Setup tutorial/guide

[SteveW 1,792]

Are there any specific sliders I should be extra careful with...

All of them. When you start up take a look at how P3D sets you up with defaults and you get a pretty smooth ride. Changing anything can bring it on. Remember you can have high fps and yet be past a point where you get stutters.

 

Use unlimited mode to monitor your performance during testing.

 

I can't recommend using Unlimited mode during flight because the draw rate fixes the frame rate and that causes lurching in the view while panning, which equals wrong aircraft handling. Also bad for Track IR. It's another thing I say that annoys folk, but DX11 is built from the ground up to use the internal fixed fps, Unlimited is a test mode of DX. When we set fixed internally there is more work done in anticipation of a few following frames, and these steady up the frame rate, but reduce the maximum frames. If you've got a 60Hz monitor, don't be scared of setting 20fps internally, and match that in NI for best results.

[WebMaximus 372]

Oki doki, will do some testing and see what happens.

 

When you say I should set the internal FPS limiter and match that in NI are you then saying I should limit the FPS simultaneously in both P3D and NI? If so that's a new one to me. In the past I used either the internal limiter in FSX or the one found in NI but never both at the same time.

 

The last year or so I ended up running FSX at 'Unlimited' all the time since I found that would give me the best overall result. I guess what works best for you when it comes to limiting FPS often has to do with how your flight sim is setup, what kind of a/c you're flying and what other addons you have installed. 

[SteveW 1,792]

If you're going straight ahead in a tube you don't notice the lurching of the view, but when panning (and TIR users) will notice the inconsistent speed of the panning. In a glider turning all the time 20fps 'fixed' internally, (and 'limited' in NI yes you can do that) is better than swinging between than 30 to 60 fps. Even with heavy loads, the sim can feel like it has very high fps if the 20 is smooth. In that link about CP and NI settings, there is a graph of FSX in DX10, very like P3D in this respect. In that graph it shows quite clearly how 20 fixed internally and 20 limited in NI is easily better than the other combinations there. Although with this example the external limit is fixed in this case by the vsync, we set it manually in P3D since we don't have Full Screen Game mode. The result is very similar.





So at the top we have 21 fixed internally, and 20 limited in NI. In the middle we have just the internal fixed fps. At the bottom we have 20fps fixed internally and 20 fps limited in NI. The shots were taken in reverse order to that shown.

[newtie 533]

 

 

AF is not necessary

 

Running AF=14, unlimited frames with an external limiter virtually eliminates stutters at the FSDT airports as well as some of ORBX's airports.

 

Can't fly without it.

 

Mark 

[WebMaximus 372]

If you're going straight ahead in a tube you don't notice the lurching of the view, but when panning (and TIR users) will notice the inconsistent speed of the panning. In a glider turning all the time 20fps 'fixed' internally, (and 'limited' in NI yes you can do that) is better than swinging between than 30 to 60 fps. Even with heavy loads, the sim can feel like it has very high fps if the 20 is smooth. In that link about CP and NI settings, there is a graph of FSX in DX10, very like P3D in this respect. In that graph it shows quite clearly how 20 fixed internally and 20 limited in NI is easily better than the other combinations there. Although with this example the external limit is fixed in this case by the vsync, we set it manually in P3D since we don't have Full Screen Game mode. The result is very similar.

 

 

 

 

So at the top we have 21 fixed internally, and 20 limited in NI. In the middle we have just the internal fixed fps. At the bottom we have 20fps fixed internally and 20 fps limited in NI. The shots were taken in reverse order to that shown.

 

OK, that's interesting and I'm looking forward to see what result I will get over here. Now I have P3D installed, just waiting for a copy process (a HUGE one) currently running on my PC before I'll fire up P3D for the first time :smile:

 

Looking at your examples above I wonder what would work best in my case using a Samsung 40" LED TV rather than an ordinary computer monitor?

 

Then looking at the type of flying I intend to do I'll do all my flying in the NGX and I'm using TrackIR so it's very important to me to have a smooth panning experience in the v/c.

[SolRayz 392]

I think most will agree that properly adjusting Autogen Building Density slider and Terrain/Cloud Shadow sliders will reap the most performance.

 

Most other sliders I have set to Max or Ultra with minimal negative affect.

 

One other consideration, if you are into a lot of AI traffic, prepare to be disappointed. I find the performance drop much more significant than in FSX for some reason.

 

I also find that Unlimited frames set in sim only produces smooth stutter free experience if and only if you are able to maintain in and around 60fps. If your sim fluctuates wildly, you will get stutters. In my case I found locking the frame rate at the median frame rate you are achieving renders smoothest experience. So, for example, if you are fluctuating between 25-35 locking at 30 renders a far smoother experience than unlimited.

