Can someone explain why sometimes there are huge differences between 2048 and 1024 textures and sometimes not?

Here is an example A2A Bonanza at 2048:

A2A Bonanza at 1024:

Yet other aircraft show 1024 textures pretty well.

Thanks

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

Yep, if he's using the default AI aircraft texture resolutions for most AI planes then that could significantly affect the VRAM usage.  Most of them use 2048x2048 textures, and some use 4096x4096.  Moreover, many don't have mipmaps.

I downsized all mine to 1024x1024 with mipmaps and noticed improved performance.

Dave

Not seeing a difference in VRAM AI on off. Here's a video of the VRAM counter staying at 3.5/7.1 after turning AI off at EGLL. This is without my usual AI limiter at 70.

7 hours ago, Chapstick said:

Not seeing a difference in VRAM AI on off. Here's a video of the VRAM counter staying at 3.5/7.1 after turning AI off at EGLL. This is without my usual AI limiter at 70.

Wow ! I use PSXT + RT with AIG/TG and FSPXAI and at Schiphol with 84 parked ac and 6-7 live ac I see a difference of less than 1 Gb in VRAM....

Maybe the textures aren't dumped immediatly after deactivating AI traffic. The only thing to get exact measures would be starting P3D with and without AI.

3 hours ago, JoeFackel said:

Maybe the textures aren't dumped immediatly after deactivating AI traffic. The only thing to get exact measures would be starting P3D with and without AI.

That seemed to make a slight difference, but nothing substantial:

EGLL, starting P3D with 0% traffic - 3.3GB

After changing the slider to 100% - 3.5GB

 

 

14 hours ago, glider1 said:

Can someone explain why sometimes there are huge differences between 2048 and 1024 textures and sometimes not?

Here is an example A2A Bonanza at 2048:

A2A Bonanza at 1024:

Yet other aircraft show 1024 textures pretty well.

Thanks

It depends on how the textures were designed to map the model. For example, the VC could be mapped by one very large 4k texture map. The developer could also decide to use several 4k texture maps to cover the VC. Or, what usually happens: areas that need to be properly legible, such as the instrument panels, will get multiple 4k or 2k textures, whereas everything else will be squashed onto a limited amount of 2k textures.

Now, when you go and change your resolution settings in P3D, all that you are doing is setting a limit to what P3D will render. If you set the texture resolution to 4k, you're telling P3D to display 4k textures, if available. Addons that use 2k textures will not magically get 4k textures. Thus, if you set your P3D limit to 2k textures, those addons that use a max of 2k textures will look exactly the same.

This is the answer to your question as well. If you are using an aircraft that looks the same when switching to 1k textures, it's because the addon is using 1k textures to texture that VC, so the drop in settings will not have any effect on the clarity of your VC (or VRAM consumption for that matter). In the Bonanza that you show, the drop in quality is because, likely, this VC was textured with 2k textures.

Almost all AI aircraft models from reputable sources such as AIG have mipmapped textures, which means that unless the user is right next to the AI model, low resolution textures are being used for display. This is the main reason that AI aircraft do not impact VRAM usage that much. 

3 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

At the end of the video I did a back/forth compare with 1024 vs 2048 texture cap (zoom was off sorry) ... but I agree there is a visual difference when dropping down to 1024 at this airport which tells me the textures a Orbx KBUR are "natively" higher than 1024.

I was running 4K resolution so pushing a few more pixels ... but I believe my VRAM usage for this given scenario is close to what you listed:

• 8X MSAA - Orbx TE SoCal - Orbx KBUR - 2048 x 2048 = 8.1 GB
• 4X MSAA - Orbx TE SoCal - Orbx KBUR - 2048 x 2048 = 7.5 GB
• 4X SSAA - Orbx TE SoCal - Orbx KBUR - 2048 x 2048 = 7.5 GB
• 8X MSAA - Orbx Global - Orbx KBUR - 2048 x 2048 = 7.9 GB
• 4X MSAA - Orbx Global - Orbx KBUR - 2048 x 2048 = 7.4 GB
• 4X SSAA - Orbx Global - Orbx KBUR - 2048 x 2048 = 7.4 GB
• 8X MSAA - Orbx Global - Orbx KBUR - 1024 x 1024 = 6.5 GB

You might want to consider dropping down to 4X SSAA as that should save you about 0.5 GB and will be slightly better image quality than 8X MSAA but you might get a FPS hit pending your GPU model.  Another option for KBUR is to remove the Static Aircraft and/or Lite version of KVNY and KWHP that should save you some more VRAM.

Cheers, Rob.

Thanks for taking the time to test this out. On my system, 4XSSAA saves closer to 200MB. Not quite enough to provide a buffer: I tested my EGNT scenario with the NGXU and GSX. Once GSX started going, I hit 6.6GB/7.0 and when I switched to the VC it gave me the out of VRAM error abort/ignore/retry prompt. This was with 2048 texture and dynamic streaming and EA off. It's annoying 'cause I just need like 500 or 1GB more VRAM and it'd probably be fine! Hopefully LM will provide more VRAM management options in the next update.

4XSSAA doesn't hit my 3070 quite as hard as I thought it would so I might keep it on anyway.

I use 4xSSAA in P3Dv4.5HF2 with my i5 7600k @ 4.5Ghz/32GB DDR4-3600 RAM/6GB GTX 980Ti powered system. Anything less provides unacceptable results @ 1080p resolution.

EDIT: I may have mentioned that before, but it is worth repeating

Edited January 9, 20215 yr by Christopher Low

I would like to show you my settings for P3dv5.1

I don't run anything but ORBX scenery also OZx scenery

All my aircraft are addons I don't run any LM aircraft

here a few screenshots with my hardest hitting aircraft and better ones also my settings

the specs for my pc are in my signature

On 1/9/2021 at 8:33 AM, airservices said:

I would like to show you my settings for P3dv5.1

I don't run anything but ORBX scenery also OZx scenery

All my aircraft are addons I don't run any LM aircraft

here a few screenshots with my hardest hitting aircraft and better ones also my settings

the specs for my pc are in my signature

I don't think anyone is interested in this

Edited January 10, 20215 yr by Ray Proudfoot
Links to images removed in quoted reply.

@airservices, please do not quote a reply with multiple images in it. It's wasteful of resources for those who view the forum on limited bandwidth.