Severe stutters with unknown cause

[Rasta_Dude 7]

Hello,

over the months/years I found my perfect configuration for running P3D v5 on my system and over the time I collected a lot of Add-Ons here and there. Everything worked fine until maybe 6-7 months ago, but I don't know what was changed from there.

So the typical behavior of that stutter is like following:

I usually start a flight maybe 45-60 minutes before take-off at a gate of one of the Add-On airports. Before start I select my aircraft, location, ActiveSky weather and date/time. Approximately after take-off, maybe at higher altitudes or at around before or after reaching my cruise altitude usually the first stutter period starts which means a sudden fps-drop from a stable value (maybe around 30 fps or more) down to less than 5 fps (I can often read a value of 3.4 or 3.6 fps in the top left corner (Shift+Z in P3D)) doesn't matter if I move my camera or do nothing. This condition remains for mostly 10-20 seconds, sometimes in heavy cases even over 1 minute and suddenly goes back to normal stable fps. I'd say the heavier the areas (amount of Add-On sceneries) the longer and more frequent the stutter periods, but that's only my feeling maybe I'm wrong. Sometimes I like using the Windows Game Bar because it shows me several important things quite fast when I press Win+G and recently I made the observation that my GPU load dropped down almost 50 % of usage when a stutter period occured. When stuttering was gone GPU load came back to around 80-100 % load like usual.

I have this issue over several P3D versions even with new and fresh installations on my system (not yet tested without any Add-Ons). At the moment I'm on P3D v5.3 HF1 + LF (v5.3.15.28131) and everything works fine like most of the time except the severe stutters which I can't get rid off. Deleted and cleaned everything for new installation (ProgramData, AppData, generated files, etc...). All my Add-Ons are installed outside the P3D root folder, except PMDG and some other which doesn't allow that. So my P3D root folder is quite "clean" I would say.

 

My PC specs are following:

Nvidia Game Ready driver (without GeForce Experience and Nvidia HD Audio driver) v496.76
Windows 10 Pro (x64) 21H1

Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming (BIOS-version: v5861)
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 8 Cores / 16 Threads (stock, no OC)
Kingston SK Hynix 64 GB DDR4 RAM (4 x 16 GB)
Zotac Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 AMP! Edition (8 GB VRAM)
Samsung 970 EVO 2 TB NVMe SSD

 

I will now try to list a few of my settings which I changed for my best experience of P3D:

- P3D v5 main settings:

https://imgur.com/a/m30aARH (unfortunately I have no idea why the 'Insert image from URL' is not working, simply click on the link to see the picture of my settings)

- Prepar3D.cfg parameters I've changed or added (new settings after change):

UseGlobalTerrainView=True

[GRAPHICS]
DAY_THRESHOLD=55000
NIGHT_THRESHOLD=4096

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=21845
P3DCoreAffinityMask=21845
MainThreadScheduler=2
RenderThreadScheduler=4
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=6

I don't know if I did my AffinityMask correct. My HyperThreading is still enabled and my goal was with this settings to use core 1-8 but none of the threads and use core 3 (I assume AffinityMask counts from 0 for the first Core) as 'MainThreadScheduler', Core 5 as 'RenderThreadScheduler' and Core 7 as my 'FrameWorkerThreadScheduler'. Because according to Ryzen Master these are my strongest cores.

 

I tweaked my shader files a bit for better coloring and brightness in the P3D world with those tweaks by BiologicalNanobot and Henrik2k17 which I have from the official P3D forum (customized 'hdr.hlsl' and 'DeferredComposite.fx' files):

https://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6312&t=142594
https://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6312&t=144145

 

List of scenery Add-Ons which are installed at the moment (+ rough scenery order from top to bottom):

- Envdir: Envtex, Envshade
- Creative Design Studio - Black Marble
- AIG AI Traffic (+ AI Companion)
- AI ships by Henrik Nielsen
- Around 110 Add-On airports and City scenes around the world (a small amount of them is not officially compatible with P3Dv5 but shouldn't cause such severe stutters everywhere in the P3D world)
- FSDreamTeam Exclude (GSX + GSX Level 2)
- Orbx TE Netherlands HD
- Orbx Regions (all)
- Orbx openLC (all)
- Orbx Global BASE
- FreeMeshX
- Orbx Vector for P3Dv5
- Elevation stubs and global sceneries

I use Lorby-SI Addon Organizer for managing my Add-Ons.

Other non-scenery Add-Ons:

- PMDG 747 + 777 + 737 + RAAS
- QualityWings 787
- Aerosoft A330 Professional + RAAS
- ActiveSkyP3D + ASCA (ASCA not used at the moment because of TrueSKY clouds)
- Parallel 42: Chaseplane, Immersions
- Pro ATC X
- SODE + VDGS Pack
- Landing Rate Monitor (LRM)
- Accu-Feel v2
- RealTurb (worldwide)
- FSUIPC (full version)

I hope I didn't miss anything.

