I'd look at your TLOD on the ground (AGL 0). If your system can handle 100/150, no problems.

But if you have low FPS in high detailed/high traffic airports, then lower your AGL 0 TLOD (see past posts with folks in the 30-50 range).  Should get you a smoother and even higher FPS experience.

That's what this mod is for and does best.  🙂   

On 1/24/2024 at 4:30 AM, Vovdv said:

Reset XPDR

Version 0.35 works very well, everything switches smoothly. Can you add to your mod, changing the cloud quality by 1 level lower when fps drops?

I've managed to work out what the cloud setting memory addresses are and have had a quick go at implementing your suggestion. While the FPS gains can be quite good, the visual impact of changing cloud quality on the fly is quite noticeable. Also, because it can make such a large FPS improvement in heavy weather, you can find the sim cutting in and out of FPS adaption quite often, depending on your reduce time setting, which can be a bit distracting. I'm trying out a dead zone that has to be crossed to get out of FPS adaption, but again that is very scenario dependent so choosing what value to use is proving difficult. Anyway, I will continue to experiment but it is currently in no state to give to others to test.

24 minutes ago, Reset XPDR said:

I've managed to work out what the cloud setting memory addresses are and have had a quick go at implementing your suggestion. While the FPS gains can be quite good, the visual impact of changing cloud quality on the fly is quite noticeable. Also, because it can make such a large FPS improvement in heavy weather, you can find the sim cutting in and out of FPS adaption quite often, depending on your reduce time setting, which can be a bit distracting. I'm trying out a dead zone that has to be crossed to get out of FPS adaption, but again that is very scenario dependent so choosing what value to use is proving difficult. Anyway, I will continue to experiment but it is currently in no state to give to others to test.

If changes are quiet noticeable than perhaps you should not implement it.

Sometimes it is better to either use lower settings in general or purchase more  capable hardware …..

 

 

55 minutes ago, Reset XPDR said:

I've managed to work out what the cloud setting memory addresses are and have had a quick go at implementing your suggestion. While the FPS gains can be quite good, the visual impact of changing cloud quality on the fly is quite noticeable. Also, because it can make such a large FPS improvement in heavy weather, you can find the sim cutting in and out of FPS adaption quite often, depending on your reduce time setting, which can be a bit distracting. I'm trying out a dead zone that has to be crossed to get out of FPS adaption, but again that is very scenario dependent so choosing what value to use is proving difficult. Anyway, I will continue to experiment but it is currently in no state to give to others to test.

Have you considered the Building Setting?

Being able to have that reduced one level when sitting on the tarmac gives me and extra 5 to 10 fps 

1 hour ago, GSalden said:

If changes are quiet noticeable than perhaps you should not implement it.

Sometimes it is better to either use lower settings in general or purchase more  capable hardware …..

 

 

I feel the same, but had some spare time today so I thought I'd have a crack at it anyway. It'll likely end up being shelved.

Speaking of shelving, there are some existing UI settings that I think can be automated without user input (eg. LOD settings on exit can just be set to what the app read them as when it started before changing anything) or can be remove as I don't use them and don't think anyone else really uses (eg. Reduce only pairs/indices equal or higher than # - does anyone actually use a number other than default 0?).

47 minutes ago, Stona said:

Have you considered the Building Setting?

Sorry but after my experience with cloud settings, I don't think I'll be complicating it even more with other settings that are too system and scenario dependent.

I'd vote for keeping things simple, once you go down the path of having multiple options for various tweaks it can get messy and that's where the less initiated will get lost. More changes could lead to more problems, or extrapolate CTD issues which we all want to avoid.

Of course on the flip side all this could be in vain if these options ever become part of the default Sim by Asobo, maybe more chance of that with MSFS2024 though.

11 hours ago, Reset XPDR said:

I feel the same, but had some spare time today so I thought I'd have a crack at it anyway. It'll likely end up being shelved.

Speaking of shelving, there are some existing UI settings that I think can be automated without user input (eg. LOD settings on exit can just be set to what the app read them as when it started before changing anything) or can be remove as I don't use them and don't think anyone else really uses (eg. Reduce only pairs/indices equal or higher than # - does anyone actually use a number other than default 0?).

Quick question.  If you don’t have the reset setting, would it just stay on the last value you had? (e.g. 30/150 sitting at the gate).

Then again if you use the app every time you fly, then agree with you that the reset setting isn’t really necessary.

I also don’t use the pairs/indices either, as I want the mod to be most active, closest to the ground.

Thanks again for at least trying the cloud setting. Even though it was a bit abrupt, I didn’t mind it and used it. I like having busy airports. 😊

1 hour ago, caneman said:

Quick question.  If you don’t have the reset setting, would it just stay on the last value you had? (e.g. 30/150 sitting at the gate).

Not quite. It would read the MSFS settings on starting the app then just automatically restore them upon exiting, with no user interaction or interface required.

1 hour ago, caneman said:

Thanks again for at least trying the cloud setting. Even though it was a bit abrupt, I didn’t mind it and used it. I like having busy airports.

Well, since yesterday and putting in a recovery FPS buffer it has grown on me and I am still using it as a test version and am quite liking it. As you say, at busy airports it can give me a good 8 FPS boost which is very useful in VR.

