Variometer sound

[Mik75 30]

Hi!

I really enjoy this beautiful addon.

But one thing annoys me a little bit:

The sound of the variometer jumps from very deep to it's highest highs from time to time.

It's not related to a thermal at all, it just sounds a little weird.

It looks more as if that could be coupled with the general performance.

When I look around with Track Ir and I'm in a region with dense autogen, it appears more often...

Has anybody the same problem?

Thanks in advance,

Michael

[J.Schweigler 203]

Hi Michael,

If the framerate drops too low, you'll probably get problems with that.

i recommend to maintain at least 23 framerates, even if you look around. The plane will feel better than also.

Best regards Joachim

[Mik75 30]

The thing is that my frames jump sometimes.

With an average of 30-35 fps, it can happen that the frames drop all the way down to 2.0 and way back to 45 within half of a second.

And this seems to be the time when the vario tends to sound a bit strange...

Is Cumulus X and its "conversation" with FSX affecting the performance in any way?

Greets,

Michael

P.S.: Yes, Thun is one of my favourite places to soar! ;-)

[J.Schweigler 203]

This happenes, if you didn't set a maximum framerate in the FSX menu.

Please make a test and set them down to 25. If the problem is solved, be happy, 25 frames are enough. If not turn them down to 24 and so on, until you get a STABLE framerate. Stable means without ANY stutters.

It is better to fly with a lower average (in this case nearly the max framerate, you've set) then have a higher one with big jumps.

This should solve the issue, and bring by the way more fun, because FSX then will be able to hold the frames, AND calculate your controls and gauges much better.

Cheers Joachim

[Mik75 30]

Okay, I tested to lock the frames at 25. They were absolutely stable at 24.9 (this is really a good setting for the Discus glider!) but there´s still the "underwater"-sound of the variometer.

I switched to a default Microsoft-Glider, same strange vario-sound.

BUT, as soon as I disable lift in Cumulus X, the sounds are absolutely ok. My sound-issue is linked with the lifts in Cumulus X. You can even watch that very good on the variometer of the default Microsoft 808; it´s needle jumps up an down nervously, so does the sound. Same here, with deactivated lifts, everything is fine.

Is there a setting which I have to adjust to get rid of that strange lifts?

Thanks in advance and greets,

Michael

[J.Schweigler 203]

Hmm,

can you please make a video? Maybe you see/hear only turbulences, rought air and so on. The needle musstn't be absolutely soft as without cumulusX!. Maybe you're pointing a feature as a bug. Especially in mountains there is often very rough air.

Cheers Joachim

[Mik75 30]

I'll try to make a video this weekend. But that strange behaviour shouldn't be any sort of feature.

The lift can be completely zero and absolute maximum within 1/10 of a second. That is what causes that strange sound in my oppinion.

You don't see that on the Aerosoft Discus vario-needle, but on the instrument of the default 808 you can even watch it.

With Cumulus X turned off, the varios and their sound become stable...

Greets,

Michael

[J.Schweigler 203]

Well this is indeed a strange behaviour.

Sorry, there were so many "stange behaviours" on this thing, that simply were features or fact of the realism, that I don't belive it directly, if anybody says "strange behaviour"

But "The lift can be completely zero and absolute maximum within 1/10 of a second." Is not right.

Wich version of cumulusX! are you using and Do you have XP / vista or Win7? 32 / 64 Bit?

Cheers Joachim

[Mik75 30]

Hello Joachim!

I have Cumulus X in version 1.6 and FSX Acceleration, all running on Vista Home Premium 64bit.

Greets,

Michael

[Peter Lürkens 30]

Hi Mike,

I have cathed up with this thread. Please note that there is a separate CumulusX! support forum here, as the thermal extension is not a part of the Discus-package, and I'm usually not doing direct support for the Discus.

From your description so far it seems that it is not one of the usual suspects in your case.

Do you have other add-ons and programs running in the background during your FSX session? Could you post a copy of your FSX exe.xml and dll.xml? You can find these by opening the "Run" dialogue (Winkey-R) and typing:

%appdata%\Microsoft\FSX

Is there any add-on that manipulates the FSX clock?

best regards,

Peter

[B21 19]

FYI probably not in this case but be aware any FSX change of *wind* (e.g. a turbulence or shear setting, or Wx with wind in layers) can cause the vario and its sound to show large swings. This particular issue is because FSX implements lots of things smoothly but wind changes in FSX are generally (unrealistically) instantaneous, e.g. from 10 knots to 20 knots. Without a total-energy vario you wouldn't necessarily notice, but a TE instrument will compute the instantaneous wind change as a high pulse of energy (which it *is*). It's non-trivial to compensate for this FSX 'feature' without making the instrument otherwise sluggish in normal use.

So this comment probably doesn't add anything to this particular thread but it'll help you understand some of the parameters affecting TE vario sound.

B21