posixPilot

Hi all, I thought I would post my solution to removing the white title bar on my popped-out GNS and GTN on MS Windows. Someone else mentioned here using AutoHotKey, however I initially had issues with finding working scripts. I managed to pull one together that worked for my GTN window but wouldn't work for my GNS window. After playing with the script, I found it was possible to select each window by title which worked around the GNS issue. Here's my script: !^f:: { WinWait "GNS 530 2 WINDOW" WinActivate WinSetStyle "-0xC00000", "A" WinWait "GTN 650 1 WINDOW" WinActivate WinSetStyle "-0xC00000", "A" return } After installing AutoHotKey, you need to double-click the script to run it. The script binds to CTRL-ALT-F, so after starting X-plane and loading your GNS/GTN, press CTRL-ALT-F and the script will hide title bar. The script selects the window based on the title, so you probably need to edit the script to match your window titles. Window titles are case sensitive. The changes seem to persist across restarts of X-Plane and reboots, so you should only need to re-run the script if you "pop-in" your window, which resets the display parameters. Cheers Mike

Hi Jean-Luc, Sorry I haven't responded, I wasn't getting notifications from this thread. The test cases you listed above are correct, aside from the ones with "pop-up". I didn't test any pop-up test cases, just 3D and "pop-out". I finally managed to find and purchase a GPU card in late January and as you suspected, the frame rate issue went away immediately. I've been able to maintain high frame rates using 3D + pop-out for over 2 hours. I'm not sure if you still want to report something to LR. I don't think I can test the pop-up scenario without removing the GPU from my PC, which I'm not terribly keen to do. Thanks Mike

Hi Jean-Luc, I've done a good bit of testing on this issue to try and isolate the problem. Here's what I've found: - The issue happens only when the GTN is displayed in the panel AND in a pop-out window. - This affects both 650 and the 750. I think the first item is relevant as it likely explains why we haven't seen other reports of the issue. I'm overlaying the 650/750 in the 3d panel and I'm using a pop-out window at the same time. If I remove the overlay or close the pop-out the issue does not occur. If I use the overlay and the floating window the issue does not occur. I'm assuming that most other users don't have both. I can probably do without the panel overlay, so removing it is my current work around. I'm using the overlay to basically "cover up" the X-Plane GNS 530 in the default 172. If I could blank the screen, that would work just as well. Since I'm following the slow GNS530/Win11 issue, I also tried changing my HyperThreading BIOS setting. When disabling HT on my BIOS, I notice that this issue takes longer to manifest. With HT enabled, I see FPS reduction in 40-45 minutes, with HT disabled it takes over an hour. I've posted my INI file below so you can see exactly how I'm using the 650/750. Both the 650 and 750 configurations in the file produce the problem on my system. Also, I've tested my system with other 3d games per your request. Running Portal1, Portal2 and HalfLife 2 for about 30 minutes doesn't cause significant memory growth or FPS drop in any of those games. Thanks for taking a look at this issue. Cheers Mike

I have been having this issue on an Intel 11900K. I disabled HT in the BIOS, but the GNS seems to still be slow under and up-to-date Windows11. Thanks Mike

Hi Jean-Luc, I did a bit more testing, by removing the GTN plugin. After boot, I had 4.3G of RAM and 0.3G of VRAM used. I started up X-plane, and started a timer once the simulation started. Initial memory usage was 7.6G RAM and 1.3G VRAM in X-plane. I stopped the GTN plugin and then took off. The plane flew for 90 minutes like the last test and all FPS samples were above 20 (usually 24-26FPS). After 90 minutes the memory usage was 8.1G RAM, 1.5G of VRAM. I saw your note about process explorer while I was running this test, so I left the flight going and downloaded it. X-Plane.exe showed 5.7G of private memory and 3.7G of working set. I decided to enable the GTN plugin and immediately the Trainer process started. The Trainer remained at 0.5G of private memory and never grew. However, X-Plane.exe grew to 6.2G private and 4.2G working set over a 10 minute interval. It doesn't look like I can isolate the memory usage inside of X-Plane.exe any further, but the process returned to 5.7G private/3.7G working when I disabled the GTN plugin. As for the integrated graphics, I have Intel (11900K cpu). While my graphics drivers are only about a month old, I did find an update and applied that. I'm running the test now, but I'm seeing about the same behavior with memory consumption through process explorer. Let me know if you think of any other troubleshooting that I can do. I can't think of a way to isolate the integrated graphic drivers, without having a discrete GPU card. Thanks Mike

