New tweak suggested by Nick Needam - External FPS limiter

[Dimus]

I bumped into this while looking for news of GEX Europe. It seems it has helped a few people with stutters. I intend to try it but haven't got round to it yet. It seems that Nick is endorsing it so it must be good:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29685

It seems to be an external FPS limiter that works better than the internal one. The internal slider must be set to unlimited. I must admit that in my Quad I get much better FPS when I set the FPS to unlimited ingame but I do get stutters so this might be the answer. I'll try it and let you know the results.

[harleyman]

Thanks..This was previiously been discussed before....

If you get stutters with your frames unlimited thats usually the cause...

Try setting your Texture_Bandwidth_Multiplier to 90...Thats what I use

Also try 40-50-60-70-80-90-


Lock your frames too...Mine are locked at 60


Running unlocked frames is basically telling FSX ....Hey, see that town out there, yes, that one, 90 miles away, you can't see it for 80 more miles but draw it anyway..... Hence the stutters....


I get 60 frames almost solid (except large airports, I have traffic at 50%) and no stutters at all..Very smooth.....On a E8600 duo....

[Dimus]

We have indeed discussed locking frames before and my observation, which is btw similar to some other users of quads, was that setting the frames to unlimited increased my FPS from an average of 10-15 to an average of 25. I know it does not make much sense but this is how it was on my system. Locking the frames only throttled it for some reason. Unlocking, unleashed it. I do use the Texture_Bandwidth_Multiplier entry too.

Now this external program might take care of some internal MS issue that is causing it. Nick specifically reccomends it to i7 people in particular. Might be the same issue with quads. I'll let you know how it goes.

[harleyman]

Please report back your findings.....



But remember.... If locked frames only gives you 10-15 are they smooth frames? that is the question......



BTW Do you use the Job Scheduler tweak Dimus?

[Dimus]

Yes I do use the Jobshceduler and it helps indeed.

I just saw in Nick's thread that this does not work with DX10 and this is what I use. Any of you using DX9 (and it is most of the people here I understand) may try this. It does not seem to work for all. I'll just stay as I am for the moment. My recent OC seems to be the best tweak I've done so far.:d

[datter]

If I run unlimited in FSX I get an average of 30fps or so depending on where I am, with drastic swings and spikes occurring now and then which causes some stutter. If I try to fix this by locking at say 30, I end up with a true fps in the mid 20's or so... below what I set it at. Seems I can have higher fps with unlimited, but get stutter from the frame rate spikes or lower fps with less stutter while locking via FSX. Even if I lock to 99 I end up with these locked, but lower frame rates.

With this external limiter (which I've been using for a few days now) I can get the benefits of running unlimited in FSX, and a real proper frame rate lock at or around whatever I set the app at. If I set it to lock me at 30 I'll see frames in the 30 to 35 range, but no higher while not having to deal with the lower frame rates that framelock in FSX gives me.

It seems like this limiter works the way the one built into FSX should work, but trimming off the high fps spikes and yet not reducing your overall frame rate downwards. It's a simple run once to create a batch file, then never think about it again... at least for me.

Highly recommended.

[stansdds]

I'll have to give this a try as well.

[datter]

It's one of those "you have nothing to lose" type things.

[stansdds]

Well... I didn't like it. Using the FSX limiter at 24 my system holds 23-24 and smooth unless using a FS9 aircraft and/or flying in a graphics intensive area, then my fps drops to 18-20, but still smooth. The external limiter (with the FSX limiter set to unlimited) set to 24 or 30 gives me 30 to 35 fps with routine dips to 17 and seems to increase the stuttering. Leave it to me to throw a wrench into the works!

[harleyman]

To kill the stuttering raise your Texture_bandwidth_Multiplier to 70-90

[Roger]

I've uninstalled it. It was a valiant attempt but I found that wildly fluctuating framerates caused more tearing in Dx9c than before with frame rates fixed at 30.

[stansdds]

To kill the stuttering raise your Texture_bandwidth_Multiplier to 70-90
That actually increases stuttering on my system. Weird, but true. I'll be content with 24 fps and smooth, at least until I can afford to build an I7 system and Windows 7.

[harleyman]

Yea..Running unlimited on some systems is just a no go....

Then for others its all good....

Go figure... I still lock at 60 ..And still have good results....They bounch a bit in some aircraft, but some do not..I think it has to do with how they are made( textures) tho I'm not real sure on that..Just a theory...

[stansdds]

The texture thing does make a difference. FSX native aircraft use a .dds texture, FS9 use .bmp. As I understand it, FSX is designed for the .dds texture, but will use .bmp, but the .bmp must be flipped vertically on the fly before it can be rendered. That is why, or so I am told, that FS9 aircraft get lower frame rates than true FSX aircraft. I do most of my testing in FS9 port over's because there are so many and there are so few true FSX aircraft in comparison. If my system is useable with FS9 aircraft, I know it will run well using an FSX aircraft.

[NickN]

The texture thing does make a difference. FSX native aircraft use a .dds texture, FS9 use .bmp. As I understand it, FSX is designed for the .dds texture, but will use .bmp, but the .bmp must be flipped vertically on the fly before it can be rendered. That is why, or so I am told, that FS9 aircraft get lower frame rates than true FSX aircraft. I do most of my testing in FS9 port over's because there are so many and there are so few true FSX aircraft in comparison. If my system is useable with FS9 aircraft, I know it will run well using an FSX aircraft.


Its done at the DX API pipe anyway no matter if its BMP or DDS

That means DDS is not worse or better than BMP when it coes to the 'flipping' issue

However the sim does look for the .dds before the .bmp file.. regardless with todays hardware the difference is not a perf matter.. what makes a difference is the gray alpha channel of DX5 files for very, very slow systems such as P4s and AMDs

[NickN]

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As a follow up to that FPS limiter.. more often than not those who are using better hardware and have the overhead the application can take advantage of find the result positive. <o:p></o:p>
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Like anything else with this title it is a try and see suggestion however I can not stress enough that every system I have ever set up works very well with the tweak list I provided and the suggestion of a 70-80 TBM<o:p></o:p>
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What I always find when someone tells me their results are different is the person is not following the right procedure, skipping steps, pushing things too hard for their installed hardware.. and/or, they are not optimizing the OS and their boot correctly using the right defrag solution... and last their hardware is either not set up correctly or they bought cheap to try and skimp by<o:p></o:p>
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I have also found many times people put tweaks in their system they find on the net from silly places like Black Viper or others and end up running worse than better.. <o:p></o:p>