The Miracle Tweak!!! (not fps limiter)

[SolarEagle]

I just stumbled on a tweak that I'm calling a miracle. It may not work the same on all systems, but on my i7 rig it has transformed everything. It's very simple, and with it I'm able to run EXTREMELY DENSE autogen at default levels, meaning DEFAULT max per cell values, with NO STUTTERS of any kind, totally glass smooth, and no blurries.

Depending on the area I am able to do this at a full 25-45fps, never going below 25. I've tested this with and without the new fps limiter utility, and I am getting best results WITHOUT it.

The tweak is to use UMLIMTED frame rate, and set a BUFFER POOL value of 200MB-300MB. The Buffer Pool is what makes or breaks stutters on my system. You will need lots of video RAM for this, though on my 900MB GTX260 I am able to run 300MB, and also use 2048 non DXT5 clouds, 8xS supersampling, and 16xAF at 1600x1200 with no impact on performance.

The shots below show Extremely Dense autogen with no max per cell tweak in use, and the flight was glass smooth, unbelievably smooth. The urban shots are running at 25-27fps, and the rural shots are running 30-40fps. If I drop Buffer Pools back down to 100MB for example, the game becomes and stuttering mess and absolutely unplayable with this kind of autogen.


Give a 200-300MB Buffer Pool a try and let me know how it goes. It works well in combination with the fps limiter utility since that too uses unlimited framerate, but I was getting faster frames when starting without the modified bat.

I simply can't believe I'm geting 25-40fps in these scenes with no a single stutter.


http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/miracle3.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/miracle1.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/miracle2.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/miracle5.jpg

[harleyman]

I have tried Bufferpools on my rig and they did not help....I have plenty of Vid mem too with the 4870X2....

I thought that tweak was for low level stuttering while panning? who knows why some thing work good on one rig and not another.....

Yours is looking great though....:jump:

[SolarEagle]

Previously people were using low values for Buffer Pools, such as 10-20MB, and more recently I have been using 80-100MB, but I've never heard of anyone using 200MB or more. Only when going beyond 200MB do I see the stutters vanish. That's a value of 200000000 to 300000000.

[lifejogger]

Looks real good, but then so does your computer specs. drool drool.

[Dexdoggy]

This sounds of interest! In the main FSX config file? (sorry for dummy question!):redface:

[MenendezDiego]

Yea...that is SWEET!!!

How and where do I set Bufferpools

[harleyman]

Yea...that is SWEET!!!

How and where do I set Bufferpools


[BUFFERPOOLS]
Poolsize=200000000 -to- 300000000


Almost at the bottom of the config under [ SIM]

[harleyman]

SolarEagle


Are you using the Texture_Bandwidth_multiplier with that Bufferpoole?

[MenendezDiego]

What Config? Can you be more specific Harleyman? Example C program files, microsoft games, fsx...yaddie yaddie yaddie :)

Regards, Diego

[SolarEagle]

If you have never added Buffer Pools it will not be in the cfg file, so it will need to be added. Just add it to the bottom of the cfg files.

Sofor a 300MB Buffer Pool you would add this:

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=300000000

The cfg file is here in Vista, but I can't remember where in XP, though in a similar spot.
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX

I was able to run extremely dense with 200MB and only very minor stutters, but 300MB was perfect.

I have always been an unlimited flyer due to the extra performance over locking, but since switching to i7 I have not been able to get rid of stutters with unlimited. Finally the fps limiter tool helped me to achieve that, but even so going real high on autogen still produced a stuttering mess. With 300MB I cannot induce stuttering if I try.

The other cftg tweaks I'm using are below. Using a texture bandwidth mult of 80-120 helps to keep things moving well. 80 was good on my Core 2 quad, but with i7 I use 120.

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=15

Using other high video memory setting may prevent you from using this tweak, or limit you to 200MB. High levels of antialiasing, high screen resolution, high definition clouds, and texture intensive sceneries like YMML are items to consider when tuning as these are what will drive video memory usage up.

[harleyman]

Well I put it in mine to see...It broke every plane and Rotor I have....:faint:

[orionll]

Suppose I'll give it a try.

[orionll]

lol wut?

That was weird. My FPS were more consistent and slightly higher. Without the tweak I was getting 11-17 FPS and with the tweak it was staying around 16. Used 120 for texture bandwidth mult and 300 million for bufferpools, as posted. I was looking toward the ground, max scenery.

Computer specs:

AMD Phenom 9850 Quad Core 2.5 GHz
ASUS M3N-HD/HDMI
4GB DDR2
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640
Windows Vista 64 bit Service Pack 1

Maybe I should try using the affinity mask tweak...

