10.04 beta 6

[larjeet]

Just updated to 10.04 beta 6 and my frame rates dropped they have apparently used some advise from the smart ?? people at Nvidia and have set up the open GL differently . has anyone with an Nvidia card tried this yet . also clouds look like smeared marshmellows . For me 10.04 beta 4 was almost perfect .

[chris k]

Always keep a backup... =P

- CK.

[larjeet]

Actually it flys pretty smooth at the lower frame rates I can fly with a few clouds and it does not get choppy till about 14 fps I was averaging 30-35 without clouds now its 20-25 without clouds . as far as the backup Chris BOING BOING BOING TWANG

[OlaHaldor]

It's a frame rate increase for me. They must have done something to the clouds. I can have a higher setting (even though I'm happy with the slider at about 40%) without any significant frame rate loss.

[larjeet]

It's a frame rate increase for me. They must have done something to the clouds. I can have a higher setting (even though I'm happy with the slider at about 40%) without any significant frame rate loss.

sounds like the they tweaked for nvidia but it killed amd performance They are going to have to make an nvidia and an AMD version .

[Baber20]

Wow so much improved frame rates !! Beta 4 gave me 28 and now i'm getting 39 on the same settings. Also in beta 4 my framerates got destroyed when i looked at the clouds but now I actually get more fps when looking at the clouds ! Great work Laminar !!

Edit: I have an Nvidia gtx 580 so it's a possibility that they only tweaked it for nvidia users.

Edited February 27, 2012 by Baber20

[edwin]

Got a lovely increase in fps. Always had everything up real high except for Cars & AI which I dont need-Clouds 30% HDR off. Since updating have had clouds up to 75% HDR on and still managing the same or better frame rates in the areas I fly.

Think something 'has' been altered in the clouds as they're rendering out differently in the screenshots since.

[larjeet]

Baa Humbug Hopfully they will make seperate updater for Us AMD users so we can revert back to 10.04.4 or at least a seperate update without the nvidia mods

Edited February 28, 2012 by larjeet

[Simmo W]

Haven't tried it yet, but sounds good- for us Envydia users at least :-)

Remember, Ben has said they've re-done the slider, so 40% may not be the same setting as before- its probably lower, but if it still looks good, keep it. Funny, on the weekend I entered thick cloud and the fps shot up to 60! Very different to before, so they're definitely making inroads

[Muskoka]

Big improvement with fps on my system, ATI 6970, especially around clouds. Performance has never been an issue, unless near clouds. All my settings are high to extreme, no ai, no HDR. Even HDR is an option now, nice to see. If your system is up to the task, performance is not an issue.

One issue though, the cloud draw distance seems to have been reduced. If you are in overcast conditions you get a ring of cloud that extends a equal distance from the aircraft in all directions, and comes nowhere close to the horizon, so the effect of overcast is totally lost. It really doesn't look good. Probably a tweak to help performance, but really hurts the visuals.

Here's a screen shot, these are supposed to be solid overcast conditions. Increasing the cloud slider only increases the density of the clouds, not the distance drawn. Draw distance is set on "Very High". Cloud slider was on 60 in the screen shot.

Glen

Edited February 28, 2012 by Muskoka

[Muskoka]

Double post??

Edited February 28, 2012 by Muskoka

[Simmo W]

Always keep a backup... =P

- CK.

Stupid question Chris - what should be backed up, just the xplane root directory without all the other dirs like scenery?

[sichars1968]

Hi Simmo

I assume he means having a back-up installation of X-Plane so you can upgrade one and see what the changes are, and then decide if you like what you see. I have the demo on an external drive and always update this first and run it, if all seems well I update my main installation on the internal HD.

Cheers

Simon

[chris k]

Hi Simon.

I just backup the executable. I have 10.03rc2, 10.04Beta 2, beta 4 and now beta 6 all in the same directory (just rename the .app/.exe), and they all work in the same installation. (douple click the one you want to use/test).

I also have a demo installation (which is what I use for scenery dev, since it loads very fast) which only takes 3Gb (demo only install, plus whatever /custom scenery/ under development), which also has the same trio of applications.

Works great, less filling =)

- CK.

[chris k]

Now, Back on topic.

Hory Mackalore!

Whatever they did for nVidia cards - I'm impressed. XP10 is running far far better than it ever has. 10.04Beta6 is a huge improvement on my Poor MacbookPro i7 w/an nVidia 330M. I can crank up roads and objects to "mega tons" and she's running absolutely great.!

HDR is also now usable for me, even at NZCH. However, if I leave HDR off, I can seriously turn up roads/objects/airport detail/rendering distance.

Either they "nerfed" the settings, (and now "tons" is now the new "mega tons"... however, I do see tons of objects now), or Ben has really put his elbow grease into it, and found out where the stalls were occurring in the rendering pipeline.

No pun intended, but it absolutely FLIES now.

- CK.

Edited February 28, 2012 by chris k

[sichars1968]

Hi Chris

I never thought of backing up like that before, thanks for the heads-up.

As you say the new beta 10.04 Beta 6 is really starting to impress me, the simulation is very fluid with settings high. I haven't tried it with HDR yet, I must say I'm not convinced HDR looks quite right at night, the airport floodlighting looks great but the city and road lighting imo doesn't look right, especially the light on the building facades. I seem to have very bad anti-aliasing with HDR on the FXAA setting.

Your Christchurch airport scenery looks brilliant with HDR Chris. How is the Wellington scenery progressing?

Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Simon

[larjeet]

why has Everyone got fps increase even on amd cards and mine drop whats up with that . I will say that I can now fly with thin High altitude clouds at 22-26 fps but over all My frame rate took a plunge.

