nikaslan

I tested yesterday the new 285.62 WHQL driver (Win7 64bit). Unfortunately I had more microstutters and constant d3dx9.dll CTDs when I used ALT+ENTER to go from fullscreen to window mode (I use the ENB mod). I reverted back to 275.33 WHQL and all is smooth and stable again.Keep in mind that I have deleted the 2 uiautomationcore.dll files in windowssystem32 and windowssyswow64 directories to avoid d3dx9.dll CTDs, which worked like a charm with the 275.33 driver but not with the new one.

Paul J, I have experimented with many different values for the FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION variable including 0.05 0.15 0.20 0.25. For my system and my fsx config this value (0.10) gives the best balance between framerate smoothness and texture loading. In rare cases when the fps stays well below 20 I do get some blurries but in these cases I care more about smooth flight than crisp textures. Also keep in mind that I limit the FPS internally at 30.

Tom, the vertical spikes/artifacts and the flashing clouds are indicating that your GPU (yes, the GTX580) is driven to its limits by mainly the autogen combined with high antialiasing settings and the BP=0 tweak. Just check the GPU load when you get the spikes to confirm this.If you do not want to sacrifice the smoothness of the BP=0 setting then you have to lower your autogen or your antialiasing settings (NV inspector).With my rig (560Ti) I use the following in the fsx.cfg:[bUFFERPOOLS]UsePools=0[TERRAIN]LOD_RADIUS=6.500000AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3WATER_EFFECTS=6TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=2400TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=800[Main]FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.1and in NVinspector:antialiasing: 8xStrans. multisampling: enabledtrans. supersampling: off / multisamplingto avoid spikes and flashing clouds in dense PNW and Tongass Fjords sceneries.Nikos

Ok, the ultimate water performance test for the different shader models: Go to the PABE airport (with hundreds of small lakes around) and take off with a light (performance-wise) plane, pause at say 2000ft, pan around from an external camera and, with "water effects" at High 2x (or any 2x), check the fps and the panning smoothness. Then go to FSX settings, set "water effects" to 'High 1x' and check again. Then install the other shaders and repeat. For my setup (nvidia 560ti) the shader 3.0 mod gave me 13-17 fps and the original shaders gave 16-22 fps in the same situation and better water looks. At 'High 1x' I was always getting my internally locked 30 fps... Weather was overcast (ASE).

I will certainly capture a screen if this ever happens again.But I am absolutely sure that the last time it happened it was with B647 because I am using it since it became available on the server Thanks,Nikos

Autogen spikes are GPU related and usually have to do with the "UsePools=0" setting inside fsx.cfg combined with a 'heavy' scenery, weather, even aircraft and high graphics settings (AA and AF in nvidia inspector). If you want to get rid of the spikes you have to lower your graphics driver settings, lower the autogen to 'Dense', lower cloud density and if they perist try to disable "UsePools=0". Something in this scenery is overloading your GPU. Check you GPU load when the spikes appear. Nikos

First of all, ASE team congrats for the product, it really gets FSX weather in another dimension! It's not perfect but, what is?.. I wouldn't fly without it. After using ASE for enough months I noticed that the cloud depiction was not natural any more. For example, in overcast conditions the cloud layers were composed from too many small, way too sharp, horizontally compressed and vertically (!) stretched clouds, instead of the smooth, large horizontally extended cloud textures that normally produce a naturally looking overcast layer. Of course the same small, vertically stretched clouds were visible in every weather situation, not only in OC weather. Unfortunately I didn't grab any screenshot. When I used other weather engines (REX, Open Clouds and FSX default) the cloud depiction was perfectly normal. I searched the support forums and found at least one case with the same problem in which a complete ASE reinstall was recommended. Which I did and the problem was solved.But after a while it reappeared. Exactly the same thing. This time I closed ASE, went to the "c:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\HiFi\ASE" folder and deleted the following files:current_synthesized_wx.txtcurrent_wx_snapshot.txtLastDownloaded.WxRestarted ASE and guess: problem solved!! I mentioned this issue to help others that may have the same problem and to point it to HiFi support team so they can check it out.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time yesterday trying to match the pre shader 3.0 water quality using the shader 3.0 mod but finally couldn't. After many edits of the shader 3.0 WaterConstants.xml I learned how to control water reflectivity from various angles and altitudes, wave width, specular reflection intensity, wave direction, BUT when I finally changed to the original shaders the water was much more natural and smooth, especially with my custom FSWC settings. I couldn't get rid of the high contrast, low resolution specular reflections. The size of the reflective waves is controlled by the fWaveBumpUVScale. My last test is to enter a very high number here and check the result, something like 12.500 or 14.000. What I couldn't find is how to control the contrast between the dark and light parts of the specular reflections. This is very important to 'smooth out' the sun reflections and have a more natural looking water. Of course now that I own a Nvidia card I can't observe any performance benefit from using the shader 3.0 mod, but I would use it if it looked just as good as the original shaders.

I noticed you have: Road Vehicles - 20%Leisure boats - 40% Especially the Road Vehicles traffic is a CPU killer near cities. Just bring it down to ZERO and try again.

