RESOLVED Seatac fps

[PaulS]

I've got FSX running pretty beautifully right now.  i7 930 @ 4ghz, 6GB ram, 285 nvidia card.

I limit frames to 27 and use Jesus' BP tweaks.  I'm Scenery ED and AG VD.  LOD Med.  BP = 0.  High x2 water.  This is Win 7, pro 64bit.

At e.g. Aerosoft's H'row, and UK2000's EGCC, and FSDT's Geneva/JFK I get 25-27 frames rock solid.  No stutters.  Ever.

I get the same at PNW outside the main airports.  27 fps with barely a blip.  Some blurries, sure, but with high AG you don't notice.  Stutters are a thing of the past.

So my question is this:  why, at Seatac, do I get 10fps max?  It is not a "payware standard" airport.  It's not as good as any of the above-mentioned.  No comparison in detail.  I have ground traffic moving around in Geneva, and still get my 27fps minimum.  Seatac is nice, sure, but I'm sure you'll agree it's not a patch on the airports you pay 50% of the price of PNW for, nor should anyone expect it to be.

The killer is this: at all the other airports, I run My Traffic X at 70%.  Still, 27fps no problem.  Planes all over the place.

I've turned AI down to 10% at Seatac - and I get an improvement - to 11/12fps!  A fraction of the planes, but still crap fps.

I am happy to put this into perspective: 90% of my PNW experience is just amazing.  Fluid, stutter-less, gorgeous to look at.  I don't for a minute regret my investment, and frankly I'd say it's a keeper even if twice as many airports were so fps-unfriendly.

But it is odd, I think you'll agree, given my experience elsewhere.  Am I missing something?  It is odd, to me, that I'm now getting great fps at some really complex places, and poor fps at what I regard as pretty ordinary airports.

As so often, it may be that I'm missing something!  User error accounts for most of the problems I see, so I'm happy to admit I've screwed up, if that's the answer.

Any help much appreciated.

Order: FSS0053395

[Guest simtechdave]

Just out of curiousity... are the frame rates the same approaching runway 16L as approaching 34R?  The difference being that heading north towards 34R you will also have KBFI, KRTN and even KPAE in your field of view, each with their own AI traffic.  Heading south as you pass over KBFI towards 16L you would have only KSEA when you're approx 5nm from TD.

Just a thought.

[PaulS]

Just rebooted and tried again.

Now getting 20fps.

Damn.

I can accept a small decrease in fps given the overall improvement in PNW detail.

Think I've answered my own question... Sorry to trouble you!  I will double-check, to look at the direction issue.

Mind you, I would like to see what an optimised Seatac does - given the great framerates available in some of the detailed payware now available.

Edit: happy to have the title amended to "solved" or "sorted" - just don't know how to do it.

[John Venema]

We have a quite substantial APX (AFCAD) update coming for KSEA in an upcoming service pack for PNW. It won't improve FPS but it will render the airport to 2010 currency.

[macca22au]

For Heaven's Sake knock that water setting way back.  It'll cripple you.  I am running an i7 at only 3.6 OC but have no problems at SEATAC but there is a lot of water around which is being rendered 2x through your vidcard and using grunt from your very impressive OC CPU.

Me, I happily use mid 1x, and don't feel deprived.  At least try low 2x

[Phil Manhart]

For Heaven's Sake knock that water setting way back.  It'll cripple you.  I am running an i7 at only 3.6 OC but have no problems at SEATAC but there is a lot of water around which is being rendered 2x through your vidcard and using grunt from your very impressive OC CPU.

Me, I happily use mid 1x, and don't feel deprived.  At least try low 2x

Ian has a great point here, with my old system going from High-2x to Mid-2x gained me 10 FPS in Seattle. Give it a shot, you might like it.

Phil

[PaulS]

Nope, the water changes make very little difference.

I drop from a steady 27fps to 20/21/22 when only the airport is in view.  So e.g. looking east from the runways, to the terminals.  No significant water bodies in sight.

If I head west, towards the water, I am back to 26/7, steady.

As a test, I reduced water to Mid1.x - I am still seeing 21 or so around the terminal buildings.  Naturally, heading West towards the wet stuff I'm rock-solid at 27 and could probably crank up my limiter.

But the test is clear: it's looking at the airport buildings that cripples my fps, not the water.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Edit: I do get an improvement by moving SC & AG each down a notch, to VD & D respectively.  I now just load an appropriate Seatac/Urban or Rural graphics setup, depending what I plan.  Water I seem to be able to keep pretty high, whatever.

[Phil Manhart]

How about lowering AI settings?

[PaulS]

See my 1st post - I've dropped 70% (at e.g. Geneva) to 10% at Seatac - with My Traffic X I really ought not to have to go below 10%.  And frankly I don't think the AI's a big issue - in some places I see little difference by moving the AI slider by 50 % points.

But to be clear: with SD/AG reductions, I'm getting fps I can live with.  Not as nice as elsewhere, but not so bad that I'm whingeing.  I was really worried when I dropped to 10fps.  As my 2nd post points out, I've sorted that.  I guess I was just spoiled with my fps elsewhere, and forgot to tweak appropriately for the denser parts of PNW.

Still, thanks for the suggestions.  Don't want to sound ungrateful!  

[Phil Manhart]

Here's a great idea (something that has been mentioned long ago but a forgotten feature of FSX).

At the main options screen:

1) Select the Settings Menu and then at the bottom of the Display Options sliders are two buttons, Save and Load.

2) Select Save with your current profile

3) Navigate with Windows Explorer to your "C:\Users\User Name\My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\" folder.

4) Within that folder will be a *.cfg file with the name that you selected at step 2.

5) Open the *.cfg file with Notepad and edit it as you would your fsx.cfg file.

6) Save the file with a certain name like VFR/IFR/Urban/Seattle/YBBN/Rural etc.

You can then load the .cfg file IN FLIGHT when approaching a dense urban area and then load another when leaving.

[img width=1028 height=700]http://i40.tinypic.com/rtmd15.jpg

It can really save frustration with low framerates in town but framerates that skyrocket outside of town.

Just an idea!

Phil