Big improvement with fps on my system, ATI 6970, especially around clouds. Performance has never been an issue, unless near clouds. All my settings are high to extreme, no ai, no HDR. Even HDR is an option now, nice to see. If your system is up to the task, performance is not an issue.

One issue though, the cloud draw distance seems to have been reduced. If you are in overcast conditions you get a ring of cloud that extends a equal distance from the aircraft in all directions, and comes nowhere close to the horizon, so the effect of overcast is totally lost. It really doesn't look good. Probably a tweak to help performance, but really hurts the visuals.

Here's a screen shot, these are supposed to be solid overcast conditions. Increasing the cloud slider only increases the density of the clouds, not the distance drawn. Draw distance is set on "Very High". Cloud slider was on 60 in the screen shot.

Glen

Just to add to this I was running with HDR on I have switched HDR off and my frame rates have come up I am able to run with a few more clouds at 30 FPS . It doesnt look as nice but I guess the cloud rendering is working better.

Edited February 29, 2012 by larjeet

[larjeet]

Hi Simon.

I just backup the executable. I have 10.03rc2, 10.04Beta 2, beta 4 and now beta 6 all in the same directory (just rename the .app/.exe), and they all work in the same installation. (douple click the one you want to use/test).

I also have a demo installation (which is what I use for scenery dev, since it loads very fast) which only takes 3Gb (demo only install, plus whatever /custom scenery/ under development), which also has the same trio of applications.

Works great, less filling =)

- CK.

Chris if I back up the executable what happens with the settings.text (Ben Supnik says:

February 28, 2012 at 5:10 pm

Resources/settings.txt

And…I just realized: since that file edits art controls, you can hack it to pre-program art-control configs in the sim. Who knew?

Reply) also I quess it will run with all the new texture and aircraft etc. from all the current BETA? will have to try this thanks

Larry

Edited February 29, 2012 by larjeet

[Bigbear]

Just tested version 10.04 beta 6 demo.

It's again 1 step forward and 2 steps back ...... SIGH .............

Back is the ridiculous exagerated turbulence, back is the wind that rotates the aircraft around its axis, still the unrealisticly left turn tendancy in level flight and unstable airplanes.

Don't they test those things? I never buy XPX before the flight dynamics and general behaviour become at least as realistic as FSX.

I know, folks will say again: 'You must be patient, it's still an early beta. Don't judge on the default planes, they are bad, third party planes are muuucccch better!'

Oh i see, this means i have to buy the unfinished thing first, and then within a few years XPX will be 'finished' like XP 9.7 ?

I don't mind about clouds not finished yet, i don't mind some roads starting and going to nowhere, i don't mind having deserted airports at this moment, i don't care about playing XPX on a telephone :

I just want to be able to FLY.

When i really want to be in roller coaster i shall buy a ticket in an amusement park or maybe download MS Flight as it is now !

Edited March 1, 2012 by Bigbear

[chris k]

We have a Rant section, you know.

- CK.

[Bigbear]

We have a Rant section, you know.

- CK.

I don't feel the need to 'rant' otherwise i should have used less polite words.

As i read in several forums lot's of people have this complaints.

It's good to be patient, but XPX attitude doesn't feel serious anymore to me.

In the mean time, live goes on!

[edwin]

Baa Humbug Hopfully they will make seperate updater for Us AMD users so we can revert back to 10.04.4 or at least a seperate update without the nvidia mods

Luckily I have kept a full instalation of v10.04.b4 Larjeet. With my machine I can always get a reasonable flight with most things turned up max but b6 suddenly put HDR and clouds at 130% on my plate with fps to spare. However the drastic alterations of the clouds in b6 (& possibly the only reason for the +fps) saw the end of the mist and multi density cloud effects in b4 which made VHR around my favorite mountain areas very realistic and challenging. Now entering any cloud base is a sudden transition of flying into a bowl of Milk(albeit up into a bowl of milk)--the density & mist are totally gone.

I have had the pleasure of a couple of hours flying GA VFR in quite appauling cloud conditions picking out aerodromes through an ever changing but very realistic cloud densities which are completely off the menu in b6. (No HDR & the sudden Black Hole fps drops are back naturally but it's worth it)

[Manni67]

Big improvement with fps on my system ...

One issue though, the cloud draw distance seems to have been reduced. If you are in overcast conditions you get a ring of cloud that extends a equal distance from the aircraft in all directions, and comes nowhere close to the horizon, so the effect of overcast is totally lost. It really doesn't look good. Probably a tweak to help performance, but really hurts the visuals.

... Increasing the cloud slider only increases the density of the clouds, not the distance drawn.

100 % agree here. "Overcast" is visually broken since b6. What is the point with developing a system allowing for a 100 NM visibility with different cloud settings and then tweaking all the features away ...

[chris k]

Too may users who can't tweak probably complained too much about FPS hits. It's ye olde balance. However, Ben mentions that they will still let you can still tinker with clouds now, but the defaults are Nerfed.

- CK.

[dpny]

Too may users who can't tweak probably complained too much about FPS hits. It's ye olde balance. However, Ben mentions that they will still let you can still tinker with clouds now, but the defaults are Nerfed.

- CK.

To be fair, I don't think Laminar nerfed the clouds as much as they're realizing they bit off more than they could chew. v10 is a vastly ambitious upgrade to X-Plane, amounting to a rewrite of just about every part of the sim apart from the flight model. The clouds are fabulous in theory--thousands and thousands of tiny puffs--but I don't think they're really usable unless you're running 7970 or a 580/590. Since a tiny percentage of the install base is running those cards (and no Mac users are, who make up about 40% of X-Plane users) I think Laminar bowed to reality and dialed things down some.