449: Checking Affinity Mask Performance in Realtime

Affinity Mask could bring improvements to flight simulators.  But the question is: how can we tell from a hypothetical value (or more precisely a CPU combination) that it will bring positive gains to our system before we put it in the configuration file (fsx.cfg or Prepar3D.cfg) ?

Frankly, I don’t have a good answer myself because there are so many variables involved.   However, following is the approach I take to precheck the performances from different Affinity Masks in realtime, then thru which I pick the one I think the best for my set up.

439: My P3Dv4 Setting Up #05 – Orbx Additions

With the new FTXCentral 3, all Orbx Global and Continental Regions are added to P3Dv4 without any difficulty.   However, since none of the airports from the company is available for the new version at the moment, I therefore installed (copied) my favorite airports — Bowerman (KHQM), Concrete Mun (3w5) and Darrington Mun (1S2) — straightly from previously ripped backups.   No issues spotted so far except control panels for the airports no longer function.

In addition, since I used to set the “Detail Bump Map” as “Fine” via FTX Aero, and because the FTX Aero feature is still not compatible with P3Dv4 yet, I also manually replaced the default “detail1.bmp” in

• “\Scenery\World\texture” with the one copied from
• “\ORBX\Scripts\Aero\Source\Scenery.World.Texture.detail1.bmp.Fine“

438: My PD3v4 Setting Up #04 – Initial Settings

Followings are the P3Dv4 Settings on my new computer before Orbx addition to come next, with which overall frame rate at present stays around 53 stably except in those extremely dense areas.

436: My PD3v4 Setting Up #02 – FSX Aircraft Migration

This post is originally the first aritcle in the “My P3Dv4 Setting Up” series.   However, since I do normally perform the configuration back up mentioned in the second article first, I therefore rename this post to #02 and the second post #1.   Publishing time adjusted as well to reflect the proper order.

As stated in the About FSX Times of this blog, my goal is to achieve a stable flight simulation system performance with a minimum 30 fps in average.   Luckily, I’ve been able to achieve that goal with some compromises.   But unluckily, that 30-something fps level also acts like a barrier that stops me from passing.

I am not sure yet whether the 64-bit P3Dv4 and my new hardware would help break this spell for good.   But the 120 to 210 fps initially gained from the new system without any tuning seems like a promising start.

As the hardware side of my new cockpit is still not ready, I’ll take it slowly to install addons and to finetune the system.

394: My Newest nVidia Settings

A friend who asked me what my nVidia 3D Settings were for P3D.   I told him that I simply used the default values coming with the driver in the last few years.

In response to his question, I re-examined and tested the impact of each value to my system last week.   Here’s the settings I am satisfied with:

340: My P3Dv3.2 Settings

Since somebody asks and it’s for my own personal record as well, followings are the settings of my Prepar3D settings for version 3.2 system.

Anyone interested to see the details of my Prepar3D.cfg could click on the Realism Image at the bottom.   All changes I made are highlighted in red.   And manually changed items are further bolded.

263: Nvidia 344.65 – A Positive One

Graphics driver is one of the components I habitually pay extra attention to since NEW doesn’t necessarily mean GOOD at the same time in this sector in particular.  After upgrading to P3Dv2.4, I’ve been using the 344.11 driver as it offers a noticeable improvement over older and even newer versions under the P3D platform.

Today, I just have it replaced by the newest 344.65 after testing the new driver for a few days.  Frankly, I might not see measurable improvement accordingly, but overall smoothness enhancement is observable.

There are people reporting that the new driver resolved the SLI compatibility issue.   Unfortunately, it is not the case in my setup.

BTW, during the earlier installation of the P3Dv2.4, I found most induced stutters turning out to be caused by the many additional Orbx addons rather than by the simulator itself.

Sadly, the world isn’t perfect.  Neither does the virtual world.

 

244: P3D v2.2 – System Settings Updated

Followings are updates to my earlier P3D system settings shown in Post 239.   Major changes are made to Scenery and Lighting, where the former improves Water Reflections and the latter enhances Shadows performance.

 

In addition,

241: P3D v2.2 Part 5 – Hardware

My 4770K CPU was stably overclocked to 4.6 GHz before I moved on to the current 3-monitor setup with dual GTX 780 in SLI connection.   Since the system crashed a few times due to overheated CPU problem while running P3D (that’s right, P3D, not FSX), I have no choice but to lower the clock speed to 4.2 GHz.

Obviously, even though P3D is said to have shifted many processing works to the GPU, it is still a CPU-intensive program.   With lowered clock speed, my system’s CPU temperature lingers around 55°C, and adds another 5 to 10 degrees in general while flying over high density areas.   No more crash has encountered since.