I was able to get TLOD 1400 by setting target FG-FPS to 50 (normally I aim for 80 to avoid FG-induced artifacts). This was in non-expert, non-auto-target-fps mode and I had TLOD 600 set in usercfg.opt. That gave me a theoretically max TLOD of 600*3 = 1800. Which I did indeed get at around 50 FPS - but only in cockpit view. So really this was a crazy test to see how high TLODs AutoFPS could give me whilst still running reasonable FPS. 

To be honest I struggle to see any benefit above TLOD 600-800. BUT - at these levels, scenic flights over e.g. the Western part of NZ's South Island (or Norway's Lofoten Islands) is truly something to behold. 

Edited March 15, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

I am getting confused. The app is working fine. I have DX12 and FG on and FPS set to a minimum of 35. My FPS is capped to 69 in the NV Control Panel because that's the maximum of my monitor. By and large the app keeps my FPS at 69 fps. It rarely drops below that. But I get stutters in extremely high load situations? Memory loading issues no doubt. Not terrible stutters but they are there. The app doesn't seem to resolve this?

9 minutes ago, jarmstro said:

I am getting confused. The app is working fine. I have DX12 and FG on and FPS set to a minimum of 35. My FPS is capped to 69 in the NV Control Panel because that's the maximum of my monitor. By and large the app keeps my FPS at 69 fps. It rarely drops below that. But I get stutters in extremely high load situations? Memory loading issues no doubt. Not terrible stutters but they are there. The app doesn't seem to resolve this?

Not sure what you mean by the highlighted sentence - FPS target set to 35 in the app? The first thing that comes to mind re: stutters in extremely high load situations is that, even though the app might be able to maintain target FPS, the mainthread could be so overwhelmed that the difference in frame time is too big. High frame time variability = perceived stutters, even at decent frame rates. 

I demonstrated this in a thread I started a while back - how to wreck performance. It's probably buried deep in the forum by now. 

Edited March 15, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

4 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Then I remembered that in a test build a few days ago (I think), I was in Auto Target FPS mode and got TLOD 600 on ground with ØFPS 60. The status line read "TLOD + 600 Priority". So now I'm trying to wrap my head around how this happened. 

You are getting this TLOD level because in non-expert mode the app uses your default MSFS TLOD setting, halves it to get TLOD min then doubles it (ie. back to what it was) for TLOD +. In other words, your default MSFS TLOD setting was 600.

 

4 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

TL;DR: What is the best way to obtain a very high TLOD ground when flying GA in remote locations?

Use expert mode and put in whatever high TLOD you want as TLOD min and your ground TLOD will be that.

1 hour ago, jarmstro said:

I am getting confused. The app is working fine. I have DX12 and FG on and FPS set to a minimum of 35. My FPS is capped to 69 in the NV Control Panel because that's the maximum of my monitor. By and large the app keeps my FPS at 69 fps. It rarely drops below that. But I get stutters in extremely high load situations? Memory loading issues no doubt. Not terrible stutters but they are there. The app doesn't seem to resolve this?

Your target FPS should be set much closer to what your system is capable of achieving. If set much lower your TLOD will go to max much quicker hence the possible cause of those stutters. Having said that, if your system keeps mostly at your FPS cap of 69 then there is not a lot for this app's automation to work with. You may be better off trying one of the DynamicLOD variants and set the TLOD and OLOD levels at various altitudes yourself.

3 hours ago, vgbaron said:

SO!!  You are trying to start trouble huh?  I'd better keep an eye on you - always suspicious of people with more than two monitors!!

😁😁😁

And since a week also a motion seat platform … Don’t tell anyone 😬

10 minutes ago, Reset XPDR said:

You are getting this TLOD level because in non-expert mode the app uses your default MSFS TLOD setting, halves it to get TLOD min then doubles it (ie. back to what it was) for TLOD +. In other words, your default MSFS TLOD setting was 600.

Understood. Forgot about TLOD +, hence I thought TLOD min would be 600/2=300. I'll just use expert mode then when flying with very high TLOD min. 

After a few weeks of intensive development, extensive testing, and invigorating discussion here, MSFS2020_Auto 0.4.2 has been formally released and is available for download here. Thanks to everyone who participated in all of the aforementioned activities, especially @Cpt_Piettwho worked tirelessly to try and break every single test release I made 😉😄. You have all been instrumental in how the final release was shaped.

