As this app is gaining in popularity, I'm starting get a bit overwhelmed to the point where I am spending far more time answering app usage questions than I am developing, so I am going to take a step back and let other experienced users handle these more often.  I thank those users very much for helping out like this.

Having said that, if there is a continuous stream of questions on the same thing, like has happened recently with FG active versus inactive, I'll make changes to the readme to make such functionality clearer.

I will now concentrate on the 0.4.1 development work I have been trying to get to. @Cpt-Piett I will respond to your comments and question on the test version shortly. 

10 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

I've had some time to test 0.4.1, doing several approaches and touch 'n go's in the TBM850. I think I'm starting to understand how the new logic works. I noticed on approach that the app lists a Trigger Alt value. In my case it was around 1700. As I reached that altitude, the TLOD started gradually decreasing to TLOD min, which it elegantly reached at 1000ft. So I guess the app calculates this Trigger Alt in order to be able to gradually reach TLOD Min at 1000 AGL. 

This IMO is an excellent approach as it stays locked from 1000 AGL and will not change drastically when descending on final approach. My TLOD max is 400, Min 100. So I guessed that based on those values the app calculates the Trigger Alt. 

Am I understanding this correctly? Sorry but had some trouble deciphering your explanation. 

And I guess Primed: True could mean that the app gets "ready" to start decreasing TLOD on descent. And Active: True means, well that it starts doing so. I'm just wildly guessing here, trying to understand the new logic.

Yes that's right. The trigger logic discussion is probably what is a bit of confusion. In a nutshell it is intended to activate the TLOD lock below 1000 ft once you have crossed a higher calculated threshold so that your initial climb is unaffected. I am going to simplify the logic so that the priming threshold will just be a fixed 1000 ft as using the calculated altitude is not really necessary for climbing. For descent however the calculated altitude is useful as it allows the automation to lead any steep descent/high TLOD deltas to get to TLOD min situations.

10 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

I'm wondering though that the terms Trigger Alt, Primed and Active will confuse people, and perhaps should be moved to the expert section. But perhaps you only intend to include those in the test version, so that we might understand better what's happening under the hood. 

Yes, those indications are just for me and testers to see what is going on with the new changes. They will be removed in the release version.

Edited February 25, 20242 yr by Reset XPDR

1 hour ago, FlakNine said:

One question: could this utility control DLSS settings too?  DLSS can get pretty ugly, especially over water, but obviously it's a very valuable tool for squeezing out more frames. Having a way to automate DLSS mode switching would be interesting - although I guess that's the intent behind DLSS "Automatic" mode, but to be honest it seems to want to use quite high (i.e. ugly) levels of super-sampling.

While theoretically it could, and any other graphics setting the app could manipulate, it significantly complicates what was intended to be a simple app, so not at this time.

Following recent confusion on FG associated functionality, I have updated the readme file to say the following near the top:

• FG users - The app does detect correct FG FPS when FG is enabled in MSFS, however just because FG is enabled it doesn't mean FG is always active. Specifically, FG is enabled with DX12 AND HAGS AND FG turned on in MSFS, but it is only active when the MSFS is the focused app. As soon as you switch to any window other than MSFS, FG becomes inactive, not through this app but through your graphics driver, so if you switch to this app and it goes on top of your MSFS window you will see FG Inactive on the app status line because that is what has happened. In order to actually see the app report correct FG FPS, the app needs to be showing on another monitor and MSFS needs to have the focus. If you don't have a second monitor, it is not possible to see it. Nonetheless, the app will be reading FG FPS correctly and it will be using the Target FG FPS you have set.

Also clarified under the Target FPS setting description at the end:

• There is a setting for each graphics mode (PC, FG and VR) which you can only change while in that mode and on the ground or in a flight. This is particularly useful if regularly switching between FG mode and VR mode in your flights as the FG FPS target can be significantly higher than the one for VR. If using FG, the target FPS you set is your desired FG FPS, not the FG inactive FPS you see when this app has the focus instead of MSFS.

Hopefully this covers FG functionality enough.

 

Look what might be making a comeback in AutoFPS: 🤪

Stay tuned!

20 minutes ago, Reset XPDR said:

Look what might be making a comeback in AutoFPS: 🤪

🍻🎉

Been testing AutoFPS for hours in the newly acquired A300. The app is working flawlessly, no issues whatsoever! Butter-smooth on final approach into Rio Intl, TLOD min set to 100. 

Edited February 26, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

21 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

🍻🎉

Been testing AutoFPS for hours in the newly acquired A300. The app is working flawlessly, no issues whatsoever! Butter-smooth on final approach into Rio Intl, TLOD min set to 100. 

Great to hear!

I am hoping to have the new auto olod functionality rolled into the next test build, out today or tomorrow. As a heads up, you will set a low alt and a high alt for olod to range within then a olod values for those high and low alts. The app will set the low olod at or below the low alt threshold, set the high olod at or above the high alt threshold and interpolate in between. Note the low olod can be higher or lower in value than the high olod, depending on whether you want olod to decrease or increase respectively as you ascend.

e.g if you have olod low alt at 1000 ft, olod high alt at 5000 ft, olod low at 200 and olod high at 10 you will get 200 olod below 1000 ft, interpolated olod between 1000 and 5000 ft and 10 olod above 5000 ft. It probably sounds more complicated that it actually is, but in full auto mode the app will just choose these settings for you based on your default MSFS OLOD and a decreasing olod with alt as I think that is best for most users and will free up capacity for higher tlod as you climb.

