VPilot stuttering

[Stein-Ove Rud]

I'm using it in a networked config with no issues

 

 

Nice to hear, what OS are you on, wired or not, have you network on internal connections or do you have installed own network cards?

 

All info could maybe solve this behavior for those who have stutter on networked setups..

 

 

Brgds

Stein-ove Rud

[Ross Carlson]

Yes, Darrol, please give a very detailed description of your network setup, including your SimConnect.xml and SimConnect.cfg files.

 

And Darrol, can you confirm that you see smooth movement of other aircraft when connecting vPilot to FSX over a network? Even with lots of aircraft around?

[Darrol Larrok 1140797]

FSX PC is using onboard networking of a Gigabyte-G77X-UD3H motherboard, wired via Ethernet to a router. The vPilot PC is wireless networked, and has a Realtek RTL8723AE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC, onboard. Both PCs are Win 7, the vPilot PC is a laptop. Only vPilot is being connected remotely.

 

simconnect.cfg:

[SimConnect]
Protocol=IPv4
Address=192.168.1.64
Port=500
MaxReceiveSize=4096
DisableNagle=0

[SimConnect.1]
Protocol=IPv4
Address=192.168.1.64
Port=6811
MaxReceiveSize=4096
DisableNagle=0

 

I can confirm I see smooth movement of other aircraft with 1-4 aircraft, but I haven't had more than that visible at once so far.

[Ross Carlson]

Darrol, Do you have a SimConnect.xml file on the FSX machine?

[Darrol Larrok 1140797]

Missed that, sorry, here ya go:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?> 
<SimBase.Docomeent Type="SimConnect" version="1,0"> 
  <Descr>SimConnect</Descr> 
  <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename> 
  <Disabled>False</Disabled> 
  <SimConnect.Comm> 
     <Disabled>False</Disabled> 
     <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol> 
     <Scope>global</Scope> 
     <Address>192.168.1.64</Address> 
     <MaxClients>64</MaxClients> 
     <Port>500</Port> 
     <MaxRecvSize>4096</MaxRecvSize>
     <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle> 
  </SimConnect.Comm> 
  <SimConnect.Comm> 
     <Disabled>False</Disabled> 
     <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol> 
     <Scope>global</Scope> 
     <Address>192.168.1.64</Address> 
     <MaxClients>64</MaxClients> 
     <Port>6811</Port> 
     <MaxRecvSize>4096</MaxRecvSize> 
     <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle> 
  </SimConnect.Comm> 
  <SimConnect.Comm> 
     <Disabled>False</Disabled> 
     <Protocol>Auto</Protocol> 
     <Scope>local</Scope> 
  </SimConnect.Comm> 


</SimBase.Docomeent> 

[Marc Wheeler]

I was speaking to one of our pilots last night regarding this issue as he is having this issue and did report it here in the forums.

 

He indicated that the stuttering was mostly when in the air and there where other aircraft around him and sometimes when taxing.

[Ezio Cingolani 953405]

FSX PC is using onboard networking of a Gigabyte-G77X-UD3H motherboard, wired via Ethernet to a router. The vPilot PC is wireless networked, and has a Realtek RTL8723AE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC, onboard. Both PCs are Win 7, the vPilot PC is a laptop. Only vPilot is being connected remotely.

 

simconnect.cfg:

[SimConnect]
Protocol=IPv4
Address=192.168.1.64
Port=500
MaxReceiveSize=4096
DisableNagle=0

[SimConnect.1]
Protocol=IPv4
Address=192.168.1.64
Port=6811
MaxReceiveSize=4096
DisableNagle=0

 

I can confirm I see smooth movement of other aircraft with 1-4 aircraft, but I haven't had more than that visible at once so far.

 

Darrol,

thanks for sharing your files. Just one question: why do you have two sections in the file structure, i.e. Simconnect.cfg and Simconnect.1 ? I only have just a section called Simconnect which is identical to your Simconnect.cfg, and I have dropped this file into the root directory of any program connecting to FSX from remote, such as ActiveSky, EFB, and Ivap, and everything has always been running flawlessly. What's the purpouse of SImconnect.1 ?

Thanks

Regards

[Brandon Haase 1019701]

I also am in the same boat as everyone here regarding stuttering. I have tried Disablenagle=1, and closing any fsinn programs running. It DOES run smooth when ran directly on the fsx computer, however it stutters a lot over simconnect.

[Darrol Larrok 1140797]

Ezio,

 

I have two sections because I was using ASN over the network at one point, I no longer do so, but am using the same file.

[Ross Carlson]

Darrol, if you haven't already, can you try running vPilot on the same machine as the sim, and let me know if you see ANY difference in the smoothness of aircraft movement compared between running vPilot locally and running it remotely?

[Ezio Cingolani 953405]

Ross,

I have made this test today and it is a completely different story: running vPilot on the same FSX PC is wonderfully smooth.

It is clearly a network related issue, but if it is related to a not correct simconnect configuration I can' t figure out why all the other applications I have on the networked laptop, that use simconnect, work flawlessly.

I do appreciate your efforts to get it fixed..

Thanks

Ciao

[Ross Carlson]

I don't think it's a configuration issue. I think the that running vPilot over a network just adds too much latency.

[Ezio Cingolani 953405]

Do you think it can be fixed or is it something inherent to vPilot code ?

[Ross Carlson]

Do you think it can be fixed or is it something inherent to vPilot code ?