The summary of changes since 0.4.1 are:

• Improved target FPS tracking for all modes by having much smaller TLOD changes the closer you are to your target FPS, giving more consistent FPS for a better flight experience.
• Renamed TLOD Min on ground/landing and FPS priority mode terminology in the UI to much simpler and more intuitive IFR and VFR flight types respectively and moved selection of these to the non-expert section. Priority modes will still be displayed in the status line and their relationship to Flight types will be summarised in associated tooltips.
• Auto raising and lowering of the minimum TLOD, depending on low altitude performance being either very favourable or poor respectively. Enabled by default and optional (+) in expert mode.
• Auto target FPS option, so you don't have to configure a single setting if you don't want to. Useful if you don't know what target FPS to choose or if your flights are so varied that a single target FPS value is not always appropriate.
• Improved non-expert mode with both VFR and IFR flight types available, the enabling of auto OLOD by default, a greater TLOD range for automation to work within and being optimised with auto target FPS to give the best hands-off user experience.
• New relative (+) cloud recovery TLOD setting in all modes.
• Removed the ability for the app to continually adjust TLOD on the ground in any mode as it exacerbates ground texture corruption issues in DX12 and causes ground texture flashing issues in both DX11 and DX12.
• Enhanced saving and restoration of MSFS settings by the app to better withstand MSFS CTDs.
• Memory compatibility test failures will now disable the app completely and the user will be directed to the readme to resolve it.
• More concise app status messages.
• More concise log file entries.
• Bonus GPU load display if the optional GPU-Z companion app is detected running.
• Revised UI, including new app icon, minimise button, background colour and tooltips.
• Detection of new Smoothflight app if already running, to avoid conflicting MSFS settings control.

As promised, I have created a new discussion topic to talk about the 0.4.2 official release and beyond which you can find here. I ask you all to raise such discussion there and leave this thread to finalise discussion of any existing unresolved issues with earlier releases.

 

Edited March 15, 20242 yr by Reset XPDR
Added link to new discussion topic

Congratulations with the release! Well done 👏 I just opened a virtual bottle of champagne 😄🎉

I'll miss having the opportunity to wreak havoc on your test builds though! 😅

Edited March 15, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

I hereby humbly present... drumroll... the inaugural AutoFPS 0.4.2 release build flight from NZQN Queenstown via the spectacular ANPOV 4A departure requiring the aircraft to circle twice over the airport in order to clear the mountains. 

As always I'm pretty thrilled with the capabilities of this app (if I haven't said so already!). Settings: Expert mode TLOD min 50 max 600.

Notice blurry mountains in the background on initial climbout (necessarily low TLOD - can't have your cake etc):

And in comparison the glorious views of the Southern Alps (TLOD 600 at cruise FL340):

Buttersmooth constant 80 FPS with nearly zero frame time variance 😄 Blue skies and happy landings everyone!

Note: I've got some issues w/ tearing-like artifacts whilst panning in video captures - I suspect these are induced by the video capture itself (4K HDR 120FPS 150Mbps)

Edited March 16, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

Wow looking forward to giving this a try. Will switch over to the new thread!

3 minutes ago, Purr said:

Wow looking forward to giving this a try. Will switch over to the new thread!

 

There's already a new thread? Then with @Reset XPDR's permission I might humbly put my above post there. 

EDIT: I just did 😅 (too impatient as always)

Edited March 15, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

15 hours ago, Roman Design said:

I literally have the top-of-the-line CPU: 7950X3D. However stuttering was always the largest problem for me, even with Reverb G2, and now Quest 3. Though Quest 3  is much smoother and the only problem I see is cockpit judder when looking side to side, but AutoFPS seems to help a lot here. It seems it needs some headrom to be smooth, even with solid FPS. I could always see great smooth FPS in between the stutters, and TLOD is clearly exacerbating stutters. And taxiing in busy airports was always iffy. So I though I'd set very low TLOD ont he ground (where it doesn't really matter) and put a reasonably good looking but as low as possible top limit, to create some breathing room for smooth flights. Stutterless flights are the top priority for me, and I'm very sensivie to stutters and judders. In VR the images is not as crisp as on a 4K monitor, so visuals still look very nice. Ultra clouds add much more to the visuals - but they do have a large CPU impact. Compared to Ultra, High clouds seem like detailless cotton balls. Anyway, the results are already great, thank you again for the app, it really makes it possible to have a steady and smooth flight. It's a shame we can't have it out of the box, and this would have been so easy to implement in MSFS natively, it's such a simple and effective concept! But I'm sure even if it's implemented natively, there won't be so many options to tune it, they would have to dumb it down.

SAME, SAME ON 78003XD + 4090 + QUEST 3.

