Do you experience sudden frame rate drops in Vancouver City?

Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 17

Same issue here, I had posted a separate thread today, but it probably would best be here.

Taking off from DT high frames, fly towards the mountians they start dropping, in the mountains low, and fly back to Vanc very low, single digits,
but if I save the flight at the point with single digits frame rates and restart FSX , I go back to high frame rates after restarting.

If I turn off all dynamic and auto gen no issues.

Seems memory in Vanc and the mnts near Vanc just fills to the point the system bogs down?

Other major cities are fine like New York and Tokyo but those dont have the trees like Vanc + has in the Mnt near Vanc....

Last point , I just tried my stock FSX install, with the same settings as I use with Vanc + and the stock ran 30fps locked in Vanc and in the Mnts near Vanc.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:08 am (No subject)

Hi Bert,

What's your autogen setting? If it's extremely dense that could explain your performance in the trees, back it off a bit.

Does the drop occur right away, or after flying for a time? FSX does deteriorate frame rates quickly at times, save the flight and reload.

The view changes are odd, I haven't heard that before, seems unlikely it's Vancouver+ related, you may want to post at AVSIM.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:10 am (No subject)

Hi Jack,

You could probably save the flight, and then restart it in the same session, no need to restart FSX to get the frame rates back. If you have autogen at extremely dense, the mountains will quickly bog FSX down indeed.

Jon

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 8:32 pm (No subject)

Hi Jon

I'd already moved my autogen back to dense right after installing the scenery. I could try and bring it back more, but am afraid to loose what makes the scenery of the mountains so beautiful.
I'd tried saving a flight and starting it again, but that only works for all of like 30 seconds, before the fps drops down again.

I'll try and post the other issue this weekend on AVSIM (work keeps me away from the fun stuff, just stealing aminute off my boss's time here!) but it only happens in the mountains around Vancouver, so that's why I brought it up here in the first place. Really bizar Wink

In the meantime, there's more than enough in the scenery that I can explore and enjoy with no problem, but I'll keep an eye on this forum.

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:22 pm (No subject)

Thanks for the update, Bert. That flight restart works for me for a long period after, I wonder what the difference is?

Jon

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:12 pm (No subject)

Hi Jon

I figured it out; it was a typical user-bug... Embarassed

I'd selected the wrong bullet in the Configurator for the Land Class Ground Textures; even tho I have UT Canada installed, I'd selected the option for the optimized textures.
I've changed it to the FSX standard textures, and voilà; it works like a dream! Even when flying in the mountains the FPS still stay in the double digits, occasionally dropping to 9 fps when I keep swiveling my head to drool over the scenery all around me Wink

If I keep looking forward and don't make too may turns (highly unrecommended in the mountians ayway Wink

) it hovers around 12 -18 fps, which is better than just acceptible.

One obeservation is that the water west of Lionsgate Bridge and down past CYVR has turned an ugly green, but I just imagine it's algae or kelp Wink

BTW I've just booked tickets; we'll be back in BC by the end of May to see it all for ourselves IRL again!

Cheers,
bert

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:38 pm (No subject)

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 9:01 pm (No subject)

Thanks for the report, Bert. Great to hear you'll be checking out again how accurately the real world matches Vancouver+... they've done a reasonable job. Wink

Jon

Gender: Joined: 13 Feb 2008 Posts: 2

Hi Jon,

I think I found it !!

I was having the noted issue real bad, but really noticed a instant frame rate drop & some stuttering in the test run (or any other time) by almost by 18-20fps anytime flying by SFU (Burnaby Mtn). I get better frame rates downtown than I do near here - especially if I "looked" north? BTW - I was testing in my new “Twotter” not the UL.

So keeping this short I did a whole bunch of testing, and pretty well went through most of the major object/scenery bgl's one by one (renaming them xxx one a time etc) to try and isolate what was going on. After about 6+ hours of this I found it. Wink

The little boats in Traffic_VPlus1_FSX_boats, the spray/wake (or something) seems to be a major issue for my rig. I get 25-30fps at BC Place with my settings (cranked pretty high) and pretty well 40+ outside of metro, but the minute those speed boats start up in that traffic file (worse if I'm within the LOD to see them) - my fps drops right down to 12 to 8, and if flying from CYPK to land at BC Place harbor, by the time I landed I was lucky to get 4fps. This also explained why resetting the flight for me helped – but soon as they started up in the traffic file again it was FPS downhill.