 

I think it's inherent to the way vPilot does position updates. It sends a position update to SimConnect once for every aircraft, every time the sim notifies vPilot that a new visual frame has been drawn. This works great when you're running vPilot on the same machine as the sim, but once you introduce network latency into the mix, the aircraft position updates are no longer in sync with the visual frame updates in the sim, and you get the stuttering effect.

 

I'm thinking about writing a sort of add-on slave module for vPilot that will run on the sim machine and communicate with the main vPilot program over the network. The slave module will be responsible for updating aircraft positions, and the master module will do everything else.

 

This slave module can also be responsible for reading PTT buttons on the joystick/yoke so that networked users don't have to mess with WideFS to transmit PTT button presses to vPilot on the remote machine.

[Ezio Cingolani 953405]

That would be great, Ross...

Thanks

 

Have a good day (I'm going to sleep....it's late night here...!)

 

Regards

[Todd Malek]

I'm thinking about writing a sort of add-on slave module for vPilot that will run on the sim machine and communicate with the main vPilot program over the network. The slave module will be responsible for updating aircraft positions, and the master module will do everything else.

 

This slave module can also be responsible for reading PTT buttons on the joystick/yoke so that networked users don't have to mess with WideFS to transmit PTT button presses to vPilot on the remote machine.

 

I believe that may be the only way getting around this other than using FSUIPC/WideFS. If you look at all the other online client software out there that don't experience any stutters (ie IvAp, FSINN), they use a slave/master or client/server approach where the software is installed on both sides and talks through their own network protocol over the wire before FS.

 

But, it still doesn't explain why other users with networked configs are not experiencing this phenomena we call "stutters". ....sounds like a horror film.

[Ross Carlson]

But, it still doesn't explain why other users with networked configs are not experiencing this phenomena we call "stutters". ....sounds like a horror film.

 

I'm not convinced they aren't ... they may just be seeing it to a lesser degree or they have a higher tolerance for jittery aircraft movement.

[Ezio Cingolani 953405]

Do you think it can be fixed or is it something inherent to vPilot code ?

 

I'm thinking about writing a sort of add-on slave module for vPilot that will run on the sim machine and communicate with the main vPilot program over the network. The slave module will be responsible for updating aircraft positions, and the master module will do everything else.

 

This slave module can also be responsible for reading PTT buttons on the joystick/yoke so that networked users don't have to mess with WideFS to transmit PTT button presses to vPilot on the remote machine.

 

Ross,

do you have a timeframe for this ?

Thanks

 

Regards

[Ross Carlson]

No, I don't ... the code involved is non-trivial, so it'll be a while. It doesn't help that I'm travelling all next week.

[Jim Barrett]

I've been away from online flying for a couple years, but vpilot has rekindled my interest. It installed with no problems on my networked laptop, and VIP model matching and remote PTT via WideFS is working well.

 

I do note a small amount of stuttering, but as I recall, my previous client SB4 stuttered too. I have not, however, used vpilot (yet) at an airport with a large amount of traffic.

 

I know that the VIP model set is not well optimized for aircraft LOD, and I am going to look into using WOAI models, though it appears that downloading and installing all the required packages may be somewhat time-consuming.

 

I have no objection to running vpilot directly on my FSX machine, as I always run the sim in windowed mode. However, due to the nature of my FSX computer, interfacing a microphone/headset for ATC communications would be difficult.

 

In my own case, the ideal solution would be if there could be a vpilot remote module on the laptop solely to handle the audio interface for ATC communication via my USB headset, with the rest of the program (text window, controller status window etc) running on the FSX machine.

 

Just a thought for possible options going forward in your development of the software. And, a very big "thank you" for making this software available to the VATSIM community!

[Darrol Larrok 1140797]

Ross, a suggestion I would have, if it's technically feasible, would be to have an option where vPilot is running on the FSX machine, and the interface on a networked PC. The only reason I'm running networked is because I'm running FSX full-screen.

[Ross Carlson]

I'm working on adding a module that runs on the FSX machine and handles traffic movement. Everything else will stay the same and be on the remote computer. The module that runs on the FSX machine will also handle PTT if configured that way. (Or PTT can still be done on the remote machine running the main vPilot UI.)

[Marcelo Duran 1176670]

That would be perfect for those (like me) that uses a laptop for managing ATC comms, and a desktop for running FSX in fullscreen mode, taking advantage of the smoothness of vPilot running together FSX in the same computer.

 

Ross, the smoothness of vPilot and FSX in the same computer is just amazing!!!

 

Hope everything works out!!!!

 

Regards, Duran.

[Ezio Cingolani 953405]

That would be perfect for those (like me) that uses a laptop for managing ATC comms, and a desktop for running FSX in fullscreen mode, taking advantage of the smoothness of vPilot running together FSX in the same computer.

 

Ross, the smoothness of vPilot and FSX in the same computer is just amazing!!!

 

Hope everything works out!!!!

 

Regards, Duran.

 

That's exactly the point.....the smoothness of vPilot when running on the same FSX PC is absolutely amazing, and the chance of matching it with the flexibility of using it on a second PC to allow full screen FSX use....well, that would be perfect.

Look forward to this...

Regards

[Carlos Serrano 1180611]

Hi to all

 

Don't know if it will add something to the developers but here goes.

 

Installed vPilot on my laptop that serves as client machine (OPUS, ACARS and until now FSInn).

Fired it up, updated automatically, restarted but then it takes ages to go from menu to menu...

 

BTW i'm in a different network (@work).

 

Carlos