VATSIM suggested options for adjusting X-Plane rendering

[Matthew Bartels]

As stated in the post found at vats.im/fps, All X-Plane pilot clients have functionality built in to automatically disconnect users who fall below 20 frames per second for an extended period of time. This is necessary for smooth operation of the network.

 

You can find tools and suggestions for improving and automatically adjusting your rendering settings at the following links.

 

Setting the Rendering Options for Best Performance in X- Plane

 

https://www.x-plane.com/manuals/desktop/?fbclid=IwAR1lR28V_5L4-gIK0ElMOwdqR3Ib7jeOP2_jeR7_PW-4B2iVQ_ZTWZ3nS7s#settingtherenderingoptionsforbestperformance

 

FlyWithLua (Needed for 3jFPS and FPS Boost)

https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/38445-flywithlua-ng-next-generation-edition-for-x-plane-11-win-lin-mac/

 

Choose and use only one of these scripts below

 

3jFPS Wizard

https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/43281-3jfps-wizard11/

 

FPS Boost + Auto LOD

https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/52047-fps-boost-auto-lod/

[Daniel Dezulier]

Hello Matthew, the problem is that xPilot complains for FPS <20 FPS and while X-Plane displayed FPS are > 30

I am confident in X-Plane FPS calculation by itself. So please can you make this FPS checking optional ?

 

Giving some example of low FPS impact :

Imagine you are at 160 kt, in final. You fly at 82 m/s.

If the frame rate is 24 FPS (like in a movie) each 1/24 s you fly 3.41 m

The lost of accuracy is 3.41 m by 1/24 FPS.

If you freeze for one entire second you lose 82 in the track ...

When you are several aircraft on final, you have normally one minute spacing (sometimes less in very busy airports)

So the real impact of loosing 4 5 6 7 FPS is between 10 and 20 meters of position accuracy.

 

If you fly aerobatic figures, in Jet-fighters at 300 kt FPS does really makes sense.

By the way, kids or adults flying Jet-fighters on VATSIM are not the main part of flying people, and generally do not have FPS problems has they are obliged to buy the fastest computers.

So, as for the while the FPS information is not equal as the one given by X-Plane itself, it would be convenient to make this checking an optional one.

 

Thank you for reading

Happy New Year

Best regards

Daniel DEZULIER

LFPN

1400805

[Daniel Dezulier]

Hello Matthew, the problem is that xPilot complains for FPS <20 FPS and while X-Plane displayed FPS are > 30

I am confident in X-Plane FPS calculation by itself. So please can you make this FPS checking optional ?

 

Giving some example of low FPS impact :

Imagine you are at 160 kt, in final. You fly at 82 m/s.

If the frame rate is 24 FPS (like in a movie) each 1/24 s you fly 3.41 m

The lost of accuracy is 3.41 m by 1/24 FPS.

If you freeze for one entire second you lose 82 in the track ...

When you are several aircraft on final, you have normally one minute spacing (sometimes less in very busy airports)

So the real impact of loosing 4 5 6 7 FPS is between 10 and 20 meters of position accuracy.

 

If you fly aerobatic figures, in Jet-fighters at 300 kt FPS does really makes sense.

By the way, kids or adults flying Jet-fighters on VATSIM are not the main part of flying people, and generally do not have FPS problems has they are obliged to buy the fastest computers.

So, as for the while the FPS information is not equal as the one given by X-Plane itself, it would be convenient to make this checking an optional one.

 

Thank you for reading

Happy New Year

Best regards

Daniel DEZULIER

LFPN

1400805

And I add to Justin Shannon that my computer and my installation of X-Plane are both correctly tweaked.

I began my life by installing computers ...

By the way I am retired now, but I spent 10 years of my life teaching computing in technology sciences, 10 more years in scoring low level code against high valuable requested performances in a huge European Telco, and 24 year in computing for code security purpose.

So for me performance, code quality, code security are part of my life.

Flying too as I graduated PPL for real in 1998.

So back to 1.1.8.0 :

I noticed many msg more than 5 per second and it is impossible to measure different 30 second low FPS 5 times in the same second.

So check your code, and please fix it !

Best regards

Daniel

[Marcel Kottelaar 1458321]

Hello,

Totally frustrated!

XPilot keeps showing annoying messages in simulator, threatening to disconnect, while fps is far above 20 fps. Also disconnecting as soon as working with other programs during flight.

How to completely ruin a good working app.

Back to Squawkbox. I rather fly offline than being confronted with stupid on screen messages and a poorly working addon.

Goodbye XPilot.

