SkyMaxx Pro V2.0 Very Poor Frame Rates

[TomF]

I purchased and registered SkyMaxx Pro yesterday and would like some advice in using it please.

The problem I am having is some seriously low frame rates with SkyMax enabled. The frame rate takes its biggest hit when
in the 3d cockpit (plane is the Jardesign A330) and when first loaded, the frame rate starts in the high twenties and
over a short time it can drop as low as 2 or 3 fps. I have proved it is Skymax causing the rate drop and recovers
instantly back to the high 20's to 40's - depending on views and scenery if I disable the Skymax plugin. I have of course tried turning off cloud shadows,
lens flare, cloud reflections, God rays and reduced slider settings right down and barely makes any difference to the
frame rate.

I have tried just setting clear sky settings ie no storms etc, but still the same poor frames.

Within xplane 10 (version 10.36) I have reduced many rendering options and also put the Screen Resolution to its minimum
(1924 x 768) just to see if there was any improvement !!! Sadly the resulting fps remained much the same.

I have what I consider a fairly decent machine to run Xplane 10 and without Skymax running it has exceeded my expectations
and runs the JAR A330 Log.txtabsolutely wonderfully - even on my Heathrow scenary package.

Now I have gone into Windows Resource Monitor and unfortunately it has not given me any obvious clues as to why my machine is
dragging its heels with Skymax.
I don't really believe it is the graphics card causing the issue, and with my current texture settings, the VRAM usage
is just over 800 Meg (the graphics card has 3GB).
System memory is using 2.7 GB - leaving just over 5 GB spare.

So I am really hoping somebody has some advice in trying to resolve this - I just cant wait to see it working properly !!!!!!

Rgds Tom
UK

SYSTEM:
CPU - Intel I5 - 2500K (over clocked version)
Memory - 8 GB DDR3
Graphics - MSI N580GTX Lightning (3GB)
Windows 7 on Samsung SSD 128GB
2TB SATA hard drive
XPlane version 10.36
Jardesign Airbus A330
X-Camera plugin 

[sundog]

Everything I could find online says your video card has 1.5 GB of onboard memory, not 3 GB. Still, unless you're running at some crazy-high 4K resolution or something or some insanely high definition custom scenery, that should be plenty.

 

Nothing looks obviously wrong in your log to me. Do you have problems if you fly with a default aircraft? I do recall there being an issue with some older version of SASL that was packaged with some third party aircraft.

 

Wait a minute- you said above your minimum screen resolution is 1924 x 768, which is actually pretty high. Are you in fact running on 4K monitor? If so, 1.5GB might be cutting things close. Swapping video memory would certainly explain what you're seeing.

 

Thanks for your purchase - hope we can figure this out.

[TomF]

Hi and thanks.

 

 I have just double checked on the Graphics card box and it is a 3GB for sure - it is the GeForce GTX 580 Lightning.

 

   Regarding the JAR A330, it runs exceptionally smooth from anywhere between high twenties to just over 50 - depending

on view etc (at Aerosoft Heathrow scenary). Note: I am otherwise using just the default scenery and no Mesh etc. 

 

  I dont believe the problem is related to the scenary because the frame rate hardly improves if I use one of the 

Xplane default airports - which contain hardly any textures and buildings

 

  I have just loaded up Xplane 10 again with the Default 737-400 and getting around 14 FPS - and with Silverlining

turned off then this reaches almost 50 FPS.

 

  I have also just tried changing the Xplane screen resolution to "Monitor Default Settings" and is currently using

739Meg out of the available 3GB of VRAM.

 

 BTW it is not a 4K screen - it is actually a Samsung LS27D390 Monitor.

 

What to try next !!!!!!!

 

 Rgds

    Tom

[sundog]

I'm not really sure; almost everyone reports better framerates with SkyMaxx Pro than without it, when measuring apples to apples for the same weather conditions. The only exceptions I've ever seen has been when GPU memory is exhausted.

 

All I can recommend is the usual troubleshooting stuff:

 

- Make sure your video drivers are up to date

- Try disabling all other add-ons to see if it's some weird conflict

- Try temporarily removing custom scenery

[pryoski]

The plain vanilla MSI GTX 580 Lightning is definitely 1.5 Gb.

The MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition (Part Number: N580GTX-Lightning-XE) has 3 Gb

 

Please note that when you do a fair comparison; and by that I mean populate your sky with the % of default clouds so that you get the same cloud coverage with SkyMaxx .. then compare your frame rates.

