Hey guys, wondering if you have any insight on this:

Generally I'm getting fps around the mid-40's, sometimes higher, but occasionally I'll encounter instances where I'll notice a slight freeze that lasts for a second or so.  When this happens, I notice my frame rate drops down to about 10 or so, then immediately shoots back up.  Troubleshooting, I've noticed the following:

• It always happens over the same general area.  It might occur once every couple minutes, then stops when I leave that area.
• It happens regardless of settings.  For example, I'll lower textures, reflections, etc. no difference.
• I can remove my Lua scripts (only have about 4), no difference.
• Seems to happen regardless of vulkan or opengl.

The only scenery addons I'm using in the areas where this seems to happen is HD Mesh and Global Forests.  FWIW, I also use Active Sky XP.  The fact that I can reliably reproduce it in the same areas repeatedly leads me to believe it might be related to some type of scenery loading?

I mean, I can live with it since it doesn't happen everywhere I fly, but when I do discover a new area where it does do this, it'd be nice to resolve it.  It's not like I have constant stuttering, or even constant low frame rates.  It's just "fly near this area or that area, watch a few stutters here and there as the frames dip down and up again, then everything normal".

I have a gtx 1080ti, i7 8500k processor, 32 gb ram.

Thoughts?  

 

 

If it's the same area, you're looking at a scenery issue.

After doing some further research, I'm wondering if its this thing called "loading DSF tiles".  What I see from time to time is very similar to the downward spikes illustrated in this video:

The only setting I haven't tried lowering yet is 'Number of World Objects", which I currently have set at max (and of which I understand lowering would relieve some pressure on the cpu--though I don't know if the cpu dovetails with the loading of DSF tiles).  I guess I'll do one more experiment lowering that setting and see what happens.

DSF tiles are scenery tiles.  Check your VRAM usage and make sure you have enough on your graphics card.

4 hours ago, mikeklimek said:

I guess I'll do one more experiment lowering that setting and see what happens.

This post may be of interest to you:

https://developer.x-plane.com/2020/11/stuff-we-are-working-on/#comment-39044

 

Thanks GoranM and Janov, very informative! Yeah, I definitely think it's a DSF Tiles issue.  Can you confirm my understanding of possible options below?

• Since it's VRAM related (GPU), continue to experiment with the graphic options on the left, i.e., visual effects, texture quality, antialiasing, and anisotropic filtering.  In theory, might help with the VRAM and spikes.  Tradeoff is less enhanced visuals.
• Perhaps in conjunction with the above, experiment with removing some custom scenery, for example, 'Global Forests'.
• Experiment with inserting CLI flags referenced in Janov's linked post.  How would I go about doing this as an average user?  Is it only possible using a developer tool?  Might it be as simple as using the windows CMD prompt in some way?  I'm googling this but have yet to find a clear answer just yet.

Edit:  I just saw in that same post they have a set of 'Command Line Tools' available for download.  Now it's a matter of figuring out how to enter said flags into those tools.

• Wait for Laminar to fix it (per their long-term roadmap in the above referenced post) and live with it until then.

Thanks!

Edited November 18, 20205 yr by mikeklimek
Clarity

18 minutes ago, mikeklimek said:

Experiment with inserting CLI flags referenced in Janov's linked post.  How would I go about doing this as an average user?  Is it only possible using a developer tool?  Might it be as simple as using the windows CMD prompt in some way?  I'm googling this but have yet to find a clear answer just yet.

I think it is as easy as opening the cmd window in your windows start menu (under "windows-system") and then navigating to your X-Plane 11 directory and then typing (you can copy it here):

x-plane.exe –gfx_dsf_in_vram –gfx_obj_in_vram

followed by a "return" key and x-plane should start with the above flags inserted.

Cheers, Jan

 

53 minutes ago, Janov said:

I think it is as easy as opening the cmd window in your windows start menu (under "windows-system") and then navigating to your X-Plane 11 directory and then typing (you can copy it here):

x-plane.exe –gfx_dsf_in_vram –gfx_obj_in_vram

followed by a "return" key and x-plane should start with the above flags inserted.

Cheers, Jan

 

That's awesome, thanks Jan!  Quick follow up questions:

1. Would this need to be entered prior to every session, or is it a "one-and-done"?
2. If adverse consequences arise, what would I enter into the cmd window to remove the above flags?

Thanks for bearing with me!

50 minutes ago, mikeklimek said:

Quick follow up questions:

You would have to do it every single time - I am sure there is some way to create a shortcut with those flags but how to do that I don´t know.

The upside is that if any ill consequences arise (such as blurry textures) you simply have to close the session and start a new one (from your regular desktop shortcut) to start without those parameters enabled.

Cheers, and let us know if those helped?

Jan

 

Thanks Jan, much appreciated!  I can't wait to try this!

To always start X-Plane with "--gfx_dsf_in_vram --gfx_obj_in_vram", create a shortcut on the desktop "X-Plane"
Then, the right mouse button -> "Properties" -> In the "Target item" add: "--gfx_dsf_in_vram --gfx_obj_in_vram"
Remember about spaces. 😉 

https://mega.nz/file/dqoEDaLQ#a6Lq8LX2wWeByiNyUp9kibrjzYx4OSqc24K0tWVExBY

 

26 minutes ago, Bulva said:

To always start X-Plane with "--gfx_dsf_in_vram --gfx_obj_in_vram", create a shortcut on the desktop "X-Plane"
Then, the right mouse button -> "Properties" -> In the "Target item" add: "--gfx_dsf_in_vram --gfx_obj_in_vram"
Remember about spaces. 😉 

https://mega.nz/file/dqoEDaLQ#a6Lq8LX2wWeByiNyUp9kibrjzYx4OSqc24K0tWVExBY

 

I've been getting quite the education in the past 24 hours. 😀 I wish I could take you all out for a beer!

Me no probs. It seems some users are way in over there heads and cant accept it may be them, but as they say, you only hear from the ones with problems.