MSFS 2020 Auto FPS App v0.4.2

[Vali]

I noticed that DLSS Quality with FG and DX12 Beta on my side induce somehow more stutters than the TAA with FG and DX12 Beta. But I own a RTX 3080Ti and not a RTX 4xxx series GPU.

[jarmstro]

2 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

This tends to be a bit confusing, and the reason is this:

When MSFS is not in focus (e.g. you’re browsing through this thread, trying to figure out what the fps figure in the app shows)l FG is inactive (by GPU driver I believe). In this case, the FPS value under sim values will not show FPS with FG active (cause FG has been temporarily deactivated). 

‘What it will show instead is native FPS, which is half of FG-FPS. Now, if the sim is never in focus (e.g. you’re in here for hours desperately trying to resolve this issue), AutoFPS will usually reduce all settings to minimum, as it thinks your FPS has suddenly plummeted (which indeed it has).

If you want the app window to show FPS when FG is active, you need to tick the “on top” option. I do this a lot when I want to see the visual difference between different values (e.g. TLOD 5 and 5000). 

So, to make matters clear (hopefully):

When using FG, always set target FPS based on that. Just keep in mind that when MSFS is not in focus, the numbers will “go red” i.e. decrease to minimum. And when you return to the sim, it’ll take a while for the app to gradually change the values back. 

This is why some people prefer to use the option “pause when MSFS loses focus”, as in this case AutoFPS will just “freeze” TLOD, OLOD and cloud quality (until the focus returns to MSFS).

Wonderful! 🥳 Enjoy

Thanks so much. That's very helpful. Especially the explanation of what MS2020 in focus means. I use a second monitor for things like Simbrief, ATC and Navigraph etc. I'm thinking that maybe the sim is never 'in focus' although the app seems to do its stuff just fine? 

[Virtpilot]

Is it possible to change values during the flight? Like max TLOD value? 

[meerkat]

25 minutes ago, Virtpilot said:

Is it possible to change values during the flight? Like max TLOD value? 

Yes, you can tick "expert mode" and change the values which after my observations should immediately be active.

[Reset XPDR]

6 hours ago, vincentrouleau said:

Can we have an option to flip between TAA  <-> DLSS Quality instead/with cloud reduce option. Now manually I with a flow plugin to change that. I would prefer change that instead of cloud quality.

Sorry, no more MSFS settings than the ones currently being manipulated are planned to be added.

[Cpt_Piett]

6 hours ago, jarmstro said:

Thanks so much. That's very helpful. Especially the explanation of what MS2020 in focus means. I use a second monitor for things like Simbrief, ATC and Navigraph etc. I'm thinking that maybe the sim is never 'in focus' although the app seems to do its stuff just fine? 

If you can see "FG Active" then FG is working as intended. If you're unsure, then the easiest way to verify is to use a 3rd party FPS overlay. I use RTSS. 

[Reset XPDR]

7 hours ago, jarmstro said:

Thanks so much. That's very helpful. Especially the explanation of what MS2020 in focus means. I use a second monitor for things like Simbrief, ATC and Navigraph etc. I'm thinking that maybe the sim is never 'in focus' although the app seems to do its stuff just fine? 

10 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

‘What it will show instead is native FPS, which is half of FG-FPS. Now, if the sim is never in focus (e.g. you’re in here for hours desperately trying to resolve this issue), AutoFPS will usually reduce all settings to minimum, as it thinks your FPS has suddenly plummeted (which indeed it has).

Just to clarify, AutoFPS does actually take into account the massive drop in FPS when using FG and MSFS loses focus, in that it internally halves your target FG active FPS and uses that. This works fine most of the time, as @jarmstrois experiencing, however FG inactive is not always exactly half FG active and when you give MSFS back the focus there are a few seconds of FPS weirdness until FG settles down, so either of these can confuse the automation algorithm.

 

[mmcmah]

Reset,

An observation, that may be working as intended, but it seems like it might not be? If the app is started once you are in a flight, and the mode is set to IFR, the app changes the TLOD setting to the TLOD Min value before coming back up to where it needs to be.

More specifically, my default TLOD level is 200 and if I happen to open the app while in flight (for example to change my default graphics settings that can't be changed while the app is open), then as soon as I run the app, if drops to the TLOD Min value (100). If the app is run in VFR mode, this does not happen.

Note that the above behavior happened at 17,000 ft AGL, not on the ground. I am using 0.4.3.1-test.

[Reset XPDR]

7 minutes ago, mmcmah said:

Reset,

An observation, that may be working as intended, but it seems like it might not be? If the app is started once you are in a flight, and the mode is set to IFR, the app changes the TLOD setting to the TLOD Min value before coming back up to where it needs to be.

More specifically, my default TLOD level is 200 and if I happen to open the app while in flight (for example to change my default graphics settings that can't be changed while the app is open), then as soon as I run the app, if drops to the TLOD Min value (100). If the app is run in VFR mode, this does not happen.