I'd bet my left nut that properly tweaked, you'll get better performance with SkyMaxx ...(you've got some compromises to make because IMO you have a weak system for X-Plane). Looking at my own specs, my graphics card is my Achilles heel but I've tweaked and tworked my rendering settings on hardware and in x-plane till it works for me (you compound yours due to weak RAM and CPU).

 

I fly a lot of helicopters in X-Plane and I need a minimum of 35 fps otherwise weird things happen. SkyMaxx makes that possible and it looks amazing to boot. One of the best purchases I've ever made.

 

First thing I'd do is follow the standard procedure for tuning x-plane and that is to put everything to fastest and slowly add stuff from there ... and I mean everything in the Settings\Rendering Options.

Also make sure that your graphic card settings are set for performance (hardware Windows settings - assuming you're using Windows). You can gradually tweak these up once you have a working baseline ...

Then you have to factor in scenery, location and aircraft. With some aircraft I get worse frame rates than with others ... and it's not always because an aircraft has complex visuals either. It's a fiddly job to be sure ... but persevere until you hit the sweet spot.

 

Based on the thread title I'd ask you to tell us what cloud coverage were you using before using SkyMaxx pro?

I've come across a few people who generally played a blue skies or limited clouds pre SkyMaxx then get SkyMaxx and run all dialled up .. then complain that SkyMaxx makes X-Plane slow!! Unbelievable!

Edited July 5, 2015 by pryoski

[TomF]

Hi and many thanks for all the comments !!

 

  Regarding the weather, for all of these tests I am keeping the weather set to KAVOC and all three layers set to Clear.

 

For the settings of SkyMAXX, these for the most part are turned well down and using the clear weather conditions,

only results in a few puffs over the clear sky and in theory should give SkyMAXX very little to do !!

 

 In the next uploaded picture, all the Plugins are shown alongside the resulting FrameRate using the JAR A330 at London Heathrow.

And the next picture show what happens to the FrameRate once the Silverlining Plugin is disabled.

 

Just out of interest, I have just re-installed SkyMAXX just in case but of course it has made no difference.

 

  Perhaps if I get a Chance, I will take the advice and back-off all the settings within X-Plane 10, and then see

what happens - but is this the answer - lets wait and see !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 Thanks again

    Tom

Edited July 5, 2015 by TomF

[sundog]

Your results just don't make sense. With your settings, SkyMaxx Pro is doing practically nothing. There has to be more to the picture here.

 

Like I said earlier, try disabling all add-ons other than Gizmo and Skymaxx Pro. Make sure your drivers are up to date. And try temporarily removing custom scenery.

 

Failing that, try re-installing Skymaxx Pro. Perhaps you have the wrong version of Gizmo installed, which Skymaxx Pro uses. If so, reinstalling should clear it up.

[TomF]

Yes this is turning out to be of a mystery I think !!!

 

  I have just downloaded the latest version of GIZMO from their website but sadly no difference.

 

Just for another test, I have moved away from the Heathrow scenery package and instead just

used the default at EGBB (Birmingham).

 

  AS you also suggested I have turned off other Plugins as well.

The 2 Attachments show the result - slightly improved because of the scenary but still

a MASSIVE difference when the Silverlining plugin is disabled.

 

  NOTE: Disabling the SASL Plugin made  no difference to the framerate but when turned off,

the scenery view was totally obscured from the cockpit - so not too sure what SASL is ??

 

  Lastly I had alreay re-installed SkyMAXX (this downloaded files from the server) and presumably has

now updated it to the latest version. I then re-activated SkyMAXX but sadly has made no difference !!

 

  BTW I was not sure about  temporarily removing the custom scenery (Heathrow) - I was concerned it may affect

the registration of this Payware ??

 

   Next idea !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Rgds

   TOM

Edited July 5, 2015 by TomF

[sundog]

What is your video driver version?

Also if you have HDR rendering enabled, does disabling it make a difference?

 

I noticed your plugin menu has a "next" button... did you disable everything on the next page as well?

I am grasping at straws; never heard of anything like this before.

Edited July 5, 2015 by sundog

[TomF]

SOLVED

 

 

Yes that got me thinking - what is the Video Driver Version ??

 

  My desktop utility said that that the MSI drivers we up to date and so I thought no more of it.

 

However, looking on the MSI website, I got it to do a live check on my system and indeed there

was a Video Driver update.

 

  Having installed it, SkyMAXX Pro is now working beautifully - with lots and lots of glorious clouds.

