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P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 07 Jun 2020, 12:01
by chrispbits
Anyone reading various forums regarding P3D v5 can't help but notice the many posts pointing out graphical performance issues, particularly blurry textures and/or stutters.

Regarding blurry scenery there is a work around that works reasonably well. In the Display options of P3D there's an option related to dynamic texture streaming - enabled by default I believe. This option attempts to balance texture loading to avoid overloading VRAM. It is this balancing algorithm that may be responsible for many instances of blurry textures. Turning this option off improves texture loading significantly BUT at the expense of some VRAM. If you have sufficient - probably 8Gb or more then consider turning this option off to improve texture loading. If you have less than 8Gb then you're probably stuffed. I tried this with the Hawk in the UK with TE GB and until I got to the approaches of London I had no instances of slow texture loading. The downside is that VRAM usage was at 5.1Gb at it's maximum - this from a budget of 6.7Gb (8Gb on the card). Note that different aircraft have different VRAM loading requirements and you may find that the default Cessna has a significantly lower VRAM need than the Hawk (the F35 is around 3.7Gb).

Hope this helps.

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 07 Jun 2020, 15:46
by Vc Ten
I dropped on this link while browsing Leonardo forums :https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/5754 ... cs-galore/
V5 runs smoother for me than v4 did, but I still get the autogen appearing in blocks some distance out. Spoils the immersion when on approach to say Heathrow, as the city's buildings appear in swathes.
I thought I might try his tweaks out, as the screen shots looked very good (don't they always)
While I don't quite get all the settings, and some see a bit contradictory, I think I understand what he's trying to achieve.
Rather than run Lod rad at 3.5 I've used 4.5 as the lod boundary was too visible at altitude, also set textures to 2048 as I have the memory headroom
Running with the other settings as suggested the sim took ages to load (loading terrain) and memory quite high at nudging 12 Gb so dropped the Max_Texture Request to 200000. Now loads quicker, but probably twice as long as before tweaks applied. Memory usage down to 10. 5 Gb or thereabouts.
Visually looks better with autogen appearing much further out. Will see how it goes for a few days
Dale

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 08 Jun 2020, 21:01
by chrispbits
There is mounting evidence that the latest release of Wndows 10 sees a substantial improvement in P3D performance, including texture loading and reducing VRAM demand. I installed the new version this afternoon and had a brief test. Not ideal because Windows broke the association with my joystick's throttle but first impressions are very favourable. Will have another go tomorrow and report back.

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 08 Jun 2020, 21:34
by Vc Ten
Yep, it will be the first Windows update that I'm actually looking forward to :lol:
Dale

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 08 Jun 2020, 22:07
by TSR2
Yep, the new Windows 10 update seems to work a treat, got it last Wednesday and no issues so far.

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 09 Jun 2020, 07:25
by chrispbits
You can get it now Dale if your PC is up to it. I found that forcing an update from Windows settings didn't work but there is a way. If you go to the general discussion section of the ORBX forum there's a lengthy thread about a gold medal for P3D v5 and Windows 10 (2004 update) and you'll find the method in there.

I would be more helpful but my broadband is down so I'm relying on my phone at the moment. This is a pain cos I'm I'm working from home and need the BB for that.

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 09 Jun 2020, 07:58
by TSR2
Here you go...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... ndows10ISO

No need to wait for Windows update. Just click Update this PC.

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 09 Jun 2020, 10:25
by chrispbits
Thanks Ben. I thought you might know a quick route. :)

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 09 Jun 2020, 13:08
by Nigel H-J
Did not even know there was an update to Win 10, nothing showed up on my computer when I ran check for update!! :dunno:

Anyway, downloading from Bens' link and have to say it is taking a looong time to download or is it that I am clock watching!! :lol:
There is mounting evidence that the latest release of Wndows 10 sees a substantial improvement in P3D performance, including texture loading and reducing VRAM demand.
If that is the case for P3D then it will be interesting to see if this update has any improvement on running X-Plane 11 even though I get very good performance apart from when it bottlenecks occasionally.

Regards
Nigel.

Re: P3D v5 Performance

Posted: 09 Jun 2020, 13:46
by Vc Ten
Updated as per Ben's link and available GPU memory in V5, has gone from 6.6 to 7.2 on an 8 gig 2070 S So far so good
Dale