Used to really scratch my head with all this, thinking something was "off" with some settings somewhere (mostly in DCS/MSFS). But its not, its just a very demanding sim, and very demanding running VR, especially with ASW on.  

My trouble is, with the graphics i am used to, and super-sampling and such, I look out the cockpit, and it literally looks real. As in super real, Its hard to tell the difference from real life, its that word not allowed good.  So with that said, I cant now bring myself to simming at native 72hz with the lower settings that brings. So i have to use ASW, and i have to say, its been fantastic. It would be great not to have to rely on ASW, but to achieve 72hz/72fps I would need to run way under my conditioned and cosy super-duper graphics.   Besides, I actually dont see much, if any, artifacts or funny business running ASW adaptive or auto. But here is the major caveat - It has to run with clouds, and NOT a cloudless day, otherwise the blue coudless sky becomes a little "wavey".  To be fair, I'm probably preaching to the vicar here, because i am sure you know this already. I'm kinda excited to have a chance to talk with someone else who runs the same-same setup. Its been lonely in VR at times -)

Also YT videos and there sell-ware influenced opinions and showcases (with honourable exceptions of course) portray their VR gameplay as 99% smooth, meanwhile, rarely ever panning to the side during take-off, or most times, never at all. IMO it gives a false sense of superiority, and totally unreal expectations. By the way I am on link cable. For me it pummelled wireless into the ground graphically, and that with me using an archer wifi6 router, fibre internet, and gigabit cable. Just didnt work well, although fps was better on VDXR, Airlink, et al.

So anyway, for whatever reason, my performance last night with the test version wasn't nearly as good as previous nights. I put this down to the sim itself, and their servers, or the latest update i had to install last night from MSFS. Not 100% sure. The preceding week was really very good though. I'm guessing it was not the app to blame.

 Have you experimented with Riva-tuner on fps lock (on/off), and with turbo mode on/off via xrtoolkit - and do you notice your half refresh rate headset lock (36/40/45) fluctuates by +1.  I get a 36-37. Turbo seems to work better in some planes, and not others. And rivatuner the same. Ive taken to writing down my experiences now, because of the huge number of variables.

With latest test version (auto-fps), I am still currently experimenting.  Its obvious to us both, that we need a fairly chucky "headroom fps zone" ahead of 36 (or half refresh) in order not to get sucked under our caps. If we do....well, it aint pretty is it. 

 

EDIT:  Just installed the new "full version" (16/03/24) and once again, we have major progress. The TLOD increases are smaller, and more gradual, which is giving a really smoooth flight.  And it seems to respond from around 2 thousand feet now, and comes down to my minimum of 100 + at just the right time. So now, i am getting an experience similar to someone who has no cap. and it is decreasing tlod more readily based on altitude.  My auto box is ticked, and my fps tolerance set at 2. That seems to work best with the latest non test version app.

 

This app, really is MEGA impressive. And I want to thank the dev wholeheartedly. You have made this app, beautifully accessible, responded magnificently to feedback, and it now seems to me, to be an amazingly good app for all people, all pc hardware levels, all circumstances (caps, VR etc etc) and still manages to work its magic for all those differences.  That's a rare challenge, and once you have most definatly achieved.

 

It seems a great little app. I am in the process of tidying my files up on my flight sim machine, in readiness for a new flight sim machine in a few months time for MSFS2024.

An issue I found with  MSFS2020_Auto 0.4.1 is the ability to remove it from my machine. I installed it to a named file. I thought by simply deleting the entire file structure, reboot my machine would remove the app. However, I find the little guy is a bit illusive to actually find its roots enabling me to remove it, then place in a better location. Every time MSFS2020fires up, so does this app.

I did notice it created a log event.

Any thoughts.  

6 minutes ago, por930 said:

It seems a great little app. I am in the process of tidying my files up on my flight sim machine, in readiness for a new flight sim machine in a few months time for MSFS2024.

An issue I found with  MSFS2020_Auto 0.4.1 is the ability to remove it from my machine. I installed it to a named file. I thought by simply deleting the entire file structure, reboot my machine would remove the app. However, I find the little guy is a bit illusive to actually find its roots enabling me to remove it, then place in a better location. Every time MSFS2020fires up, so does this app.

I did notice it created a log event.

Any thoughts.  

When you deleted t he folder it was in, did you check to make sure the folder was actually removed. The problem I had was, it would not delete the folder, until I restarted the PC, then I could delete the folder after the restart. If it continues to start up, my guess is the folder was still there. 

Edited March 17, 20242 yr by Bobsk8