THE fix for FSX stability

[darem 106]

http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=281229&hl=

This is close to a miracle. Normally, I don't go ballistic over a fix, because most "fixes" have side effects - but this one is the best thing that happened to FSX since years.

Follow the link in the thread there as well, there is additional info in there.

[Sharrow 107]

Hmmmm, don't know about the miracle part quiet yet, irrespective of the current season or the name of the gentleman who came up with it.

The claim that it stops dissapearing textures has not really been substantiated on my machine. I tried this last night by loading up the Aerosoft Airbus X at FSD's LSZH with most setting on high (not max) and I still had issues with slight texture lag when changing views from exterior to interior views. I will say that it SEEMED slightly better but most definitely it did not stop the texture lag as advertised.

Until we see many, many more people try this and and experience significantly less texture lag (especially with complex airliners at complex airports) then the jury remains out in my opinion. Furthermore texture lag is an indicator of not enough VRAM and I just do not see how a single setting in the fsx.cfg file can solve this. By the way I have no other tweaks in cfg file at all.

For those curious the supposed miracle tweak is to insert HIGHMEMFIX=1 into the [GRAPHICS] section of your fsx.cfg file.

[darem 106]

Hmmmm, don't know about the miracle part quiet yet, irrespective of the current season or the name of the gentleman who came up with it.

The claim that it stops dissapearing textures has not really been substantiated on my machine. I tried this last night by loading up the Aerosoft Airbus X at FSD's LSZH with most setting on high (not max) and I still had issues with slight texture lag when changing views from exterior to interior views. I will say that it SEEMED slightly better but most definitely it did not stop the texture lag as advertised.

Until we see many, many more people try this and and experience significantly less texture lag (especially with complex airliners at complex airports) then the jury remains out in my opinion. Furthermore texture lag is an indicator of not enough VRAM and I just do not see how a single setting in the fsx.cfg file can solve this. By the way I have no other tweaks in cfg file at all.

For those curious the supposed miracle tweak is to insert HIGHMEMFIX=1 into the [GRAPHICS] section of your fsx.cfg file.

We are talking about two different things. It's not texture lag that is cured, but disappearing textures (ground), disappearing autogen or distorted pales (fuselage trhough cockpit, no gear or wings visible). These things happen to systems where the bus is overloaded and where a conflict between audio and video evolves (crackling sound). It plagues folks with lots of detailed addons and detailed planes and seems to be common with Realtek onboard soundchips. The highmemfix (and some other adaptions in the fsx.cfg) cures this problem. Funny enough, for the most part, it is a problem of higher end systems with high end videocards.

The problem has haunted me for months now, and Jesus' fix helped instantly and across all different scenarios. Until now, I had different bufferpool settings for different planes and different regions, managed by Orbx's FSXGo - now, with Jesus' tweaks, one bufferpool size fits all and gone are the days of microstutter.

I have yet to see one report that this fix didn't cure or ease the problem. Might well be that they will come in, too (there is nothing like an universal setting for all different systems with FSX), but for my part, this one has been the best so far.

BTW, it's not done with just hihgmemfix, there are some other settings involved:

[GRAPHICS]

SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=5

SHADER_PARTIAL_PRECISION=1

ALLOW_SHADER_20=1

ALLOW_SHADER_30=0

HIGHMEMFIX=1

STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=2147483647

[Display]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400

TextureMaxLoad=30

A locked framerate is helping as well...

[Hiflyer 129]

I have never heard of disappearing textures........... is this common?

[altena 2]

Hi everyone,

First of all, I never made "tweaking" changes in my FSX.cfg before.

But, I always had problems with FSDT Zurich: missing buildings and trees on approach with a more complex aircraft (PMDG MD11, B747). Also with the LDL-767, when I had VR Insight's CDUII connected. I had a discussion with Virtuali about this for months, without any result.

Now I have added the entries, as mentioned by Darem. And.....everything works great now!

I'm not sure whether I need all the entries, or only the HIGHMEMFIX=1 and STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=2147483647entries. Will check this out.

Anyway, for me it was the golden tip of the year.

Thanks to all of you.

Regards, Henk

[rocky 118]

I've just followed this 'fix' and I began a flight at New York International, but on a grass strip, sat in mid air, with no sound or anything else... just as well that I copied my previous cfg file!

We are talking about two different things. It's not texture lag that is cured, but disappearing textures (ground), disappearing autogen or distorted pales (fuselage trhough cockpit, no gear or wings visible). These things happen to systems where the bus is overloaded and where a conflict between audio and video evolves (crackling sound). It plagues folks with lots of detailed addons and detailed planes and seems to be common with Realtek onboard soundchips. The highmemfix (and some other adaptions in the fsx.cfg) cures this problem. Funny enough, for the most part, it is a problem of higher end systems with high end videocards.

The problem has haunted me for months now, and Jesus' fix helped instantly and across all different scenarios. Until now, I had different bufferpool settings for different planes and different regions, managed by Orbx's FSXGo - now, with Jesus' tweaks, one bufferpool size fits all and gone are the days of microstutter.

