I am starting a new thread on my problem, since the older thread is rather long and I want to make sure this is noticed. Ihope that is OK. 

 

You probably read the thread I started over a week ago on the sudden problems I had with blurries in P3D, especially on approach. Sometimes the blurries would not go away until after I landed. I tried every fix imaginable , new cfg, delete shaders, all kinds of FFTF settings, disabling scenery, nothing worked. Finally I realized that this issue was confined to the Aerosoft Airbus that I had been flying exclusively for the last 6-8 weeks. Then I saw a post on Facebook of someone with the exact same problem, and they were flying an Airbus too.  I then decided to try a different aircraft, in my case, the Majestic Q400 which I had a couple of hundred hours flying before I got the Airbus.  The blurries instantly went away, so I felt that there was something wrong with the Airbus, and didn't fly it again.

 

Now I move to the Q400, and I noticed rather quickly that sometimes when I loaded a flight, my joystick controls were incorrect. I would press the flap button and the engines would stop, etc. Even the axis sensitivity for elevator and aileron would change and go to mid range, which is not where I wanted it.  So I went through all the settings, and set them correctly. Four or five flights, and it would happen again. I looked  at the settings that were loaded, and realized that the settings were the same as I had on my Logitech Extreme  Pro 3D a couple of weeks ago, with a Thrustmaster T 16000M. I got the Thrustmaster because the action on the joystick is much lighter and the Airbus was much easier to control with it.  Now I reset all the settings and saved them in the P3D menu to a file, so if they got scrambled again, I could simply reload the file without having to go through each and every setting.  The next morning I started P3D and the settings were wrong again, so I loaded the saved file and all was well for that flight. Now I am wondering where these other set of settings were coming from, since I had deleted them multiple times, but they would keep returning. 

 

Last night I woke up, still trying to figure out this setting problem and I realized that years ago when I first got the Extreme Pro 3d I had installed the Logitech gaming software which had the joystick controls on it. I can't remember if I had used it when I got P3D about 5 months ago, but I may have started it up for some reason. I then wondered if this is where these settings were coming from. I got up this morning and deleted the program. I then started up P3D numerous times, and closed it down, and controls were correct each time. Now I loaded the Airbus and looked at the FPS, and they had returned from being about 6-8 FPS lower than they used to be before the blurries, to about normal.  The next thing I did was load up a saved flight, and let the Airbus fly for about 1 1/2 hours. Not one blurry. The other symptom that I had and posted about, was that if I minimized P3D for about 20 or more seconds, when I would go back to full screen, the blurries would be there every time. Sometimes it would take them over 30 seconds to clear up.  I tried minimizing it now, for a couple of minutes, go back to full screen, no blurries. The scenery would load in an instant, clear and crisp.

 

The next thing I did was to go to my VA's website and look at my log book which keeps a record of the FPS on every flight I take. I noticed that the FPS dropped on the flights starting on September, 8, 2015 an average of about 9FPS from around 27 FPS to 17-18 FPS.   That was when the blurries started, and that is the day after I connected the Thrustmaster Joystick. There was no program with the Thrustmaster, it is just a USB joystick. So I am convinced that the logitech gaming software was somehow causing some interaction with P3D, forcing the controls to revert back to a former setting, and also causing a problem with FPS and texture loading. Deleting that Logitech software cured the problem. 

This is a nice finding, Bob. It's quite often that not the settings themselves are interfering but 3rd party software. I can add to this experience the Saitek FIPs drivers which, when run locally on the same machine and if you have enough of the sweet little gauges, can make Prepar3d stutter and lower fps. Running networked on a laptop is okay.

 

This is why I'd often suggest checking all exe.xml and dll.xml entries one by one (which wouldn't have helped in your case, though).

 

Kind regards, Michael

Very strange but really happy or got to the bottom of it Bob.

Good work Bob! That's the kind of problem that can cause severe hair loss.

 

 

Vic

​I jumped the Gun. The Airbus is still broken 

 

I took a short 1 hour hop from KBHM to KATL, up to 19000 feet. On approach to Atlanta, at around 7000 and descending, the blurries came back again. Some of the symptoms that I have read elsewhere, that I had like panel lights taking a second to come on when switching from outside view to inside, were no longer there, but the blurries still ruin every flight with this aircraft. It is going in the hangar permanently and I may sell the engines on Ebay.  

 

do you by chance use affinity mask in your config? if you do remove it and try again.

do you by chance use affinity mask in your config? if you do remove it and try again.

 

OK, I never put that in the CFG, but it looking at it last night, I see it is there, set at 14 by default.  I will give this a try and report back.  

do you by chance use affinity mask in your config? if you do remove it and try again.

 

I followed your advice and deleted the Affinity Mask entry in the cfg field. I then flew the exact same flight I flew a couple of hours ago with the same settings, and guess what not one blurry.  

 

Here is the same approach screen shot, look at the  difference from the first one I took with the affinity mask 14 entry in the .cfg file in my post above.   . 

 

I guess my next question if this solves the problem, after a number of subsequent test flights, is , what the heck does affinity mask do, and why is it a default entry in the first place? I thought it only applied  to CPUs that had hyper threading like i7's. I have an i5 4 core with no hyper threading.  

