or GPU bound? According to my system setup I feel it's the former.

[JoeFackel 760]

CPU.

Every AI will hurt your CPU performance more or less the same, it doesn't matter if AIM-OIG, UTL or other. The only way to decrease its impact is to reduce AI traffic.

[mazelda 124]

If your using aig oci then also use ai companion works a treat for me and will reduce your ai 

Only disadvantage i can see is that it has to be running while your sim is running

Edited July 8, 2020 by mazelda

[Michael Moe 494]

i have FSUIPC set to show max 30 AI around me with the P3D - Traffic slider set to 100%.

FPS penalty about 10%.

Michael Moe

[cwburnett 1,809]

What's been said is true, however AI does add to GPU load also. Every object that needs to be rendered will load the GPU, which you can notice if you are running really high AA, like 4x or 8x SSAA at a high resolution and have a high traffic count of parked and taxiing aircraft at an airport. In addition the AI textures (liveries), especially with higher quality AI, when coupled with higher texture resolutions can add materially to your VRAM utilization.

So as with many things, it depends on your system. If you have an i9 9900k running at 5.1 GHz coupled with a GTX1070 for example, you may run into GPU problems as a result of AI and not CPU.

But most likely, for most people, as has been said, AI will bottleneck the CPU before the GPU.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

That IMO also depends on how sophisticated the AI planes are. 

The sim doesn't just move 3D models around when it displays AI traffic. The aircraft are actually simulated in a fair amount of detail. Flight dynamics, engines, internal systems, doors, lights, radios, control surfaces, flaps, gear - are all simulated much the same way like your own aircraft is. The more complex the AI aircraft is under the hood, the more CPU cycles are required to calculate the current state of the aircraft. 

On top of that you get the GPU hit when you can actually see the aircraft. High resolution textures, complex 3D models, dynamic lights, lots of moving parts, all will take their toll. And be mindful of the accessories, like the jetways and airport vehicles which might be triggered by the AI. 

The real question is, what you can do to get better performance - and there is only one answer IMHO: make sure that you only have so many AI in your sim that it can handle comfortably. How many those are depends on the AI planes that you use. You can have more simple models than you can have complex ones.

Also, there are several different methods how AI traffic can be created in the first place, and they may have a slightly different impact on performance. ("BGL flight plans" VS. "injected with SimConnect", "fully simulated" VS. "moving objects", "canned traffic" VS. "live traffic"). But there is no such thing as a free lunch - every "extra" that you introduce, each higher level of realism will always have a cost in performance.

One thing that is bugging me personally is the amount of content errors that is sometimes present in the AI libraries. That just can't be good for performance. On top of that, I have seen BGL based traffic that was flying from/to airports that didn't even exist in the sim. Which can't be good either. Error handling is always more expensive than regular operations.

Best regards

Edited July 8, 2020 by Lorby_SI

[vin747 316]

this is why, i'm using WAMA (thanks Lorby) to make these AIG planes as scenery objects that fill up gates at a busy airport.. and set AI traffic to 0% while landing.. now, after i land, i can crank up the traffic settings a bit more and the cool thing is the new planes that got added dont overlap with the AI static planes sitting at the gate.. making the AI as objects has far less FPS and VRAM penalty than having them as full blown AI, moving around and doing their own thing.. 

[Dirk98 354]

6 minutes ago, vin747 said:

this is why, i'm using WAMA (thanks Lorby) to make these AIG planes as scenery objects that fill up gates at a busy airport.. and set AI traffic to 0% while landing.. now, after i land, i can crank up the traffic settings a bit more and the cool thing is the new planes that got added dont overlap with the AI static planes sitting at the gate.. making the AI as objects has far less FPS and VRAM penalty than having them as full blown AI, moving around and doing their own thing.. 

Can you assign setting AI traffic to 0% to a joystick button without leaving VC to P3D settings?

Thanks.

[vin747 316]

I have a 2nd monitor where I run AI companion... there, i dial-in the AI to 0 for ground AI and air AI.. that deletes all the AI instantaneously without any reload screen..  

[Dirk98 354]

2 minutes ago, vin747 said:

I have a 2nd monitor where I run AI companion... there, i dial-in the AI to 0 for ground AI and air AI.. that deletes all the AI instantaneously without any reload screen..  

Bingo! I use AI companion on a networked PC with it's monitor. Then time to dig this:

Quote

WAMA (thanks Lorby)

Is it on Lorby's website?

Thanks.

[vin747 316]

yes, search for "where are my aircraft".. it has lot of other cool functions too.. i mainly use it only for this and for reserving gates at my DEP/ARR airports if/when i'm using AI

[Dirk98 354]

1 minute ago, vin747 said:

yes, search for "where are my aircraft".. it has lot of other cool functions too.. i mainly use it only for this and for reserving gates at my DEP/ARR airports if/when i'm using AI

Lol, I've just discovered I bought WAMA in March 2018! Have never opened it though.

Thanks, man!

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

Just now, Dirk98 said:

Lol, I've just discovered I bought WAMA in March 2018! Have never opened it though.

🙂

Maybe I should add a snapshot feature, so you can create a static aircraft scene from a running AI program (=read all parked aircraft and create a WAMA scene from that)?

Best regards

[IanHarrison 521]

23 minutes ago, Dirk98 said:

Lol, I've just discovered I bought WAMA in March 2018! Have never opened it though.

Thanks, man!

Same as you. Bought it but never actually found any use for it.

Now I will have another squizz.

[Michael Moe 494]

41 minutes ago, Dirk98 said:

Can you assign setting AI traffic to 0% to a joystick button without leaving VC to P3D settings?

Thanks.

No problemo via FSUIPC

i have a joystick switch toggle Traffic on/off (in % as you wish )

Michael Moe

Edited July 8, 2020 by Michael Moe