[SolarEagle]

A couple more with max autogen.

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/wide19.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/wide20.jpg

[RudiJG1]

Well I put it in mine to see...It broke every plane and Rotor I have....:faint:

I've tried this tweak as well; I've got an E6600 Core Duo (oc'd to 3.2 GHz) and an 8800 GTX with 768 MB video ram. The ultrahigh bufferpools setting does smooth things considerably, but after the initial flight (which loads fine), I get the same video errors that Harleyman is seeing when I try to load another flight without restarting FSX. Only by exiting and then restarting FSX can I fly.

[deimos256]

tried this and the same thing happened to me as harley. I didnt get past the create flight window and saw the wheels of the ultralight were placed about 30 feet in front. What the?

[Daube]

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem Quad @ 4.2GHz
THIS is the miracle tweak.

[BananaBob]

I'll have to try this SolarEagle, I have the same system as you but with the 285 1GB card but the farthest I've attempted to overclock the i7 920 is to 3.8 Ghz, it's still very cool, don't know if I should attempt any higher, don't think I will. Curious to see if this works. Thanks. And I agree with above, 4.2 is the miracle tweak! :ernae:

[FLighT01]

I'd like to try this but I'm running so good at this time I hate to tamper at this point for fear I won't be able to get back to where I am now. But the next time my setup pukes all over itself I'll give it a go. Maybe it's also only effective, or useable with i7's?

[d0mokun]

Seems to do the trick here. I'm on a Q9550. I used the texture_bandwidth_mult too though.

[robcap]

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem Quad @ 4.2GHzTHIS is the miracle tweak.

heheh:ernae: and don't forget his 900MB GTX260:faint:
R.

[SpaceWeevil]

This is from Nick N fsx config guide..

Bufferpools: Poolsize=xxxxx Which is the bufferpool reserved video memory for scenery geometry around the aircraft. 512 cards really cant make much use of it and should never reserve more than 15MB, 640 cards 35MB and 768 cards 70-80MB. 1GB cards can reserve more. Many find leaving this edit out of the config is the best way to run. You must experiment with this setting to see if it will or will not help.
640MB and above cards CAN take advantage of Bufferpools however do be careful with this edit.
Bufferpools added to the fsx.cfg file can cause scenery 'spikes' even if the card has enough video memory. This edit to the configuration file works for some and does not work for others. If you see strange graphics errors that do not clear up by visually panning around the outside of the aircraft then you should REMOVE the bufferpool entry from your config file.
Do note that with SP2 for FSX running high sliders depending on the drivers may bring on visual graphic 'spikes' from autogen when a flight is first loaded. If visually panning around the aircraft does not clear them, the bufferpool entry should be reduced or removed completely.

[FLighT01]

Seems to do the trick here. I'm on a Q9550. I used the texture_bandwidth_mult too though.

Did you set TBM at 120?

Past BP entries have given me the spiking issue, I run without it now - no spikes.

[limjack]

Question? When messing around with the config. file do I completly have to restart FSX to apply the new changes or will FSX make the changes as soon as I save it .

Jim

[harleyman]

I think its safest to close FSX, Make your changes, then go test...

I have never done config tweaks on the fly, as I'm not sure if they will take new settings like that...

Just what I do though...

[Bjoern]

I have never done config tweaks on the fly, as I'm not sure if they will take new settings like that...

Config tweaks can never be done on the fly.

Constantly reading out values in a config file would add some unnecessary CPU cycles to an already demanding application.

[FLighT01]

Personally, I like to reboot after a config change, but that's just me.

Hitting ALT to get the menu bar and changing settings in the game itself seems no problem but I pause the sim and let it sit for a minute after a change to make sure it takes hold. I firmly believe you can give a computer too many commands too quickly and have the program seize up, I've done it.

[gera]

One more miracle Tweak!!!!! Oh boy.....when will the next come?????:bump:

[Roger]

Well I'm using older drivers (169.45) in Dx9c (gave up on Dx10 as FsXI isn't coming now) and had put up with the v sync tearing so I had nothing to lose.
So bufferpools set to 200,000,000 (were at 70,000,000) and set the frames to unlimited.

He he....bloomin' marvellous on my system and no tearing.
Thanks for the hu Solar Eagle :ernae::applause::engel016:

Asus Maximus mobo,
Q6600 (SLACR) processor overclocked to 3.4 gigaHz,
4 gig DDR3 1.6 gigaHz ram,
Zalman cpu fan,
GF8800GTX vid card,

[Roger]

I would highly recommend this tweak to anyone with a similar system to mine or of course Solar Eagle's. At last I can do a clean (non-jerky) pan in vc and fast spot view pans are much less jerky. I'm not seeing spikes or other visual artifacts so I may try upping the bufferpools to 300,000,000. There is no doubt that this tweak works for me exceptionally well in a way that Fs limiter did not.

