SRAces

Three of us chatting last night while we were installing 2.3 on our machines. The upgrade did not work for me or MartyB, so we each ran the full install on clean SSDs and had no issues. Runs like butter. Our third friend ran the updater without deleting files, etc. and his patched fine from 2.2 to 2.3. I seriously think your success at running the upgrade has a lot to do with what add-ons and other factors make your individual setup unique (i.e. hardware, drivers, etc.) Will be working on getting all the add-ons installed tonight. So far it's noticeably better. Will test multi-player out as well.

As I've stated in other threads, I used to be a training manager for the Air Force and had several projects I managed that included computer based training, etc. Even back in the 90s the folks I worked with at LM were into flight simulations. While I can't speak for the crew that is developing P3D, I can say that the folks I worked with had a passion for getting things right. From what I've seen this division of LM displays some of that same commitment. And no I'm not a paid spokesperson for LM...lol. Just my humble observations.

I think we should all try to be civil. I agree with N4gix's comments for the most part. No one is twisting anyone's arm to buy P3D. There are still a lot of folks on FS9 and FSX and those people are happy. Do I get frustrated at some of the issues I encounter? Yes I do, but I don't openly complain about it. I try to work around it or just wait for the fix. I've seen more response from LM than I have in ages in regards to taking feedback from developers and consumers. We have no idea what the business side of LM is communicating regarding P3D. LM has taken this hobby through some major milestones that we have never had. I believe they are in it for the long haul. It's not an easy business and one that you can just throw code out and expect it to work across thousands of environments. Look at the challenges Orbx had with Vector and the Pilot's Global Mesh. Sometimes a little patience goes a long way! Cheers...

I was using the latest Nvidia driver for my GTX780 and using NVidia Inspector. Flying the Alaebo Cutlass, the white outlines around each piece of radio gear was slightly jagged and pixelating. My friend MartyB suggested I go back to the 332.21 drivers and just use the profile tool in the Nvidia Control Panel. I did that (as well as delete the shaders so P3D would rebuild them) and the results have been much better for me. So for the time being, I'm staying at the 332.21 driver and not using Nvidia Inspector. Stutters were never an issue for me. I've been tweaking for clarity and visual aspects versus fps and no stutters.

n4gix, Thanks for the response. Your explanation is right on. It seems they did tighten up the XML in 2.1. I have heard that from some of the other developers I communicate with. We just have to be patient until the developers de-bug their XML and release some patches. Some of my aircraft are not 100%, but I'm working around it or not flying the plane until a patch is released. I haven't determined if I like 2.1 over 2.0 yet. Still slowly working through things, but so far so good.

WOW! You could go bonkers reading everything in this thread...lol. I applaud your efforts to get it right on your individual systems. A lot of great inputs here. I wish I could offer an input to help, but I just don't have that many tweaks in mine and do not use a lot of the suggestions mentioned. I run mostly at 5450 X 1080 on my Surround setup. I can run it full screen, but I get better frames at the slightly pulled in resolution in "windowed" mode. I still believe each of us has to find out what works with our individual PC hardware, drivers, addons, etc.. What one person achieves might not be doable on another person's setup. But it's interesting reading to say the least. I do overclock my CPU and GPU slightly and that seems to help my frames. No stutters. I thought I would post a few shots of my settings and a couple of screens out of Cordova-Smith in the Orbx SAK region. I haven't loaded my fixed Cordova-Smith back in yet. I can fix the taxiways that are missing, but will wait on Orbx to release the fixes for each region. Opus Weather is turned on in the shots. Good luck with your efforts. Steve

I've had the blurry issues a few times myself. You see them the most if you have AI traffic and go to that AI plane in external view and switch back and forth between a few planes and the one you are flying. LM indicated they fixed issue in the original legacy code that was causing the micro stutters. My CPU usage is similar to yours. I have found in previous versions (FSX and P#D v1.4) that if I overclocked too high the stutters came back, so I had to reduce the overclock to get it smooth again. That was when the CPU was heavily used. You comment about the FFTF is interesting. A friend that flies multiplayer with me in P3D uses the FFTF entry in his config file and reduces his to a value between the .10 and the .35 limit. All of it seems to be tied to everything syncing properly and that 's probably the reason there are so many variations of issues folks have. I re-installed all the simconnects under each folder in the folder called "redist" in P3D when I got some stutters after installing an add-on. That cured the stutters. Those are in FSX labeled folders. In all my experiences with FSX through P3DV2.1 it seems that sometimes the sequence of how you load add-ons can also affect the performance. I suppose if everything doesn't line up correctly to talk to each other, that would cause delays or the stutters. Used to be an EZDOK fan, but switched to the cameras in Opus Weather as EZDOK caused too many issues in the sim for me. Right now I have just my Orbx sceneries (main ones and just a couple of individual airports), Opus Weather, GSX and 3 add-on aircraft loaded. I just want to make sure everything is good and I'll slowly add and test each additional add-on (plane, scenery, etc.) one at a time before I move to the next. Have a great weekend!

