87 Days of Cactus 2022 Campaign

[UncleTgt]

Dirtman,

Henderson makes use of Wolfis forest & palm trees

I found that the textures used by these objects, in anything other than DXT1 format, lower framerates.

The other "new" objects were the open-sided hangars I made. These objects also, by their nature, make extensive use of alpha channel transparency.

I saved the texture bitmaps as 555-1 format. Maybe you'll see an improvement if you save them as dxt1 ( with alpha) format?

 

[Dirtman]

Thank You

Dirtman,

Henderson makes use of Wolfis forest & palm trees

I found that the textures used by these objects, in anything other than DXT1 format, lower framerates.

The other "new" objects were the open-sided hangars I made. These objects also, by their nature, make extensive use of alpha channel transparency.

I saved the texture bitmaps as 555-1 format. Maybe you'll see an improvement if you save them as dxt1 ( with alpha) format?

Yo UT;

First: I really don't think the problem is in your campaign. Others have installed it with only minor hiccups ... if any at all.
I had a look at the contents of the installer before I installed it and was VERY IMPRESSED at what you & the Team have created!

10/10 ... current issue aside!


Rami spotted the scenery.cfg problem early but correcting it didn't help.
It's gotta be something "unique" in my install causing the FR issue.
I've tried all the "usual" things but I'm presently scratching my head & looking for ideas.

FYI:
YES - I followed all the instructions. Did 2 installs - no joy. .... same poop ... same spot

NO - Rami's PTO scenery guide is not included (as per your .PDF) - hadda find it to used it.

- I've got Wolfi's trees in most of my 10 installs with no issues.


BTW - my PC "breathes fire & brimstone", an absolute beast with power to burn.
It does NOTHING SLOW ... and have NEVER had a FR issues in the 6 years since I built it ... which is the reason WHY I built it in the 1st place.
Which makes this poop a real head-scratcher!



Many Thanks for the Campaign and your offer of help; it is Greatly Appreciated!
- Durt

 

[1150]

87 Days Of Cactus

Hi Rami ,

Thanks for the information on the country configure files.

I have downloaded & installed it.

Thank you for your help again.

Regards,
1150

 

[Worthless]

So far no problems

Captain Kurt
UncleTgt
Skylane
Highpockets

Guys this was so slick I just had to say so. What an easy install. I've got over a dozen different Theater Installs going back over 10 years and this add on was, bar none, the slickest, smoothest job I've ever done. No hunting for obscure stuff on other web sites, no missing objects. I already had a PTO Rhuimba Basic I created some years ago. I just clicked your installer and pointed it at my basic theater install and bam. Took a hop from Henderson to Tulagi and back. Scenery is great. I'm looking forward to this. Many thanks!

 

[Worthless]

Spoke to soon

No problems with CFS2, but Mission Bldr. crashes. I get to the main screen and as soon as the box opens showing scenery generation, I get CTD.

 

[Dirtman]

2nd reply

Dirtman,

Henderson makes use of Wolfis forest & palm trees

I found that the textures used by these objects, in anything other than DXT1 format, lower framerates.

The other "new" objects were the open-sided hangars I made. These objects also, by their nature, make extensive use of alpha channel transparency.

I saved the texture bitmaps as 555-1 format. Maybe you'll see an improvement if you save them as dxt1 ( with alpha) format?

If they are also used on the left side (when sitting on the runway) of "Fighter 1" .. then Wolfi's trees would seem to be the problem.
- front, right & rear views are all 30-70+ fps
- left side is 1.8 fps ... a tad on low-side eh?

Am I the only one with this problem?
Maybe .. I'm pretty sure Gawd hates me...
Maybe I've missed sumething stoopid?



I have a couple of questions for those who are flying Cactus:

1) I wonder what kind of fps you guys are getting @ Henderson & Fighter 1?
Specifically: when sitting on the runway; front & left side

2) What video card do you have? How many GB's of VRAM?

Dunno howta check yer fps?
Hit: Shift + Z twice & Bob's yer Uncle!

This is my Henderson:

 

[highpockets]

Dirtman
I forgot how to get a screen shot and post it but my FPS is .010 +1 Gs. A little lower than some of my other installs at same point. Some others are.20.. One was 58.

 

[Flamer50]

@ Kurt
Great job on the installer for '87 Days'. An easy 'slamdunk' on a vanilla CFS2 install.
Don't have a PTO Rhumba Basic, went with what you put in the package and
Very Happy about it.
No problems with the Mission Builder.
Thanks for all the hard work.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ Dirtman
Henderson & Fighter 1
Views:
front, left, right, rear.
FPS:
50-60+ +1.0 Gs

------------------
System Information
------------------
             Machine name: DESKTOP-E0LFLEU
         Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 19044) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)
             System Model: HP ProDesk 400 G2.5 SFF
                Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590S CPU @ 3.00GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
                   Memory: 8192MB RAM
      Available OS Memory: 8138MB RAM
                Page File: 4503MB used, 4915MB available
              Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
          DirectX Version: DirectX 12
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
           Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GT 710
           Chip type: GeForce GT 710
            DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Type: Full Device
      Display Memory: 6076 MB
    Dedicated Memory: 2007 MB
       Shared Memory: 4069 MB

 

[UncleTgt]

No problems with CFS2, but Mission Bldr. crashes. I get to the main screen and as soon as the box opens showing scenery generation, I get CTD.