Note that the above behavior happened at 17,000 ft AGL, not on the ground. I am using 0.4.3.1-test.

If anything switching between VFR and IFR should set both to TLOD Min and work up from there, not just with IFR mode, but I did that with app startup on ground intended and maybe I need to alter it so that it doesn't have to do that in flight. I'll look into it.

[Cpt_Piett]

@Reset XPDR For some reason FPS value is showing as zero all of a sudden. I ran installer, selected remove. Then re-installed. 

EDIT: It's back to normal after rebooting my PC. 

EDIT2: No, it's back to not showing again. Same MSFS session. I'm wondering if AutoFPS is competing with another application for FPS value? If that makes sense. 

EDIT3: Working again after a system restart where I shut down RTSS before loading MSFS. 

Edited March 19, 2024 by Cpt_Piett

[Cpt_Piett]

9 hours ago, Vali said:

I noticed that DLSS Quality with FG and DX12 Beta on my side induce somehow more stutters than the TAA with FG and DX12 Beta. But I own a RTX 3080Ti and not a RTX 4xxx series GPU.

Hmm that is really strange. I've been using DLSS ultra quality for several weeks now without more stutters compared to TAA. 

[Vali]

16 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Hmm that is really strange. I've been using DLSS ultra quality for several weeks now without more stutters compared to TAA. 

I suppose 4090 vs 3080 Ti might be also a reason.

[Cpt_Piett]

3 hours ago, Reset XPDR said:

Just to clarify, AutoFPS does actually take into account the massive drop in FPS when using FG and MSFS loses focus, in that it internally halves your target FG active FPS and uses that.

By internally, do you mean that this effect is not reflected in the FPS value under sim values?

I'm trying to elaborate a bit further on the FG active vs inactive issue, and in doing so I discovered that AutoFPS is not reducing TLOD when FG is inactive. Am I missing something here? Just trying to figure out a way to force AutoFPS to reduce LODs to min when unable to reach target FPS. 

Or is what I'm seeing related to what you mentioned above?

EDIT: And when bringing MSFS back into focus after writing this post, AutoFPS is back to showing FPS as zero... I'm getting very confused here. Well at least I got it to lower all values... 🤷‍♂️

Edited March 19, 2024 by Cpt_Piett

[Cpt_Piett]

Just wanted to elaborate a bit further on the "FG inactive" issue as it seems to create some confusion - which is very understandable. The key point is this: 

Quote

When MSFS is not in focus, regardless of which other program has taken the focus away from MSFS, FG will be temporarily deactivated. It doesn't matter what app or program takes focus away from MSFS. This is an Nvidia thing and is completely unrelated to AutoFPS. 

Native vs. FG-FPS: 

• Native FPS is FPS when FG is inactive
• Native FPS can be shown by selecting developer mode and FPS overlay

I took two screenshots to illustrate this further:

MSFS in focus:

MSFS not in focus:

Those with sharp eyes might also notice that in the 1st image with FG active, some of the numbers in the dev mode overlay are blurred. Indeed here I've been very lucky to capture those infamous albeit elusive FG-inherent artifacts that I've been ranting about for several weeks now. This happens because the values are changing so quickly that FG fails to properly generate an AI-image that inserted between two native images. This can also sometimes be seen when panning around very quickly. Also note that this is not the same as the stuttering issue when native FPS is low. @Noel

Note that in the 2nd screenshot, values in AutoFPS are red. This is because now FPS is now way below target FPS. AutoFPS will then lower all values accordingly to try to bring FPS back up to target FPS. 

Unfortunately I'm not able to demonstrate this for now, as I'm having some issues with AutoFPS. One issue is that AutoFPS is not reducing TLOD when FPS drops way below the set target. The other one being that FPS intermittently is being reported as "zero". But then at least it will bring all values down to min. Which incidentally demonstrates what MSFS looks like at 5000ft with a TLOD of 50:

Also note that here I've chosen VFR mode even with an airliner, as I'm in a remote area (Innsbruck) hence there's plenty enough headroom. I.e. in this case the performance impact of an airliner is negligible.

Btw I'm using Floyds Epic Clouds here. Highly recommended! Can't remember which clouds are shown though. Perhaps cumulus mediocris? Or it might have been altostratus fibratus... 🤔

Edited March 19, 2024 by Cpt_Piett

[mmcmah]

Does the gap between the target FPS and your current FPS dictate how quickly your LODs change?

I tried something Reset had said, that you could set your FPS to 1 or 2 frames below your locked rate (I set it to 2) and I found it crawling in terms of FPS adjustments, even at the default sensitivity of 5.

So I dropped the FPS target to 60 (I have my system set to a max of 70 via NCP and using GSYNC ) and the LOD settings started changing quicker.