Useful info on Traffic ai

[Jon Clarke]

I have MT6 installed in P3Dv3 and it works well. I have seen several posts in orbx forums regarding the subject of traffic ai, stutters and varied degrees of fps loss. I saw a post in the support forum of MT6 where Burkhard ( the developer of MT6) was responding to a question about ai planes lights, but what really caught my eye was the part in his reply about what he calls the "reality bubble" which to me is the "spawning" radius of ai traffic. I quote the relavent part here:

" These lights then are tracked as soon as an aircraft enters the reality bubble, which means in average is less than 150 miles away. While they are nicely visible over a long distance of up to 15 miles, they need CPU power and affect frame rate even 150 miles away. Simple example, place 500 aircraft with 20 lights this way each into Paris - and the frame rate at London is down to one per second. "

It clearly identifies that the spawining radius can be as far as 150 miles and he states that traffic ai in Paris can effect your fps/stutters/performance as far away as Heathrow.

I thought i would share this info, which may well be nothing new to some readers, but will help those that were not aware of the huge impact ai can have on your sim's performance. It is all very well having set your traffic slider to have reasonable traffic activity at your departure airport but note that it will influemce your flight performance throughout, especially in areas where there are several large airports within 150 mile radius, like Heathrow/Gatwick/Birmingham/Paris.

I overcome this problem by using the freebie AirTraffic Manager which i have set to only have 40 planes active in the radius. This may sound relatively low but remember that your radius is constantly evolving as you fly. The result is that I always have traffic activity within my evolving radius but it is managed and has very little performance impact, resulting in a smooth flight, pretty good fps, and plenty of traffic

[Dadtom65]

Hi jjaycee1. That sounds like a good idea, is there any chance the free program would work with Ultimate Traffic 2. I suppose the only way is to see if it works. Thanks. Derek.

[Voyager]

What's this free addon?

 

Voyager

[petfy]

UT2 is set to 100km, but you can set how many aircraft spawn within this area.

[Jon Clarke]

Dadtom65: I do not know for certain as UT is not a programme I am familiar with in P3D. However MT6 is also a standalone programme as I believe is UT, but MT6 does require an entry into the scenery library, but does not put traffic bgl's into scenery\world\scenery. I think it will work and advise you just try it. It will not have an adverse effect if it doesn't.

Voyager: the freebie is AirTraffic Manager http://www.mediafire.com/download/zmdftsy127jgux2/AirTrafficManagerFSX-P3D_Radar.zip

Just as an aside I can give examples of where it keeps all the traffic at your departure airport so loads of activity, but it will have deleted hundreds of flights within the 150 mile radius, thus allowing you very good fps/smoothness throughout your flight. There wil be times when you get a few stutters as it is "optimizing" as you travel, but these are only microseconds.

I attach a pic of my sim at EGBB-Birmingham UK with 100% AI setting. FPS is down to 15 but lots of Traffic.

2nd pic is where I enabled AirTraffic manager and you will note it deleted 617 ai flights and my fps is 28

[Voyager]

Thank you very much! I'll go it a try!

 

Cheers,

Voyager

[Guest]

Could this help with my OOM's do you think JJaycee?  As they seem to occur as I'm approaching Birmingham.   Or should I just cut down my 75% Traffic setting generally?

 

John

[Jon Clarke]

I think they will definitely help JohnY. I say that because sometimes at very busy airports I will get a  P3D crash prior to the chosen location/flight finishing loading and get the "Program has stopped working" notice and it is because while loading the flight with 100% AI it proves too much for the system. That is because AirTraffic manager has not yet acivated and had time to optimize and delete many flights. The thing to try is to start the flight with lower traffic settings so that your sim starts your flight and ATManager has had time to optimize, then set your traffic higher. This will allow ATManager to further optimize the new traffic setting and all should be good. I often just pause the flight and click on Optimize to ensure all is working OK  when I am approaching another busy area,and I don't get too congested. The Optimization is set to auto but just in case it doesn't do it in time, I pause and click on Optimize just to make sure. This "click on optimize" is microseconds by the way so does not interfere with the flight in anyway, so will not spoil your experience by delaying things in flight.

As you say you get OOM's approaching EGBB my picture example is very accurate for you. It was taken at EGBB,It deleted 617 flights that were in that 150 mile radius which would certainly effect your system and "possibly/probably" contribute to your memory failure (not YOU but the systems memory !!!)

[Guest]

Thanks for that info JJaycee.

 

I've downloaded it and got it into the scenery library but I got the message it could not be found in the cfg.  I tried to stick it in there but neither the traffic Manager cfg or the whole file would paste in there.  You couldn't give me a rundown on the steps for this could you?

 

Many thanks

[Jon Clarke]

I will PM you shortly.

[Dave_YVR]

 The load brought on by AI to the VAS is often much lower than people think. I guess it depends on what each user thinks is big or small, I've got a fully custom AI setup that doesn't skimp on models or quality of repaints and the VAS differences between no AI and up to 150 AI is often 100-200mb. Sure I can get to areas that has 400-600 AI, but that still only see a vas increase of 200-300mb. Some may say that is too much or alot, but imo having the AI is just as integral to the sim as having good airport or region scenery as it plays such a large role with the overall immersion. MyT6 users should see lower vas numbers as the models and repaints aren't nearly as detailed.

[TigerTigerM]

I use Air Traffic Manager & it has helped a lot around busy areas as regards reducing the FPS impact of AI traffic.

Sometimes there can be up to 225 AI aircraft in a big city region  "bubble"

I usually have  it set at 85 aircraft & run it before setting off on any flight.

Open FSX, set up the flight, minimize FSX, open ATM, hit Refresh, then Optimize.

Minimize ATM, open out FSX & get ready to take off.

TTM

 

[Jon Clarke]

Good point Dave_YVR, but since I have never really suffered from OOM I cannot really comment. All my settings are are at Ultra except for Vegetation at normal. AI is 100% and that is the only time that the Ultra settings + 100%ai has caused what may have been an OOM, but it was at the point where the loading of the flight was taking place. It got to Loading aircraft etc and then crashed at about 96% of loading. The ai started to load at 86%. It may not have been an OOM but something else. I never saw the "error" details to find out. I just set the ai to a slightly lower setting and it loaded fine next time round.

 

[FalconAF]

Not related to OOM's, but a large number of AI in a "reality bubble" that also includes many airports with moving jetways at the gates can trash even a respectable frame rate.  In UT2 I know there is a setting to disable the moving jetways if you want to.  I can't remember how you would or could do it for MyTraffic right now.  But you could have airports in your reality bubble you can't even see from where you are, and FSX will still be "processing" the moving gates at them for AI traffic at them.