Worthless,

Pinning this down is problematic, as my install & mission builder work fine.

Feedback suggests it's a problem with the Solomons_UT scenery excludes.

Workaround 1: Remove the scenery excludes when you do any work in mission builder

Possible solution: I re-jigged the exclude are boundaries & recompiled them. Try these, let them overwrite what's there.

Load the sim - check it out first

Then try loading Mission Builder

Let me know if it works for you.

 

[UncleTgt]

@ Kurt
Great job on the installer for '87 Days'. An easy 'slamdunk' on a vanilla CFS2 install.
Don't have a PTO Rhumba Basic, went with what you put in the package and
Very Happy about it.
No problems with the Mission Builder.
Thanks for all the hard work.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ Dirtman
Henderson & Fighter 1
Views:
front, left, right, rear.
FPS:
50-60+ +1.0 Gs

------------------
System Information
------------------
             Machine name: DESKTOP-E0LFLEU
         Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 19044) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)
             System Model: HP ProDesk 400 G2.5 SFF
                Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590S CPU @ 3.00GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
                   Memory: 8192MB RAM
      Available OS Memory: 8138MB RAM
                Page File: 4503MB used, 4915MB available
              Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
          DirectX Version: DirectX 12
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
           Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GT 710
           Chip type: GeForce GT 710
            DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Type: Full Device
      Display Memory: 6076 MB
    Dedicated Memory: 2007 MB
       Shared Memory: 4069 MB

Dirtman.

I know from my PNG work that CFS 2 doesn't like lots of tree objects in the field of view (of any variety). But Wolfi's palm trees, although the nicest, are frame rate hogs.

I just think it's the sheer number of them in use.

I got much smoother results by increasing the size of the scenery cache (at the top of the scenery.cfg)

As shipped, this is set at 10M. Setting from within the sim the limit is 200M, but by using Notepad to edit I currently have it at 400M (if you have the free disk space, why not?).

My specs:

Intel i5-2500K CPU@3.30GHz 3.70GHz
8GB RAM
Nvidia GTX1650 4GB
Win 7 Home Premium (offline)

I see

300 fps+ clear sky
150-200 fps land/sea/cloud mixture
70-125 fps collection of objects
50-75 fps Wolfis forests, or mixed MR/LW trees
30-35 fps large numbers of Wolfis palmtrees

This was flying in QC, heading 120 to cross the coast. When I look left down the line of Wolfis palmtrees at the NE corner of Henderson I get the lowest FRs.

Ideas:

gsl that uses less trees
increase the number of LODs that Wolfis Palmtrees use?
Develop a simpler palmtree object that's better on FRs, without looking stupid (easy, right?)

 

[Dirtman]

Yo HP

Dirtman
I forgot how to get a screen shot and post it but my FPS is .010 +1 Gs. A little lower than some of my other installs at same point. Some others are.20.. One was 58.

Thanks for the info Brother, it's much appreciated.
Congrats on being part of Cactus!

Don't feel bad ... I'm 65 and working thru "CRS" too! LOL!!!

Screenshot:
1) hit the "Prt Sc" keyboard key (right side of top row)
2) open MS Paint
3) hit "paste"
4) alter or crop pic as you wish
5) hit "Save As" .jpg or whatever you'd like
6) save to desktop or where ever the mood strikes you

Upload image:
1)from the buttons above - right below the "smilie" is a square, hover your mouse over it: "Insert Image" & click
2) locate the pic on yer PC & hit "upload"
3) then "insert"

Hope this helps ya Bro ... we all have our "bears to cross" ... or sumthing like that?

 

[Dirtman]

Aaaha!!!

Many Thanks for the detailed specs - the problem is coming into focus - looks like I've got a "video ponies" problem.

BFF - GT710 (I got one in an i5) 2 GB DDR3 VRAM + 4 GB shared RAM = 6GB NICE setup & fr's!

UT - Nvidia GTX1650 4GB .. NICE! - Gonna use this a standard spec & maybe go up to 6-8 GB (for future expansion)
- if it runs on yers then it'll run on mine

Poor Durtman only got 2 GB - ya don't need to be Bert Einstein to figger this one out! V = $$$ squared



Kinda lookin' like a trip to the "Toy Store" (Canada Computers is a "big box" store up here) & get me a new card to fix this poo.

