The Miracle Tweak!!! (not fps limiter)

[SolarEagle]

I have two Nvidia 9800GTX+ 512MB Dual DVI (PCI-E) Video Cards. For the purpose of this discussion, do I have 512 MB of video RAM or 1 GB? I tried the BUFFERPOOLS tweak and it seems to have eliminated stutters. Thanks for the tip, SolarEagle..!

Two 512MB cards in SLI only has an effective 512MB.

 

[SolarEagle]

Here's a new config I've been testing which works amazingly well at extremely dense on my i7, and may work well at very dense for Core 2 users.

So far the best overall experience I have found is to use the FPS Limiter tool along with the cfg tweaks. This gives the ability to limit fps while staying with an unlimited setting in game, which means you don't have to take the framerate hit associated with the in-game framerate limiter.

When I use the limiter it runs a few fps higher than what I set it to, so I set it to 25 which tops out at about 27-28 in game. With the new config I'm able to fly around Redcliff averaging 25-27fps with occasional dip to 23fps, but no lower, which is impressive to me.

Using the limiter makes it even smoother, especially if you are getting a framerate above the limit you use, and even if you drop below that it's just as smooth or smoother than it would be without the limiter.

It seems the ratio you use with the max per cell tweak can affect framerate. For example 2200/1600 gave me 3fps less than 2200/1700. I've now got it set back to the default 3/2 ratio which works well for me. As you can see from the images, even with buildings at 1600 I get 100% buidling coverage when using extremely dense.

Another tweak I've been playing with is the Fiber Frame Time Fraction. .44 seems to be the best setting based on my testing around Redcliff. Also with BF down to 300MB I'm able to run my TBM much higher, which seems to help with texture loading.

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

[MAIN]
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.44

[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=2400
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=1600

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=300000000

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=15

To get framerates in the 25-27 range with a minimum of 23 using extremely dense I have all AI and traffic turned off, clouds at high/60mi, and aircraft shaows off. I bet the above config would work well on Core 2 systems using very dense.

 

[ryanbatc]

Sweet shots, is that an SP2-native helo?

 

[SolarEagle]

Yeah it looks good, and I'm quite pleased it's running so well. I do find it a bit funny FSX has been plagued with stutters for so long, seemingly unfixable by ACES, and all it needed was the Buffer Pool increased by a measly 50 to 100 fold. lol

With the advent of i7 blurries are a things of the past, and with the advent of the ginormous Buffer Pool stutters are a thing of the past, so there's really not much left to fix, just to fly.

That's the SH-2 Seasprite by Alphasim, full FSX.

 

[Alexraptor]

Just wondering, theres no risk at all of damaging the graphics card with this tweak is there?
Just a bit paranoid lol.

 

[Kiwikat]

Just wondering, theres no risk at all of damaging the graphics card with this tweak is there?
Just a bit paranoid lol.

No...

 

[gianlucabagatti]

hi solareagle, you said to add BUFFERPOOLS at the the bottom of the cfg files but (sorry for the dumb question...) exactly where? just below wideviewaspect or wherever else? I'd like to give a try but do not want to make a mess.... thks for your advice, gianluca

 

[Tako_Kichi]

I just tried the settings in post #62 above but I had a problem where all my aircraft had their wings rotated through 90 degrees so that they were standing up vertically instead of being horizontal and the VC was all funky too. :faint:

Using a process of elimination I discovered the culprit was this line:

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=300000000

​

Once I 'remmed' out that line everything was back to normal again. Anyone have a clue as to what was going wrong?

 

[d0mokun]

I think that happens when you set bufferpools to a higher value than your system can cope with.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Hmmm...OK....I guess I will play with that value until I find a sweet spot.

System here is a 3 Ghz Core2Duo (E8400) with 4Gb of RAM and a 512 Mb 8800GT GFX card. If the above settings are for an i7 quad that may explain things.

EDIT:

After a lengthy process of trail and error and 'splitting the difference' I discovered that the absolute maximum usable bufferpool, on my system, before I hit graphics issues is.....

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=248373232
​

Having discovered this I think I will set my bufferpool to 245000000 to keep a bit in reserve. I will test at this setting and report back if I find issues.

EDIT 2:

Well that didn't work! :isadizzy:

At first things appeared to be OK and then I noticed that as I switched AC so the graphics problem came back. It would appear that FSX doesn't like you continuously switching AC and somehow accumulates 'stuff' until it causes a glitch. After a full evening of testing and reducing the bufferpool value it looks like a setting of 80000000 for my system lets me change AC up to a dozen times before problems set in. I will run at this setting for a while and see what happens.