 

What I already tried:

- completely reinstalled P3D
- cleared Shaders
- General Debugging Steps
- deleted generated files (but not my Add-Ons)
- HT on / off with and without special AffinityMask's
- used different combinations of VSync and Variable Refresh Rate
- disabled fullscreen optimization
- higher priority in Task Manager
- disabled FSUIPC Autosave feature
- disabled and uninstalled Navigraph Simlink
- disabled Win10 Platform Clock & Dynamic Tick and used legacy TSC Sync Policy (set with 'bcdedit' CMD-commands)
- reinstalled Nvidia GPU driver with the DDU tool in Windows safe mode (except Audio driver and GeForce Experience)
- limited and unlimited the FPS via Nvidia Control Panel
- changed Power Management inside Nvidia Control Panel

 

Maybe there are a few things which I have missed in this post if this is the case or if you need anything else let me know and I will add it.

 

I hope you have another idea what could be the reason for periodic appearing severe stutters in P3D v5. Because now I think alone I'm unable to solve this issue.

 

Thank you very much!! 🙂

Kind regards

Adrian

[Bob Scott 7,720]

Do you have your P3D and add-on folders excluded from real-time scanning by your antivirus?

Are you loading a flight plan in Activesky so it can pre-cache weather?

You might want to look for a non-FS process running when these slowdowns happen...something like an AV scan, file indexing service, background updates etc.  I run Process Lasso and can quickly bring that to the foreground to look at what's hitting the CPU if I need a quick snapshot of process loads.

 

[Rasta_Dude 7]

Hello Bob,

thanks for the fast response!

 

I use the default Windows Security tool and following paths/apps are already excluded from scanning:

- C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Parallel 42\ChasePlane\ChasePlane_Bridge.exe

- C:\PREPAR3D (<-- P3D root and Add-Ons folder inside)

- C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Prepar3D v5 Add-ons

- C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Prepar3D v5 Files

 

I always load a flight plan into ActiveSky before flying, so yes.

 

I try to keep my PC quiet clean. So I have only two Autostart processes which are the Notification services of my VPN-provider and of Windows Security. Things like Cortana are disabled.

My Task Manager usually looks like this (without any programs running except Firefox and Greenshot (freeware Screenshot program)):

https://imgur.com/a/ED9SbcQ

There are a few processes which are maybe unclear what they do. So "FNPLicensingService64.exe" is the licensing sevice from PMDG I think and "nssm.exe" is a part of my VPN application.

 

Thanks a lot!

Kind regards

Adrian

[Ops Normal 57]

HI,

I have been having severe stutters as well. started a few days ago. I would see my frame rates drop from a stable 30 with 60% GPU load to 5 FPS and GPU load constantly fluctuating from 0-60% after about 30mins of startup or randomly inflight.

Today, I set up the PMDG BBJ at gate D41 from Flytampa EHAM. Finished aircraft setup, bush-back with GSX and taxied to RWY 18L with no Issues. As I turned to line up for departure on 18L, the stutters started and wouldn't go away. I knew the flight wasn't going to happen so I might as well troubleshoot.

max Vram usage was about 5.7/7.0. am running a RTX2080S with 16Gb on I9-9900K. stable Overclock 5.0Ghz

Findings so far:

Changed aircraft position to DNAA (default Scenery) rwy 04. stutters remain.

Changed Aircraft to "Sikorsky S-70A Black Hawk IDFAF". Stutters go away. FPS locked at 30, gpu picks up load.

Changed Aircraft position back to EHAM D41. sim still smooth no stutters.

Closed P3d after that. ( didnt want to tempt P3D with a device hung error by loading up PMDG again at EHAM with 5.7/7 Vram)

 

It happened before and I closed/ended active sky, P2ATC, linda, navigraph Simlink and all external processes attached to P3D and it kept on stuttering really bad. so I concluded it must be from the sim itself. 

Am guessing at my end, its either the PMDG aircraft or some files may be missing or corrupted from the sim. I'll re-install content and client installers and try again.

 

If anyone has any bright ideas other than re-installing please let us know. Thanks

[Jazz 1,046]

33 minutes ago, Ops Normal said:

HI,

I have been having severe stutters as well. started a few days ago. I would see my frame rates drop from a stable 30 with 60% GPU load to 5 FPS and GPU load constantly fluctuating from 0-60% after about 30mins of startup or randomly inflight.

Today, I set up the PMDG BBJ at gate D41 from Flytampa EHAM. Finished aircraft setup, bush-back with GSX and taxied to RWY 18L with no Issues. As I turned to line up for departure on 18L, the stutters started and wouldn't go away. I knew the flight wasn't going to happen so I might as well troubleshoot.

max Vram usage was about 5.7/7.0. am running a RTX2080S with 16Gb on I9-9900K. stable Overclock 5.0Ghz

Findings so far:

Changed aircraft position to DNAA (default Scenery) rwy 04. stutters remain.

