VERY Low Frame Rates

[Steve Hunnisett]

Hi. The C23 looks really nice but my Mac is seriously struggling with it - frame rates no more than 1-3 fps, even with low graphic settings. Changing the graphic settings doesn't make any difference which leads me to suspect another issue; on some aircraft, for example I've found removing the 'librain' plug-in solves a similar problem.  Has anyone else experienced this and were you able to deal with it?

 

Many thanks, in anticipation...

[ilias.tselios]

Please post your Mac specifications and your Log.txt and GizmoLog.txt files to investigate. But in general is a very light aircraft on fps.

[Steve Hunnisett]

Hi.  Many thanks for your reply.  I've attached the log file, which might mean something to someone who knows about computers!  

I've experimented with plug-ins- my system doesn't like running the Sundowner with Skymax Pro at all- removing this gives me 37 fps on low graphic settings with virtually no cloud selected in the weather menu.  Looking out the cockpit side window towards airport scenery or significant terrain (mountains, etc) will cause the frame rate to drop to about 20fps and stuttering occurs- same at about 2,000 ft.  

I frequently run aircraft from other developers with similar system demands and get by by just reducing the graphics settings- I can even run Colimata's Concorde, with it's complex systems without too much trouble.  

System Specs are:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)

3.2 GHz Intel Core i5

24 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon R9 M390 2 GB

Here are the log files.  Any help would be much appreciated!

GizmoLog.txt              Log.txt

 

[ilias.tselios]

@Steve Hunnisettplease post also a screenshot with your frame rate visible with the C23 when you hit the low fps.to see where is your bottleneck, as well as your X-Plane settings.

My initial thoughts are you are GPU limited with the 2GB of VRAM. On that front, the only we can do is to make sure that all textures we will ship in the upcoming v2.0.1 will be in .dds format, trying to reduce the VRAM usage to the smallest amount possible. Though you must understand, in general,  that you are at the low end of hardware capabilities, with the specific graphics card. 

Also, in other addons have been notice a problem with the Skunkcrafts updater. Move it outside of the plugins directory, to a safe place, and try again.

Waiting for your screenshots to get a better understanding of what is going on.

[Steve Hunnisett]

Hi airfighter- many thanks for getting back to me.  I've attached some screenshots, taken after I removed the Skymaxx Pro and Skunkcrafts Updater from the XP11 folder; hope they are useful.

I've always been conscious that my trusty Mac is rather lacking in the VRAM department- unfortunately iMacs can only add RAM rather than VRAM and 2GB VRAM is the standard graphics card.  That said my system has coped remarkably well with some of the most up-to-date aircraft- especially the GA models- with RAM boosted to 24GB.  I'm familiar with the problems associated with low frame-rates and have found a difference between low frame rates, such as 16-19 FPS and the extremely low FPS experienced with the Sundowner- which is tantalisingly nice when I've been able to muster enough FPS to get it in the air!  This is why I asked the community for help because a on a number of occasions critically low FPS has been associated with a plug-in conflict- eg Librain which has known issues with Macs.  There doesn't seem to be a Librain plug-in in the Sundowner so back to the drawing board...

If you are able to make the Sundowner 'lighter' on FPS I would be immensely grateful but realise that this is a lot to ask for a small number of customers- perhaps a 'heavy' and 'light' version like Colimata did with their Concorde?   

[ilias.tselios]

Definitely you are restricted by your graphics card, and hopefully the new version will help a bit.  Sometimes, even a tiny amount of VRAM usage above the existing GPU capacity, is capable to cripple performance.

For now 2 suggestion.

1. Reduce Anti-Aliasing to minimum and/or reduce resolution. I don't know what your resolution is, but go to 1080p and check.

2. Remove all plugins from the plugins directory to check if there is any change in performance. If there is a change, put them back one by one to see which one might conflict with the plane.

[Steve Hunnisett]

Great, many thanks

[Steve Hunnisett]

Hi Airfighter.  Have managed to get good FPS with the settings below.  Just in case it's any use to you for the next upgrade,  even with the low settings in the screenshot below the Sundowner has a conflict on my system with Sky Pro Maxx which gives just 1-3 FPS .

Other than that, now I've been able to fly it I'm very impressed- the flight model in particular seems very good.  I usually alternate between a PA28 and a HR200 at my club and the Sundowner has very close flight characteristics to both and a great 'feel' about it.  

 

Many thanks for your help. 

[Steve Hunnisett]

Hi.  just wanted to say a big thank you- I've just downloaded the latest version of the Sundowner and I'm getting 30+ FPS on XP 11.41!  Delighted with the aircraft- it's stability and feel are  very much like the club PA28 and HR200 that I fly.  So glad I can now use this aircraft...