[pmb 5,138]

One other consideration, if you are into a lot of AI traffic, prepare to be disappointed. I find the performance drop much more significant than in FSX for some reason.

 

Which is true and might at least partially be due to the fact that there is no true (according to the P3D2 SDK) AI traffic program available yet, either Freeware or Payware. However Traffic 360 and MyTraffic will soon release native P3D2 versions, and I am quite anxious to see the results.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[WebMaximus 372]

Which is true and might at least partially be due to the fact that there is no true (according to the P3D2 SDK) AI traffic program available yet, either Freeware or Payware. However Traffic 360 and MyTraffic will soon release native P3D2 versions, and I am quite anxious to see the results.

 

Kind regards, Michael

I guess the same will be true then for online flying. I do all my flying on Vatsim using DX10 converted IVAO MTL models..will be interesting to see how that works out.

[WebMaximus 372]

I think most will agree that properly adjusting Autogen Building Density slider and Terrain/Cloud Shadow sliders will reap the most performance.

 

Most other sliders I have set to Max or Ultra with minimal negative affect.

 

One other consideration, if you are into a lot of AI traffic, prepare to be disappointed. I find the performance drop much more significant than in FSX for some reason.

 

I also find that Unlimited frames set in sim only produces smooth stutter free experience if and only if you are able to maintain in and around 60fps. If your sim fluctuates wildly, you will get stutters. In my case I found locking the frame rate at the median frame rate you are achieving renders smoothest experience. So, for example, if you are fluctuating between 25-35 locking at 30 renders a far smoother experience than unlimited.

 

I'm running autogen at mid settings, never really fancied autogen. As for the shadow settings, is it only the terrain/cloud sliders that are mainly of interest or should I also play around with the other shadow settings such as the shadow quality slider and all the check boxes for settings what objects should cast/receive shadows?

 

At this point I looks I'm getting best performance and fluid movement with Unlimited FPS just like it was in FSX in my case but need to do more testing and especially after I installed some more addons such as FTX Global, Vector, Landclass, FS Global Ultimate mesh and some payware airports. At this time I only installed the NGX and ASN.

 

What are you guys running your water slider at?

[SolRayz 392]

I run Ultra shadows, mostly because simobject ground shadows are far superior. You may notice the difference when looking at your wing shadow on the tarmac. It seems this slider had more of a performance impact pre v2.4. But LM has since fixed shadow issues and performance to some degree.

 

In my case I run all shadow cast/receive checked except vegetation. Vegetation shadows will severely impact performance. Cloud and Terrain Cast distances set to 40km and Object cast set to 3km seems to work well with my system. Your results may vary obviously.

 

In regards to autogen, If you keep Autogen Building Density slider to Normal, you will have adequate autogen and great performance. But I will say, i frequently fly throughout the Caribbean and I have been experimenting with Extremely Dense settings, and boy does it fill the islands nicely. Would not recommend this setting in Urban mainland settings as catastrophic OOM's may ensue...lol.

 

Oh, and, my water slider is set to Ultra, all checked except vegetation once again. Bath disabled as it is creating odd popping black artifacts, even as of the latest hotfix.

[Appliance 51]

 

 

should I also play around with the other shadow settings such as the shadow quality slider and all the check boxes for settings what objects should cast/receive shadows?

 

Please experiment.  

 

However I notice from above you only intend to fly the 737 rather than GA so most of your check boxes could remain unchecked.

[WebMaximus 372]

Thanks guys!

 

I realize what I need to do is to read up on what all sliders and options really do and especially the shadow and water settings. I think I'll try to find some comparison pictures what difference different settings will do for these sliders and settings.

[SteveW 1,792]

My take on Unlimited vs Limited frames over on the OPTIMIZE_PARTS discussion.

[mazelda 124]

Hi

I've come to this a bit late in the discussion,but I'm only now getting around to tweaking P3d,I currently do not have an affinity mask set in the cfg file as yet,

Thanks but I have a 6 core I7 4930K with HT enabled, so would setting an AM of 4094 be to much ? Or should i drop it a bit

I've also not put a Fibre time Fraction in ( is this worth it in P3D?

 

thanks

[SteveW 1,792]

6 core I7 4930K with HT enabled, so would setting an AM of 4094 be to much ? Or should i drop it a bit

AMs get complicated look at this:

 

3 threads - 1344=(01,01,01,00,00,00), 2688=(10,10,10,00,00,00)

5 threads - 1364=(01,01,01,01,01,00), 2728=(10,10,10,10,10,00)

 

With a high overclock we can do this and leave more cores free for addon exes like ASN:

 

5 threads - 3968=(11,11,10,00,00,00)

7 threads - 4064=(11,11,11,10,00,00)

 

Use Windows calculator and in Programmer mode, select the "Bin" mode and type in your ones and zeros, then switch to "Dec" mode.