[noddy]

It does seems to work, thanks for HU on this.

[Pepere]

Yep mine did the same as harleyman and RudiJG1... get funny looking aircraft. Piglet! Are you in there? :monkies:

David :wave:

[SolarEagle]

Glad too see some are getting good results. Mango said he found a sweet spot with his system using BP of 400MB, and TBM of 40, though he has a 1GB card.

[harleyman]

Glad too see some are getting good results. Mango said he found a sweet spot with his system using BP of 400MB, and TBM of 40, though he has a 1GB card.


I have a 1 gig card to but have no stutters to speak of....:applause:

[RudiJG1]

Yep mine did the same as harleyman and RudiJG1... get funny looking aircraft. Piglet! Are you in there? :monkies:

David :wave:

David, I can get one good flight at this setting (BP=200000000) but then when I try to load another, I get the graphical errors. I then have to restart FSX to load another good flight.

It's annoying but potentially worth it for the improvement in smoothness and lack of spikes and stutters.

Rudi
Abit I35 Pro MB
E6600 Core Duo CPU (oc 3.2 GHz)
4 GB Crucial Ballistix PC2 8500
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX (stock speeds) w/ 768 MB RAM
Corsair 620HX PSU
1 WD Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD
2 Seagate 320 GB SATA HDDs
SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro
Pioneer DVR-111D DVD-RW PATA
Lite-On LH-20A1S DVD-RW SATA
NEC MultiSync 90GX 19" LCD
Win Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
Forceware 180.48 video driver

[Pepere]

Same here Rudi but I don't think i'll keep the pools. My machine runs good for it's age and equipment.. About like me. :caked:

David

[harleyman]

Same here... I just did a reinstall of FSX and left out SP2, and man its much better all the way around ...Thats confusing to me....


Now I understand why some still use just SP1......wierd...:faint:

[Roger]

Just upped BP to 250,000,000 and my video card is still handling it. I might even try updating the Nvidia drivers to see if those 'micro jumps' have gone with this fix.

[harleyman]

You should be able to loose the jumps Roger with a TBM tweak....


PLUS The more you tax your vid card with bufferpools the more likely you are to introducing stutters...



Bufferpools are mainly for low level stuttering in panning and banking views....

[Dangerous Beans]

Didnt work on my system :( I get the plane bits all over the place problem.

Tried it as low as 150000000 and managed to get one short flight in before the bug bit but there was still a little bit of stuttering just after take off, then it smoothed out.
Also when the graphic bug kicks in my fps go through the floor, 3 to 5 fps

Oh well I'm quite happy with my fps locked to 30 and autogen on dense so no big deal but it was worth a try.

[datter]

With my 8800GT SLI set up I find running bufferpools at 150000000 is about right. Tried lower, and removing it altogether but found I had some stuttering.

[SolarEagle]

I've got a thread going over at Orbx with more information and there's lots of people over there with results similar to mine.

http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=9908.0

For the most part the large Buffer Pool is totally eliminating the obstacle of stutters associated with high levels of autogen, and when that obstacle is out of the way it allows the system to be tuned directly around your achievable framerate. I have always had good framerates with higher levels of autogen, though it would induce horrible stutters, so I would have to tune to the point of stutter induction and stop there, but those stutters have now been removed from the picture.

Keep in mind there are variables that can prevent one from getting good results with this, as you need to have in excess of 300MB in available video memory to use a 300MB Buffer Pool.

Somebody asked me to test LAX, and flying around LAX with extremely dense autogen with no max per cell tweak produced no less than 30fps, staying in the 30-45fps with not even the slightest micro stutter, though I did have AI turned off.

[SolarEagle]

Bufferpools are mainly for low level stuttering in panning and banking views....

That's just an old quote from a website. The benefits of a large buffer pool have now been found to extend way beyond that idea.



The more you tax your vid card with bufferpools the more likely you are to introducing stutters...

Truth in part. The only time I have found a high Buffer Pool value to induce stuttering of its own is if you are short on available video memory. To use a 300MB Buffer Pool you need in excess of 300MB available. Some guys are getting a better experience with 400MB than 300MB, though you likely need a 1GB card to go that high.

[harleyman]

I have a 1 gig card and bufferpools at any amount give me stutters.....

I have a small amount of stutters, but they were overcome with a TBM increase fortunately...

