FSX observations

[ZK-LGD]

With the pending release of Timmo's VLC, thought I would re-install FSX and have encountered some very interesting problems.

Have an ancient rig (HP Intel P4 2.66MHz 1Gb RAM and Radeon X1650 512Mb video card). Unfortunately, I am unable to add another Gb of RAM (HP MB only takes 1Gb). Anywho, these specs are within the "recommended" parameters for running FSX (less than ideal but the rig is capable of running the game).

Okay. Loaded FSX Disks 1 and 2, set sliders (Resolution: Native; Filtering: Tri; AA enabled, Global Texture: Very High; Autogen: Normal; Scenery Complexity: Dense; Water: High 1+; FPS: locked at 15; all other settings as FSX set them during installation), and ran the default flight. A very respectable 15fps and extremely smooth.

Rebooted (using the 3Gb Switch this time), Game Boosted running background apps, Ctrl+Alt+Del and killed off other background apps, have 15 running), created a batch file for FSX to Load High, loaded Christian's NZ Mesh, NZ Topo (with FSX patch), and NZ Landclass, and set up a flight at NZCH. A very respectable 15fps (dipping to 10.4 sometimes) and extremely smooth.

Rebooted and loaded Acceleration. Flew default flight. Same results as above.

Rebooted (using 3GB switch), Game Boosted and killed off extraneous background apps, loaded FSX High and set up a flight at NZCH. A very unrespetable 10.4 fps and jerky (stutters, and not micro) as heck. Have added tweaks to the FSX.cfg: fiber_frame_time_fraction=0.33 and lowered texture_bandwidth_mult= to 10!!! (these are proven tweaks, as I understand it, to combat stutters). Same results.

It's interesting that, out of the box, FSX runs acceptably. As soon as Acceleration is added ... it all goes to heck in a hand basket.

Any ideas why this is occuring?

[Adamski]

QUOTE (ZK-LGD @ Apr 10 2010, 09:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's interesting that, out of the box, FSX runs acceptably. As soon as Acceleration is added ... it all goes to heck in a hand basket.
Any ideas why this is occuring?

I wish I knew ... but I had exactly the same problem. On my subsequent rebuild, I left acceleration off completely - just applied SP1 etc. I've gradually messed it up with all my old add-ons, yet it seems to be stable - and generally much faster. *However* I also upgraded to Win7 at the same time, so it's not a fair comparison.

There's nothing I miss from acceleration (maybe it should be called DEceleration ).

[toprob]

Hmm, that's interesting -- I wonder if this is SP2-related, or specific to Acceleration? Have you tried just installing SP2?

I think your specs are similar to my old system, which sometimes changed from 1 to 2 GB RAM, depending on how often it crashed... I don't recall noticing any real performance loss with Accel. I had the same graphics card.

However even with my new system (not much better) I can only really get acceptable performance without AA. Everything else is similar to your settings.

Although I'd love to use AA, it isn't really a major loss provided I stick to my native resolution of 1680x1050. Anything less and it becomes a bit ugly. Most of my recent screenshots are without AA, and you'd be hard-pressed to notice, especially when reduce to 1280 for the forum.

[ZK-LGD]

Thanks. Don't think it's possible to just install SP1 off the Acceleration disk. Looks like a long night's download session ahead. Will let folks know what the results are after I return from hospital mid-week.

[Adamski]

Try this thread at Aerosim for an apparent breakthrough in FSX texture/performance ...

[toprob]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Apr 10 2010, 04:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try this thread at Aerosim for an apparent breakthrough in FSX texture/performance ...

This tweak is certainly getting a lot of attention, and offering great results for some people.
My understanding is that this works ONLY on high-end systems, with at least 1GB video memory.
That's the trouble with posts like this, which refer to posts which refer to posts which may or may not refer to the original author, they tend to leave out the important bits like what sort of system they are designed for -- you'll notice a lot of hugely powerful features in the posted specs attached to some of these threads:)
But if I did have a much better system, I would certainly try it.

[husker]

QUOTE (toprob @ Apr 10 2010, 04:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This tweak is certainly getting a lot of attention, and offering great results for some people.
My understanding is that this works ONLY on high-end systems, with at least 1GB video memory.
That's the trouble with posts like this, which refer to posts which refer to posts which may or may not refer to the original author, they tend to leave out the important bits like what sort of system they are designed for -- you'll notice a lot of hugely powerful features in the posted specs attached to some of these threads:)
But if I did have a much better system, I would certainly try it.