 

[harleyman]

Your bufferpools are tied into how much video ram you have.......


From NickN

Poolsize=8000000 <-----NOTE: 8000000 is for a 8800 card. A 256mb card may only be able to handle 5000000. The default is 4000000. This is another area you may wish to leave out or test. It will have an affect on the turns and panning smoothness but it does lock the video memory from using 5, 8, 10MB for anything other than the buffer cache so if you are short on video memory this may be an issue. The raised the default to 4000000 in SP1.

 

[SolarEagle]

hi solareagle, you said to add BUFFERPOOLS at the the bottom of the cfg files but (sorry for the dumb question...) exactly where? just below wideviewaspect or wherever else? I'd like to give a try but do not want to make a mess.... thks for your advice, gianluca

Hey there

Doesn't really matter where, as long as it's in there. I always just add it at the very bottom, below all other stuff, but it doesn't have to be there.

By the way I would not recommend using the fiber time tweak above. I was testing it at the time and while it can help terrain loading it can also reduce framerate. The TBM setting has no impact on framerates, and can also help terrain to load a bit better, though the higher you go the more texture data is sent which can impact your max achievable bufferpool value. Using the default TBM value of 40 can allow a higher bufferpool in cases where a lot of textures are used for a scene.

 

[gianlucabagatti]

hi solareagle, thks! BTW my tBM is set to 34 by default, you think I'd better raise it to 40 before tweaking? moreover, I've set fps to 30max, to better suit your advice would it be better to set it to unlimited?
best regards, gianluca

 

[jermin]

Eagle, would you please post your in-game graphics settings?

 

[SolarEagle]

hi solareagle, thks! BTW my tBM is set to 34 by default, you think I'd better raise it to 40 before tweaking? moreover, I've set fps to 30max, to better suit your advice would it be better to set it to unlimited?
best regards, gianluca

What are you're system specs? Yeah you could set it to 40, find your max bufferpool, and then go back and see if raising TBM to 70 causes any issues. 70 seems to be good for most modern systems, so as long as it jives with the BP value you use that's what I would try.

On my system anyway there was night and day difference between 100 MB and 200MB BP, 100MB being a stuttery mess at extremely dense, while 200MB eliminating most all the the sutters at extremely dense, with 300MB of course being even better. On the other hand even 50-100MB eliminated a lot of stutters at lower settings like very dense compared to the default 4MB value.

 

[SolarEagle]

Eagle, would you please post your in-game graphics settings?

My Channel Islands settings are higher than these, but for flying FTX scenery, as in the scene seen above, they are:

Scenery
autogen extremely dense
water mid 2.x
mesh 10m
textures 15cm
ground scenery shadows off
All other scenery sliders fully right

Weather
draw distance 60mi
cloud coverage high
rate of change over time none

Traffic/AI
completely disabled

Aircraft
Self shadows off
ground shadows on
light illuminate ground on

Graphics
Target framerate unlimited
Resolution 1600x1200
Filtering set via nHancer 16x
Antialiasing set via nHancer 8xS
Global textures set to 2048 via the cfg
light bloom off

I'm working with just these cfg tweaks at the moment. For i7 users it seems best to leave affinitymask out unless you have hyperthreading disable, then 15 is the best setting. Core2 Quad users can try 14 or 15. 14 will shift the primary thread from core 0 to core 1, though core 0 then gets little use but can help if you have other programs runningalong with FSX. 15 will use all four cores fully and will help with terrain loading.

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=120

[TERRAIN]
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=2400
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=1600

[BUFFERPOOLS]
PoolSize=300000000

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=15

 

[noddy]

I have 68 background processes working what can I cut? Running Vista 32 bit ultimate.

 

[gianlucabagatti]

hi solar, set TBM to 40 and it seems to go faster in loading, and bufferpools to 100000000 getting 25 to 30 fps the same I had overclocking my CPU (2x3Ghz with 9800 GT as Vcard) but on monday I will follw your tipp and raising to 200000000/70 to see what happens. by now no stutters but I did not have also before.

 

[Txmmy83]

the thread helps me to get acceptable frame rates
15-25 frames before
to constant 38 fps

but have locked at that fps because it is enough for my pleasure
will try it with unlimited ingame fps setting tomorrow


BR
Tom

 

[Alexraptor]

Well im not having any luck, whenever i try using the tweak even at 100mb i ultimatley end up with messed up models.
And i have a GTX 280 with 1 solid gig of video memory...