[Ark]

If you have never added Buffer Pools it will not be in the cfg file, so it will need to be added. Just add it to the bottom of the cfg files.

Sofor a 300MB Buffer Pool you would add this:

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=300000000

The cfg file is here in Vista, but I can't remember where in XP, though in a similar spot.
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX

I was able to run extremely dense with 200MB and only very minor stutters, but 300MB was perfect.

I have always been an unlimited flyer due to the extra performance over locking, but since switching to i7 I have not been able to get rid of stutters with unlimited. Finally the fps limiter tool helped me to achieve that, but even so going real high on autogen still produced a stuttering mess. With 300MB I cannot induce stuttering if I try.

The other cftg tweaks I'm using are below. Using a texture bandwidth mult of 80-120 helps to keep things moving well. 80 was good on my Core 2 quad, but with i7 I use 120.

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=15

Using other high video memory setting may prevent you from using this tweak, or limit you to 200MB. High levels of antialiasing, high screen resolution, high definition clouds, and texture intensive sceneries like YMML are items to consider when tuning as these are what will drive video memory usage up.


I thought "Affinity Mask" was supposed to be set to "255" for us folks with i7's.

I will try your tweaks and check them out. I'm always down for better performance. :)

*EDIT* Stutters gone for the most part with DX9 settings. Thanks!

[grunau_baby]

Works great on my system, smooth panning now and consistant framrates of around 20-35. Never dropping below 16-18. Autogen on max is possible without losing too many fps.

Only downside is I cannot use my higher LOD radius no more , cause a 8.5 setting together with the higher BUFFERPOOL actually drops my FPS. Again it´s all systemrelated. But it´s a great improvement!

Alex

[jankees]

Seems to work reasonably well on my system. I occasionally had stutters real bad with FTX, all gone now. With max autogen fps between 12 and 25, higher with it just below max.
Thanks, good tip!

[RCAF_Gunner]

Your post coincided rather well with a round of tweaking I've been doing the last week or so while starting from scratch and even unclocking my CPU and going back to the stock 2.4GHz. Part of the theory was if I could get things really smooth at 2.4GHz then I could start turning things up when I go back to 3.0 GHz. For example, one thing I noticed is the CS C-130 is happier at 3.0GHz but still useable at 2.4GHz.

I had given up on the BP tweak some time ago because I hadn't gone past 10000000. I have a 512MB video card and didn't think I should go any higher but even at 10000000 it didn't seem to make much difference. So, with this new info, I had to try it again.

Like some, I get missing parts on aircraft even at the 100000000 size ~ perhaps it's because I'm running on a Q6600 in combo with a 8800GT where as it seems people with i7 procs and higher spec vid cards can go further in size. At around 75000000 the aircraft where displaying whole again but my overall framerate dropped quite a bit so I figured something that was needed was still getting traded off somewhere else.

Keeping in my that I'm running at 2.4GHz, I don't have everything cranked up but I have things high enough that it still looks good. I have the autogen on the first notch without the tweak in the cfg file so I believe that puts that autogen at 10% which is about on par with FS9. I'm also using stock scenery and clouds but have been testing in areas that have the 60cm photo scenery which is where my slider is set and it looks pretty good from 2500'. I'm currently using a BP setting of 24000000 in combination with an Unlimited framerate setting. I've left the fibre fraction a 0.33 and the TBM at 40 since I'm using Unlimited. (I could be wrong but since I'm running unlimited then I think the texture bandwidth multiplier doesn't come into play.)

The new setting definitely has made things more smooth. Previously, even with carefully trying to select what to have on and off as well as using a frame rate cap, I was still getting stutters when ever I was in a standard banked turn. This was whether I was looking at the horizon or looking down at the ground (I force vsync on to take care of the tearing issue). Also, with the framerate cap my V: reading was usually no more then 1 or 2%. Still, I had stutters.

Now, with unlimited I do get a V: reading as high at 10 - 12% which normally would mean the stutters would be worse but the BP setting at 24000000 on my system seems to counteract that quite well. I think the higher setting has done the most of anything I've ever tried to smooth things out that last little bit. In heavy city areas like NYC I still get some minor stuttering but in those areas the framerate is dropping down to the low 20s (occassional teen) even with unlimited but stuttering is nothing like before. In lighter areas even at the stock CPU clock I'm getting 30 - 50 fps (depends on the area) and then things are really smooth now.

Thanks for sharing your find. :applause:

[fsafranek]

Well I put it in mine to see...It broke every plane and Rotor I have....:faint:
Same here. Back to "acceptable" frame rates I guess.
:ernae:

[Alexraptor]

anyone with a GTX 280 or 285 given 500mb a try?

