Editorial/Rant. Yes, I said it, FSX owns me... Now this obviously isn’t a literal statement, but more of a commentary as to how FSX limitations have defined my flying habits instead of my own personal preferences. So what does this mean you ask, well, let me dig a little bit deeper. Once upon a time I had aspirations of flying “tubeliners” into complex sceneries with questionable weather and heavy traffic; in fact, I purchased two grossly overpriced computers with this in mind.
Let’s take a look at my downfall to my present virtual flying habits.
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Fail #1: Several years ago I bought a near top of the line gaming computer to be completely dedicated to FSX. My intention was to fly advanced “tubeliners” throughout Orbx Australia simulating airline type operations. Sounds good doesn’t it? Once I received my new computer and got FSX installed, I loaded up my preferred advanced “tubeliner” and was ready to test... I honestly believed it would be the buttery smooth experience I had been waiting for…but nope, crappy FPS and stutters.
Disappointed, I adjusted my plan; maybe fly default aircraft between complex airports. This worked to a certain level but got tiring quickly. Eventually, I found myself back to FS2004 where I experienced incredible performance.
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Fail #2: Roughly 6 months ago I again purchased another near top of the line gaming computer. This time overclocked to 4.7Ghz with all the bells and whistles. My intention again was to fly advanced “tubeliners” throughout various detailed sceneries with heavy weather and traffic. I thought surely at 4.7Ghz this would be plausible. Well, loaded everything up and again…fail. This attempt was better than three years prior but still not good enough - far form a buttery smooth immersive experience. Lots of low FPS scenarios with stutters at the most inopportune times.
So disappointed again, I adjusted my plan. Maybe advanced general aviation aircraft between complex airports I thought... So, I grabbed a well known King Air and bam, same thing - challenging FPS with more inopportune stutters. The combination of advanced aircraft, detailed scenery, immersive weather, and dense traffic was just not possible. Now I know many proclaim amazing performance with all these add-ons but to be frank, I just don’t believe it. Regardless of what anybody says, I am certain they are experiencing some level of performance challenges. The difference is some accept stutters and pauses, some like me, do not.
Disappointed again, I adjusted my plan.
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So now we arrive at where I am now. Flying simple general aviation aircraft in detailed scenery with high(ish) weather and traffic settings. My performance is acceptable without stutters or FPS drops in most scenarios. In all honestly, I enjoy this type of flying very much…but I never planned to fly like this. In fact, I never wanted to fly like this. My current flying habits are a product of FSX limitations instead of my own personal preferences.
Now I absolutely love my Alabeo aircraft and my current detailed sceneries, truly immersive and fun stuff. The kicker is, I was almost forced into this type of flying… So now you see why I say, FSX owns me, not the other way around.
19 comments:
Great comments. I agree with you and share a similar experience from a PC procuremente point of view. Instead, I continue to enjoy FS9.
Makes me wonder what is the purpose of dropping FS9 devellopment, since it's actually the only viable platform for that type of simmming : Complex airliners, heavy weather, highly detailed scenery, Full customized AI traffic...
Youtubers like jerdooflightx, timflightx, jon5700, and many others seem to experience no problems at all with their fsx. What gives?
I feel for you. FSX is an addiction if you're not careful...
I have been building the PCs for FS, 2004 first then X the last 3 years... The last 3 builds were Intels, dual core, then i7. I started the i7 game with the 950, overclocking it to 4.2GHz. It ran well at my 20"" monitor's native 1600X1200 resolution. But of course I wanted more...
Once I tasted the world of HD monitors, I was hooked... I had to rebuild... an i7 2700K seemed a nice option, as I didn't fancy getting the knife out to delid an Ivy Bridge...
Currently, she keeps me supplied with my FS(I)X, which is supposed to be a shorthand form of FSX FIX, and not FS9/FSX... :)
Who knows what the near future will bring. I seem to have found the sweet spot for this PC, though. I can use the NGX into and out of FTX airports well enough with settings that make me happy enough...
I would be interested to read the stories of others... come on... let's start up a "self-help" group! (Germans will know what I am on about here...) :)
AE
I disagree PF. I have nearly 200 hours on the NGX... all FSX...
Complex aircraft, FTX territories, FT/FSDT airports and so on, OPUS FSX weather generation...
AE
Little or non-existing Ai traffic.
While i understand with sliders full right things can get slow when you add all that stuff together. However FSX on medium settings looks miles better than FS9 and you can get pretty good performance with a 4.7 GHz. Turn down autogen a bit water on 2.x low, and you should be able to run it pretty well and it will still look way better than FS9.