SpiritFlyer, just a reminder:Before you proceed to any hardware changes, check your Windows Event Viewer.Check the Administrative Events for any error that occurred just before the system shutdown. It might give you an indication about the cause and might save you money.Best regards,Nikos

I had exactly the same issue when my GPU (5770 back then :Tounge:) was reaching 100C...I found it using the Windows event viewer which reported thermal shutdowns in every single case.

Well, last Friday I received my brand new MSI Twin Frozr 560 TI OC 1GB!! I immediately proceeded to replace the 5770 and installed the latest Nvidia drivers and NVidia Inspector.Please keep in mind that, as I have a relatively old CPU (q9550@3.4GHz), the UsePools=0 tweak is an absolute must to help offload the CPU and keep things smooth. I also use the FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.1 for the same reason.My first impressions on the switch from the 5770 to the gtx560:In overcast weather the 5770 struggled to keep up and many times failed, producing flashing clouds, vertical spikes emerging from autogen trees and heavy stutters. I tried to offload the GPU by reducing graphics setting but even without AA and AF the problems sometimes persisted.With the new 560 it's another world!! With the same settings the GPU usage is about 30-40%. No flashes, no spikes, no stutters, no nothing!!Then I started using advanced settings and filtering. Settled to AA 8xS and Transparency Multisampling enabled. The GPU load elevated to 60-80%. But.. stunning awesome visuals!! Nowhere near the 5770 jaggy world. Beautiful smooth misty fjords, valleys, mountains, without a hint of flashes - spikes - stutters even in the heaviest weather.. The 560 does not even blink when flying in heavy (ASE produced, 3 layer) clouds! Of course you have to be careful with the settings. Push it up to more advanced filtering modes (16xS, SS Transparency, Sparse Grid Supersampling) and the load goes over the top, but this is true about any card. Also you have to keep an eye to the autogen. I keep it to DENSE and continue to use TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=2500TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=1100 Sure the card has its limitations BUT the point is that they are well over from what I need to absolutely enjoy the sim. Which was not the case with the 5770.Also the card is completely silent when idle (very low noise at full load, never heard it when in FSX) and very cold at 31C idle and about 60-65C full load, when the 5770 was at 50C idle and well over 80C at full load. As an additional bonus the overall system temperatures dropped inside the case with the CPU cores at 4-5C lower than before!!!In short I am very, very happy about the upgrade.I am now in FSX nirvana

Well.. couldn't wait any more..I just ordered the MSI Twin Frozr 560 TI OC 1GB.I will test it tomorrow and report my impressions.

Thanks for your answers!Based on your comments and also on the comments of others it seems that such an upgrade brings substantial performance and image quality improvements.I am going to replace the 5770 with the 560 as soon as my budget permits.. :blush:Until then, and because I do not want to trade off realistic weather depiction (ASE+maximum cloud density) and fluid flight, I prefer to trade off some overall IQ.So, to avoid stutters in heavy weather I did the following:AA from SuperSampling to MultiSampling 2xAF from 16x to 8xturned down about 25% the autogen treesreduced the cumulus textures (REX2) to 512x512I already use Bojote's shader 3.0 modThis allows me to have very minimal to absolutely no stuttering/fps hit even under the most demanding weather conditions.

DannyR,Did you finally get the GTX 560?How does it compare to the 5770?I am also thinking of getting a GTX 560 to replace my ATI 5770, mainly because of the slowdowns/stuttering when I fly in heavy cloudy/overcast weather.Have you seen improvements especially when flying in heavy weather?

I'm not saying that you'll have no jaggies :(. It depends on the AA level that your system can handle. My 5770 goes up to 2xAA (box-SS) and 16xAF @ 1920x1080, so I have some.But you get the FPS boost of shader 3.0 clouds plus the original FSWaterConfigurator-configurable water. Definitely. The REX clouds are just textures. They can be rendered both in v2.0 or v3.0 shaders.

http://forum.avsim.n...13#entry1774713Basically, as explained by Bojote, you can copy all of the Shaders 3.0 folders into FSX except the "terrain" folder, which includes the water shaders.You also keep the original WaterConstants.xml file.Then you change the SHADER_CACHE_VERSION inside the FSX.CFG to recompile shaders the next time you start FSX and you are done.After that you will have the original Shader 2.0 water and Shader 3.0 clouds. You can also use FSWaterConfigurator to fully control your water reflections.

You can partly install Shader 3.0. You can install all other elements except water-terrain shaders. Then you have the original water animations/reflections plus the ability to use FSWaterConfigurator, and also get the performance enhancement from the shaders 3.0 clouds.That is how I use Shaders 3.0 on my setup.

To Pegasus1:The water grid is highly dependent on the REX2 wave animation (not the water textures) that is installed. Regarding the grid, I have best results when I use the "GREAT" wave animation. In general the more subtle waves will give you less apparent gridding on the water surfaces.Also, you have to set the <fSpecularBoost> variable according to the wave set that you use. On more subtle waves you have to use lower <fSpecularBoost> or the sun reflections will show as "burned" or unnaturally bright. With the "GREAT" wave animation my personal preference is a value of LOW:1.440 MID:1.441 HIGH:1443 <fSpecularBoost> in the Waterconstants.xml file. Be warned though that if you use a more prominent wave animation you may not have any reflection at all using that low values. You simply have to use a higher <fSpecularBoost> value.Nikos