Reset XPDR. Do you have any feedback from users with RTX 3 series cards who are also running with the FG Tweak? It adds FG option to MSFS for nVidia RTX 2's and 3's.  I should have captured the box that is popping up about 50% of the time when starting with AutoFPS, advising my graphics card has experienced an issue and the app (MSFS) will close.  Which it then does.  I also see that simconnect and session are not engaging. 

I am attempting to run AutoFPS for 40 with LOD minimum set for 80.  In the sim i have LOD set to 400 as I deem from what I have read that AutoFPS will adjust LOD anyway.  I'd need to run through a stepped process to remove the FG tweak.

4 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Reset XPDR. Do you have any feedback from users with RTX 3 series cards who are also running with the FG Tweak? It adds FG option to MSFS for nVidia RTX 2's and 3's.  I should have captured the box that is popping up about 50% of the time when starting with AutoFPS, advising my graphics card has experienced an issue and the app (MSFS) will close.  Which it then does.  I also see that simconnect and session are not engaging. 

I am attempting to run AutoFPS for 40 with LOD minimum set for 80.  In the sim i have LOD set to 400 as I deem from what I have read that AutoFPS will adjust LOD anyway.  I'd need to run through a stepped process to remove the FG tweak.

No I have heard of that issue. Is that on the SU15 beta, because there are plenty of other reports of CTDs happening with that, with or without my mod?

When MSFS is starting up, the app does nothing more than establish comms through simconnect like any other simconnect type app would. It doesn't even look at MSFS running memory until you have loaded in to a flight, let alone change anything, so I am not sure what is going on with your setup. Sound like a mobiflight/simconnect issue to me. Perhaps you can message me the relevant section of your log file when it happens.

Thanks for letting me know and  please keep me updated if you uncover anything new, in particular any direct correlation with my app and these crashes.

36 minutes ago, Reset XPDR said:

The app will set the low olod at or below the low alt threshold, set the high olod at or above the high alt threshold and interpolate in between.

 

37 minutes ago, Reset XPDR said:

It probably sounds more complicated that it actually is, but in full auto mode the app will just choose these settings for you based on your default MSFS OLOD and a decreasing olod with alt as I think that is best for most users and will free up capacity for higher tlod as you climb.

No I think I understand. This is a great example of where this app shines - all the advanced automation that's done behind the scenes. 

And you call yourself a hobby coder? I can't even begin to fathom how you do this - I know absolutely nothing about coding.

Edited February 26, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

3 minutes ago, Reset XPDR said:

No I have heard of that issue. Is that on the SU15 beta, because there are plenty of other reports of CTDs happening with that, with or without my mod?

When MSFS is starting up, the app does nothing more than establish comms through simconnect like any other simconnect type app would. It doesn't even look at MSFS running memory until you have loaded in to a flight, let alone change anything, so I am not sure what is going on with your setup. Sound like a mobiflight/simconnect issue to me. Perhaps you can message me the relevant section of your log file when it happens.

Thanks for letting me know and  please keep me updated if you uncover anything new, in particular any direct correlation with my app and these crashes.

It is occurring after the World screen as the flight loads.  I just applied the FG tweak yesterday and prior to that AutoFPS was engaging fully.  I got really good MSFS results after putting that FG tweak in place and testing with it by itself. Since that one is a tweak, including reg edits, I will need to restore my related restore point, and remove three files from system.  The FG I am using is a tweak and not the same as the FG for RTX 4 series cards.

 

31 minutes ago, fppilot said:

It is occurring after the World screen as the flight loads.  I just applied the FG tweak yesterday and prior to that AutoFPS was engaging fully.  I got really good MSFS results after putting that FG tweak in place and testing with it by itself. Since that one is a tweak, including reg edits, I will need to restore my related restore point, and remove three files from system.  The FG I am using is a tweak and not the same as the FG for RTX 4 series cards.

 

You could always try starting AutoFPS up after your flight is loaded. I do that all the time when testing it and it still works good.

Also, the FG part of my code is detection only. It doesn't actually change anything in the sim.

Edited February 26, 20242 yr by Reset XPDR

5 hours ago, Reset XPDR said:

You could always try starting AutoFPS up after your flight is loaded. I do that all the time when testing it and it still works good.

That's what I always do, and it works fine.

Auto OLOD functionality has been added to the latest MSFS2020_AutoFPS 0.4.1 test version 26Feb241000Z, available here. Who's up for a trial and let me know what you think of it?

New test version 26Feb241000Z:

• Added Auto OLOD functionality.
  • Enabled automatically. Rather than the automation being FPS based, which would cause contention with TLOD changes at the same time, OLOD will adjust based on an altitude band with a base and top level and with OLOD values defined for each of these altitudes.
  • The app will set the base OLOD at or below the OLOD base altitude, set the the top OLOD at or above the OLOD top altitude and interpolate in between. Note that the base OLOD can be higher, lower or the same value as the top OLOD, depending on whether you want OLOD to decrease, increase or stay the same respectively as you ascend.
  • The OLOD base altitude can be no lower than 1000 ft and the OLOD top altitude must be at least 1 ft higher, but ideally thousands of feet higher to give smaller OLOD increments and thus a smoother experience. OLOD values can be anywhere between 10 and 1000.
  • When either Use Expert Options or Custom Auto OLOD is not checked, this feature will use your default MSFS OLOD setting as the base OLOD, the greater of 20% of that or 10 as the top OLOD, 2000 ft as the OLOD base altitude and 10000 ft as the OLOD top altitude.
  • If the user doesn't want OLOD to change at all, check Use Expert Settings and Custom Auto OLOD and set the OLOD base and top values to be the same.