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Steve Hunnisett

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Posts posted by Steve Hunnisett

  1. Hi Cameron- thanks for your reply.  I do understand what you're saying and it may seem absurd but the frame rate monitor doesn't lie!  I've been in the coastal region in Mozambique on the sim for a week or so now- there's no add-on scenery and the first version of the PT 19 works much better than the update, even with the sparse default scenery in the region.  

     

    I still have the download zip file for the first version of  PT19- would this simply download the upgraded model?

    Cheers

     

    Steve

  2. Hi.  I it possible to 'return' to a previous version of an aircraft?  I have found that the latest version of the BN22 and the PT19 worked better on my machine than the latest model- on both aircraft the frame rates have decreased markedly.  The BN22 used to give me 30fps (with open GL)- now I get about 21 fps on my mac (with metal); the PT19 could achieve 21-23 fps but the update now only delivers about 15fps, even at very low graphics settings with 418mb of textures loaded.  At least I could use the older versions!

  3. 20 hours ago, diamonddriller said:

    @Steve Hunnisett I was amazed that you get such good frame rates - and then I got to the sentence where you say you have little or no add-on scenery!  That's the answer!  Alpilotx meshes, or ortho, and complex airports - well, they add a lot of load on the system.  

    Quite why the PT-19 is giving you trouble is tricky, but it is down to the coding, which is probably different to Carenado's or Thranda's, etc.  I found that with the TorqueSim Cirrus, and that was explained to me then.  Now, with the new iMac, those problems are gone.  

    You say you will run your current iMac for a good while longer. These iMacs go on for years.  I gave away a 2009 27" one to a friend quite a while ago.  No, it won't run Catalina (actually, I think there is a hack...), but he still uses it daily.  Of course that oldie had the built-in CD/DVD drive, and had 3 fans, not just the one of the newer models.  It was thicker, and ran cooler.....   On a desk, who cares if it is half an inch or more thicker?  The most likely failure is the hard drive, but sometimes the display goes, or the logic board.  

    Thanks again- appreciate your guidance.  Having little scenery for reference (I'm 'flying' in Africa at the moment on XP) seems to help sharpen my Ded. Reckoning Navigation- when I get in a real plane I'm spoilt for landmarks to use and everything seems much easier :-).  I used to use Mac Minis- the first one got so old it wouldn't accept any upgrades and was still in good working order when I got rid of it.  For me Windows PCs were nothing but trouble but then I'm no IT wizard- I just want a working reliable computer and Apple gave me that!  

    Thanks again

  4. On 10/5/2020 at 9:48 PM, Uncle Jack Simulations said:

    I was so far unable to reproduce this issue with the 3D menu autostart and the with Jerry's superstrenght... Have you by any means tried to reload the aircraft through the developer menu? This is known to also glitch the aircraft into this catapulting state. I'd recommend loading the default glider and then loading the PT-19 back, making sure to check if any systems got broken during the glitch, and then attempting to use those functions again.

     

    Respectfully,

    Dan.

    I did reload originally through the Developer menu after selecting 'auto start'- that gave me a many miles high experience.  The crash experienced at Jerry's tender hands seems to be when you ask him to 'help with priming'- I didn't use the developer menu to reset after that, just started a new flight.  I actually feel quite sorry for Jerry as he cranks away for ages trying to get the engine started ;-)

  5. 12 hours ago, diamonddriller said:

    @Steve Hunnisett As an afterthought, and you may well be doing this already, run the screen resolution at 1920x1080 (it seems to default to 2560x1440, not the 5K setting), and even 1280x720 when you are just doing a longer stretch on autopilot - no good in the PT19!  1920x1080 is acceptable.   Turn off HDR and anti-aliasing.  Also, use planes which have lower resolution liveries available.  You can also reduce the size of 4K liveries by reducing them to 2048x2048 in Photoshop.  Unfortunately, the 2015 iMacs were still on Thunderbolt 2, as the newer ones, with Thunderbolt 3, can run an eGPU.  

    Thanks for the help.  I've been aware of the limitations of the graphics card for sometime- I'm told having lots of spare RAM helps and generally even with Open GL I was comfortably getting 30fps .  I have a very big fleet of payware aircraft, most of which run pretty well and many of them are performing even better with Metal on XP 11.50 with 40fps not uncommon- even large and complex airliners run well for me which is why I was surprised at the low FPS of the PT 19.   Many of the aircraft I have recommend 4gb-8gb graphics but they still run surprisingly well on my system.  I do use SkyMaxx Pro but have consistently found that removing this makes little difference to frame rates.  I use little or no add-on scenery- a compromise I accepted a long time ago.

