Mesh question...in terms of frame rate impact

[OBIO]

I am currently running Rhumbaflappy's LOD5/7 world wide mesh and his LOD 8 mesh that covers 1/3 of the world (basically the areas where WW2 took place....Pacific, Europe, North Africa, etc). I have been quite happy with this mesh...but have been eyeballing the free FSGenesis mesh on Flightsim.com to upgrade the US to a higher level. I am not sure how well my system will handle the LOD 10 (38.2m) mesh. My system is a P4 3gig, 2 Gig PC3200 RAM, 512meg NVidia GeForce 7600GS based system. Hard drives are 160gig C drive and 250gig D drive.

Will this higher detail mesh cause my frame rates to suffer? I have frame rates locked at 25, and my sim runs at 24.8 to 24.9 FPS 99% of the time. If I get over detail rich scenery, it can drop a bit.....but there are some scenery that drops it to single digits (such as the MAIW Nellis AFB scenery with all the AI on the ramps....3.5 FPS tops).

OBIO

[Daube]

OBIO, your computer is pretty much the same I had back in my FS9 days (I had a PIV 3,2GHz with 1 Gb of RAM and a GeForce 6800GT).
The meshes had no impact at all on the FPS. The only impact was on the flight loading time, nothing else. Even in places where I was using 19m meshes, it was smooth.

I think you should not be worried about the meshes, but more about the landclasses or the additionnal autogen and scenery objects that would eventually make the world more detailled, thus more heavy. But still, the FPS impact would not be that high, even with a good landclass (lots of roads, bridges, autogen).

[OBIO]

I have downloaded and installed two FSGenesis mesh packages thus far. The first to go in, and the only one I have checked out so far, is the Appalachian and North East Mesh. Fired the sim up and "went home" to Southern Ohio to see how it compared to the memories of growing up in the hills and woods of Ohio Hillbilly Hell. It was just as I remember it...hills, valleys. If there were just some way to plop in trailer parks and rusty 4 wheel drive trucks with great big tires and Rebel flags in the back windows...it would have been perfect.

OBIO

[PilatusTurbo]

Yep, FS Genesis is quite detailed. I remember the flight my father and I flew back from Canby, Oregon to Phoenix. We flew right over and 'through' Crater Lake. I re-created this flight later, and flew through exactly the same little notch in the high crests of Crater Lake that we flew through. It looked almost exactly as it did in real life... in the sim... :d :ernae:

As they've all said about your question, never have noticed in my many re-installs the frames going down after adding FS Genesis meshes. I always have the Western US and Rockies installed immediately after re-install.:ernae:

[OBIO]

The one downside to the FSGenesis mesh...the free US mesh on Flightsim.com: downloading takes FOREVER! I am downloading two files right now. Been downloading for nearly an hour, still have an hour and a half to go. At 49kps download speeds, the limit on Flightsim.com, downloading a 468meg file takes a long long time.

OBIO

[smilo]

oddly enough, last week I was completing the final leg
of the PAC RIM Race and took this shot
of Crater Lake as I passed over.

-------------------------
no frame rate issues with FS Genesis or Pablo's Clouds here.

[aardvark62]

Obio - your PC specs are very similar to mine, and all I can say is install the best terrain mesh you can get your hands on !! For me it causes no noticable frame rate drop - I am using the FSGenesisis mesh ontop of FSGlobal 2008 and I have no problems. Go for it!

A.

[Dangerousdave26]

Obio - your PC specs are very similar to mine, and all I can say is install the best terrain mesh you can get your hands on !! For me it causes no noticable frame rate drop - I am using the FSGenesisis mesh ontop of FSGlobal 2008 and I have no problems. Go for it!

A.

I second that. I run the freeware alps mesh 19m which I think is LOD 10 and it has no frame rate effect. Certainly does push up the WOW effect though.

[robert41]

I do not think the mesh itself will affect the fps or performance, but your display settings do, at least on my old computer. I have FsGenesis, the full world package, and before something went wacko in my computer I could run at high display settings. Now I can use the mesh, but have to run at lower settings. There is also some cfg mods that really help things look great. I have no where near the computer you have, the mesh should work great.

[OBIO]

I have most of the free FSGenesis US mesh installed...still have 4 packages to download....I fired up the sim, went to the Grand Canyon with the IRIS Tornado GR4. Frame rates were right where they should be (24.8 to 25 FPS) most of the time...I did get some slight frame rate drops as the high res mesh was drawing in...but I was low and fast (down in the canyon at nearly Mach1). I switched to the Piper Cub (stock model) and that stopped the mad mesh drawing and micro-stutters that I was getting at Mach 1 in the Tornado. Looked AMAZING! Will finish installing the FSGenesis mesh for the US then go on the hunt for some equally killer Alaska and British Columbia mesh to go with it (Sandmann Holgar mesh for sure).

OBIO

[robert41]

For Alaska, try Raimondo Taburet's freeware mesh alaska_38_1 and 2 packages. Big improvement over default.

[Willy]

I use the complete set of Raimondo Taburet's mesh. My comp is a lot slower than yours and I don't have any issues with fps and mesh, but then again, I usually stay out of the jets.

[Mick]

A nice compliment to terrain mesh is FSGenesis' USA Landclass Project. It will get rid of urban and suburban areas in places where they shouldn't be, add things that MS missed, and so on. It makes more difference than you can imagine. And the worse of a job MS did in representing your area, the more you'll like USA Landclass.