active P3D 4.4 and TE GB South- FYI

[Tim K]

After doing some flying, I felt the need to report a few of my findings and confirmations of other things I have read on this forum regarding TE GB South for P3dv4. 

Again, as I have said before, it is a beautiful product, when loaded. I love the thought and the effort! So, thank you!

 

That being said, I am still having significant issues, mainly with the "scenery complexity" slider. 

After the update to 1.1, I decided to do a little more testing. I shut every bit of scenery off around the world using Scenery Config except what was needed plus GB South. Long story short, I tested both in London (taking off at London City and flying west toward Heathrow) and in rural England flying towards Southampton, each with similar results.

 

First, I used a scenery profile I had created, took off and was getting terrible frames (8-12) with bad stutters. So, I decided to push all settings almost fully left. In so doing, I could get a steady locked 30 fps and buttery smooth... but poor looking without any scenery. So, since I had issues before with it, I decided to turn only the "scenery complexity" slider up 1 notch, from "sparse" to "normal" and bam, terrible performance. Over London, with pretty much every other slider pushed full left (1 notch above "off"), just moving the "Scenery Complexity" slider from "sparse" to "normal" and it dropped my fps from a locked, smooth 30 to a choppy, terrible mess at about 8-10 fps. My gpu also went from running at about 60% to maxed out, 100%. Also, visually, it went from next to no buildings to all the buildings off into the distance. Basically, it seems like either the buildings tied to the "scenery complexity" slider are either all on ("normal" and above) or they are all off (sparse). 

 

So, I decided to flip the script so to speak. I shifted almost all the sliders full right (maxed out) but moved the "scenery complexity" slider back to "sparse." Over London, with everything else maxed out except the scenery complexity, I got a locked, smooth 30 fps. I had identical results over Southampton except not quite as extreme in the fps.

 

So, there still seems to be something wrong with the "Scenery Complexity" slider when it comes to TE GB South. Is anyone else seeing that? 

 

On a 2nd note, I have not done a flight to test the texture loading yet but that was terrible for me before this update. Even with a locked, smooth 30fps, flying at about 120 kts, the ground textures couldn't keep up. I tried Nick's settings, JV's settings, and my own settings. None of them could cure the slow texture loading. I'll have to test this again...

 

So, for now, TE GB South will be deactivated and I won't be buying any more TE products, especially if they don't incorporate seasons.

I'm guessing part of the problem is my graphics card (only a 960 4 GB) since it is absolutely maxed out with the "scenery complexity" turned any higher than "sparse." I'll take ownership of that. But, there does seem to be an issue with the "scenery complexity" slider and there continues to be an issue with the texture loading...

So, Orbx, please take this more as feedback to hopefully help nail down some of the issues. If you have thoughts or suggestions, by all means, let me know! 

 

Again, I love what you do for the flightsim community! You consistently produce great products, many of which I own and enjoy. So please keep up that good work. But a little help in these areas would be appreciated...

[Tim K]

If this is more of a "General Discussion" topic, feel free to move it there

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

you could try disabling the FTX_GBS_3DM files.

Secondly, the Southampton area is not rural at all, try the Welsh hills perhaps if you want rural

or Cornwall.

[kaha]

5 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

...

you could try disabling the FTX_GBS_3DM files....

To improve framerate near or at London deactivating just 3 .bgl files can be sufficient, depending on settings:

 

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_1.bgl

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_3.bgl

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51p000_2.bgl

[Christopher Low]

Thanks, Kaha. That is useful information.

[Tim K]

12 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

you could try disabling the FTX_GBS_3DM files.

Thanks Nick. How do you do that? 

 

12 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

Secondly, the Southampton area is not rural at all, try the Welsh hills perhaps if you want rural

or Cornwall.

Right, I understand that. What I was referencing was other rural flights. For example, I did a flight from EGGW Luton to EGGF Cardiff in a Mooney Bravo. The frames were locked at 30, the sim was smooth, the "v" number was hovering just above 0 (0.2-0.8 normally) but the ground textures would still get blurry. I can post screenshots to show you.

[Tim K]

7 hours ago, kaha said:

To improve framerate near or at London deactivating just 3 .bgl files can be sufficient, depending on settings:

 

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_1.bgl

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_3.bgl

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51p000_2.bgl

Thanks kaha. I'll give it a shot. How do I deactivate them? I'm not terribly verses in adjusting and changing files... but am willing to learn.

[kaha]

Just add something like ".off" to the end of the filename:

 

"FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_1.bgl"  ---->  "FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_1.bgl.off"

 

 

[Tim K]

5 hours ago, kaha said:

Just add something like ".off" to the end of the filename:

 

"FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_1.bgl"  ---->  "FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_1.bgl.off"

Cool. Thanks! I'll give it a try when I have time.

[carlosqr]

Hi Nick

Question about BGLS that we set as off.