    Interesting what you say about screen resolution- I'm using 2048x1152; the only other option would be 1600x900- probably not very good at all.  Having spent some years playing with X-Plane graphic settings the first thing I tried was to tweak these but curiously this made little or no difference to the PT 19.  There will, of course come a time when my trusty Mac can no longer cope- hoping it will do a few more years yet...

  6. 16 hours ago, Cameron said:

    The size of an aircraft or how "simple" it is in your mind is not how performance works.

    It's a mixture of code and graphics. It sounds to me like you're limited somewhere @Steve Hunnisett. I'm also on a Mac and getting roughly 60-70fps on my setup, but I also have a late 2019 model Mac.

    If I had to guess I'd venture to say that your GPU is the ultimate culprit on the Mac, but without running a bunch of tests I couldn't say for sure.

    Thanks Cameron- my Mac is late 2015, (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, AMD Radeon R9 M390 2 GB.  Generally it copes really well, video card considered. The latest version of the BN Islander has the same performance issues, however the previous release running on Open GL was giving me 30FPS- more than happy with that!  On that subject, is it possible to 'return' to a previous release of an aircraft?

  7. 20 hours ago, diamonddriller said:

    Steve and giaco - how old are your iMacs, and what CPUs and GPUs (VRAM especially) and RAM have you got?

    When I read the specs., I'll relate my experiences.

    Hi. Specs are:   Mac, late 2015, (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, AMD Radeon R9 M390 2 GB.  

  8. Hi Dan.  My Mac is late 2015, (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, AMD Radeon R9 M390 2 GB.  I know the graphics card is limited (most off-the-shelf machines of this age and type are) but generally speaking I'm getting good FPS with Metal on most aircraft.  It would seem my assumption that the PT 19's lack of complex avionics and passenger cabin detail would help with FPS was rather wide of the mark!

    The toe-brakes act the same whether on tarmac or grass- the plane slows to a crawl (throttle to idle) but doesn't stop completely; the pedals move downward as they should.  I'm sure it's something minor...

    Not being a computer genius I'm afraid I don't understand how Nvidia Inspector would work!

    Tried to get the wind (and a few bugs :D ) in my hair again today in the PT-19 and discovered a slight variation on the start up problem mentioned by Giaco.  It seems that the friendly mechanic is rather stronger than his appearance suggests- if you ask him to 'Help with Priming' then to 'crank' when the engine fires the aircraft flips into the air then rolls over on fire.  "Start with engines running' is disabled in the X-Plane menu.  I also had a similar problem with the other 'auto-start' option- it catapults you thousands of feet into the air!  I realise you're already looking at this- don't know if this information is useful to you.  

    Thanks again- hope to see many more UJS products!

  9. Hi.  Really enjoying the PT-19- certainly nice to try something basic.

    I have a question about frame rates.  My iMac delivers a consistent 20FPS using Metal drivers and the usual graphic settings for the PT-19.  Other, far bigger and more complex aircraft with glass cockpits, etc will usually give 30FPS at those settings.  The PT-19 is flyable, no problem there but given the simplicity of the systems, etc I was curious to know why the frame rate is so low.  I've tried reducing the graphic settings and other known methods of reducing the load on the graphics card but these make little difference; indeed the only setting that seems to make any difference is the Anti-Alias.  I've also tried removing plug-ins but this too has no impact.  

    The other thing is the Toe Brakes- I use Saitek Rudder pedals.  They work- when I brake the nose of the aircraft dips slightly and it slows down but the toe brakes don't seem to bring the  plane to a full stop.  Is this how the original aircraft works- toe brakes to slow, then parking brake?

     

    Many thanks- the PT-19 is great!

  10. Hi again.  Thanks for the advice- resetting the preferences didn't make any difference so I tried using OpenGL instead of 'Metal" (Mac computer).  With Metal I was getting 22 FPS inside and out; with open GL I got 33FPS inside the cockpit but an almost complete crash down to 4fps for the external views.  Removing the Librain file usually helps with this on a Mac but not on this occasion.  Don't know if that helps?

  11. Hi.  Your BN2 Islander is a solid favourite but the low frame-rates experienced in the first version appear to re-surfaced in v1.1.2.  

    Yes, my system has a pretty poor graphics card; the first version struggled to clear 8-10 FPS when looking towards the rear of the aircraft.  The second version was a huge improvement and I was getting 28-30 FPS all the time. 

