Runtime Performance Optimizer App--I'd happily pay for it!

[Noel 4,483]

Why would this be a great concept to implement? To keep one from needing to stop and adjust sliders, why of course!  I am reminded of the need for something like this because for example taking off at KLAX this morning, and yesterday from Roman Design's lovely CYOW, I had to drastically reduce certain sliders while on the ground to retain the precious 30fps using vsync to 30Hz, yet within 30 seconds after TO I could stop and change increase sliders in the opposite direction, which truthfully is the Mother of all Immersion Killers.  If I had an RTX 3090 I could perhaps find a better place and just accept a happy high-medium, but w/ my RTX 2070 Super both load and VRAM hit the max while on the ground, at least in many areas during the long taxi to 07L.  

I proposed the concept years ago for FSX then P3D, but that would have been much more difficult because when you did things like alter autogen/vegetation/etc this required a very slow to process screen repaint, which does not seem to be the case w/ MSFS. 

Here's how this might work:  the app assesses GPU, VRAM and CPU loads in realtime, and modulates sliders according to a user-specified prioritization in the app interface to keep those values say at 90% maximum always.  This would allow users to customize what matters to them the most and deprioritize others.  The only slider that demands a restart of MSFS is one of the Texture Quality sliders I forget which one.  But all the others, when you make a change, seem to only need a quick save and resume, versus and slow screen repaint like FSX/P3D requires (except for the lighting sliders).

Anyway, I would happily cough up $50 for this product today.  How about you?

[fogboundturtle 2,708]

No...just no. 

[MrFuzzy 2,117]

8 minutes ago, Noel said:

Anyway, I would happily cough up $50 for this product today.  How about you?

Nothing would be able to apply the changes in real time, so you would have massive stutters while LOD, draw distance, texture resolution, etc. change in order to target your preferred framerate.

 

[pmb 5,137]

Such a runtime optimizer has been available for X-plane for years now. It's called 3jFPS and is  actually free. You may like the effect or not, but it works and doesn't incur stuttering or similar detrimental effects, as I can confirm.

Kind regards, Michael

[wim123 758]

there was one for fsx too, worked, so it spossible.

[RXP 2,336]

@pmb I never used it in XP11 nor I ever needed it, but I know it is a good solution because nearly everyone is praising it.

I believe the best solution for simmers, 3rd party devs and Asobo is the following, also embedded in X-Plane 11:

Will we have performance profiling tool that helps add-ons to troubleshoot performance issues? - Archives / Archived: Dev Q&A [4.13.21] - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

[Noel 4,483]

29 minutes ago, MrFuzzy said:

Nothing would be able to apply the changes in real time, so you would have massive stutters while LOD, draw distance, texture resolution, etc. change in order to target your preferred framerate.

Gee, if you only knew this to be the case....

[Noel 4,483]

24 minutes ago, pmb said:

but it works and doesn't incur stuttering or similar detrimental effects, as I can confirm.

Kind regards, Michael

There you go 

[marsman2020 1,310]

Some modern games do this as part of the game engine.  You pick a target FPS and they adjust either render scaling or detail level items automatically to maintain it.

I'm very surprised that MS/Asobo didn't include it in MSFS as a native feature. 

[kaosfere 3,115]

1 hour ago, marsman2020 said:

Some modern games do this as part of the game engine.  You pick a target FPS and they adjust either render scaling or detail level items automatically to maintain it.

I'm very surprised that MS/Asobo didn't include it in MSFS as a native feature. 

Yeah, a well-implemented target-FPS optimizer in games is a really nice thing.

One thing that I see being an obstacle to doing that with MSFS is the overwhelming number of parameters that are tunable.  In most of the games I've used that have an optimizer, the actual number of settings you have control over can fit on a screen or so, so the solution space is relatively limited.   We have multiple pages of graphics options in MSFS, which potentially means creating a many-dimensional solver.   Beyond that, people are going to have a very different opinion of where sacrifices should be made when you need to cut back detail.   If I'm riding the magenta line in heavy cloud cover, my priorities are going to be a lot different from when I'm trying to drop a Cub into a hundred foot clearing in the forest with gusty winds.    Similarly, if I'm trying to do VFR navigation with actual pilotage, I absolutely do not want my ground detail being reduced;  in other situations, I'd be perfectly willing so sacrifice ground detail for detail elsewhere.

(And then you start factoring in things like traffic density and it gets even more complex.)

I'm not saying it can't be done, and I'd love to see it happen.   You could make some logical assumptions, provide a few preferential sliders, and come up with something reasonable if you put some thought into it.   But getting that to the point where it's useful enough to be worth the effort would be a pretty detailed undertaking itself, IMO.

Edit:  I also haven't used the XPlane one mentioned in this thread, I'd be interested to see how they solve some of those same problems.

Edited May 11, 2021 by kaosfere

[kaha 205]

Today we can actually expect AAA games (MSFS is exactly this for Microsoft) to have this feature. But that's only one of so many things missing in the sim.

Karl

[GSalden 4,653]

For P3D there is FTFF Optimizer. 

I remember for Fs2000 there was a tool that changed certain settings so the targeted framerate could be maintained. I had it and it was payware.

Can’t remember the name though...

[Noel 4,483]

18 minutes ago, GSalden said:

For P3D there is FTFF Optimizer. 

I used that thread optimizer/allocator but nothing like what I'm envisioning which lets the user prioritize which specific variables (controlled by sliders) to modulate to maintain a frame rate of X, which in my case is 30 for vsync to 30Hz.  I think it would be immersion magnifier if it could be done w/o creating stuttering, which certainly is plausible as it has already been done at some level in Xplane we learned.   I mean how sweet to be at an airport like (you name the big terminal) that necessitated one having to dial back several settings to even MEDIUM let alone HIGH, just during taxi and takeoff, then seamlessly starts increasing variables to optimize IQ per user preference, and at the same time maintain a critical frame rate of X, then slowly dials back as the destination airport starts to impact performance.  Win win and more win.  $50 ready and waiting.  And cheaper than RTX3090 I might add!

[Nemo 1,304]

I would be happy if we were able to create different graphic setting profiles which can be called during a flight.

[Noel 4,483]

2 hours ago, Nemo said:

I would be happy if we were able to create different graphic setting profiles which can be called during a flight.

Would you be happier if you never had to think about it again, and it worked flawlessly, such that you always had best possible IQ based on what you prioritize?  If you can do it manually during a flight, then certainly code can do it likely even more effectively.  Some people likely feel they need more things to do during flights, but this sort of thing I'd far rather turn over to AI as it were.