[Nonno]

I just had to try this tweek. Now I don't have an i7 setup. I'm still using E6600 core duo with 4 gigs of memory and an 8800gt with 1 gig on the card. My results were very consistent .... OUt of Memory pretty much before I left the ground. I removed the [BUFFERPOOLS] entry and I'm back to normal, or as close to normal as I get.

[RudiJG1]

Nonno, sorry to hear that. My specs are very close to yours: Core Duo E6600 oc'd to 3.2, 4 gigs of PC8500 DDR2 RAM, and for video a 8800GTX with 764 MB running Vista 32-bit. I'm using the Vista memory hack that gives the operating system access to more RAM (see here: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1208959973

I'm running FSX with BP=200000000 and texture bandwidth setting of 40, and it's all good. I've never (knock on wood) gotten a OOM error and I get NO graphical errors on loading new planes after the first flight....lowering the texture bandwidth setting seemed to help with that.

This has made my flying much smoother with little or no spiking, so long as I don't get too greedy with the autogen slider - normal for big urban areas and dense for everyplace else.

[Nonno]

Thanks RudiJG1 ..... I should have added that I'm using Vista 64. I've haven't messed with the texture bandwidth tweak and have my autogen slider always too far to the right (greedy). I'm going to check out some of the tweaks on that link you gave me, they look very promising. Thanks for the information.

[Cazzie]

Well, I have been following this thread since its inception. About half-way through, I decided to take the plunge.

Yep, helps a lot. I also find that I actually get better frame rates without IOBit's Game Booster turned on to shut down other working programs, go figure! I am getting the same rates I get in FS2004, 30 fps constant except in heavy traffic and autogen cities, where rates will drop to around 18 fps, but still remain constant and with a nice resolute terrain! With my slow crawlers, the frames rates can hit 40 to 50 frs in rural areas, WW II props and jets will drop it to 30.

It's a hit in my book. So far no problems. But when I go into FSX, I always preplan my flights. I learned long ago that switching aircraft and/or weather and scenery will get one a blue screen sooner or later and a shutdown-restart. Hitting Escape with FRAPS recording will do the same! :banghead:

For the record, here is my [Display] in the cfg:

[Display]
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.0
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.8
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.9
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.2
ChangeTime=4.000000
TransitionTime=4.000000
ActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255
ActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=0,28,140,64
NonActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255
NonActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=24,33,87,64
InfoUpperRightTextColor=255,0,0
InfoUpperRightBackGroundColor=0,0,0,0
InfoLowerLeftTextColor=255,255,255
InfoLowerLeftBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128
InfoLowerRightTextColor=255,255,255
InfoLowerRightBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128
InfoBrakesEnable=True
InfoParkingBrakesEnable=True
InfoPauseEnable=True
InfoSlewEnable=True
InfoStallEnable=True
InfoOverspeedEnable=True
BLOOM_EFFECTS=0
SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120
UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0
WideViewAspect=True

The WideViewAspect=True should be used by all that have a wide-screen monitor, otherwise this by default will be False. If you are using a wide-screen monitor and this is False, type in True and Save.

Caz

[Wiens]

Tried it and it broke my planes in the display view. So I throttled back to 175 MB and it works great. I was able to get the bandwidth setting to 120. Actually improved my fps and removed the stutters.

I don't like to tweak!!!!.......I just want to fly!!!!!

Kevin

[FLighT01]

anyone with a GTX 280 or 285 given 500mb a try?

Yes, I had to to, tweak addict that I am. I have a 9650 on a 790i Ultra OC'd to 3.8 with 4GB of DDR3 Corsair (not OC'd), Nvidia 280 with 177.41 driver (not OC'd), and 3 Vraptors with FSX by itself on D. Running Vista 64 and both the CPU and GPU are watercooled.

Results so far are good. I run unlimited fps with TBM at 120 and Bufferpools at 300000000 (city and country). I ran through every plane in my hangar and noticed no issues with missing plane parts inside or out, and all performed as expected, all are native FSX. FPS generally 50 to 60 in the country, 30 to 40 in urban areas sometimes dipping to say 26/27. (Note: these figures are with clear skies, add 3 layers of clouds and subtract 10 fps). And of course all Graphics Tab sliders including Autogen full right except water Mid 2.X and unless I'm flying mountain areas 38 meters mesh and 30 cm texture resolutions are fine by me. DX9 mode of course. Cloud complexity really increases load and lowers fps (FEX).