Changed Aircraft to "Sikorsky S-70A Black Hawk IDFAF". Stutters go away. FPS locked at 30, gpu picks up load.

Changed Aircraft position back to EHAM D41. sim still smooth no stutters.

Closed P3d after that. ( didnt want to tempt P3D with a device hung error by loading up PMDG again at EHAM with 5.7/7 Vram)

 

It happened before and I closed/ended active sky, P2ATC, linda, navigraph Simlink and all external processes attached to P3D and it kept on stuttering really bad. so I concluded it must be from the sim itself. 

Am guessing at my end, its either the PMDG aircraft or some files may be missing or corrupted from the sim. I'll re-install content and client installers and try again.

 

If anyone has any bright ideas other than re-installing please let us know. Thanks

I have suddenly started to see exactly this as well.

[KL Oo 699]

Server stutters and pauses have been fairly well documented since 5.3 came out and there are a number of threads dedicated to the issue including this one here where Rob has indicated LM found the issue and the beta team are testing a fix.

It's also well documented on a number of LM threads including this one here;

https://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6315&t=143918&start=240

 

[Rasta_Dude 7]

Unfortunately I couldn't see any processes which taking performance from the sim, all looked fine.

Recently I was a bit scared if it could be Thermal Throttling from my CPU or GPU, but it doesn't seem like it. I had the sensors window of HWinfo opened the whole flight today and my CPU and GPU are getting hot but still within the limits, further HWinfo did not state a Thermal Throttling (on HTC, PROCHOT CPU and PROCHOT EXT which are the last entries within the CPU-sensors section).

 

@Ops Normal @Jazz

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

So your stutter issue starts and remains the whole session in the sim?

In my case the stutters appearing for mostly 10-20 seconds, in heavy cases up to over 1 minute, and then disappearing completely. It can take 5 minutes or half an hour then they come back for a few seconds/minute and so on.

 

@KL Oo

Thanks a lot! I will look through it.

The only thing which is strange is that I have this stutters now over several versions of P3Dv5 and even before v5.3 came out. I think I was on v5.1 HF1 before and completely skipped all v5.2 versions.

[G-RFRY 1,712]

Have you tried opening Task Manager then performance then click on Ethernet while in flight to see if anything trying to run when the stutters happen. Even no flight programs sometimes interact with net connection.

[Rasta_Dude 7]

@G-RFRY

I haven't thought about my ethernet connection. I'll watch this closely on my next flight.

Thank you!

Edited January 14, 2022 by Rasta_Dude

[jmrtlara 15]

Started seeing this happen as well. What's odd is, it's very inconsistent.. sometimes it happens sometimes no.

The few times I've experienced this I was flying the PMDG 777 and Aerosoft Pro. 

The most recent one being earlier, flying over South China Sea, clear skies.. EA enabled and volumetric clouds. All of a sudden FPS dropped to 4-10. Which makes the a/c totally unflyable and had to quit. The few times it happened I just end up closing the sim since there is no workaround.

Never seen this behavior in previous versions. Only in 5.3.

[virtualstuff 758]

6 hours ago, jmrtlara said:

Started seeing this happen as well. What's odd is, it's very inconsistent.. sometimes it happens sometimes no.

The few times I've experienced this I was flying the PMDG 777 and Aerosoft Pro. 

The most recent one being earlier, flying over South China Sea, clear skies.. EA enabled and volumetric clouds. All of a sudden FPS dropped to 4-10. Which makes the a/c totally unflyable and had to quit. The few times it happened I just end up closing the sim since there is no workaround.

Never seen this behavior in previous versions. Only in 5.3.

Yep had one yesterday AS with EDDM > EHAM FSL EA on, when switching to the outside to check Vol clouds... see also the topic that Paul mentioned horrible fps...

Was around Frankfurt area at FL340

Hope they will fix this bug soon...

Edited January 14, 2022 by awf

[micstatic 4,319]

10 hours ago, psolk said:

Again... 33 pages on this. 

 

This 

[IanHarrison 522]

15 hours ago, G-RFRY said:

Have you tried opening Task Manager then performance then click on Ethernet while in flight to see if anything trying to run when the stutters happen. Even no flight programs sometimes interact with net connection.

That is a very good point. I have noticed spikes in my Wi-Fi usage which sort of corresponded with pauses. Can't see why though.

[Rasta_Dude 7]

On a flight from Bilbao to Tenerife today I watched my ethernet in Task Manager and indeed I saw a small spike to around 50 KBit/s when a stutter period started. But the stutters lasted longer than my network activity, it was only one small spike at that time.

So unfortunately in my case I'm still unsure if there is a connection between those things. I will watch this a bit more on my future flights.

Thanks!

[Sabre57 46]

14 hours ago, micstatic said:

This 

You tried. 😜