Tweaking and tuning: A step by step guide for P3D 3.X

[PLUTO16]

Hi all,
Thanks to Andrea (here known as Andrea 6811) that has created this guide for an italian virtual flight forum,we can track some guidelines to let your sim a bit more enjoyable.


DISCLAIMER:
Well,as normally,these are not to be intended likea bible written on the stone. Agree or not,try if you want,and surely i'm not responsible if something goes bad on your PC.
Assumed this..
Let's start!

HARDWARE:

Hardware: the proper combo is INTEL/NVIDIA. In some cases AMD is not working properly with Affinitymask settings;

OPERATING SYSTEM:

OS: the best is windows 10. Even if Win7 is a good compromise,it has some bottlenecks that W10 simply do not have. The biggest is the Aero ambient,that interfers heavily with p3d full screen mode (I remind that full screen on p3d is not a real full screen but it is simply a window mode stretched to the corners)

And now,the step by step guide.



STEP 1: CAMERA DEFINITIONS



First job,change camera definitions of tower view to prevent blurries and heavy reloads when aircraft is far from the tower:


Open cameras.cfg (is located in the same directory of p3d.cfg (i.e.


__________\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3)


Go to camera definiotion 007 and add Cyclehidden = true


it will look like this:


[CameraDefinition.007]
Title = Nearest Tower
Guid = {60BC0819-BD04-4AF6-8954-8FC8AA3545FF}
Description = This is the description of the tower view.
Origin = Tower
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
Track = Track
ShowAxis = No
AllowZoom = Yes
InitialZoom = 8.0
SmoothZoomTime = 2.0
ShowWeather = Yes
XyzAdjust = FALSE
Transition = No
ShowLensFlare=FALSE
Category = Tower
ClipMode = Tower
NoSortTitle = True
Cyclehidden = true






STEP 2: P3D.CFG
Now let's jump to the p3d.cfg and add or change these lines:




[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=85

[GRAPHICS]
SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=1
STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=1024

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=1024

[MAIN]
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.01

[TERRAIN]
SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=30
UseGlobalTerrainView=false

[SIM]
SYSCLOCK=1
OPTIMIZE_PARTS=1


STEP 3: CLOUD.FX


We also have the right way to reduce a bit the rendering job of the sim,during heavy clouds condition:


Go to: XX:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\ShadersHLSL
Open cloud.fx
Go to the line: GetScreenQuadPositions(quad, width*0.5, height*0.5)
Change with GetScreenQuadPositions(quad, width*0.4, height*0.4)


Save all.


STEP 4: NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL


Go to nvidia control panel:


If you have DSR option,set to ON. Select resolution of your choice.
Scroll down and DISABLE,I repeat....DISABLE Vsync. Is very important,disable it BOTH on the sim internal menu AND in the nvidia control panel.




STEP 5: NVIDIA INSPECTOR

Open Nvidia inspector,and select P3D.


Select "toggle FXAA on or off" and select ON.


STEP 6: INSIDE THE SIM


Launch the sim


Once in the sim,open OPTONS/SETTINGS:

page 1. "GRAPHICS"

FXAA: OFF
MSAA: 4 SAMPLES (or more if you can)
TEXTURE FILTERING: ANISOTROPIC 4x (minimum...or more if you can)
TEXTURE RESOLUTION: Medium (1024 x 1024) or hier if you can

VERY IMPORTANT:

FRAME RATE CONTROL
VSYNC: OFF
TARGET FRAME RATE: 30


HARDWARE TESSELLATION:
Choose "tessellation enabled"


Now,for the other pages,the only things very important to consider are that:

"Dynamic reflections" are in most cases a frame hog. For example,HDR does not affects performance,but DR,yes. So if you pull the slider full right....you can expect a slight drop of performance.

Another nice frame pacman is the shading for vegetations and autogen buildings. I do not use it. From the other side,cloud shading over the ground does not affect performance (or just a very little bit)

About weather: do not push full right the cloud slider distance...80 miles is enough. Set it together with a medium coverage of clouds and the "volumetric fog" toggled on. obviously toggle the "detailed clouds" options.

About traffic: make your choice. i personally do not use any add-on for traffic (like real airliners,and stuff like that) simply because in a busy airport the risk is a slideshow. But make your choice...




Cheers
/Alessandro.

[Stickshaker]

Very informative, Alessandro, thanks! I will enjoy your Tornado and F-84F even more!

[jeansy]

interesting i find an unedited cfg for me results in better performance, again like fsx every system produces different results

notably the section
[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=85

varies depending on the users CPU,

[greenie]

Thank you Pluto. Appreciated