FSX Frame Rates & FSInn

[Duncan]

This is more of an 'issue' than an anomaly, hence the new thread.

Has anyone else noticed a drop in frame rates (in FSX) after installing FS Copilot and FSInn (whether you are connected or not)?

Because I have. My frame rates are the lowest they have ever been. I can still just about manage but if the geeks can investigate this I would be grateful. I thought it was just at busy airports but it isn't.

[Pete A (G-SPCA)]

I can't say I've noticed issue when FSInn is not running but yes I have seen this but only on lesser hardware, something I obviously can't accuse you of having. I've also only ever seen it near the ground.

VATSIM's answer was to reduce the range of multiplayer aircraft, to display less and to stop frequent weather updates. See http://www.vatsim-uk.org/open/index.php?source=forum

[Pee Dee]

Do you have traffic set to zero, so you don't get any A.I aircraft spawning about the place, just those that are online ?

[Ollie Alderson]

As this is a thread, albeit to do with FSX frame rates, I supose that I can develop the AI side issue. Phil asks -

Do you have traffic set to zero, so you don't get any A.I aircraft spawning about the place, just those that are online ?

I rather thought that once you went on line, AI traffic disappeared. It has been refreshing, with the new server, to see other players emerge from the shadows that they previously were hidden in, but I have not seen any AI traffic. Fortunate really as my offline airfields have very few parking spots available.

[Duncan]

I'll try and answer all the questions if I can.

Pete - it's worse close to the ground, but bad airborne too now. I've been experimenting with changing display settings and whatever I do doesn't seem to make a difference. I've always been happy enough with FPS of around 15 or so in the 767 but now it's down to under 10, sometimes 6-7 and it is getting 'stuttery'. I don't use the weather feature on FSInn, and in fact pre-FSInn I installed Real Environment Extreme and that had a positive impact in my frame rates (something I was delighted about; to do with optimisation apparently). I also notice the 'traffic light' is always in the taskbar after I start FSX.

Phil - Yes, AI traffic on or off makes no difference it seems.

Ollie - On FSX one can see both AI and network traffic if you so wish, though it's not a good idea for obvious reasons.

I have downloaded the latest NVIDIA 64 bit drivers too but they made no discernible difference either. 

I wouldn't mind too much suffering the low FPS once a week but it's galling when it happens offline too.

[Pee Dee]

Well you know the answer...Its staring you in the face !!!!!!!!!!!!






Get FS9 and windows XP ..............................

[Pete A (G-SPCA)]

I also notice the 'traffic light' is always in the taskbar after I start FSX.

One tip I've seen a few times is to get the taskbar to auto hide. Not only does it often give a few fps improvement but you won't notice the traffic lights either

If you go and find the DLL.XML configuration file for FSX, it's in the same folder as FSX.CFG you'll see a < disabled > < / disabled > line just above the line that references the fscopilot dll. Edit with notepad and set the value to true and see if that restores your FPS and false again to see it it drops. This is how FSInn gets loaded in to FSX, saves having to uninstall-reinstall to make any checks.

[Duncan]

Thanks Pete - will do.

[Andy Parish]

There's also an option somewhere (exactly where escapes me) that defines whether some of the software loads automatically on a Windows start or an FS start.

[Wycliffe]

Duncan

What you need to do is alter the multiplayer range down to 10 otherwise FSinn is processing aircraft packets from miles away. You can only see aircraft in FS upto 10 miles away. Also set the weather recycle to once every 300 seconds not the 5 second default. these settings are in FSinn.

under the Set button

You will see quite a difference.

Wycliffe

[Duncan]

Thanks Wycliffe - I did!

[Pete A (G-SPCA)]

Wycliffe, why does reducing multiplayer range effect offline play? We'd also asked people not to enable the weather features just yet so that should have had no effect either, again especially offline 

Duncan why didn't you try this when I suggested it 

I've found another way to increase my frame rates. I noticed last weekend that my main FS core on my multicore CPU would only use around 55-60% of the core! If I make the FS window a little smaller than fullscreen the CPU usage dramatically increases and I get a 50% increase in FPS. Now until last w/e I'd only ever once seen this non 100% core 1 utilisation and it went away with other random (i.e. I've no idea what I did) changes.

[Duncan]

Pete

I did try it ( ) and the weather has always been disabled on FSInn so far, even on V*****. It's the weather thing that made the biggest difference so far.

Anyway I can't drop the range too much as I am a controller.

[Duncan]

Here's the tweaked verdict: MP range set to 100 miles. Weather refresh rate at 300, and MP planes to 15.

Pretty much back to 'normal.' Seems to make no difference whether on or offline.