Also, if you know what you're doing in terms of FS Recorder, you can make it look smoother than it actually is.
What do you mean by that (smoothing with FSRecorder)?
For me, I have surrendered. That saying I have learned to cope with questionable FPS and such, to fly tubeliners and what not.
My understanding is that with proper video editing you can pretty much remove any stutters or pauses.
I think that regardless how fast a system You get, running FSX at max will never work.
Problem is partly that FSX is a 32bit only application and that it´s graphics engine is rather dated as well as been developed at the wrong time.
Remember how FSX was told to be the game to showcase DX10 becasue FSX was inteded to be released around the same time as Windows Vista ?
Well, Vista was postponed and the ACES studiaos had to make FSX work with DX9 on Windows XP.
The whole thing meant that the DX10 part was never really finsished for FSX and we all know the story about windows Vista.
I have been a heavy FSX tweaker too, but with my new system (i7 3770K, not overclocked) I have kept tweaking to a minimum, simply because the majority of tweaks are ploacebo effects only and the most of the rest might make FSX run smoother, but then introducing other issues.
I have come to the conclusion that magical fix simply don´t exsist and as long as I can run at 20+ FPS with complex airlinres + heavy scenerires, there is no need to focus so deep on actual FPS.
The hardest, but best cure is simply not to display FPS and rtaher sense smoothnenss than actually measure it.
Finn J
Your best chance for smooth FSX experience IMO.
1. High end hardware
but most importantly:
2. A Good setup without stupid FSX display settings!!
Please read&follow:
http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.html
3.No stupid tweaks
You have to tweak your fsx.cfg! You would probably have experienced some smooth flights with your 4.7 GHz CPU and a tubeliner if you would have tweaked your fsx.cfg accordingly. It sounds like magic and I also didn't believe in it at first, but after tweaking my fsx.cfg I am flying the NGX at heavy airports and with a decent amount of AI. And all of that with a good framerate and no microstutters at all.
You don't have to believe me, but why should I lie? Just try tweaking, maybe it will help you too... ;)
I'm actually quite an avid tweaker, although I've come to believe that very few tweaks do not have negative side effects that inevitably counter the benefits.
With a Sandy at 5ghz, 8GB Ram, and a 6870 with 4GB ram and a 30" monitor, the NGX still stutters around airports like Flight Beam, FSDreamTeam, and UK2000. Ive tried all the tweaks including Bjote, Kostas, and the URL posted above. Finally have settled with Mega Scenery Earth and Autogen off for the NGX. Most GA I have are smooth with Orbx and sliders maxed except traffic which I keep at 30.
Yes, I don't think a processor exists capable of achieving smooth performance at detailed airports with advanced aircraft and other bells and whistles. High hopes for P3D 2.0...
The mistake made is running someone else's tweaks. Starting off that way is a good start, but your computer isn't their computer is it? No, so more tuning is required to form-fit YOUR computer.
I've got a and i3930k running at stock 3.8 GHz turbo mode and a GTX 680. I can run the NGX with ORBX England, UK2000 EGLL, max UT2 and maxed sliders in DX10 and never drop below 24 FPS, and acceptable level for me.
I can also run the same setup over ORBX PNW and FSDT CYVR and never drop below 24 FPS. To a point, yes, you'll never get FSX to 60 FPS constant in all situations, but you can get it acceptable. Would be nice to get a new platform where this isn't even a concern, but we've got what we've got.
I did not say that tweaks shouldn´t be used.
Problem is just that many tweaks have very little impmact or that they come with a price.
The Bufferpool=0 for example. While it might work in 90% of all conditions, geting into a very dense scenery might lead to a situation where the CPU cannot feed the GPU fast enough. With no buffer this will lead to graphical artifacts and even CTD's. So You gain some FPS or at least a smoother flight, but at the expense of stability.
Same with FIBER_FRAME_FRACTION_TIME, You might gain some fps, but risc that in denser sceneries that the groundtextures becomes blurry.
Finn J
The point is you can get all that in FSX, with good FPS, but with no AI (or low ammounts).
Users like me don't stand a chancecrunning their custom AI setups, even after optimzing and transitioning to FSX AI native models. And in that particular case, FS9 is the best solution hands down.
In FSX, combining big airports and full custom AI is a no go situation. Everything else is fine, but that happens to be the scenario I like to fly the most.
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