NZFF

FSX SP1: Beta2 posted
Another step towards a final SP1!

We hope Beta2 verifies we have fixed what needs to be fixed.

Then we can take a final build end of next week, and start our 2 week final test pass.

Thanks for your patience!

Posted Saturday, April 14, 2007 12:31 PM by Phil Taylor | 24 Comments
Filed under: flightsimx

FSX SP1 News:Intel quote
Today Intel announced their new 2.93G QX6800 Quad Core processor here.

As part of this press release, Aces Studio participated with a quote about our improved multi-core support in SP1. The quote stated

"The latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator* X, Service Pack One (SP1), due out later this month, is a great match for the extreme multi-core processing delivered by the new Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor"Â￾

and

"Flight Sim X SP1 greatly increases multicore utilization and will scale as more threads are available leading to reduced load times as well as frame rate improvements and greater visual complexity during flight. The Flight Simulator team at Microsoft is pleased to work with Intel to provide our end users with a great gaming experience."

And I wanted to take some time and explain what this means for FSX and FSX flyers.



Our multi-core support will take advantage of both 2 and 4 cores today, and more cores in the future when they become available via a config setting. This is for both Intel and AMD processors.



At load time, we run the terrain loading on threads across the cores. This can result in reduced load times, the actual percent reduction can vary but it could be reduced by as much as 1/3.



At render time, we run the terrain texture synthesis on threads across the cores. During flight on multi-core machines, as terrain and terrain textures are loaded you will notice significant multi-core usage. As all tiles are loaded, the multi-core usage will fall off, this is expected. As the terrain is re-lit, approximately every minute, you will see multi-core usage increase. As you bank and load terrain tiles, or as you fly forward and force a load of more terrain tiles, you will see the multi-core usage increase.



At render time, we now perform more extensive batching of objects to reduce our API Draw calls. The batch rebuilds are also performed on a thread and scheduled on cores.



For those of you on single core machines, we did do some performance work to benefit you as well. The batching work will help even on a single core. Plus we made some changes to animations to make them perform better and we modified how we draw trees to reduce API SetTexture calls.



So we really tried to hit all the wickets with our performance work. I still don't want to make any final FPS gain claims, and will stick with my conservative 20%. We expect it to be more, but we need to get Beta2 out and see where we are.



As far as the release date for SP1, we need to get Beta2 out and see what remains. The last day of April is still possible, but any significant Beta2 bugs will cause us to fix them and delay "“ we want SP1 to be right for the community and are not tied to a date.



Note - hyperthreaded is not multi-core. Our current plan is to treat HT machines as single-core since we noticed extensive collisions between threads which caused stutters.

My PC turned 3 years old a week ago, it's beginning to show it's age in this time of quad core processors- good to see at least some support for multi-thread CPUs in SP1

Hmmm, the plot both thickens and gets clearer. Roll on SP1.

Hmmm - maybe I might give it another go with my twin core 3800+ once its released.
maybe , we'll see.

Thats awesome news, I need a Quad core that new 3 gig Quad sounds cool.

It's a shame the guys couldn't address the Hyperthreading issue, single cores would've really had benefit.
But I guess FS is a fast-moving thing, and filling up the computing holes would be like playing Tetris at 1000x speed. (anyone remember Tetris? )
Certainly looking forward to the end of the month (or whenever...)
And nice to see a developer taking heed of the user group, too.

It will be interesting to see how much of a difference this SP will make. I'm looking forward to seeing the comments from the core duo owners on the forums once this patch is out. Fingers crossed......

Mmmmmmm can't wait I just hope I'm not setting myself up for a fall

JonARNZ wrote: Mmmmmmm can't wait I just hope I'm not setting myself up for a fall

OH me to, Between waiting for SP1 and Wilco / Feelthere's patch for the 737 I am becoming a nervous wreck

Hopefully the wait will be over soon.

I keep thinking that Adrenaline will be released at the same time as SP1, but in fact the expansion pack and the DX10 update won't be out until US Fall i.e. September
the wait continues

Zöltuger wrote: I keep thinking that Adrenaline will be released at the same time as SP1, but in fact the expansion pack and the DX10 update won't be out until US Fall i.e. September
the wait continues

Adrenaline could be an interesting one because MS have not made an add-on for a long time and competing with some of the Very big names of add-ons i.e. Alphasim, Justflight, and Captain Sim may be a challenge.

Yes, it seems a number of people have confused SP1 and the add-on and DXT10 update.

I guess SP1 will mean we will be able to run Adrenaline and the DXT10 update

Abacus has released a payware manual for FSX.
For only NZD34 you will be able to better understand your new Flight Simulator software from Microsoft, and make it work the way you always wanted.

It seems SP1 is still a few weeks away with a BETA 3, but is sounding very encouraging. I'm pleased they want to get it right rather than just push something out that frustrates.

More info HERE

Oh well, ( can't wait though for when it is released )

Nice to see the Air Show on there is well it truly has gone international

...although the link to the boards is the old nzff.co.nr one....???

Hi Guys

Im new to your forum and enjoying the content

I have great news FSX SP1 is due out this coming week according to this site.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/default.aspx

Lets hope he is right.

Welcome Radar, I'm sure we'll have users who are eagerly looking forward to that update.

Alex

interesting this speculation has been going on for some weeks yet Microsoft have not as far as I can see made a official announcement.