I have yet to see one report that this fix didn't cure or ease the problem. Might well be that they will come in, too (there is nothing like an universal setting for all different systems with FSX), but for my part, this one has been the best so far.

BTW, it's not done with just hihgmemfix, there are some other settings involved:

[GRAPHICS]

SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=5

SHADER_PARTIAL_PRECISION=1

ALLOW_SHADER_20=1

ALLOW_SHADER_30=0

HIGHMEMFIX=1

STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=2147483647

[Display]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400

TextureMaxLoad=30

A locked framerate is helping as well...

[psolk 80]

I've just followed this 'fix' and I began a flight at New York International, but on a grass strip, sat in mid air, with no sound or anything else... just as well that I copied my previous cfg file!

Forgive me but what is New York International? I live in NJ and must have missed it... I know we have JFK, LaGuardia and Newark but New York International is new to me...

[Snave 466]

You apply someone else tweaks willy-nilly, and wonder why you have problems?

[GRAPHICS]

SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=5 - Just a version number. DOES NOTHING unless you change it, then it forces a shader compile refresh

SHADER_PARTIAL_PRECISION=1 - Meaningless drivel. Even Jesus doesn't use this one anymore

ALLOW_SHADER_20=1 - Big Deal. It's the shader versino most of FSX uses by default. If this doesn't work, your sims' buggered

ALLOW_SHADER_30=0 - BIG DEAL. The `force Shader 3.0 is a disreputable tweak and only affects a very small number of textures in the sim and at higher water level settings. Here you were telling the sim not to use something it wans't using anyway. So what?

HIGHMEMFIX=1 - Possibly the only tweak in here that may have some value, but there are also possible side-effects

STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=2147483647 - Where did you get this number? Its drivel. Try using real world byte-sizes.

[Display]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400 Oh good luck with a number that big. Even a Cray SLI'd to 6x Nvidia GTX580's would struggle with that.

TextureMaxLoad=30. A dangerously high number here as well. Try 3, 6, 9 or 12. UNless you have the Cray rig outlined above.

Never, ever apply settings unless you know what they are doing, these tweaks have long since been outmoded by the online tweaking facility that optimises based on installed hardware. Jesus uncovered a lot of `settings` hidden in the core FSX files, but has never been able to prove that many of them work. Consider that might be the reason they are hidden as they are leftovers from the development process, and over time his modfications have whittled down to just two or three that actually have any effect, and I'm not saying positive effect...

Use that online tweaking tool (at your own risk) but at least it saves you from yourself.

[rocky 118]

Hey Darem, you say that it is not texture loading lag that this fix 'cures' but in my experienece, that's exactly what it has done Just deleted this fix and then reapplied it.... maybe I had not inserted it into the cfg file correctly. Wow, so far it seems to have sorted the issue I had been having with delayed texture loading, which I have been trying to get to the bottom of for the best part of 6-8 weeks!! So thanks guys, Snave, I haven't been adding fixes 'willy nilly' but I have been experimenting with different suggestions for weeks now, each time adding a fix, trying it, testing etc. this is the one that seems, so far, to have done the trick. Thanks again guys....

[Matt_Smith 1116]

Placebo?

[rocky 118]

Hey Matt, absolutely not! I have been plagued with delayed texture loading since changing to Win 7 about six weeks ago. It would occur, mainly with CPU intensive aircraft, but also with default aircraft. When changing views to the VC, it would sometimes take about a second before the instrument panel was anything other than just a grey blank! It sometimes still happens but when it does it is a fraction of a second, and the amount of times it occurs has been reduced by about 80%.... honestly! However, I understand where you're coming from, and my experience with tweaks has been to say the least, unsuccessful, so I am aware that a lot of these tweaks are, to say the least, a lot of hot air. But certainly, all I can say is that, so far, I am ecstatic at the result. Oh, I have also done a side by side comparison.... sat at Seattle Tahoma airport, frames locked at 40, default Beechcraft plane, sat on the runway without cfg fix 27-29 frames with cfg fix, 32/33 !

Placebo?

[Matt_Smith 1116]

Hey Matt, absolutely not! I have been plagued with delayed texture loading since changing to Win 7 about six weeks ago. It would occur, mainly with CPU intensive aircraft, but also with default aircraft. When changing views to the VC, it would sometimes take about a second before the instrument panel was anything other than just a grey blank! It sometimes still happens but when it does it is a fraction of a second, and the amount of times it occurs has been reduced by about 80%.... honestly! However, I understand where you're coming from, and my experience with tweaks has been to say the least, unsuccessful, so I am aware that a lot of these tweaks are, to say the least, a lot of hot air. But certainly, all I can say is that, so far, I am ecstatic at the result. Oh, I have also done a side by side comparison.... sat at Seattle Tahoma airport, frames locked at 40, default Beechcraft plane, sat on the runway without cfg fix 27-29 frames with cfg fix, 32/33 !

Well my system's nearly identical to yours except graphics cards, Im using 2 GTX260's in SLI (I know FSX doesnt like SLI) along with a TH2G, and possibly different hard disks. On a fully optimised PC with a resolution of 3840*1024 with the default Baron Im getting 40-50 fps at Tahoma. Thats without touching fsx.cfg! Just goes to show what you can do IF you build your system properly and fully optimise your hardware and software (FSX included) you really dont need any tweeks. The only edits I shall make to my fsx.cfg are the ones that turn off the annoying red messages telling you when you apply brakes, stall, overspeed or slew. Certainly not preformance related.