And the FrameRate ?? Well this has increased in the JAR Airbus A330 Cockpit into the high 30's and external views

at big airports like Heathrow are up in the 60's.

 

But now turning Silverlining on or off has virtually no effect on the FPS.

 

  So very pleased now and many thanks again for all the comments and your patience !!!!!!

 

Rgds

  TOM    

[Silent_V]

Hi guys!

 

I have the same problem as Tom used to have but реу only difference is my drivers are up-to-date.

I re-installed Sky Maxx, moved settings sliders back and fourth etc. etc.

Before Sky Maxx I hade 30-40 fps average at almost maxed out X-plane but now I have kind random FPS drops to 5-7 FPS regardless of the scenery/aircraft and the average FPS is around 12-15 (17 in its best) and despitу off I max out the Sky Maxx or put all the sliders to the left and disable Gods Rays and Lens Flare effects.

Any ideas?

My system is Win 10 Intel i5 4570 3.2 GHz GeForce GTX780 RAM16Gb

Thanks!

[sundog]

Post your log.txt please.

Edited September 28, 2015 by sundog

[Silent_V]

Hi Frank!

 

Here are log file, rendering options menu screen shot and Sky Maxx settings menu screen shot.

What I found yesterday is I got around +2 or 3 FPS turning Blue FX plugin off and significant FPS gain turning off Gismo and Silverline plugins via enable\disable X-plane menu menu.

And another one feature is Sky Maxx settings does not affect significantly on frame rates:(

 

Thanks for your assistance!

V

Log.txt

Edited September 28, 2015 by Silent_V

[Cameron]

Hi Frank!

 

Here are log file, rendering options menu screen shot and Sky Maxx settings menu screen shot.

What I found yesterday is I got around +2 or 3 FPS turning Blue FX plugin off and significant FPS gain turning off Gismo and Silverline plugins via enable\disable X-plane menu menu.

And another one feature is Sky Maxx settings does not affect significantly on frame rates:(

 

Thanks for your assistance!

V

Log.txt

Безымянный.jpg

Безымянный1.jpg

 

Curiosity has me wondering a few things....

 

Please remove from your plugins folder:

 

1. XPrealWX

 

2. FlyWithLua

 

3. Blue FX

 

4. Efass

 

Also, can you elaborate on Efass and XPrealWX? Do they do pretty much the same thing? I don't know much about them.

 

Once you have removed these, then start your sim and see what happens.

 

On another note, you may as well do some cleaning and rid of PythonInterface. It's not loading up on your system (32-bit vs 64-bit) it looks like.

 

Also, please set back to default SkyMaxx config. Your options selected are crazily high (like cloud draw)!

[Silent_V]

Hi Cameron,

 

Thanks for your respond. Efass and XPrealWX do different things. Efass is more likely flight planner (having a weather engine though. I disabled it). XPrealWX generates weather,  cloud layers, winds etc.

And before sending LOG file I got rid of Python totally but I think I sent you LOG from my previous sim launch so I do not have them now.

I will remove the rest, check and will let you know.

 

As to Sky Maxx setting, the problem is they do not impact FPS on my system so FPS drops are a bit random. But I gonna try set them to default anyway an will also let you know.

[Silent_V]

Sorry Cameron, removing plugins haven't helped as  well as default Sky Maxx setting have not changed FPS dramaticaly.

[Silent_V]

Hi guys!

Any more ideas?

Thanks!

[glenner]

Hi,

 

Here is my 2 cents after years of tweaking X-Plane.  Please try the following and then if you get acceptable performance slowly increase the values until it negatively impacts your framerate and then lower it back.  I have a big suspicion that your value are way to high and are saturating you bus bandwidth.  I don't know of many PCs that can handle the high settings that you've pretty much put across the board.  So try these as they all kill the bus at extreme values:

 

Lower "Number of Cars"  to Siberia
Lower "Number of Objects" to Too Many
Lower "World Detail Distance" to medium (afterwards, try high to see impact on framerate)

 

In SkyMaxx I would Lower "Cloud Draw Distance" to at least half, then slow check your framerates after you apply higher values.

 

On my system. I've noticed that depending on time of day, "Lens Flare" can really kill frame rate when you look in direction of sun.

 

Give it a try.

[sundog]

I also noticed you have a ton of custom scenery installed. Odds are you are running out of video memory which will kill performance. Lowering the "cloud draw distance" in SkyMaxx Pro can help, or you may need to re-evaluate what custom scenery packages your system is able to use without losing performance.

[Silent_V]

Thanks guys! I will check what you've mentions and will let you know.

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