I saved a situation mid-flight to test this near the Salmon Arm inlet where I noticed this the worst, and with the bgl disabled no problems maintaining from 20 up to 30 flying loops from here to downtown, then over SFU to CYPK and back. With the bgl enabled, I can't even make a 180 in the inlet before the FPS bottoms - never mind trying to finish the loop.

I don't have a clue as to the "why", but I sure found the "what" that was causing me all the grief on my rig ! As now for me, I can fly this whole area at 20fps to 35+ (and have for well over an hour) with no significant impact at all.

Hope this helps, (and sorry about the long post)

Best Regards'
Garett

EDIT: I also used Memstatus to check and see if it was an overflow issue/leak etc, but with or without the bgl - memory usage was similar. (roughly 1400 sys & 400 vid)

Settings & config etc:

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.43
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=230
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=1800
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=700
LOD_RADIUS=5.000000
MESH_COMPLEXITY=90
MESH_RESOLUTION=23
TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=26
AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3
DETAIL_TEXTURE=0
WATER_EFFECTS=6 (with modified shaders)
No Bloom, DX9
Mode=1152x864x32
MipBias=6
Anisotropic=1
AirlineDensity=20
GADensity=12
FreewayDensity=4
ShipsAndFerriesDensity=100 (Yep - like them boats)
LeisureBoatsDensity=10
AIRPORT_SCENERY_DENSITY=3

System stuff:

AMD X2 4800+ (2.9mhz) | A8N-SLI Premium | 2G Mushkin XP4000 3-3-2-8 (530mhz) | 2 X WDJ250 72K Raid 0 | 1X 120 72K Cuda | EVGA 8800GTX v163.69 | Audigy 2ZS Premium | Logitech Z-5500 | Silverstone Strider 750W | Saitek X52 | WIN XP | FSX SP2/Accel

Gender: Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 17 Location: NW Ontario

Hi there,

That's most interesting. I'd like to try that too. Which bgl did you disable?

Cheers
Larry

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:11 pm (No subject)

Garett, this is excellent work! A nice professional analysis! It's exactly what we do as part of our performance analysis prior to release. Larry, I look forward to your confirmation: you can disable small boat traffic in the configurator, no need to muck with bgls.

Jon

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:41 pm (No subject)

Guys, can you see if having this effect in Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Effects helps?

Jon

Gender: Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 17 Location: NW Ontario

Thanks Jon. Should know something by tomorrow morning.

Larry

Gender: Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 17 Location: NW Ontario

Hi Jon,

I disabled small boats in the configurator and enjoyed a better than usual flight from Pitt to VanHarbour, but my lowly system's vid card started to crap out. I refreshed the scenery and continued on.

Tried the new effects file (Note; it has the same properties and date as the original), with the boats enabled, and there was severe stuttering to almost complete siezure by the time I returned to Pitt.

Nothing objective in my trials, I'm a fun flyer, and Van city has always been a problem. Out around the environs, no problem, but generally poor results towards the city proper. Actually right in the Harbour is quite good, but things start to add up and eventually down they go.

P4 3.0Ghz 3Mb Ram ATI X1650Pro(512mb) UTXCan and US, GEX

Cheers
Larry

Gender: Joined: 13 Feb 2008 Posts: 2

Thank Jon,

Lets just say that FSX has given me lots of experience in this area than other versions have LOL ... But seriously, if you ever need another beta tester on the list, I'd always be willing to donate some time for you guys. Wink

Anways as Larry said the posted effects file is the same as the installed version, thus no change. However looking a little more into it subbing some effects files etc, as a test I removed the 3 fx files (your wake, spray & spray_s) and while I no longer get a wake - I'm still am getting the "jet" spray from the boat (and the fps hit) ?

Wondering if it's duplicate effects, or something in the little AI 22' etc boats - more than the the effects file itself? Valentines tommorrow, so FS is no no till thursday LOL - I can take a closer look at it then if still needed.

EDIT/UPDATE

I rem'd/deleted the effects files in the aircraft.cfg of the 3 small AI boats as follows:

//light.3=1, -15.00, 0.00, -2.00, fx_AI_ship_wake_s
and changed:
wake=fx_wake
water=
dirt=fx_tchdrt
concrete=
touchdown=

And now the boats on fire with fx_sparks, but that effect is not even referenced in the cfg. Regardless, those effects should not be impacting the fps as such. Must be something else going on here with those a/c-boats.

Best Regards,
Garett

BTW - If sure fly's great with the inactive sboat traffic, I can't believe the frames I'm getting even downtown. Up until I saw the orig post here, I just thought is was FSX bearing its teeth at me so I was just "flying the outskirts" of this package. I'm sure enjoying it now !!