YMML Performance and texture Hotfix (updated 19/8/08)

[John Venema]

I'm pleased to say that the testers now have a hotfix for YMML in testing which provides for some FPS improvements and also greatly improves the texture loading performance.

Stay tuned for more info - can't promise too much until this has been very carefully tested.

UPDATE: See my most recent post below - we're probably not going to release this now.

[---]

Maybe you can't promise too much, but this DOES sound promising.

I wanted to give up today and in a desperate attempt I started random intentional file deleting.

My FTXAA_YMML scenery folder is now down to  88MB (deleted eg the 15cm 604MB bgl foto)

The FTXAA_YMML texture folder is now down to 232MB (deleted ALL files except .agn and poly_xxx.dds)

Still the same problemsSigh.

I'm looking very much forward to an improvement as I'm working on a few australian repaints for the aerosoft twin otter and the BAe Hawk

Regards and I'm keeping my fingers crossed

Bernt

[John Venema]

Bernt, deleting files from the YMML folders will do very little but cause a lot of missing and grey textures to appear in the sim. Please wait until the hotfix has been tested and I am sure you will find some improvements, but again, this may not solve all your particular issues on your PC.

[John Venema]

I have just finished testing the newest build of the patch and my FPS over the main terminal has almost doubled, plus all texture loading issues are gone (there was a slight delay for the maintenance hangars), and I have textures on FTX AI aircraft 100% of the time. I think you will like this patch

Explanation: In the final week of development, something went wrong with our compile scripts for the textures, and instead of them all being forced to consistent resolution and DXT1 (where that is applicable), we had a combination of all sorts of resolutions and compression methods. I have fixed the compiler script, manually checked all texture quality and we now have consistent textures across the entire airport.

Even though I have not had performance issues on my dev laptop, this patch is making YMML even smoother for me, and it loads much faster as well.

I could probably even get more performance out of the patch if I get a bit more ruthless with the textures, but I don't want to lose too much quality. Let's see how this goes first ok?

I take full blame for this boo-boo (must have been the final 72 hours straight I was cramming for release), but I think you will all benefit from the patch which I hope to release tomorrow ok?

[Rusty073]

Your only human

Shane

[Matthew Webb]

And what a human!     

Thanks for the upcoming patch.  I'm sure it'll be a hit.

[Gurdy]

John

Full cred to you for taking the issues that people have had seriously even though you were not experiencing them yourself. Once again your support for your product exceeds all expectations. You guys run an extremely professional outfit, and this is why Orbx products have to be considered the best in the FS business.

Look forward to this patch letting me go back to 15cm poly's instead of FSX native

Cheers

Craig.

[John Venema]

Well there's a price to pay for using this patch - you will be seeing a lot lower resolution textures on all the buildings to gain some FPS. Nothing comes for free, and our original design spec was for very high resolution textures everywhere, so this patch moves us a little "away" from our original goals. So consider this patch a "band-aid" and a temporary fix.

So the caution which comes with this patch is that it's not meant for everyone to install, but more for lower-mid spec PC customers who are suffering from texture loading and blurries. We will also be including a strong recommendation to backup the texture directory of YMML before installing this patch.

SP1 is a whole different story. We are working to reduce the actual amount of texture calls over the whole airport. We can do this by reducing the texture sizes for non-core buildings (all ATC, firestation, landside terminals, freight terminals etc) to 512x512 and then combining those sheets onto single 1024's to minimise the texture calls across models. This will have the same effect as the above patch, but will preserve the quality of the textures on the airside concourses and terminals, where we feel that the higher resolution needs to be preserved.

[Gurdy]

Well i will try it out .. see the difference but as suggested back up the directory.... If I am not happy I can just roll back and wait for SP1

[LBPN]

Any chance, we'll try the hotfix anytime soon? Sorry for being anxious.

[John Venema]

We may not release it now, since our ongoing testing is proving inconclusive and the loss of texture quality is pretty bad. My initial enthusiam was shortlived (yes, there was a gain in FPS), but it's not consistent. We have already started on the performance tuning strategy in place for SP1, and that is probably going to give you a lot more performance whilst keeping the texture quality intact. We will also include a fully FSX SP2 native gmax poly version in SP1, which avoids the FS2002 "hack" completely.

Sorry for the false alarm. I announced this prematurely, but we won't release anything unless it's proven to provide real benefits. I hope you understand.

In the meantime, try setting Texture Resolution to either 30cm, 60cm or 1m and let me know if you get any performance improvements. I know it contradicts my User Manual settings, but we're getting pretty good results with just moving that slider to the left, and it does not affect the gmax poly or Native mode textures at all.

[LBPN]

Ok I understand. I'm waiting for the SP1 then.

I did set Texture Resolution to 60cm-1m but unfortunately I don't get too much of an improvement.In the meantime I got used with 13-15FPS over YMML area. The only thing that bothers me though, is that I get very bad stuttering when flying normal and at turns, but only when facing to the airport buildings. I suspect there has to be some video driver settings, I let the driver run at default settings. If anyone knows some driver tweaks I will appreciate.I tried playing with nHancer but things only got worse.

Also, I updated the video driver to a newer beta 177.83, and it seems to have gained 2-3FPS(now running 13-15 when flying above the airport, 15-17 when on ground). I have a GTX260 card. Is anyone with the same card having the same problems? Cause I suspect it may have some driver issue, although I'm not having any problem with the rest of FTX. All smooth.