Why are my framerates tanking on approach?

[Guest davidvoogd]

For some reason I noticed on my last few flights that my framerates absolutely tank once I get to approach. THey run fine in the 30-35 fps range until I get close to the airport, then boom down to 13-15 fps.I figured it would be something obvious like AI aircraft or road traffic etc., but nope, turning that off makes no difference. It's not the weather itself as that would affect me sooner, I'm wondering if its one of the addons I'm using. It doesn't make sense that it would be the ground scenery as that would effect me any time I'm close to the ground, not just the end of the flight.I run FSX on my main machine, then several addons on a secondary machine Via Simconnect and WideFS. They are Activesky X, Radar Contact, the FSEconomy agent and a pirep program for my VA.I'm fairly sure its not FSEconomy or the pirep program, so I'm wondering if its either WideFS itself, Activesky X or Radar Contact.Anyone have similar problems or ideas of what it could be?Oh and this happened on 3 separate flights today, one was an 1.5 hours, one 10 mins, one 3.5 hours. All 3 had the exact same issue on approach. They were all flown in the Aerosoft Cheyenne. Im fairly sure its not the aircraft but if anyone else with the Cheyenne has had the same problem let me know.=========================Dell XPS 630i - Intel Core2Duo E8500 @ 3.16ghz / 3GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 / Geforce 8800GT 512mb / Soundblaster XfI Audio

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

I find the Cheyenne pretty heavy on framerates. Couple that with a major airport (like KSEA or KORD) and the impact is noticeable.Try flying into a smaller rural airport, like Boise Idaho, or try a simpler aircraft (RealAir Scout or Carenado 152) and your framerates will be way better...Q6600 @ 3ghz, 8600GTS.

[dolph98 24]

I've been living without ground object and aircraft shadows for some time. Even in FS9, with MyTraffic there are so many planes that approach became a slideshow. Try it, you'll like it.Dolph

[Guest jshyluk]

One of the costliest things to have in terms of procesing power in FSX are AI aircraft calling for animated jetways. When you approcah most major airports, that's what you get. You can try dialling down scenery complexity until the animated jetways are no longer featured and/or dial down the number of AI aircraft. You can have multiple setting configurations saved, so that you can load a lower setting on approach to keep your frame rates up, and use higher settings when you are sightseeing. Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[irocx 292]

What would be nice is to have more individual sliders so one could turn things OFF, like those animated jetways and the rain/snow tire wash effect. Particularily when the sim is always being built for tommorrows hardware, which seemingly has yet to arrive. Regards, KendallE8500@3.95/4GB/8800GT CH Yoke/Pedals/Saitek Throttle Dual Monitor: Dell 2405/1905

[january 19]

Does FSX have a command "Refresh Scenery" as does FS9?In FS9, I have this command mapped to my Pause/Break Key and routinely invoke it prior to airport approach. It usually yields an impressive boost to FPS. Don't know why, but FS9 frame rate occasionally deteriorates with time aloft- this key command is the cure. The sim pauses for 4 or 5 seconds then continues at full blast. Also very handy to collect one's wits prior to approach!Alex Reid

[Guest davidvoogd]

Thanks so far guys, but I'm not sure if it is any of that.Only one airport in the 3 flights was anything remotely major, I'm pretty sure I have shadows off too. I'll fiddle around and see if I can find what it is, maybe its just everything combined, though again I don't get why it would be fine for takeoff, then on the one flight just 10 minutes later it goes to crap.Dell XPS 630i - Intel Core2Duo E8500 @ 3.16ghz / 3GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 / Geforce 8800GT 512mb / Soundblaster XfI Audio

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

The answer is: yes..You just need to assign it to a key stroke combination.

[Guest jshyluk]

Both of those issues sound like they are related to AI traffic to me. It takes flight sim a few minutes to "settle down" the AI traffic after you start. In older sims, I used to allow the time to advance a few minutes before I contacted the tower for clearance. A work-around was to advance the time rate past 8x, which simplifies traffic considerably. This also helped when crossing a scenery boundary that required one of those in-flight reloads. The same trick works for FSX, although the problem isn't usually as bad.You don't have to be landing at a major airport to get zapped by the AI aircraft and jetways problem. There just has to be one or more of those airports within range of the AI aircraft that are being generatedaround you in a radius of, what, about 40 miles away or so? AI aircraft are generated within a zone or bubble that follows your location. If one of those big airports falls into that bubble, your frame rates will drop.Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[davidv 0]

Well that blows lol.The only option is no AI or reduce scenery to lose the gates then I take it. I'm starting to wonder if I should just fly everything on Vatsim. The reason I don't is I tend to fly in areas there's rarely any other traffic or even ATC in.