Marko

[Matthew Bartels]

Hello Matthew, the problem is that xPilot complains for FPS <20 FPS and while X-Plane displayed FPS are > 30

I am confident in X-Plane FPS calculation by itself. So please can you make this FPS checking optional ?

 

Giving some example of low FPS impact :

Imagine you are at 160 kt, in final. You fly at 82 m/s.

If the frame rate is 24 FPS (like in a movie) each 1/24 s you fly 3.41 m

The lost of accuracy is 3.41 m by 1/24 FPS.

If you freeze for one entire second you lose 82 in the track ...

When you are several aircraft on final, you have normally one minute spacing (sometimes less in very busy airports)

So the real impact of loosing 4 5 6 7 FPS is between 10 and 20 meters of position accuracy.

 

If you fly aerobatic figures, in Jet-fighters at 300 kt FPS does really makes sense.

By the way, kids or adults flying Jet-fighters on VATSIM are not the main part of flying people, and generally do not have FPS problems has they are obliged to buy the fastest computers.

So, as for the while the FPS information is not equal as the one given by X-Plane itself, it would be convenient to make this checking an optional one.

 

Thank you for reading

Happy New Year

Best regards

Daniel DEZULIER

LFPN

1400805

 

Hello Daniel,

What you described is not what actually happens. X-Plane isn‘t freezing. It is literally slowing down the simulation rate to compensate for the low framerate so that it can complete its physics calculations.

 

In these cases, the X-Plane user will see their indicated airspeed appear normal and if they can see their ground speed, that too will look normal. The air traffic controllers see the ground speed that X-Plane is reporting and are doing their sequencing based on that ground speed. The problem is X-Plane is lying about the true ground speed of the aircraft when it slows down.

 

For example, A pilot at cruise is 360 knots ground speed. This equates to 6 miles a minute. The X-Plane user below 20 FPS is having his simulation rate slowed to half speed or less depending on the severity of the FPS drop. So in this case, that same pilot and controller who thinks they are doing 360 knots ground speed is actually doing 180 knots or less. 180 knots is only 3 miles per minute. So the if you have another aircraft behind this pilot at normal separation of about 10 NM, the aircraft are going to be in conflict in less than 3 minutes.

 

The same is true for aircraft on final. If both you and I are doing 180 knots down the final and you are in slowdown. You‘re really only doing 90kts compared to my 180. So I‘m gaining 1.5 miles on you every minute. At minimum separation of 3 miles in the approach airspace, In less than 1 minute we are going to be in conflict.

 

Now let‘s forget about other traffic. It‘s nearly impossible to vector such an aircraft to an approach as vectoring is all done based on where we expect you to be. So if you end up taking longer to make a turn because you are in half rate, our vectors are going to be wrong because we were projecting out ahead to where we think you should be.

 

As far as making this an optional feature that pilots could select on or off, that‘s simply not going to happen. No pilot would willingly check that box, especially if they know that they can‘t meet the requirements. This feature is all about improving the user experience for the m[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es, so we can‘t allow for it to be an optional feature.

 

The solution is simple. X-Plane can run at 20 FPS steady even on some lower end hardware. The key is to find the balance. If flying on VATSIM is important, then we have to be willing to reduce or settings or remove sceneries that cause big performance hits on lower end machines.

[Daniel Dezulier]

Hello Matthews, please read carefully : I never wrote X-plane was freezing.

It was an hypothesis reporting that "even if FPS was so low that X-plane freezes for 1 second"you'll lose 82 meter of accuracy in plane's position.

[Daniel Dezulier]

And by the way pilots who can afford your FPS requirement will be excluded in the race for performance !

So is it this the way of wishing pilot a happy new year ?

I guess being straight in your boot might makes you lose pilots on VATSIM.

 

What do you really want ? A bunch o over-clockers or many pilot discovering the flying world ?

It is up too you !!!

 

Read the motive of VATSIM and think about it !

[Daniel Dezulier]

A real challenge for developers would be a real ACARS program, managing planes under ATC sending them tuning via ACARS.

As it is really done other Europe.

[Daniel Dezulier]

For the moment, what we are reporting, is that FPS alerts of xPilot do not match with FPS reported by X-Plane.

In my opinion, the productive way is to contact Laminar and check with them how to adapt X-Plane to makes it having FPS ever >= 26 FPS for example, instead of banishing pilots who can pay themselves a super computer. Both of simmer are retired with low incomes. If you trash them ... what would happen ?

[Alexander Cohrs]

Now that fps drops are considered as valid reason for automatic disconnects at VATSIM because of the disturbance they (might) cause, I also ask for automatic disconnects if...

