Loss of fps 30% due to plane switch

    Here is something I just posted on Steam: might as well post it here too.

    While doing various tests with Aerofly FS 2 yesterday I noticed something odd which is reproducable on my PC. I was testing the fps in a certain heavy situation. FPS was 170 which was rather disappointing for the test I was doing. A while later I decided to do the test once more and suddenly the FPS was 220...! That is a BIG difference of around 30%! After that the fps stayed 220 so I thought it was just something of those things that can happen.

    However, today I did the test again and AGAIN fps was 170! So I decided to check out what causes this. Well, it turns out that is has something to do with switching planes. This works 9 out of 10 times on my PC:

    1. select the Cessna, start a flight (best standing still on a runway)
    2. quit AFS2
    3. restart AFS2 and directly click on Start (so without changing planes or anything)
    4. quit AFS2 so you have done a 'complete' AFS2 session without swithing planes or anything
    5. restart AFS2 and directly switch to the Airbus, start a flight
    6. note fps
    7. quit AFS2
    8. restart AFS2, directly click on Start and note fps again

    On my PC, with specific settings this results in a 30% fps difference between step 6 en 8. Maybe there is something wrong with how a plane loads or reloads in sessions or between sessions or...? Anyway, something is wrong. Seems that if you want to be certain that fps is best, you should maybe restart the entire sim after switching planes...

    LOL!!! :D

    A few months ago, if somebody told you you would be having an issue with only 170fps, what would you have said. :cool:

    I was just thinking earlier last week, how quickly I myself had gotten spoiled.

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    Quote from HiFlyer

    LOL!!! :D

    A few months ago, if somebody told you you would be having an issue with only 170fps, what would you have said. :cool:

    I was just thinking earlier last week, how quickly I myself had gotten spoiled.

    You're right, but rather than pure fps it's a question of fluidity. For instance when I switch on VSynch I get a good image with a robust 60 fps, but it stutters a lot despite the graphical engine should be less loaded.

    Also, when turning the head with the TrackIR movements totally lack of smoothness making the simulator unpleasant to play.
    For comparison you can go as low as 20-30 fps in a sim like FSX and still get a good fluidity enabling a smooth immersion, while AeroflyFS 2 with 60 fps isn't currently immersive.

    Limiting fps to 120 in AeroflyFS provides smoother movements and better fluidity but lacks the vertical synchronisation, especially when turning the head with the TrackIR.

    Setting unlimited fps the score goes very high, but unstable depending on load and no vertical synch...

    I would prefer loosing some pure fps and ensure vertical synchronisation, fluidity (no stutters) and smooth head movements...

    Cheers
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

    Quote from HiFlyer

    LOL!!! :D

    A few months ago, if somebody told you you would be having an issue with only 170fps, what would you have said. :cool:

    I was just thinking earlier last week, how quickly I myself had gotten spoiled.

    LOL Well, I am certainly not posting this because I am unhappy with the fps. :D I am only posting this because obviously there is something wrong. This simply shouldn't be happening. And I would have posted this also if fps was 500 versus 600. But when things get added in the future, and also when you use VR, something like this can mean the difference between good performance and not too good performance. But the main point is that something seems to be going wrong and IMHO it is better to solve this ASAP because the longer you wait with solving things like this, the harder it can become to solve it (when the program has evolved a lot and has become even more complicated).

    Trespassers,
    This isn't the topic that the OP had - but you brought it up. About TIR, didn't I read somewhere in the FS2 forums that you should experiment with setting the Affinity (which CPU cores) get FS2 and a separate one for TIR? Not sure, but there was some need to optimize some Affinity or process priority settings to get good TIR fluidity. Hope you can figure it out - why don't you start a new thread on that subject? I use Rift VR and the head tracking is super smooth.

    Hi whitav8,

    Thanks for your hint regarding proc affinity, I'll try out despite I believe it has nothing to do with the TrackIR.

    What I wanted however to point out is raw fps number don't mean much in AeroflyFS 2 while the perception is pretty much "different" from what we've been used to for decades.

    A robust, limited 60fps in AeroflyFS 2 isn't smooth at all while a stable 25 fps in FSX/P3D can be very smooth, on the same monitor.

    Cheers
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

    We strongly discourage the use of setting the affinity as this can lead to many bad side effects.

    The only reason why 60 FPS with VSYNC enable does not feel smooth is the already mentioned fact that whenever we load new textures or 3D models and upload them to the 3D card, we get a few frames that take longer than 1/60 seconds, thus resulting in stuttering.

    We cannot reproduce the issue mentioned here, if you have more test cases like this, please report it to us.

    Quote from IPACS Support

    Well, this is what should be used in Aerofly FS 2 but it seems like its not working in all cases on some user machines.

    Still, you will notice this one frame drop when new resources are being loaded.

    Thank you for the hint. What settings would you then recommend for AFS 2 in Nvidia Inspector ? Even if the result is machine-dependent any advice on this forum is welcome...

    Cheers
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.