I also, a few weeks ago, lowered the HeadingPanRate in several sections of the Camera.cfg from 70 (I think) down to 40. That subjectively seemed to help before the BP and TBM changes. Maybe just a placebo effect.

I do notice at times that framerate will drop suddenly to a single digit for a fraction of a second but immediately jump back up again but I've had this issue forever. Sometimes it results in a visible pause sometimes not (that's really annoying because it's not consistent). I've chalked it up to some background process turning on but I can't zero in on it even flying in windowed mode with the Performance Monitor open. At start up I've only got 27 processes running using 14 to 15% of my Physical Memory. I don't think I can shut any more down and have the system boot up properly. Maybe it's the video card choking for an instant, who knows.

Presently I'm focusiing on the Traffic Tab to see if these short duration fps drops are related to something there. The higher TBM and BP settings do seem to allow vehicle traffic on the roads to run smoother with less of a jerky motion.

The one consistent factor is that there is no consistency from one system to the next.

And, looks like we'll have plenty of years to work out the kinks in FSX as best we can without having a new version to deal with. LOL.

At this point I feel like I'm getting 95% of what's possible with FSX. Sometimes fighting for that last 5% isn't worth it because as you fix one thing something else gets out of whack.

That being said, when FSX is firing on all cylinders, it is spooky good fun!

A bit of followup: with those TBM and BP settings I must turn down Autogen a notch and fly with clear skies over major cities at 1,000 feet or so, or the program will freeze hard consistently. Also, I keep vehicles at 12%, GA and all boats at 25%, Airliners and airport vehicles at 0.

[SolarEagle]

Hey guys,

If you haven't seen my recent posts in the 'Miracle Tweak' thread at Orbx I have managed to get my tweaks refined and everything seems to be balanced much better now, so even over the most intense performance killers like FTX Perth I'm averaging 25fps with full autogen and no stutters.

http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=9908.60

I found out my TBM of 120 was too high for my 300MB Buffer Pool to maintain sutter free operation over Perth, even though I was stutter free in forests, rural areas, and small towns like Coffs Harbour. To cure the majority of the stutters around Perth I went down to a TBM of 40, which left me with only micro stutters, though once the TBM was lowered I was able to push Buffer Pools to 400MB, which cleared up the last of the micro stutters around Perth.

The only other issue I had was FTX forests were knocking me down to 15fps at extremely dense, so I enabled a max per cell limit of 3000/2000, which now allows me to stay over 20fps with even the largest and densest forests, and the visual impact is next to nothing.

For some reason the max per cell limits do not work when I fly over FTX Perth, as I get the same autogen levels with or without, as seen in the shot below, but even without the reductions I get 25fps.

Mango also found a TBM of 40 and BP of 400MB to be the sweet spot on his Core2/GTX280/Vista system, though he uses a lower max per cell than me and sets autogen to very dense in game. Based on user reports it seems those that are having the most luck with the Buffer Pool tweak are Vista/Win7 users.

There are more details in the thread at Orbx, but these are the tweaks I have settled on with my i7/GTX260/Win7 system in order to achieve a stutter free 25-30fps average in all scenery areas using extremely dense autogen.

[Display]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40

[SCENERY]
SmallPartRejectRadius=2

[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=3000
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=2000

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=400000000

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=15

As a side note it seems even with a 400MB Buffer Pool and 2048 clouds I have video memory to spare, as AA settings up to 8xS supersampling @ 1600x1200 have no impact on performance, and even when going up to 16xS, which renders at 3200x2400 on my system with 4x multisampling, I only see a 5fps hit and still stay in a stutter free range of 20-25fps over Perth. If video memory was saturated there's no way I'd be stutter free with 16xS.

I was getting a solid 27fps with no micro stutters in both of these scenes:

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/Perth.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/goldset3.jpg

[FLighT01]

Yep, ultimately TBM 120 caused problems, I backed off to 80 and all is well again.

[harleyman]

Yep, ultimately TBM 120 caused problems, I backed off to 80 and all is well again.



Come on Frank...Live up to your Sig and break it again....LOL

[PRB]

I have two Nvidia 9800GTX+ 512MB Dual DVI (PCI-E) Video Cards. For the purpose of this discussion, do I have 512 MB of video RAM or 1 GB? I tried the BUFFERPOOLS tweak and it seems to have eliminated stutters. Thanks for the tip, SolarEagle..!

[SolarEagle]

I have two Nvidia 9800GTX+ 512MB Dual DVI (PCI-E) Video Cards. For the purpose of this discussion, do I have 512 MB of video RAM or 1 GB? I tried the BUFFERPOOLS tweak and it seems to have eliminated stutters. Thanks for the tip, SolarEagle..!