 

Anyway, thanks for this suggestion, because it certainly made a substantial difference on the flight I just completed. Oh, I almost forgot, I also got an increase in Avg FPS of about 7.   

Bob , the AM is not a default setting, you must have set it sometime, what is more surprising is that in your first post you say "new cfg"...well if that is so the AM would have disapperaed then, ...well the good thing is that you are back up and flying (not enjoying) the SIM...

 

Jorge

Bob , the AM is not a default setting, you must have set it sometime, what is more surprising is that in your first post you say "new cfg"...well if that is so the AM would have disapperaed then, ...well the good thing is that you are back up and flying (not enjoying) the SIM...

 

Jorge

 

The new cfg that I tried about a week ago, made no difference at all, and I had saved the original as a backup, so when I saw no difference, I reverted back to the original.  The only tweaks I have ever made up to the point were the blurries started was Optimize Parts =1 and FFTF = .1  . I had read somewhere in threads on AM that it only affected hyperthreading, so I didn't even realize that I had it in the cfg until Andre told me to delete it yesterday. I am going to take some longer flights with the Airbus this week, and if I don't get any blurries then I think I will start trying to lower FFTF, from it's current setting of .33 back towards .1 . 

 

Could it be that some other program had placed that entry in the P3D cfg

I guess my next question if this solves the problem, after a number of subsequent test flights, is , what the heck does affinity mask do, and why is it a default entry in the first place?

What does it do?

With no entry/default, its .33, what this does is gives you 1/3 of every second processing time to loading textures/ auto gen. 

You entered the entry it does not get there on it's own.

So if you set a .01 your giving the sim the smallest about of time possible to loading textures but boasting your FPS because your giving the sim more processing time.

I am going to take some longer flights with the Airbus this week, and if I don't get any blurries then I think I will start trying to lower FFTF, from it's current setting of .33 back towards .1

Why would you do that given that .14 your system could not cope? that makes no since at all.

 

A low FFTF is the first point of call for blurries, i thought this was gone over in your first post? then you put it back?

 

Come on Bob....

 

 AM is for HT ON

Optimize Parts =1 is right, it  should be on.

 

Deleted you config and let it build a new one. You could be amazed how well it will run. Thats the best place for you to go. New config and go from there. I delete mine ones very two weeks. Can never harm anything. Why people feel they need to back it up and keep a copy save is crazy. Its not some magic thing. That must at all cost be keep save. I have a sort cut to it and it gets used a lot. Any problems and new installs, new drivers all = Delete and build a new one, then I enter the tweaks that work for me.

What does it do?

With no entry/default, its .33, what this does is gives you 1/3 of every second processing time to loading textures/ auto gen. 

You entered the entry it does not get there on it's own.

So if you set a .01 your giving the sim the smallest about of time possible to loading textures but boasting your FPS because your giving the sim more processing time.

Why would you do that given that .14 your system could not cope?

 

A low FFTF is the first point of call for blurries, i thought this was gone over in your first post? then you put it back?

 

Come on Bob....

 

 AM is for HT ON

Optimize Parts =1 is right, it  should be on.

 

Deleted you config and let it build a new one. You could be amazed how well it will run. Thats the best place for you to go. New config and go from there. I delete mine ones very two weeks. Can never harm anything.

 

I think you misread my post, so I will repeat. The solution that worked to stop the blurries yesterday, was removing Affinity Mask.It was set at 14 , and with it at 14, I had blurries, shown in my photo above. When I removed affinity mask as was suggested by anther poster, the blurries disappeared. I had not touched FFTF on either of these flights, and since the blurries in the Airbus started on Sept 8, 2015, FFTF has remained at .33, and still is at this point. I had never put AM in the cfg , so I have no idea how it got there in the first place. 

 

What I did say was that if the blurries stay away, then I may experiment with reducing FFTF to a lower number to see if the blurries will reoccur, since now everything points to the Affinity Mask as the problematic entry causing the blurries in the Airbus.  

Bob,

I apologize, i read it to fast and thought .14 was a......anyway my mistake.

 

With all tweaks only ever try one at a time and see what happens, never think for 1 second if something works for others it will work for you. As you have found out. 

 

AM makes the sim use different cores, its a long story, look up Steve W he is the man when it comes to AM. I used 84 with 4 cores HT ON but now after more testing my PC/P3D loves AM 255 more.

Hello Bob;

About the AM setting. Do you use ASN for weather? If so, ASN might have placed it in there for you. What I mean is that it might have given you a warning, and you might have accepted it.

Just guessing.

Hello Bob;

About the AM setting. Do you use ASN for weather? If so, ASN might have placed it in there for you. What I mean is that it might have given you a warning, and you might have accepted it.

Just guessing.

 

 Yes I have ASN and installed it months ago so don't remember at this point. 

Bob,

I apologize, i read it to fast and thought .14 was a......anyway my mistake.

 

With all tweaks only ever try one at a time and see what happens, never think for 1 second if something works for others it will work for you. As you have found out. 

 

AM makes the sim use different cores, its a long story, look up Steve W he is the man when it comes to AM. I used 84 with 4 cores HT ON but now after more testing my PC/P3D loves AM 255 more.

 

I took your advice and let it build a new cfg file. Question, is it necessary to have to redo all the zoom settings in EZdok, which I just had to do, when you rebuild, or did I miss something?