Rob, I'll throw my 2 cents in. I don't get any stutters even at 15fps due to a high end 3rd party aircraft being loaded. I did notice that where I could get upwards of 90-100fps with the Maule in 2.0 around a default airport. My fps is more in the 35-40fps now even with the frame rate on unlimited. Like others that tweaked FSX, I had my FSX setup running pretty smooth. But once I switched to P3D, there was no going back. The only tweaks in my P3D.cfg file is the Affinity mask at 84 (I run an I7-950) and the texture Bandwidth multiplier at 60. (running a GTX780). I run UT2 and do not use any internally generated AI aircraft. I have been playing around with Nvidia Inspector to find the best settings for my system and am getting there. I do run my P3D settings rather high, but I let Nvidia Inspector handle my Anistropic and Anti-aliasing work. Most of the time I have AA turned off in P3D and the MSAA on 2X and the Anistropic on Trilinear. Turning those up seems to be more of an FPS killer in my setup. I'm still trying to get my REX clouds to look as good as they used to. Some of the new changes make them look more chalky than the HD textures they were before. I have had a couple of occasions where I had to flip the textures from 4096 to 2048 and back in the game because I had the tree rendering issue in an Orbx add-on airport start. I can deal with that until Orbx updates everything. My main P3D flying buddy has issue I do not have, but he runs Track IR and utilizes the functionality in FSUIPC. I do not program anything in FSUIPC. Have Track IR, but with three 22 inch monitors in Surround mode, it's better without it for me. Not an easy challenge. I hope you get it figured out. Regards, Steve Here's what it looks like in my system. Hard to go back to FSX when it looks this good. (large size image link) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/100884826/CYBD-CYXT_3.jpg

I don't have any issues with the water. I run my water at Ultra settings and use REX4. I have found that if you use REX textures, the texture you pick greatly influences what you see at various altitudes. If you run real world weather, that also affect what you get with the water settings maxed out. To me it's all personal preferences, computer hardware and graphics drivers/settings. What works for one person might not do the same for another. Yes I'm still waiting for the next patch, but am really enjoying what I have now. Hopefully we will see the patch this month. I'm willing to wait as I'm sure LM wants to get what they release as bullet proof as they can. That I'm sure can be challenging with all the diversity you have to program for.

I left FSX when P3D 1.4 came out. Not turning back! On P3D version 2 now.

I do not use the antialiasing in P3D, have my MSAA on 2X and only use Trilinear (no anistropic setting) in P3DV2. I do the adjustments associated with those in Nvidia Inspector. Supposedly Affinity Mask was factored in in version 2 by LM. It did have an role in version 1.4. I have tried it in and out of the cfg file with no noticeable change. All my cores on my I7-950 are used. I have a few small adjustments in my cfg file over original, but not many. I know this is not a setup thread...just passing on my thoughts. If you have a multi-monitor setup, try running in a windowed mode and then pull the left/right ends in a little ways, you will find that will give you a sizeable jump in fps. Sometimes I don't fly mine using all the area (right now running 3 monitors in a surround landscape setup) and if I pull the side in a little it helps but does not detract from the overall viewing experience. I have HT turned on.

I'm just curious why your frame rates are so low. I run P3D in with Nvidia Surround and get 50fps on most of my Carenado aircraft and at least 25fps on high end complicated aircraft. That's with a lot of Orbx scenery, REX4, Opus, etc. I run my setup with a lot of the settings cranked up. Some of the settings have no impact on fps. Some definitely do. I am running a single GTX780 (have a GTX570 in SLI, but not really applying that to anything). It will be interesting to see how the 2.1 patch affects things, including frame rates. If you are running that resolution across multiple monitors, have you tried it in a "windowed" mode and stretched the window to fit your resolution. I have found that in "windowed" mode versus "Full Screen" I get about a 30fps increase depending on what and where I am flying. Even though version 2 offloaded a lot of the work to the GPU, the CPU type/speed and other factors seem to affect fps as well. Until the app goes to 64bit, we're still stuck with a roughly 3.1GB window of usable system RAM to use. The interesting thing about this hobby is just the sheer number of various systems everyone is using. What works for one person's setup might not work on another person's machine. Hope the new patch helps you out. Have a great weekend!

Can't wait for the new patch! Will be putting updated version on new SSD drive. Looking forward to the texture rendering being fixed in regards to having to change texture resolutions to get the trees to show up correctly sometimes. Great effort by LM. Appreciate their work! It's only getting better!

Uh-Oh! I've been exposed as a painter...LOL! Glad I'm missed. I'm working on just cleaning up parts tonight so I can paint a clean version. Here are 2 examples I had worked on earlier based off one of the existing liveries.

LOL! I can understand the challenge if you never painted before. I've painted for years and decided to go public when the PMDG 737 came out. I've managed to do a few Carenado liveries for use by myself and a few friends. Here's the C185F that we like to fly in a couple of paint schemes I made up.