Two 512MB cards in SLI only has an effective 512MB.

[SolarEagle]

Here's a new config I've been testing which works amazingly well at extremely dense on my i7, and may work well at very dense for Core 2 users.

So far the best overall experience I have found is to use the FPS Limiter tool along with the cfg tweaks. This gives the ability to limit fps while staying with an unlimited setting in game, which means you don't have to take the framerate hit associated with the in-game framerate limiter.

When I use the limiter it runs a few fps higher than what I set it to, so I set it to 25 which tops out at about 27-28 in game. With the new config I'm able to fly around Redcliff averaging 25-27fps with occasional dip to 23fps, but no lower, which is impressive to me.

Using the limiter makes it even smoother, especially if you are getting a framerate above the limit you use, and even if you drop below that it's just as smooth or smoother than it would be without the limiter.

It seems the ratio you use with the max per cell tweak can affect framerate. For example 2200/1600 gave me 3fps less than 2200/1700. I've now got it set back to the default 3/2 ratio which works well for me. As you can see from the images, even with buildings at 1600 I get 100% buidling coverage when using extremely dense.

Another tweak I've been playing with is the Fiber Frame Time Fraction. .44 seems to be the best setting based on my testing around Redcliff. Also with BF down to 300MB I'm able to run my TBM much higher, which seems to help with texture loading.

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

[MAIN]
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.44

[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=2400
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=1600

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=300000000

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=15

To get framerates in the 25-27 range with a minimum of 23 using extremely dense I have all AI and traffic turned off, clouds at high/60mi, and aircraft shaows off. I bet the above config would work well on Core 2 systems using very dense.

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/redcliff2.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/redcliff3.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/redcliff4.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/ftp6/redcliff6.jpg

[ryanbatc]

Sweet shots, is that an SP2-native helo?

[SolarEagle]

Yeah it looks good, and I'm quite pleased it's running so well. I do find it a bit funny FSX has been plagued with stutters for so long, seemingly unfixable by ACES, and all it needed was the Buffer Pool increased by a measly 50 to 100 fold. lol

With the advent of i7 blurries are a things of the past, and with the advent of the ginormous Buffer Pool stutters are a thing of the past, so there's really not much left to fix, just to fly.

That's the SH-2 Seasprite by Alphasim, full FSX.

[Alexraptor]

Just wondering, theres no risk at all of damaging the graphics card with this tweak is there?
Just a bit paranoid lol.

[Kiwikat]

Just wondering, theres no risk at all of damaging the graphics card with this tweak is there?
Just a bit paranoid lol.

No...

[gianlucabagatti]

hi solareagle, you said to add BUFFERPOOLS at the the bottom of the cfg files but (sorry for the dumb question...) exactly where? just below wideviewaspect or wherever else? I'd like to give a try but do not want to make a mess.... thks for your advice, gianluca

[Tako_Kichi]

I just tried the settings in post #62 above but I had a problem where all my aircraft had their wings rotated through 90 degrees so that they were standing up vertically instead of being horizontal and the VC was all funky too. :faint:

Using a process of elimination I discovered the culprit was this line:


[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=300000000

Once I 'remmed' out that line everything was back to normal again. Anyone have a clue as to what was going wrong?

[d0mokun]

I think that happens when you set bufferpools to a higher value than your system can cope with.

[Tako_Kichi]

Hmmm...OK....I guess I will play with that value until I find a sweet spot.

System here is a 3 Ghz Core2Duo (E8400) with 4Gb of RAM and a 512 Mb 8800GT GFX card. If the above settings are for an i7 quad that may explain things.

EDIT:

After a lengthy process of trail and error and 'splitting the difference' I discovered that the absolute maximum usable bufferpool, on my system, before I hit graphics issues is.....
[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=248373232
Having discovered this I think I will set my bufferpool to 245000000 to keep a bit in reserve. I will test at this setting and report back if I find issues.

EDIT 2:

Well that didn't work! :isadizzy:

At first things appeared to be OK and then I noticed that as I switched AC so the graphics problem came back. It would appear that FSX doesn't like you continuously switching AC and somehow accumulates 'stuff' until it causes a glitch. After a full evening of testing and reducing the bufferpool value it looks like a setting of 80000000 for my system lets me change AC up to a dozen times before problems set in. I will run at this setting for a while and see what happens.

[harleyman]

Your bufferpools are tied into how much video ram you have.......