 

1 hour ago, caneman said:

I also don’t use the pairs/indices either, as I want the mod to be most active, closest to the ground.

The logic of it seems backwards to me too. Anyway, in my latest test version I have removed it.

If you really want to try out the cloud quality decrease function, I can put up a link to a test version with a big caveat that I am still working on the auto restore settings functionality so it is still possible to exit the app and not leave you with the cloud settings you desire, but they are easy enough to change back in the sim anyway.

Oh, and I've also added a separate TLOD/OLOD minimum for FPS adaption because, if you are like me you are setting lower OLOD as you get higher in altitude and the way it was coded the FPS Adaption was actually increasing, not decreasing, my OLOD at times. Now they are individually settable.

Here's what the UI looks like:

 

Edit: Those numbers next to TLOD and OLOD sim values are the current PC and VR cloud settings respectively, where 0 is low through 3 which is ultra, and will only be shown in the test version. You will see them decrease by 1 (if not already at 0) when Decrease Cloud Quality is enabled and FPS Adapation is activated.

Edited January 28, 20242 yr by Reset XPDR

Outstanding!

I’m on the road so won’t be able to get to my computer for a while, so no worries about the link, particularly if you’re still testing.  But very much appreciate the offer.

I’m really interested in seeing the difference in your OLOD update. I run exactly as you do, minimum OLOD as soon as I get away from the airport. In an airliner I’m at 4000 feet with a minute or two, so your settings make total sense.

And once again, thank you on behalf of so many of us. Your work is creating a ton of enjoyment!  

@Reset XPDR

Thank you for your continued development of this wonderful utility. 

I have run into one slight issue with FPS Adaption where when calling any GSX service the frame rate drops momentarily below my threshold of 27. This causes FPS Adaption to kick in which isn’t ideal. Is there anyway to increase the deadzone for FPS Adaption to kick in? For example say 2 seconds of conisistent FPS below 27 for it to kick in. 

The ‘Reduce For’ setting doesn’t really help here because even if I set it to a low value like 2s, on occasions when in heavy traffic and scenery this plays havoc and keeps going up and down which is why I prefer keeping this number higher than 10 seconds. 

Would love to hear your thoughts on potentially adding a deadzone setting for FPS adaption. 

Edited January 28, 20242 yr by Divij

12 minutes ago, Divij said:

I have run into one slight issue with FPS Adaption where when calling any GSX service the frame rate drops momentarily below my threshold of 27. This causes FPS Adaption to kick in which isn’t ideal. Is there anyway to increase the deadzone for FPS Adaption to kick in? For example say 2 seconds of conisistent FPS below 27 for it to kick in. 

Yes that can be done, but first can you tell me whether you are using LOD Step Max with low values or not?

If you are then you should only be experiencing a very small LOD drop for that one second then a very small LOD increase back up which, in my experience, not visually noticeable nor affects smoothness on the ground. eg. if you are at 100 TLOD, have FPS Adaption enabled and set for a 50 LOD drop and have LOD Step Max set to 2, then in that one second FPS drop you will only get TLOD drop from 100 to 98 then back up to 100, which I doubt you would even notice. 

If you are not using LOD Step Max, then in that same scenario you would see LOD drop from 100 to 50 then straight back up to 100, which would be much more noticeable. Also that recovery back up to TLOD 100 by a sudden 50 LOD increase could also cause another FPS drop and start the whole cycle off again. If this is what is happening then I strongly suggest you use LOD Step Max as it makes FPS Adaption much less intrusive.

Having said all that, I too have noticed at times I get a brief FPS dip and it triggers FPS Adaption. At the moment the app averages FPS over 60 I'm not sure what units and I did briefly do a test with it set to 300 instead (ie. 5 times longer) and it smoothed FPS variations out a lot, perhaps too much. I'll have a play with a lower number like 120, which I think equates to over 2 seconds, and see how that goes. Basically we are aiming for a number that irons out one second FPS dips, is that right?

I do use LOD Step Max set at a value of 10 so I don’t actually notice the adaption kicking in visually. But when I look it at the log I see that it did kick in so I did some testing and narrowed it down to GSX events being called in my case. Sometimes it could also be due to Vatsim traffic being loaded in. Basically a one second dip in FPS due to being CPU limited.

Yes it would be fantastic if we can iron out these one second dips. Your idea of setting the number to 120 seems to make a lot of sense and in theory could work really well by removing unnecessary instances of FPS Adaption kicking in. 

Edited January 28, 20242 yr by Divij

23 minutes ago, Divij said:

Yes it would be fantastic if we can iron out these one second dips. Your idea of setting the number to 120 seems to make a lot of sense and in theory could work really well by removing unnecessary instances of FPS Adaption kicking in. 

I've just been looking at this now. The average FPS reading is averaged over a couple of seconds already, so averaging it over an even longer period might dull it down too much. Instead, I am looking at putting in a 1 tick (second) delay before FPS adaption activates, pretty much as you originally suggested, and will see how that goes with sudden FPS drops, which I can simulate with the RTSS FPS limiter.  

Fantastic. Look forward to trying this out!