Low Frame Rate

[FinnJacobsen]

I have low FPS too, while all other addons runs smooth (PMDG 737NGX, 747 QOTS II, 777, TFDI 717, Maddog X, etc...)
I use P3D V4.5 with HF1, ORBX Global Base and various Airport DDONS FROM ORBX, Aerosoft, Justsim, etc...
Weather engine: Active Sky for P3D V4 / Active Sky Cloud Art.
Shaders enhanced with PTA.
AI Traffic with Ultimate Traffic Live.

Some of my addons uses TFDI's TrueGlass and TrueLight with no issues.

Milviz PC-6 Porter equipped with the Flight1 GTN 750/650 (Could use an option with only the 750 and standard COM/NAV2 radio setup)


****** Edit ********

I see in the Panel.cfg alot of [Vcockpit0x] sections (seems to be used for RealLight). At least back int eh FSX days this could cause performance issues. I cannot fully remember, but maybe using many [Vcockpit0x] sections heavily increases Drawcalls, which could explain one customers report of high GPU usage.


****** Edit 2 ********

The issue on my system seems to be caused by RelLight on the Milviz PC-6 (I have no problems with other of my addons that uses RealLight).
FPS is quite Ok after having loaded the PC-6, but if I turn on the Instrument or Cabin lights, then the FPS goes from 20 down to 12 (At Orbx PAYA / SAK).

The strange thing is that this does not always happen. Sometimes I can turn the lights on and then off again with no issues, though most often FPS are stuck at the low level.

I can see that the textures used by Reallight for the PC-6 is .BMP with a very high file size, whereas f.ex the TFDI 717 uses .DDS with only a fraction of the size. Also in the RealLight.xml file the texture size for RealLight is set to 4096x4096. If the setting is lowered to 2048x2048 or even 1024x1024, then the impact on FPS becomes less, but then the instrument dial text becomes lower res and looks ugly, especially at 1024x1024.

So I´m sure that the problem should be found in the way RealLight has been added to the PC-6, where it probably overloads Video RAM.

Maybe TrueGlass is also setop with bad optimization i.e less effective texture types and sizes.

My system specs in signatur:

[Baerenhausen]

Last thing i've done, i've copied my resized
TrueLight textures and the shader folders to each PC-6 model
and adjust corresponding all RealLight.xml files.
I changed in the PC-6 base model the pixel and texture size entries of the panel.cfg [Vcockpit03] - [Vcockpit11] in 1024,1024.
Now i get 30+ frames in and outside of the plane and also after restarting P3D.
I have no similar problems with my other Milviz addons ( C310, DHC-3 Turbine Otter, B737-200 ) .
Here my specs

Intel core i7 4790K Haswell
16G Bytes DDR3 Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

Win7 64 bit
Prepar3D v 4.5.12.30293
PTA 2.66
SODE Version 1.6.4

cheers
Ulrich

[FinnJacobsen]

Follow up....

I also reduzed the size of the RealLight Textures.
All 4096x4096 to 2048x2048, but left them as BMP files, since I couldn´t get DDS files to work.

The RealLight.xml has been changed to read:

<Configuration>
<Settings>
<Setting Name="FileType" Value="bmp"/>
<Setting Name="TextureSize" Value="2048,2048"/>
<Setting Name="LuminanceInAlpha" Value="False"/>
<Setting Name="sRGB" Value="true"/>
</Settings>

I also changed the Panel.cfg changing all 4096 entries to 2048.

These changes now gives me 30 FPS at Orbx PAYA, regardless whether the Instrument/Cabin lights are on or off.

Just note that these changes comes with a slight texture quality degradation when the Instrument / Cabin Lights are on.

[Baerenhausen]

Just note that these changes comes with a slight texture quality degradation when the Instrument / Cabin Lights are on.

Yes i can confirm, what Finn mentioned,
the vc light textures are pixelated now.

[FinnJacobsen]

Yes i can confirm, what Finn mentioned,
the vc light textures are pixelated now.

Don´t reduze as low as 1024, but keep them at 2048, then the pixelation becomes much less and looks acceptable - for me at least
I don´t think the performance gain going from 2048 to 1024 is that high that it is worth it.

[doodlebug]

We are working on proper solutions for those with lower spec systems, but this may take a few days at least.

[FinnJacobsen]

No problem..

My interim "fix" has made me able to make a nice flight from PAYA to PAJN with good FPS.
Great and interesting Aircraft

[bourki2016]

I did some tests
Change most entries in panel.cfg to 1024,1024
Just after aircraft loading, engine cut off I had about 30 fps
After start got 22/25 fps: quite good
But after switching external/internal view I get 12/15 fps dropping slowly to 10/12 fps
Quite strange no ?

[Chuck Jodry]

We have prepared a medium resolution texture set for those who wish to improve performance on lower specification computers , especially those with 2 G of memory on their GPU PC6 Reduced Textures
Run the installer , do not uninstall the original and run the MVAMS after you install.

Best CJ

[FinnJacobsen]

Thanks for the quick fix.

But I have reverted to my own fix'es since overall quality of the VC textures becames too low without giving me better FPS.
I have a 4GB Graphics card, which might do a difference.

I have now re-installed the PC-6 but got an error telling that I have reached my re-activating limit , so I had to make e re-install instead of just a repair.

[Timmy74]

I am wondering if one un-ticks "Mipmap VC Panels" would this help in the frame rates...?

I had this issue with the Otter and found this worked.

Just a thought....?

[doodlebug]

yes - disabling mip maps can help

[ryanbatc]

I think if you're having bad fps, and you have a 4GB vram GPU....go get GPU-z and look at the sensors tab, and then see "Memory used." If it's maxed....well that's why. Even on XP11 my vram get's maxed and then my fps plummet (so its not just a P3D thing).

GPU-z
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

gpuzpic by ryan b, on Flickr

[FinnJacobsen]

I´m sure that it is GPU video memory that get´s exhausted.

Trouble probably arise if You use the PC-6 Porter in custom scenery, like Orbx with custome weather adons that also uses custom cloud textures.

[bourki2016]

Hello
trying new resolution texture
Far better FPS
Even if I do not undersatand using MVAMS (no choice of textures ?)
Good job