ANSWERED Question about performance with the add-on packs

[JonP01]

Hi there,

I have come back to flightsimming after a 5 year break and was quite astounded to see how far the available add-ons have come in the last 5 years. The reason I stopped 5 years ago was that my computer at the time could not run the out-of-the-box FSX - but my current computer can run it without any problems at all now.

I am thinking about getting a large number of ORBX payware products, so although my question thus far only applies to freeware (since that is the limit of my present experience), I would apreciate it if the answers could take into account the payware products as well, since I am hoping the principles behind the performance of the add-ons are essentially the same or similar. My specific interests are the regional airports in Australia and the regional airports in the North-Western US.

Over the last couple of days, I downloaded and installed a number of the freeware airports, including most of the Australian ones and the US-based 2S1. When I downloaded and installed these airports, I did not install anything else whatsoever - so no orbx libraries and no AU or PNW terrain demos. After installing the airports, I was very happy with the resulting system performance. This included the stand-alone download of YMLT (Launceston) which I later noted was included in the AU Blue demo.

So, with very good performance with both the 2S1 and Australian freeware, I decided to try the AU Blue demo. This time around, at YMLT, I got unacceptable performance with significant slow-downs to the point where the airport was not flyable (it cut my fps in half or even more at times). This occured even after reducing all the AI sliders to 0. Once I was a few miles clear of the airport in the AU blue demo and not looking back at it, performance was fine again. I then tried another scenario where I uninstalled all the orbx products and just reinstalled the original YMLT download together with the orbx libraries. This time round, the performance was once again as poor at YMLT as it was with the AU Blue demo. I saw similar issues at 2S1 (i.e lowered performance with either orbx libraries or PNW terrain demo installed, but the slowdowns were not as dramatic). And to reiterate, I had no problems with the airports just installed by themselves only.

I am guessing the slowdowns might have something to do with additional objects being included with the orbx libraries and the terrain demos that do not exist with the standalone airport installations. For example, at YMLT, I saw a large number of parked cars that were not there when the airport was installed stand-alone.

So based on all of that, I have a few questions, and again, please bear in mind I am looking to buy the payware products so I am really more concerned about those, since I already know what the freeware is like. Firstly then, is it actually possible to buy the standalone airports that I mentioned in my first paragraph, without installing either the orbx libraries or the terrain (or at the vert least, disabling the orbx libraries via the FSX GUI)? I realise by doing this that I am going to be missing a number of objects and functionality and there will be road and blending issues, etc, but notwithstanding all of that, will the products actually run and be basically functional without falling over or crashing, etc? Secondly, is the fps of the payware airports similar to the freeware ones, or are the payware ones generally worse? And finally, is the poor performance I am getting configurable were I to install the orbx libraries and terrain packs? For instance, I see that YMLT is tweakable, though for some reason the tweak options are not functional in either the AU Blue demo nor the YMLT free download. But the tweak options for 2S1 for example (which I am able to access), only extend to the airshow and tree seasons, so nothing there to actually improve performance.

The bottom line is I would much rather buy the standalone airports and install them without the terrain and orbx libraries, at least knowing that if they won't actually crash the sim, I can always add the libraries and terrain once current state-of-the-art Core i7 processors become mainstream at a mainstream price.

My system comprises Core i7 965, GTX580 graphics, 6 gigs triple channel RAM, Corsair solid state hard drive and Windows 7 64 bit. Nothing is overclocked and everything is completely up to date. With vanilla FSX and with the standalone airports installed only I was able to maintain 60 fps. But with the orbx libraries and terrain installed, in precisely the same scenarios the performance could drop down as low as 20 fps, which for me is unfortunately no where near acceptable (though I appreciate and understand others might not be bothered by this). I have always favoured performance over eye candy, but in this instance, no matter how far left I put the silders, the performance was very poor in comparison to the airports just installed on their own. I have nothing else installed in FSX - just the orbx freeware and payware demos.

[Jlebesis]

Hi there,

I'm not sure if anyone has replied to you just yet, but just wanted to add a very quick note here.

I too have a powerful system, and some of the airports even now I can hardly run without switching off some of the animations on the airport control panel, or I get unacceptable frame rates. This is no reflection on the actual quality of the airport, as it looks amazing.

A quick point I just want to make is, although your system is powerful, and you have a great processor and Graphics card. Unless you overclock your Cpu, you will never see good results in FSX. I cannot emphasise this enough!! FSX is very CPU heavy...moreso than the graphics card. Yes, the card is very important, but when I started overclocking my cpu's a few years back, I couldn't believe the improvements I got..and didnt have to make compromises anymore. (Please note, there are many ways to 'Tweak' fsx to run better, check out and google forums on how to edit the .CFG file. This alone will give you some great results, as well as the overclock)

I hope this gives you some clarity, as I am passionate about everyone being able to enjoy FSX to the fullest. If you havent overclocked before, please dont be intimidated by it. FSX was reason enough for me to learn how

Let us know how you go with it all.

All the best!

John

[Ian Routley]

Unfortunately, the original posters question got a little lost in the midst of the discussion on performance.

To run the scenery properly at density levels you will need a reasonable clock speed, which generally means the CPU needs to be overclocked. At stock clock speeds the i7 chips don;t meet their performance potential.

If you don't install ORBXLibraries you can still run the scenery, but your FPS will be better because a large amount of it is missing. To my mind that defeats the purpose.

ORBX scenery is extremely detailed, and with region packs the single biggest effect on performance is from the autogen slider density.

In fact, with this well to the left the sim displays comparable amounts of autogen to "default" FSX (ie not very much at all) .. and I find that FPS are comparable. The visuals are less appealing, obviously.

As a guide, I can use FTX regions at full settings ... non CBD areas ... 100FPS ... dense regionals 60-80 FPS.

This drops variably with airports, depending on which one we are talking about.

In the end, we each need to make decisions based on what is important for us. No-one can really do that for you.

[Jlebesis]

Hi Ian, thanks for adding to the thread, great to see some feedback on it.

Wow sounds like you get some great frames, I can't complain myself

May I ask what system you are running?

Many thanks!

[Ian Routley]

in signature

[Jlebesis]

in signature

Thanks Ian, great system, almost Identical to mine..that 480 superclocked is amazing..I clocked it even further by putting it on water. I dont have the fast SSD's or Raptors. Might be a next investment!

John