 

If an update happens for a product in which we have put Bgls to off, when FTX Central does the scan, does it put them back as on after all the process is done?

 

I mean, as the process looks for missing files does it consider the ones put as off as missing and therefore will add them again or not?

 

I asked because I once put some bgls off in Liberia airport, and someday strangely I found again the default and third party airport mixed. I went  back to ORBX folder and searched for the bgls and found both, the ones off and again the same bgls on... Put then off too and all fixed.

 

So I think an update or so should have caused this.

 

Does this happen with TrueEarth products and regions as well?

 

Thank you

 

Carlos

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

if you change the file structure of a product and then run FTX Central to verify or

update the product, FTX Central will see the files as missing and replace them.

[Triplane]

For me, turning off those BGL files was like magic. See my comments here:

 

 

[carlosqr]

12 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

Hello,

if you change the file structure of a product and then run FTX Central to verify or

update the product, FTX Central will see the files as missing and replace them.

Thank you

Fortunately I had True Netherlands without FT yet when the update

 

Noted on the procedure

Thanks

 

Carlos

[carlosqr]

11 hours ago, Triplane said:

For me, turning off those BGL files was like magic. See my comments here:

 

 

 

read, thanks

[kernel32]

Same here, much better performance but what is in those files? Obviously something rather large...

[kaha]

 

As far as my tests revealed (I checked all single FTX_GBS_3DM_*.bgl files):

 

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_1.bgl:

 

London NorthWest

 

 

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51m001_3.bgl:

 

London SouthWest, direction EGLL

 

 

FTX_GBS_3DM_p51p000_2.bgl:

 

East of London

 

 

Those are the most demanding when flying in the vicinity of London.

 

Karl

[Tim K]

On 3/29/2019 at 4:33 AM, Triplane said:

For me, turning off those BGL files was like magic. See my comments here:

Turning off those files definitely made a big difference. Frames increased significantly (from 10ish and very sluggish up to 30-40). But still, over London, I get times were P3d bogs down and frames drop to the upper teens before rebounding. The frames were constantly swinging from 15ish up to 35-40. Also, within 2 minutes of takeoff, I get blurry ground textures...

 

On 3/29/2019 at 4:33 AM, Triplane said:

For me, turning off those BGL files was like magic. See my comments here:

Triplane, the numbers you mention in that other post are crazy. We have almost identical systems but I can't get anywhere close to those numbers and that performance, especially between London City and Heathrow. You were using JV's settings for those tests? 

[Tim K]

Here is what I was talking about with the "Scenery Complexity" Slider. These shots are using JV's Settings, before turning off the above mentioned bgl files and only adjusting the "Scenery Complexity" Slider.

 

"Scenery Complexity" set to "Extremely Dense."

 

"Scenery Complexity" set to "Very Dense"

 

"Scenery Complexity" set to "Normal" 

 

"Scenery Complexity" set to "Sparse" 

 

To my eye, the first 3 are identical. But between "normal" and "sparse," there is a drastic difference.

Does anyone else have this? 

 

[Triplane]

3 hours ago, Tim K said:

Turning off those files definitely made a big difference. Frames increased significantly (from 10ish and very sluggish up to 30-40). But still, over London, I get times were P3d bogs down and frames drop to the upper teens before rebounding. The frames were constantly swinging from 15ish up to 35-40. Also, within 2 minutes of takeoff, I get blurry ground textures...

 

Triplane, the numbers you mention in that other post are crazy. We have almost identical systems but I can't get anywhere close to those numbers and that performance, especially between London City and Heathrow. You were using JV's settings for those tests? 

Yes, I was using JV's settings........

[carlosqr]

14 hours ago, Tim K said:

Here is what I was talking about with the "Scenery Complexity" Slider. These shots are using JV's Settings, before turning off the above mentioned bgl files and only adjusting the "Scenery Complexity" Slider.

 

"Scenery Complexity" set to "Extremely Dense."

 

"Scenery Complexity" set to "Very Dense"

 

"Scenery Complexity" set to "Normal" 

 

"Scenery Complexity" set to "Sparse" 

 

To my eye, the first 3 are identical. But between "normal" and "sparse," there is a drastic difference.

Does anyone else have this? 

 

 

Your pictures are great I don't see any difference among the three firsts either. I'll try that

Where are JV's settings, recommendations, pls?

 

Thanks

 

Carlos

 

[Tim K]

12 hours ago, carlosqr said:

Your pictures are great I don't see any difference among the three firsts either. I'll try that

Where are JV's settings, recommendations, pls?

Thanks Carlos! 

Here's what John posted.

 

[carlosqr]

Thank you Tim

[lakim395]

i have installed the latest TE update for england south and now in the bay south of raf valley off coast near caernfon is a large patch of square land  with trees and building on it which wasn't there before