From NickN

Poolsize=8000000 <-----NOTE: 8000000 is for a 8800 card. A 256mb card may only be able to handle 5000000. The default is 4000000. This is another area you may wish to leave out or test. It will have an affect on the turns and panning smoothness but it does lock the video memory from using 5, 8, 10MB for anything other than the buffer cache so if you are short on video memory this may be an issue. The raised the default to 4000000 in SP1.

[SolarEagle]

hi solareagle, you said to add BUFFERPOOLS at the the bottom of the cfg files but (sorry for the dumb question...) exactly where? just below wideviewaspect or wherever else? I'd like to give a try but do not want to make a mess.... thks for your advice, gianluca

Hey there

Doesn't really matter where, as long as it's in there. I always just add it at the very bottom, below all other stuff, but it doesn't have to be there.

By the way I would not recommend using the fiber time tweak above. I was testing it at the time and while it can help terrain loading it can also reduce framerate. The TBM setting has no impact on framerates, and can also help terrain to load a bit better, though the higher you go the more texture data is sent which can impact your max achievable bufferpool value. Using the default TBM value of 40 can allow a higher bufferpool in cases where a lot of textures are used for a scene.

[gianlucabagatti]

hi solareagle, thks! BTW my tBM is set to 34 by default, you think I'd better raise it to 40 before tweaking? moreover, I've set fps to 30max, to better suit your advice would it be better to set it to unlimited?
best regards, gianluca

[jermin]

Eagle, would you please post your in-game graphics settings?

[SolarEagle]

hi solareagle, thks! BTW my tBM is set to 34 by default, you think I'd better raise it to 40 before tweaking? moreover, I've set fps to 30max, to better suit your advice would it be better to set it to unlimited?
best regards, gianluca

What are you're system specs? Yeah you could set it to 40, find your max bufferpool, and then go back and see if raising TBM to 70 causes any issues. 70 seems to be good for most modern systems, so as long as it jives with the BP value you use that's what I would try.

On my system anyway there was night and day difference between 100 MB and 200MB BP, 100MB being a stuttery mess at extremely dense, while 200MB eliminating most all the the sutters at extremely dense, with 300MB of course being even better. On the other hand even 50-100MB eliminated a lot of stutters at lower settings like very dense compared to the default 4MB value.

[SolarEagle]

Eagle, would you please post your in-game graphics settings?

My Channel Islands settings are higher than these, but for flying FTX scenery, as in the scene seen above, they are:

Scenery
autogen extremely dense
water mid 2.x
mesh 10m
textures 15cm
ground scenery shadows off
All other scenery sliders fully right

Weather
draw distance 60mi
cloud coverage high
rate of change over time none

Traffic/AI
completely disabled

Aircraft
Self shadows off
ground shadows on
light illuminate ground on

Graphics
Target framerate unlimited
Resolution 1600x1200
Filtering set via nHancer 16x
Antialiasing set via nHancer 8xS
Global textures set to 2048 via the cfg
light bloom off

I'm working with just these cfg tweaks at the moment. For i7 users it seems best to leave affinitymask out unless you have hyperthreading disable, then 15 is the best setting. Core2 Quad users can try 14 or 15. 14 will shift the primary thread from core 0 to core 1, though core 0 then gets little use but can help if you have other programs runningalong with FSX. 15 will use all four cores fully and will help with terrain loading.

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=2400
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=1600

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=300000000

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=15

[noddy]

I have 68 background processes working what can I cut? Running Vista 32 bit ultimate.

[gianlucabagatti]

hi solar, set TBM to 40 and it seems to go faster in loading, and bufferpools to 100000000 getting 25 to 30 fps the same I had overclocking my CPU (2x3Ghz with 9800 GT as Vcard) but on monday I will follw your tipp and raising to 200000000/70 to see what happens. by now no stutters but I did not have also before.

[Txmmy83]

the thread helps me to get acceptable frame rates :)
15-25 frames before
to constant 38 fps

but have locked at that fps because it is enough for my pleasure
will try it with unlimited ingame fps setting tomorrow


BR
Tom

[Alexraptor]

Well im not having any luck, whenever i try using the tweak even at 100mb i ultimatley end up with messed up models.
And i have a GTX 280 with 1 solid gig of video memory...

[Roger]

You know this thread helped me to get Dx9 working so well after leaving Dx10 (with no FsXI happening) it should go into the "FsX Tweaks" annals.

With my specs (below) with bufferpools at 350000000 and TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=80 I now have a stable FsX in Dx9 for the first time in months with my specs shown below.

[CBris]

Hmmm... works here well enough. Nothing amazing, but it does boost the Bushhawk a bit too and flying the Catalina out over open water at 40-50 is a pleasure

[FLighT01]

Wow! This thread's still running.:applause: