Arizona demo, pauses

[JimmiG]

I just tried the Arizona demo and I'm experiencing a small issue. Every few seconds, the whole sim will pause for a split second, then lurch forward. In between the pauses, the frame rate is very high (over 40 FPS). This does not happen with the default scenery over the same area, and it doesn't happen with the full version of RealScenery Washington.

What might be causing this and would the full version also be affected in the same way?

I have a Phenom X4 9650 overclocked to 2.7 GHz, 4GB of RAM, a 4850 512MB video card, X-Plane 9.31. The sim is installed on a 7200 RPM, 640GB Western Digital drive and I'm running Win7 Release Candidate.

[RealScenery]

Hi JimmiG,

A few things could be causing this. Some more likely than others.

1. Windows7 is not commercially released software yet. It is far enough along to be in RC status, so most likely this is not the cause, but may be worth looking into. Also, you might check with Laminar to check the status of X-Plane support on Windows7-RC

2. The most likely cause is that the demo uses PNG image files while the commercial scenery uses DDS.  There could be some difference in how X-Plane handles PNG vs DDS files. DDS files typically offer much improved load times and framerates.

3. You might try setting your windows profile to a different setting. In Vista, the Aero profile, which puts shadowing and other visual effects around windows, gives horible frame rates in X-Plane on my development machine. If I set my profile to Vista Basic, I get much higher framerates and smoother performance. Windows7 probably has some similar settings.

If you can fly the commercial Washington scenery smoothly in Windows7, then you should also expect the same from Arizona. You might try the Washington demo, which is also in PNG format and see if you have the same results. We have not had other reports of this behavior with the demos. That doesn't mean it isn't affecting others, but people may just not be reporting it. Also, I don't know how many people are using X-Plane under Windows7.

Hope this helps.

Eric

[JimmiG]

I've been using Win7 as my primary/only OS since the release candidate became publicly available, with zero problems. I've been running X-Plane, MSFS and many other apps and games without issues. Also benchmarked it and found performance in all areas to be on par with, or better than Vista. So I honestly don't think Win7 is the problem although you never know. I tried running X-Plane in Vista compatibility mode and I also tried disabling Aero.

I temporarily removed Washington from my X-Plane folder and installed the demo instead. It was perfectly smooth. Tried both flying along the edges of it and across the area. I also tried the Tennessee demo which worked fine as well (although I noticed it uses DDS files).

So it only affects the Arizona demo so far. As long as I'm sitting still on the runway, there are no stutters or pauses. Once I begin rolling down the runway, the pauses start about halfway down the runway and get worse as I take off. The faster I fly, the more frequent they seem to get. Between the pauses I'm getting over 50 FPS from the 3D cockpit of the Comanche.

[RealScenery]

In looking at the two demos, the only difference that I see is that AZ spans two DSF files and contains a few more images than WA, but neither of these should be significant enough to affect the high-end hardware that you're using to fly the sim. If you still have a previous version of X-Plane, you might see if you have the same results, in which case this may point so something different in X-Plane 9.31.

[JimmiG]

Only have 9.31 unfortunately. As long as it doesn't affect the full version I guess it's not a big problem... If it does then it's a problem, obviously.

[JimmiG]

Well I bought the commercial version anyway. The demo, even with the stutters and pauses, was enough to let me get an impression of the scenery.

Just like you predicted, there doesn't seem to be any problems with the full product. My first test flight was from Scottsdale (demo airport) and I was able to take off and fly around the area without any noticeable stutters or pauses.

So if anyone else is experiencing issues with the demo, I think it's safe to say that the full version will work fine.

I did get a Verification error on User_Guide.zip. The downloader automatically re-downloaded the file with the same result. However when I manually checked the file with 7-Zip, it came up with no errors and I was able to successfully extract it. I used the Europe mirror.

[Cameron]

Well I bought the commercial version anyway. The demo, even with the stutters and pauses, was enough to let me get an impression of the scenery.

Just like you predicted, there doesn't seem to be any problems with the full product. My first test flight was from Scottsdale (demo airport) and I was able to take off and fly around the area without any noticeable stutters or pauses.

So if anyone else is experiencing issues with the demo, I think it's safe to say that the full version will work fine.

I did get a Verification error on User_Guide.zip. The downloader automatically re-downloaded the file with the same result. However when I manually checked the file with 7-Zip, it came up with no errors and I was able to successfully extract it. I used the Europe mirror.

Jimmi,

Thanks for the report. The error you saw with the verification for the user guide is actually an error on our side. Very minor, but in short we updated the user guide since the original version, so the MD5 sum is different than the original version of the zip file. The verification is still checking for the old zip, thus flagging the new one as faulty. I'll fix this, but you DO have all the correct data downloaded.

You've been able to report back here relatively fast since your purchase time. I assume your download speeds are good?

Thanks!

[JimmiG]

You've been able to report back here relatively fast since your purchase time. I assume your download speeds are good?

Well, I actually only have a 2Mb connection, but I left it to download over night and so it was finished the morning after. Quicker than waiting for a DVD to ship, at least. I did get the full 270-280KB/s which is my normal max speed, and the download was reliable with no errors or interruptions (except the user guide error, which wasn't really an error).