Hi Jean-Luc, Correct, on yesterday's test I stopped the plugin after about 50 minutes of run time. I conducted a longer test today to answer the question about peak memory usage, and, yes VRAM usage continues to grow. See the table below. Time RAM of VRAM of Textures Frame/Time FPS 31.8G 15.9G Shared Boot 4.2G 0.2G -- -- -- Start 7.7G 1.4G 208M 0.041 24 @20min 8.2G 1.8G 208M 0.045 22 @30min 8.6G 2.0G 208M 0.042 23 @35min 8.7G 2.2G 208M 0.049 20 @40min 8.8G 2.3G 208M 0.044 22 @43min 8.9G 2.3G 208M 0.048 20 @45min 9.0G 2.4G 207M 0.052 19 @46min 9.0G 2.5G 207M 0.054 18 @48min 9.1G 2.6G 207M 0.057 17 @50min 9.3G 2.8G 207M 0.070 14 @55min 9.8G 3.3G 207M 0.112 8 @60min 10.3G 3.8G 207M 0.165 6 @70min 11.2G 4.7G 208M 0.181 5 @80min 12.3G 5.6G 208M 0.201 4 @90min 13.2G 6.5G 208M 0.240 4 Stop GTN 8.1G 1.6G 208M 0.037 26 A couple of points on the data; I started the timer when X-Plane dropped the plane on the runway. My previous timing was an estimate, where I started the timer after take off. Still, it is clear something starts to change about 40 minutes into the flight. I did my best to interpolate the FPS and frame/time column. The actual rate was highly variable, so these are averages. Regarding VRAM, since I'm using integrated graphics, Taskmanager reports the VRAM as shared. I'm pretty certain it is just using CPU RAM as you can see the RAM grow and shrink at the same rate as VRAM. I have 32GB of physical RAM on this system. Thanks Mike

Hi Jean-Luc, Thanks for taking a look; I ran the test as you suggested. I setup a few way points in a flight plan and let the plane fly for a while. Before starting X-plane, I had 0.3G of GPU memory used. Immediately after starting X-Plane, I had 1.6G of GPU memory and 8.0G of system memory used. X-Plane reported 208MB of textures loaded. During the flight I watched the GPU memory steady increase from 1.6G to 2.8G, while the system memory increased from 8.0 to 9.5G. However, the X-Plane textures went from 208MB to 207MB. It took about 40 minutes of flying to reach the "point of impairment" where FPS dropped from the low twenties to 15 FPS or less. Once the FPS dropped below 10, I stopped the GTN plugin. The FPS returned to the low twenties, GPU ram went to 1.6G and system ram to 8.2G. X-Plane textures remained at 207MB. Let me know if this is helpful. Overall, it doesn't seem like a lot of CPU/GPU ram is being consumed, but I think restarting the plugin shows the memory growth from the GTN. I've also had a few X-Plane crashes recently; I don't know if they are related, but it seems to happen in low FPS situations. I might let the flight continue past the point of impairment to see if we eventually get a crash. Thanks Mike

Hi, I'm having an issue where my frame rate decreases substantially after a period of using the GTN650 on X-Plane. First, let me start off by saying that I don't have a GPU, and I know that I need one. As anyone that has shopped for a GPU recently can tell you, they are virtually impossible to find. Since I've been unable to purchase one, I've been running with very constrained resources. Back to the issue; I'm able to start up and take off with the GTN650 running and achieve about 22-24FPS. This frame rate holds up while I practice my first approach and missed procedure. I usually setup for a second approach and go missed again, with the frame rate holding steady above 20 FPS. However, usually when I begin my 3rd approach, I begin to see the frame rate drop into the 16-18 range, and as I continue the approach, it drops to 10-12. By the time I'm at the missed approach point, the frame rate sometimes drops as low as 5-6FPS. At this point, I open the plugin manager and stop the GTN plugin. The frame rate immediately springs back into 20+ FPS range. The issue with frame rates below 20 in X-Plane is it causes the simulation to lose time. Approaches take longer, control input is delayed. Generally below about 15 FPS just isn't usable. As for troubleshooting, I've monitored my CPU load and temperatures. Temps are well below 60 C at all times, and cpu usage is very low, with peaks around 50% on a single core (16 core Intel 11900). I know my integrated graphics are pegged, but oddly enough, when I see low frame rates, the GPU usage drops substantially. I've also systematically removed each plugin in X-Plane while having the FPS issue; this is how I determined the GTN plugin was causing the issue. My graphics settings have all of the X-Plane sliders set fully to the left (lowest settings). The texture quality is so bad, I can't even read the numbers on the runway. I've tried setting the GTN CpuAffinity to auto and all (-2). I've also set the GTN display refresh to half. I'm flying the Laminar C172 modified with the RSG G5 instrument. Vulkan is disabled as it is incompatible with my graphics. Any other ideas how I can troubleshoot or prevent the GTN plugin from affecting my frame rate? Thanks Mike