 

• a pilot is not responding
  a pilot is not acting like instructed within five seconds
  a pilot is moving without clearance at an controlled airport
  voice level is too high
  voice level is too low
  a controller does confuse left/right instructions >= 2
  final approach path is > x degrees from the localizer
  final approach is not stable below 1000 feet AGL
  use of scenery with an offset to the controller sector file

 

There are so many things that can ruin an approach sequence, so I am a bit stunned that of all these things now the fps drop at X-Plane is targeted with this kind of sanctions.

 

Oh, and by the way, it won't be too long until people start to complain about the now needed re-login of pilots on final. Soon thereafter, the first "they should be banned for at least xx minutes" voices will be heard.

 

Of course everybody should try to see what he can do to make the flight sim experience best to everybody involved. However, we already see that the scripts seem not to run on every system, and also apparently at least one (or more?) clients even disconnect users with >20 fps. What are we telling these users? Don't use VATSIM anymore and just come back when you bought better hardware?

[Ross Carlson]

I also ask for automatic disconnects if...

 

• a pilot is not responding
  a pilot is not acting like instructed within five seconds
  a pilot is moving without clearance at an controlled airport
  voice level is too high
  voice level is too low
  a controller does confuse left/right instructions >= 2
  final approach path is > x degrees from the localizer
  final approach is not stable below 1000 feet AGL

 

So you want to disconnect people for being realistic?

[Dhruv Kalra]

• a pilot is not responding
  a pilot is not acting like instructed within five seconds
  a pilot is moving without clearance at an controlled airport
  voice level is too high
  voice level is too low
  a controller does confuse left/right instructions >= 2
  final approach path is > x degrees from the localizer
  final approach is not stable below 1000 feet AGL
  use of scenery with an offset to the controller sector file

As a controller, I can improvise and adapt to overcome every single one of the above. What I can't reliably adapt to is a slow X-Plane aircraft that's telling me it's doing 180 knots and moving across the ground at some arbitrary value below that. Throw 3 or 4 of them into a busy event, and now I'm unduly delaying everyone because it takes every one of the slow motion ones several extra minutes to complete an approach.

[Alexander Cohrs]

Sorry, forgot one: What about different wind speeds? That can screw up your sequence as well. Make use of real weather mandatory? Forceful disconnects?

 

I know I might be a bit annoying for you, but I am insisting so much on it because I feel that's different from what VATSIM stands for or what I thought VATSIM would stand for. If it was true that every X-Plane pilot with not too good hardware could solve the problem by just using the scripts, it guess it should be no big deal. But from what I learned today from other flight simmers is that it's not as easy as it was posted in the OT. One statement was that 3JFPS removed either the runway lighting or even the whole runway on his system and that Autolod does not work with current version of X-Plane. I don't know if that is true, will need to try it myself, but I am just sharing some of the concerns mentioned.

 

As far as I can remember, it's the first time VATSIM is actively sanctioning users for low hardware specs. And for me, that does not feel very good. Also, where do you start and where do you end? There will be any glitches with other simulators or maybe just with some addons. If I was an affected X-Plane user, I would ask whether these users also will be forcefully disconnected.

[Dhruv Kalra]

FPS boost + AutoLOD works perfectly on my copy of X-Plane 11.41.

 

Also, wind is a different story because the aircraft are actually flying their reported ground speed. I can deal with a 70 knot overtake as long as I know about it and can measure it. X-Plane frame rate slowdowns effectively lie to the Radar clients because they report their ground speed as whatever is indicated on the instrumentation while the plane might actually be moving anywhere from a half to a quarter of that speed on actual position updates.

[Daniel Dezulier]

The problem comes from the way the dialog is actually one way forced :

- listen to us , we have tested and it works on our computer so obey us and follow the rules

- several industrial crashes in automobile or aviation remind us it is not the way to listen users and to satisfy the entire community

We are numerous to ask some kind of improvement -I remind it is a BETA- for a software under build !

 

I really don't understand why some ask us to shut up when others are asking improvement. Nobody holds the truth. What we saw is some discrepancy between the draft and the way it functions ... Let us just investigate, turn the debug on and see ...

Is it that much difficult ?

[Alexander Cohrs]

As far as I can see, the most urgent problem with this whole stuff is that currently xPilot users are disconnected despite having >20 fps. Although I am not affected, maybe we first should concentrate on helping them (we somehow lost track in this thread, and I admit, I was an active part in doing so) or, if we can't, take a brake from these forceful disconnects and re-establish them once the clients are truly ready for it.

[Nestor Perez]

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