    Since updating to XP11.5 (and with Metal drivers activated) most of my extensive collection of add-on aircraft are performing really well at quite high graphics settings- I had high hopes for the latest version of the Islander.  Alas I'm now struggling to get 23 FPS most of the time, with drops on occasion to 19fps (regardless of internal view position).  The immediate suspect was the graphics settings so I reduced these but doing so made hardly any difference- I tried several combinations but without much success- at the most I'd get maybe an additional 1-2 fps. 

    Is this an old problem resurfacing or something new?   Hope you are able to help out- you did a great job of sorting a similar issue out last time!

    Log copy.txt

  12. 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...

    • Like 1
  13. Hi.  Just installed and flown the latest version of the BN2- very, very pleased with it and (for my low end graphics card at least) the frame rates are really good now- inside and outside the aircraft.  Many thanks!

    The Carb. heat gauges always read at the top of the range, well out of the green.  Is this my engine handling  or is there a trick I should be aware of...

    All the best

     

     

    • Like 1
  14. 20 hours ago, Coop said:

    Let me know how that goes :) 

    Hi.  Have installed the latest version of the BN-2 .  Removing the glass objects gave me an extra 1FPS!  Don't think the problem lies there...  Ozz's post looked interesting so I tried it; I couldn't get the '7 pm' effect but definitely got better frame rates after sun down- an increase of 10 FPS or so.  Curiously the frame rates for external views barely changed at all after sunset so the only increase was in the cabin.  Hope this helps...

  15. Just now, Steve Hunnisett said:

    Hi again.  Have just tried the 2k objects and textures- I also removed all the passengers but the frame rates have not changed.  When I first reported this I was flying over the flat, empty plains of southern Somalia- barely any scenery at all.  Today, with the 2k files I was over central Ethiopia- mountainous and more demanding on the graphics card but still 17-19 FPS inside the cabin and 23-25 FPS outside. Will try removing the glass objects tomorrow.  

     

    Log file attached

    Log.txt

  16. Hi again.  Have just tried the 2k objects and textures- I also removed all the passengers but the frame rates have not changed.  When I first reported this I was flying over the flat, empty plains of southern Somalia- barely any scenery at all.  Today, with the 2k files I was over central Ethiopia- mountainous and more demanding on the graphics card but still 17-19 FPS inside the cabin and 23-25 FPS outside. Will try removing the glass objects tomorrow.  

     

  17. 19 hours ago, Coop said:

    This is most likely due to VRAM usage, we are working on a 2K texture pack mod that should roll out over the next few days which should improve VRAM usage and performance. In the meantime, lowering the X-Plane texture settings should help.

    Many thanks, Coop- will try these out.  I've had an ongoing battle with FPS for a few years now and usually resolve things OK but what's happening with the BN-2 is most unusual as there simply doesn't seem to be anything in the cabin that could soak up frames like this.  Culprits on other aircraft include the Librain plug-in (for Mac users), glass reflections, X-Plane animations (such as traffic or ships), clouds, 'glass' cockpits, AI aircraft and on one occasion the cabin lights.  

     The BN-2 is a cracking aircraft- I love the simple flight characteristics and 'feel' of it- shame there have been a few technical hitches... 

  18. Hi.  Really enjoying the Islander but a little mystified by the low frame rates when 'inside' the cabin/cockpit.  My system doesn't have a big video card and I usually get by with  significantly boosted system RAM but this does enable me to run some pretty complex aircraft, many with demanding glass cockpits.  Using outside views at my usual low x-plane graphic settings the Islander gives me about 24-25 FPS, usually good enough.  Inside, however I get between 17-19 FPS- but this is constant and does not seem to be affected by scenery, clouds, etc.  X-Plane just about runs the Islander in this configuration but looking at the cabin/instrument panel textures I can't see anything there that would cause frame rates to run that low -I was recently using Vmax's 747-8 inter at higher graphic settings and getting about 28-29 FPS in similar desert scenery. 

    I suspect there may be a plug-in conflict; I have tried turning off all the plug ins but this made no difference. Could I ask you to look through the attached log file to see if there's anything that can be done to improve the frame rates for the internal views?

     

    Many thanks- the BN-2 is great!

    Log.txt

  19. 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. 

    LES_Sundowner - 2019-11-21 14.59.31.png

    • Like 1
  20. 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?   

    LES_Sundowner - 2019-11-19 20.20.38.png

    LES_Sundowner - 2019-11-19 20.20.46.png

    LES_Sundowner - 2019-11-19 20.20.51.png

    LES_Sundowner - 2019-11-19 20.21.00.png

    LES_Sundowner - 2019-11-19 20.21.09.png

    screenshot - 2019-11-19 20.43.52.png

  21. 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

     

  22. 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...

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