Load Times

[Dennis Waggoner]

I have several hundred dollars of Addon Orbx Scenerys Which all worked fine in FSX. Reinstalled Windows 10 and did a clean install of Prepar3d 4.5 and then added Orbx scenerys.. Isolating problems I discovered that If I load the Orbx Librarary files my load times go from 30 sec up to10 minutes. If remove the library back down to 30 secs. This is 100% repeatable

I tried everything I can deleated prepar3d.cfg, scenery.cfg, Terrian.chg. Shaders folder and noting helps.

I have disable antimalware and acronis services, 

I have 2, NvMe Drives That my operating system is on one and the other is dedicated to Prepar3d,

I have a Intel I7=9700k running 5300 and a Asus Rog Strix RTX 2060 video card. 
All settings are maxed out except water and My frames never dip below 30FPS even in heavest secenery load.
If I wait for Orbx library and all other Orbx Scenerys that I own to load there is no impact of FPS
The sim starts load slow at 70% and speeds back up at 80%

This is unacceptable, This same problem is being duplicated across the internet with your scenery, I do not need someone to tell me to reduce settings,
Any help would be appreciatied

[Chris.D]

Hi Dennis,  Unfortunately you have come up against a characteristic, flaw, limitation, that is a carry-over from FSX days. P3D, like FSX, scans almost every file in the simulator during startup, the more files, the longer it takes.

 

There is a solution, I had written a small utility program for FSX years ago and it works equally as well with P3Dv4.

 

A few days ago there was a discussion here on this forum, https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/189262-only-wish-to-load-certain-Orbx-files-from-library-after-migration/?tab=comments#comment-1638499 , I had gone to my other computer where I do my work, to get the old software, but when I got back here, Nick had closed off the thread, so that's where we are now.

 

There will be comments that will present solutions, like disabling scenery areas etc, but they will not prevent the simulator from scanning every file it knows about.

 

I explained it all in that other thread. Would be a good idea to read the thread from the top.

 

Chris.

 

 

 

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello Chris,

there is nothing to stop you adding a link your small utility program for FSX to this topic if you feel that you want to.

 

In a nutshell, it seems that if a scenery area is in a scenery.cfg or add-ons.cfg file, whether disabled or not,

P3D v4 will scan and index all of its files.

This does take a very long time. Typically, with the whole Orbx catalogue active in the scenery.cfg file and using an HDD,

I see an initial loading time at the beginning of a day of around 10 to 15 minutes.

 

In the same nutshell, if there is no scenery library entry at all for any scenery area then P3D v4 is totally unaware of

its existence and does not therefore scan or index its files.

 

For this reason, it is wise to use separate scenery.cfg files for separate files with the scenery that is not used missing

rather than disabled, if loading times are important to you.

 

Although I do not use it, I imagine that the same rule applies to the add-ons.cfg file, which is nothing more complex

than an alternative way to show the installed files to P3D v4.

 

It is also my experience that the second time that P3D v4 is loaded, the loading time is very much shorter, presumably

because it does not need to scan and index all the same files again.

If one is making tests to establish a theory, then each time a new configuration is used, a new scan will take place.

 

 

[Chris.D]

Nick, Unfortunately my little program is not suited to everyone's computer, in as much as the program doesn't know where all the files are located on each individual computer.

But, it is really easy to make up a batch file to suit each individual computer once you know the principal of how it works.

First, you have to make a bunch of folders in the root of c: drive so the batch file can locate them along with the Program Data\Lockheed Martin folder.

Name the new folders with the areas in which you want to fly.

Now make up a bunch of "Scenery.cfg" files, one for each area in which you want to fly and save it in its respective folder.  I use Scenery Config Editor to do this.

It is best to make a "basic" scenery.cfg and an "all areas" file so you can get back to known states if something goes wrong.

 

Now, the batch file, you may like to make one for each area, or if you are OK at writing batch files, you can combine all operations into one.

But, simply, the batch file has to delete the Scenery.cfg in Program Data\Lockheed Martin (etc) and then copy the Scenery.cfg from your area folder to the Program Data folder.  Heck, if you wanted to, you could do this manually, but it is a lot of messing around.

 

I just tested this again just now, with all areas installed but only Australia v2, and Hervey Bay set as active, 5 minutes, 15 seconds from double click on desktop icon to Scenario panel. Now, with all scenery layers deleted out of the Scenery.cfg file, except Australiav2 , Hervey Bay, and of course the default layers,  8 seconds to Scenario panel.

 

One could go down the "re naming" path but you could run up against file permissions etc so I figured ,for me, simple is better.

 

Maybe some of the Kids out there might like to take this up, give them something to do, I'm getting too old now for this, I just want to go flying.

 

Here is a little sample.

 

@echo off
c:
cd c:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\
del Scenery.cfg
c:
cd c:\Europe\
copy Scenery.cfg c:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4
exit
 

 

Chris.

[Nick Cooper]

5 minutes ago, Chris.D said:

Now make up a bunch of "Scenery.cfg" files, one for each area in which you want to fly and save it in its respective folder.  I use Scenery Config Editor to do this.

It is best to make a "basic" scenery.cfg and an "all areas" file so you can get back to known states if something goes wrong.

 

Hello Chris,

I have been using the SCE since its first release.

The key in these discussions is to stop P3D from indexing everything and of course if there is no trace in a scenery.cfg file,

P3D cannot possibly waste time indexing it.

 

I have been advocating the use of saved scenery.cfg files for years but instead of naming them all as scenery.cfg, I save them as

for example:

sceneryDEFAULT.cfg, the "baseline" you refer to"

SceneryEVERYWHERE.cfg, as the name suggests and useful for Little Navmap Database building.

sceneryWESTERNEUROPE.cfg and so on.

 

Each one has only the scenery in it that is needed for that area.

Nothing else and no disabled entries.

 

To change between them, open SCE, then "Open other", select the one to use and "Save as" scenery.cfg.

No need for batch files, special folders or any other software.

 

Of course the use of the add-ons.cfg method sabotages this but I gather that Simstarter can do much the same thing to the add-ons.cfg file, as

the Lorby tool probably can as well. My own personal solution is to carry on installing into the P3D v4 folder.

[Chris.D]

Agreed Nick, All you have to do is to stop the sim from seeing the areas you don't want loaded.

Yes, I have been at this for a long time too, even did the the Complete Hervey Bay airport here after they did the expansion to take the 737's in 2005 and that was for FS 2004 A Century of Flight.

Of course I had to buy Orbx Hervey Bay the day it came out !

Chris.