Edit: No im not overclocking my CPU either. Everything runs as it would out of the box. And happy christmas to you Rocky

[rocky 118]

Cheers Matt and to you...

Well my system's nearly identical to yours except graphics cards, Im using 2 GTX260's in SLI (I know FSX doesnt like SLI) along with a TH2G, and possibly different hard disks. On a fully optimised PC with a resolution of 3840*1024 with the default Baron Im getting 40-50 fps at Tahoma. Thats without touching fsx.cfg! Just goes to show what you can do IF you build your system properly and fully optimise your hardware and software (FSX included) you really dont need any tweeks. The only edits I shall make to my fsx.cfg are the ones that turn off the annoying red messages telling you when you apply brakes, stall, overspeed or slew. Certainly not preformance related.

Edit: No im not overclocking my CPU either. Everything runs as it would out of the box. And happy christmas to you Rocky

[Snave 466]

Placebo?

Placebo

[Matt_Smith 1116]

Thoguh so is it wrong my head should spihn so rapidly, yet my fsx frames be so low?

Somesone must have a tweek for that?

[Snave 466]

Thoguh so is it wrong my head should spihn so rapidly, yet my fsx frames be so low?

Somesone must have a tweek for that?

Lying down in a darkened room, and laying off the Tempranillo..?

I speak from experience..!

[Matt_Smith 1116]

Tried, that tweek sucks, my ceiling is still rotating fastier than, well my poor fragile lil brain can cope with

[rocky 118]

Hey Matt, try eating six mince pies after you've had too much turkey.... works wonders

Tried, that tweek sucks, my ceiling is still rotating fastier than, well my poor fragile lil brain can cope with

[Snave 466]

Hey Matt, try eating six mince pies after you've had too much turkey.... works wonders

Ah, torque reaction...

have you tried turning the reality sliders down? I leave the Gin-Effect on zero and the Pie-Factor on a mid-way setting?

[maddz 737 55]

Ah, torque reaction...

have you tried turning the reality sliders down? I leave the Gin-Effect on zero and the Pie-Factor on a mid-way setting?

[Matt_Smith 1116]

Ah, torque reaction...

have you tried turning the reality sliders down? I leave the Gin-Effect on zero and the Pie-Factor on a mid-way setting?

My reality sliders are way down, lower than an essex girls knickers

Gin effect is all the way over to the right so far infact a trip to Tesco's may be needed to replenish dwindling supplies.

As for pie factor what pies are we talking about? Pork pies or Mums home made apple pie?

[Snave 466]

Of course, that's the problem!

...you've obviously got Pie Environment X installed yes? Patched to 1.1 with the HD (`High Dumpling`) effect?

You need to select the sweet, NOT the savoury option, or else you can get adverse yaw from the suet content. FSX is renowned for overdoing the suet content by default. The ACES team (`All Cream Extra Sugar`) were told about this during beta but never substituted a lo-fat option as it isn't used much in the USA...

[rocky 118]

I like it Snave.... very funny:lol:

Of course, that's the problem!

...you've obviously got Pie Environment X installed yes? Patched to 1.1 with the HD (`High Dumpling`) effect?

You need to select the sweet, NOT the savoury option, or else you can get adverse yaw from the suet content. FSX is renowned for overdoing the suet content by default. The ACES team (`All Cream Extra Sugar`) were told about this during beta but never substituted a lo-fat option as it isn't used much in the USA...

[Matt_Smith 1116]

Indeed I have, the HD effect is a killer on frames, but I just couldnt live without it in my life now.

So if Im right what your saying is, I select the sweet option in Pie Environment X 1.1 HD I will not only get my frames back but also get my fill of pies? In effect having my xmas cake and eating it? Now where did I save that Brandy Sauce addon

[Matt_Smith 1116]

Hey Matt, absolutely not! I have been plagued with delayed texture loading since changing to Win 7 about six weeks ago. It would occur, mainly with CPU intensive aircraft, but also with default aircraft. When changing views to the VC, it would sometimes take about a second before the instrument panel was anything other than just a grey blank! It sometimes still happens but when it does it is a fraction of a second, and the amount of times it occurs has been reduced by about 80%.... honestly! However, I understand where you're coming from, and my experience with tweaks has been to say the least, unsuccessful, so I am aware that a lot of these tweaks are, to say the least, a lot of hot air. But certainly, all I can say is that, so far, I am ecstatic at the result. Oh, I have also done a side by side comparison.... sat at Seattle Tahoma airport, frames locked at 40, default Beechcraft plane, sat on the runway without cfg fix 27-29 frames with cfg fix, 32/33 !

And speaking of Tachoma Int. This is what my system does with a totally standard fsx.cfg. The only difference in our systems hardware wise is graphics cards. I also have GEX, UXT and REX 2 installed (only editing is a 50% resize on the image). Enjoy, and marvle at my system building skill