These LOD settings in the useropt.cfg file, are these the same as the sliders for Terrain LOD and Object LOD in the game? The max it can go is 200. But for LOD 4 and LOD 9 what is the equivalent value in game if we were able to use the sliders to set them? LOD4 would be like 300 in the game settings?

4 hours ago, BusheFlyer said:

Heh sounds great.. but for that sort of dough I think I would rather spend it on avgas. Maybe some terrible weather over winter might change my mind.

If justifying the cost of a 3080 is an issue you can just wait for the 16GB version of the 3070 slated for Q1 2021 . It will likely walk all over a 2080ti at a fraction of the cost.

31 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

If justifying the cost of a 3080 is an issue you can just wait for the 16GB version of the 3070 slated for Q1 2021 . It will likely walk all over a 2080ti at a fraction of the cost.

Absolutely.  With what I'm seeing w/ a lowly 2070 Super doubling the VRAM and bumping up processing power what maybe +40% will be huge, for me.  Even so if I could nail the 3080 20Gb I would if the price was within reason.

Just now, Noel said:

Absolutely.  With what I'm seeing w/ a lowly 2070 Super doubling the VRAM and bumping up processing power what maybe +40% will be huge, for me.  Even so if I could nail the 3080 20Gb I would if the price was within reason.

It will be more expensive than the current 3080 but cheaper than the 3090.

That is all we know.

TBH I am only at 1440p so my 2060 6GB is fine now I have set it to high Performance for FS2020 in the nvidia panel and tweaked the settings a touch. I also capped the frame rate to 30 fps in the nvidia panel but it was probably unnecessary.

38 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

TBH I am only at 1440p so my 2060 6GB is fine now I have set it to high Performance for FS2020 in the nvidia panel and tweaked the settings a touch. I also capped the frame rate to 30 fps in the nvidia panel but it was probably unnecessary.

1440p here too so the 2070 Super 8Gb handles most of what I'm happy doing.  I do find myself stopping and readjusting settings that impact the GPU so it will be nice to not have to do that nearly as much as I do now.

10 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

The same but there maybe some "limits" on the server side (MS servers).  Yes the difference is noticeable, brings the LOD more in line with P3D and XP, terrain however is still not as clear in the distance as P3D/XP.  Experiment with the values, LOD 9 is possible in more remote areas, LOD 4 for more dense areas, LOD 7 for a mixed area ... seems to work reasonably well for me.

Cheers, Rob.  

Now I hate you. 😄 LOL. What has been seen, cannot be unseen.

I tried LOD 4 and LOD 9 flying around Vancouver (which has photogrammetry).  

I took off from an airport 25miles from Downtown Vancouver

LOD 2: the city skyline is completely non-existent and all terrain around is a flat barren texture.  They city doesn't really render until about 10 miles away.  Average FPS is around 45-50 constantly.

LOD 4: the city skyscrapers render at 25miles but look like sharp pyramids until about 15 miles when they start to resemble Skyscrapers. Average FPS is around 30-40.. 20fps at low altitude over photogrammetry.

LOD 9: The city skyscrapers render at 25miles and look like skyscrapers much sooner (I forgot to note the distance). Average FPS was 30 with it dipping to a 15fps slide show around the photogrammetry.

Flying at low altitude around the downtown area results in being CPU bound and much worse frame rates (single thread as my CPU is not maxed, but one or more threads are).

I have a 9700K (8x4.6GHz) and 2080Ti to a 4K TV at native res (no scaling) on ultra.  I have a 3090 on order which I hope will enable me to keep LOD 4 enabled and not see FPS dip below 30.

I can see why they don't offer higher LOD settings in the UI. People would kill their own performance I'm sure.

The sad revelation is that the photogrammetry needs heavy optimization as it's definitely CPU bound at anything higher than LOD=2.

EDIT: I also found that the manual cache didn't offer any benefits whatsoever.  Things are still popping in on photogrammetry at close distances when flying at low altitudes over downtown.

Edited October 20, 20205 yr by Virtual-Chris

5 hours ago, captain420 said:

These LOD settings in the useropt.cfg file, are these the same as the sliders for Terrain LOD and Object LOD in the game? The max it can go is 200. But for LOD 4 and LOD 9 what is the equivalent value in game if we were able to use the sliders to set them? LOD4 would be like 300 in the game settings?

Well LOD 2 is displayed in game as 200.  So I assume LOD 3 is 300 and so on.  But it's hard to know for sure as the in-game settings stays at 200 when you start changing LOD values in the file.

Edited October 20, 20205 yr by Virtual-Chris

Another big problem I found with high LOD 4 - LOD 9 is that if you into, not start from, a big PG city like LA, MSFS will suffer not stuttering, but long and frequent pausing and freezing. CPU will be congested seconds after seconds to apparently processing those huge amount of PG data on the fly, and possibly MSFS severs gets limited on bandwidth too. The experience is a nightmare in its own. I don't see any cure to this problem soon. 

I think there's a reason why the max LOD setting is 200. Perhaps its a server issue. And plus for those of us with a monthly data cap, setting the LOD too high can go through that data much quicker. That's what I'm thinking.

I did a test with LOD 4 and Render scaling 140 with ultra preset in London, and get about 30fps and it's pretty smooth for me. It'll dip down to about 27fps at times but can definitely hold a steady 30fps.

 MSFS really need to find a better away to optimize the LODs of PG buildings. Super low LOD radius with melted buildings cannot be in any way an acceptable solution

So, does LOD affect the CPU or GPU? Surely the higher the LOD, the higher the CPU works, so, stutters? That is what is stopping me from testing it. Really don't want any stutters back! 

 

3 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

So, does LOD affect the CPU or GPU? Surely the higher the LOD, the higher the CPU works, so, stutters? That is what is stopping me from testing it. Really don't want any stutters back! 

 

I sure hope it's the CPU right now anyway because I have loads of headroom untapped in my 9900K in MSFS.  After a better GPU arrives then I sure hope it's the GPU 😀

37 minutes ago, Noel said:

I sure hope it's the CPU right now anyway because I have loads of headroom untapped in my 9900K in MSFS.  After a better GPU arrives then I sure hope it's the GPU 😀

Likewise (as in loads of headroom)  but the problem is, it maxes the main core at 100%, and that’s when the problems start 

28 minutes ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Likewise (as in loads of headroom)  but the problem is, it maxes the main core at 100%, and that’s when the problems start 

On one of the Vlogs, Asobo say they will try to unload the main core even more when they do some optimisation.  They think they have found a few things to move off it.

2 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Likewise (as in loads of headroom)  but the problem is, it maxes the main core at 100%, and that’s when the problems start 

Interesting, well easy enough to try.  At 5.0Ghz now, HT disabled, main thread utilization bounces between 30% and 65% w/ an average of maybe 48%.  The other cores are coasting at around 13%, and that is w/ LOD at 200.  It should be easy to see what 400 does to these averages.  But....I'm vsynced to 30Hz, so often my CPU is having a cup of java between tasks. 

Edited October 20, 20205 yr by Noel