Hi Jean-Luc, I think you are correct, regarding the graphics drivers. I'm moving my setup from a Mac to Windows, so I was expecting Vulkan to work with my Intel graphics on Windows like it does on Mac. However, I found a footnote on the X-Plane website indicating that Windows + Intel + Vulkan is incompatible. As a result, I'll just need to run in OpenGL until I have a separate GPU. Thanks for your help troubleshooting this and trying to reproduce it! I'll try to remember to follow up once I have a GPU to test with. Thanks Mike

Thanks for looking at this with me. I'm using the Intel integrated graphics on CPU, so I don't have a separate GPU. I know I'll likely need a GPU for reasonable performance, but that's not an immediate goal for my build. I wanted to mention the lack of a separate GPU in case that might be relevant. It's also why I'd prefer to use Vulkan since my FPS is low to start with; my workaround right now is to turn off Vulkan. On another note, I've installed the Real Sim Gear G5 instrument and I'm having nearly an identical problem, so I'm checking with their support too. I captured a screenshot with the G5/GNS side by side here . This is, of course, using their modified 172 aircraft. I had the same thought on the transparency of the black pixels, but I think it is more than that. It's like the borders for the objects behind the display are showing through the black. Thanks Mike [RXP edit: at your hosting image site, click the image to popup zoom, then right click and choose "Open image in new tab", then copy/paste the URL in your message to embed the screenshot directly!]

Hi Jean-Luc, I'm using the default 172 under Laminar/Cessna 172SP. I can reliably reproduce the problem. Based on your question about Vulkan, I tested turning off Vulkan and the display looks normal under OpenGL, so it must be related to Vulcan somehow. This is a new install of Windows 11 and X-Plane, so I've not installed any add-on planes and the RXP plug-in is the first/only plug-in I have. I'm on X-Plane 11.55 running under Steam, in case that is relevant. Windows 11 22000.318 Thanks Mike

Hi Jean-Luc, Thanks for taking a look. I've posted my .ini file below and I'm using Vulkan. Thanks Mike [GNS] ; comma separated list of gauges gauges = GNS_530_1 [GNS_530_1] ; comma separated list of render targets. drawto = Garmin_530_Screen, WINDOW ; is the master device if true. MasterDevice = true ; connects to: 'PFC_STACK','PFC_430','PFC_530' or any '#PID' (#D002 for PFC_430) ; no value connects to first found, 'OFF' disables connection. HardwareDevice = OFF ; hardware selector number or -1 to disable. HardwareIdx = -1 Rheostat.Buttons = 0 LinkVor = true UseSimGpsCmds = true [GNS_530_1.Garmin_530_Screen] ; display window if true. visible = true ; show screen only gauge if true. nobezel = true ; display type: WINDOW,PANEL2D,PANEL3D,PANELS frame.type = PANELS ; display position and dimension (left,top,width,height) frame.rect = 0,1024,522,384 ; screen only border size (pixels). border.size = 0 ; screen only border color (#RGB or #RGBA). border.rgba = #000000 ; enable mouse clickspots if true, disable if false (use SHIFT to override) usemouse = true ; left mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true. popleft = true ; right mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true (requires XP11.1). popright = true [GNS_530_1.WINDOW] ; display window if true. visible = true ; show screen only gauge if true. nobezel = false ; display type: WINDOW,PANEL2D,PANEL3D,PANELS frame.type = WINDOW ; display position and dimension (left,top,width,height) frame.rect = 166,533,460,335 ; screen only border size (pixels). border.size = 0 ; screen only border color (#RGB or #RGBA). border.rgba = #000000 ; enable mouse clickspots if true, disable if false (use SHIFT to override) usemouse = true ; left mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true. popleft = false ; right mouse button on the screen toggles popup window if true (requires XP11.1). popright = false ; VR mode position and dimension (left,top,width,height) (requires XP11.20) vrmode.rect = 0,178.5,245,178.5 ; display as popout window if true (requires XP11.1). undocked = false ; display mouse tooltips if true. tooltips = false ; freeze display position if true. locked = false ; auto hide in external view if true. autohide = false

Hi, I'm installing RXP GNS530 for the first time and having a bit of trouble getting the 530 integrated into the default Laminar C172. After installing RXP GNS530 into X-Plane, I'm able to open a popup window version of the display and it appears to work (albeit, the 530 runs very slow like others have reported under Windows 11). I followed the HOWTO for the Barron on how to integrate the display into the panel. After editing the .ini file and setting frame.rect = to the values I calculated, I could never get the display to show up on my 172 panel. After troubleshooting quite a bit, I found that if I changed frame.type from PANEL3D to PANELS, the 530 would show up in my panel. However, the display appears jumbled as if it is overlaid on top of native 530 display. To see what I mean, take a look at the screenshot here . Anyone have any recommendations for me? The display might be misaligned by a pixel or two, but I'm not sure that would cause this issue. Any idea why the panel doesn't show with frame.type = PANEL3D ? Thanks Mike