It actually applies to 64bit windows only (in theory), and on my Windows 7-64 bit with a 512GB video card it has so far fixed my textures going crazy after long flights...

[Adamski]

QUOTE (husker @ Apr 10 2010, 10:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It actually applies to 64bit windows only (in theory), and on my Windows 7-64 bit with a 512GB video card it has so far fixed my textures going crazy after long flights...

I didn't realise it was a 64-bit only tweak. I'm in luck - as my last FSX rebuild started with Win7 x64.

There seem to be threads all over the place for this tweak now ... here's another one that appears quite comprehensive. Funny how people used to swear by nHancer - now they're saying ditch it (I think).

Anyway - applied the 2 basic tweaks and it did seem to help. I then added the additional tweaks (which never worked for me before - just made things worse) - but this time there did seem to be a significant improvement. So far, so good!!!

[husker]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Apr 10 2010, 10:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't realise it was a 64-bit only tweak. I'm in luck - as my last FSX rebuild started with Win7 x64.

There seem to be threads all over the place for this tweak now ... here's another one that appears quite comprehensive. Funny how people used to swear by nHancer - now they're saying ditch it (I think).

Anyway - applied the 2 basic tweaks and it did seem to help. I then added the additional tweaks (which never worked for me before - just made things worse) - but this time there did seem to be a significant improvement. So far, so good!!!

I've been checking out a few of the threads also (it started in the PMDG forum on AVSIM) - the guy that came up with the tweak was a bit anti-nHancer/NickN tweaks but I think he was willing to sacrifice to much in image quality. The general concensus seems to be nHancer + this new tweak is the best combo (which is what I am doing). The tweak is not about chasing FPS, but stability in complex aircraft in long flights...which it seems to solve very well

[AlisterC]

Try dropping off your autogen - sparse at least. Also make sure water is low 1x, and turn bloom off too. Give your hard drive a defrag if you can.
Though I run a Core 2 Duo, and have more ram, I too only have a 512gb gfx card (gforce). I run a happy 40 fps most of the time in default planes.
Unfortunately, from what I have read FSX is the kind of game where CPU power is quite important.
I still use nhancer and happy with it for FSX. Just make sure nhancer for FSX does not force anisotropic filtering, let the game do that one itself.
Also I did not find any performance loss after the install of Acceleration.

[ZK-LGD]

Observations to date:

Uninstalled FSX and Acceleration; re-installed FSX and flew default flight. Same settings as first posted. Consistent 15fps and no stutters.

Rebooted and applied 3Gb switch, Game Boosted and killed off all background apps; loaded FSX High and set up a flight at NZCH. Framerate consistently at 12.9 - 13.4. No stuttering.

Rebooted and loaded SP1. Flew default flight at a consistent 15fps.

Rebooted and applied the two tweaks outlined above. Rebooted with 3Gb switch and Game Boosted. Set up flight at 5KE with default Beaver. Consistent 15fps. Increased GA Traffic to 15%, Boat and Pleasure Boat Traffic to 30%. Consistent 15fps. No stutters.

Rebooted with 3Gb switch and Game Boosted. Set up flight at NZCH with default Cessna 172SP and above mentioned traffic. Consistent 15fps and only one very minor shudder when turning towards Wigram.

So, looks as though my problems were mostly related to SP2 (the introduction of DirectX 10? demo) (even though my video card is unable to use it).

This has all been done with plain vanilla FSX (have yet to add Mesh, Topo or LandClass).

Looks promising (so far).

[AndrewJamez]

Your problem i'm afraid is your system is too slow and old. Forget what the specs on the box says, FSX can bring an i7 to its knees if its not setup right. You can build a very respectable pc for $1500 that will give you all the performance you need for fsx.
Bite the bullet and just do it!

[ZK-LGD]

QUOTE

Bite the bullet and just do it![/quote]

Would have done so six months ago, but on a halved income (thanks to the recession) it's just not feasible anytime soon.

Anyway, still have FS9, and there's plenty of life left in the old girl.

Last edited by ZK-LGD on Thu Apr 29, 2010 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.