They recently opened a new location right down my street.
This place is HUGE - about the size of 3 NFL fields .. I get "aroused" every time I walk thru the door!
Like the size of a Walmart Super - but only sells computer stuff.

Definitely NOT THE PLACE TO BE if you are a computer junkie and have a VISA card with a high limit!!!!




Thanx again;
- Durt

 

[highpockets]

Dirtman
Thanks for the instruction on screen shots. I had been using Fraps free version for a long time and now it appears that I need to purchase to convert to .jpg which is what the attachments section will accept in the forum..
Glad you figured out your problem on the FPS. Much of what was discussed was a bit "Greek" to me!

 

[Dirtman]

Back at cha

Dirtman
Thanks for the instruction on screen shots.

You are very welcome Sir

I had been using Fraps free version for a long time and now it appears that I need to purchase to convert to .jpg which is what the attachments section will accept in the forum..

MS Paint will allow you to change the format of any picture file.
It is already in your PC Just look in the main menu



Are ya good to go now?

Glad you figured out your problem on the FPS. Much of what was discussed was a bit "Greek" to me!

Still a bit shocked my GTX 750 TI isn't up to the job of Cactus ... oh well I guess time (& tech) keep moving forward.
On the other hand - CFS2 will look BETTER THAN EVER

I've located a $500 solution & will pick it up in a day or 2
Have a look: https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=204651

I'm (long & happily) divorced .. so I don't need to ask for permission. LOL!!!

 

[highpockets]

Dirtman
Whoa! $500 for video card!!
My system:

Dell system
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz 3.10 GHz
8.00 GB installed ram
AMD Radeon HD 5450

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Get MGrab

Dirtman
Thanks for the instruction on screen shots. I had been using Fraps free version for a long time and now it appears that I need to purchase to convert to .jpg which is what the attachments section will accept in the forum..
Glad you figured out your problem on the FPS. Much of what was discussed was a bit "Greek" to me!

Hey HP:

Try: GrabClipSave for your screen shots, it's free too. http://www.etrusoft.com/screen-capture-software-reviews/GrabClipSave.htm

PS:

Oh, no! I meant MGrab from our old friend Martin Wright. (my CRS is working overtime today )

Anyway, I'm gonna transfer a virgin install to this comp (Win 10) and see if I can duplicate Dirtman's problem either here or on my win7 system.

 

[Dirtman]

MultiGrab by Martin Wright

I meant MGrab from our old friend Martin Wright.

Yo Wolfman & HP;

I think you mean: MultiGrab by Martin Wright (Screen Grab Utility)

Since CFS2 -day1, I've always done screenshots 1 at a time thru Paint.
I've heard of MGrab or MultiGrab for many years but never tried it. (old habits die hard? .. old dog - new trick?)
Thanks to Wolfman & HP ... I tracked it down this morning.

Find it here: http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/programs/mgrab.htm

ALSO a 2nd d/l at the bottom of the page

Anyway, I'm gonna transfer a virgin install to this comp (Win 10) and see if I can duplicate Dirtman's problem either here or on my win7 system.

Why not wait & do it on the Win8.1 LT when it comes back from "the PC hospital" ?
Your Win10 is running so hot this might overheat the crap outta it.
What if it caught on fire? ... then set Max on fire? ... he wouldn't appreciate that at all!

I am as certain as I can be, (without personally testing it) that Cactus will load & run properly on any of your laptops.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


For me? ... this entire issue is MY problem.
It should not reflect negatively upon the Cactus Team's work as they've done a excellent job bringing Cactus into 2022.

I deeply appreciate the time taken by all of you to assist me.
Thank You ALL VERY MUCH,

When I bought the GTX750 TI it was more than capable of handling anything I could throw at it.
But that was 7 years ago and time & tech have constantly moved forward ... so it's time to update my vid. Pure & simple.

Thanks Again to the Cactus team - sorry to be a bother to yous.
Your campaign looks GREAT & I'm dying to start flying it ... with FULL ON graphics!

- And only my new friend HP knows why!

- Durt

 

[mav]

Thanks, Captain Kurt
UncleTgt
Skylane &
Highpockets


Cheers mav

 

[1150]

87 Days of Cactus

Hi All ,
I just wanted to say to all those people who developed 87 Days of Cactus; how much I am enjoying flying it !!!

Thanks to all who put so much time & effort into it.

Regards to all the develpoers,
Thanks,
1150.

PS. I never realized the Bell P-400 was such a tired worn out dog to fly. Hell I just want a chance now to fly a Grummam F4F Wildcat !!!!

 

[highpockets]

I was glad to be a small part of this. Captain Kurt did the grunt work and the other two quite a bit of communication detail to the Captain for a/c tweaks, scenery,tweaks etc. I had flown test mission for Rami a few years ago after he had completed the missions. This was a work in progress and I found out it is a LOT of work communicating back and forth after test flying.
Lots of fun though!!
The other guys may not acknowledge so I will for them. Appreciate your appreciation.