All, I've started working on a few liveries for this aircraft. Can't promise anything at this point, but will upload any new livery to the AVSIM library. Paint kits for Carenado aircraft are made by taking their white or blank texture aircraft and creating a kit or set of templates for it. It's not too hard to change the colors for an existing paint scheme by just changing the colors. The biggest issue with the TBM850 is all the exhaust staining on the wings, gear doors, etc. That dirty look should be a separate layer in a kit to allow for a clean or dirty version. The examples above clearly show how jumbled the parts are and the challenge of lining up stripes/ribbons when the texture part might be applied to the model and the sizing changed. I'm working on trying to make a set of templates this week so I can make a clean or dirty version. Will post a few screenshots this evening of a few attempts at new liveries.

I don't mind sharing mine. These work for me.

Will, The LOD (Level of Detail) is the draw radius. You'll notice when you approach an airport or are just flying across scenery that the "auto generated" objects start appearing at a certain distance. That's the LOD distance. In FSX the default is 4.5 and in P3D the default is 6.5. I have successfully run the distance in FSX at 12 miles, but anything over that will cause an "Out of Memory" OOM error as the available 32 bit memory allocations get full. I fly P3D at the default 6.5 and have no issues. Increasing that level will cause stutters for some people. More so in FSX than P3D as you're injecting more objects to process. I never worry about the FPS as long as it's smooth. Sometimes too much emphasis is given to the FPS rate being displayed when the emphasis should be whether the Sim is smooth and stutter free. I do have my CPU overclocked, but I found that overclocking it too high can cause issues. Each person has to determine what settings work best for their hardware combination. Regards, Steve

You're welcome to stop by on TeamSpeak and chat anytime, but "yes" we are flying P3D exclusively.

Good points Eric! I know it's hard for folks to just sit and wait...but just enjoy the version you have now. If you haven't purchased 1.4 yet, give it a try. A $50 investment is the average cost of most PC games in any genre. And those games don't have the flexibility of addons like this hobby does. I guess there will always be speculation and banter about "what if". That can be healthy as I'm sure the developers of all the products read the forums to gauge what is being said in the community. Have a great weekend!

Having shelved my FSX setup and now flying P3D exclusively, I for one am extremely happy with P3D 1.4. If LM never offers any future version to regular consumers, it was still well worth the $50 spent. I sometimes don't understand all the speculation from the community and the second guessing. I'm just happy we have it. I spent my last 5 years in the Air Force working with Lockheed Martin as a Training Manager at the command level. Computer based training has always been an avenue that LM pursued. I remember flying F-15s on simulators on a SunSparc Unix system even in the early 90s. Eric's comments above are probably spot on. Personally, I do believe LM is in this endeavor for the long haul. The cost of fuel and other areas make flight simulation training the next best thing to being there and a highly affordable option. I firmly think that even if there are commercialized add-ons and licenses that have to be bought for business uses, we will still see this application expand for the private flight simmer environment. Just my thoughts....

Scott, Thanks for the reply and the pictures. I'm very impressed. I'm running an Nvidia GTX570 so the Eyefinity route is not available for me. I am hoping the Matrox TripleHead2Go route works out for me. I use Opus for my weather and EZDOK for my views. Opus recently upgraded the software to make the views better and I anticipate switching my views over to the Opus side.

If you download and install the P3D SDK, there is documentation on the creation of missions. It doesn't look much different than FSX and appears to be very doable. I haven't built any yet, but would think that since P3D is a flight training tool, creating missions with objectives, failures, etc. would be a key component. Just my thoughts.

Scott, That's an awesome setup! I've been thinking about running P3D on more than one monitor and getting a Matrox TripleHead2Go box to stretch it across at least three monitors. Would you be willing to share how you achieved your setup in that picture? Are those separate windows that are adjusted to line up or is it the entire view stretched across 5 monitors? I prefer to see the virtual cockpit like you have it across multiple monitors. I know P3D can utilize more than on PC to add more monitors as well. Are you running that on one PC? Steve

1. I have Rex + Overdrive. As stated above. It works flawlessly. Keep in mind that REX is a standalone product and sits outside FSX/P3D. You just configure the locations in the configuration section and you are good to go. 2. All Orbx airports and sceneries work fine in P3D 3. Can't help you on the Airbus as I don't have it. 4. I have the QW 757, but do not have it loaded. I do not believe it would have issues, but would need to load it to check. 5. I haven't put my FS2Crew back on yet, but a friend I fly with in P3D has loaded his and indicated that there were no issues. I can't help you with RAAS. Keep in mind when P3D launches, it launches you in the aircraft. All you need to do is determine what aircraft you want to start in, at what parking spot, engine off etc. and the "save" the flight as your default (just like FSX). Once you get in the plane, you can switch to a different aircraft or airport and go from there. You can load all your saved flights from the menu and change the default starting flight by saving an existing one as the new default flight or creating a new one. In the Aircraft Selection screen it does have a neat feature where you can drag and drop your favorite aircraft (by specific plane) and have those as a quick list to switch between.