new imac with x-plane problems

[Mehdi Debbabi 970089]

Hi there,

 

today i bought the new imac 24 inch dual core 2 with NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT with 256MB

I have a fresh install on x-plane 8.4 with all the updates, everything runs like a dream, but when I load KLAX or KJFK x-plane just hangs and crashes.

 

is this something to do with the Intel chip set or an I setting up my graphics too high?

 

please advise.

[Mehdi Debbabi 970089]

Hi All,

 

thanks to the x-plane team, I had a quick responce in my email and I'm going to share it with you all.

this is what they had to say:

 

 

Two of the emails I sometimes get are as follows:

 

"WOW! X-Plane is so fast! I get 100 fps on my computer! Amazing! This is so much smoother than other flight sims!"

 

and

 

"WOW! X-Plane is so slow on my computer! What a piece of junk! I want my money back!"

 

Why does this happen?

 

Well, of course many people today run 500 mhz Pentiums with 128 meg of RAM and 8 meg of VRAM, while others run dual-processor 3,000 mhz machines with 256 meg of VRAM and a GIG of RAM... and there is MORE than a 6x difference between them in speed, since the RAM speed, motherboard speed, video card speed, and many other things cause performance differences in the computer.

 

So, given whatever machine YOU have, how can you get the most from X-Plane?

 

First the basics: YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO TELL HOW FAST X-PLANE IS RUNNING. Run X-Plane and go to the SETTINGS menu, then DATA INPUT & OUTPUT window, and check the right-hand box in front of "FRAME-RATE, TIME RATIO", thus sending the frame-rate to the screen in flight. Now you can see how fast you are running, in the "freq /sec" output on the far left.. this is called "frames per second" or "fps".

15 fps blows.

100 fps is insanely high.

30 fps looks fine.

studies show that at 60 fps or above, your SUB-CONCIOUS MIND forgets that you are looking at a simulator, and thinks you are flying.

 

What are you seeing on YOUR computer? Not high enough? OK, lets see how to make it faster!

 

Go to the SETTINGS menu, SET WEATHER screen. Set the cloud types to HAZE LAYER for max speed, or HIGH CIRRUS or LOW STRATUS for good speed. SCATTERED OR BROKEN OR OVERCAST take a TON of CPU time to run.

 

Set the visibility to about 5 miles or so. Higher visibility takes MORE CPU to run, because yo see more stuff!

 

Nothing else in the weather screen will affect frame-rate, but clouds and vis affect it a LOT.

 

OK, close that screen and check your frame-rate now. Better?

 

Good, but we're not done yet.

 

Now go to the SETTINGS menu, RENDERING OPTIONS screen. Look at your TEXTURE RESOLUTION. This setting determines how much VIDEO RAM you use. As long as you have plenty of VIDEO RAM, you can set it as high as you want with NO LOSS IN FRAME-RATE, but as soon as you set the texture res to require more VRAM than you have, YOU FRAME-RATE WIL LDIE! How do you tell how much VRAM X-Plane uses? Easy. Look at the BOTTOM of the rendering options screen and X-Plane tells you.

 

NOTE! You can in some cases use MORE VRAM than you have, and X-Plane will still run fast, because a lot of the RAM can be "cached away" in the system with no speed penalty if it is not often accessed by the computer... like if it is the texture of desert sand, for example, but no desert sand is visible to you because you are not flying over the desert. But, if you have only 64 meg of VRAM on your vide card, but the texture res is set such that you need 128 meg of VRM, then the computer will constantly be moving RAM on and off the video card (between the video card RAM and the system RAM) to draw each frame of scenery... THIS IS VERY VERY SLOW. Thus, you must set the texture res LOW ENOUGH TO AVOID THIS.

 

NOTE! After you change the texture res, you must re-start X-Plane for the change to take effect!

 

NOTE: Just put the tex res on it's lowest setting, exit the sim, re-start it, and note the frame-rate.. then raise the texture detail up one level and repeat... keep doing this until the frame-rate decreases... this is the point where you are using up all your VRAM! Back the texture res off to one level lower than that and restart to fly.

 

Now look at the screen res in the rendering options screen... it uses up some VRAM, but not much. it uses up some video card CPU, but not too much. Set the res as you see fit... probably 1024x768 on a marginally-powerful computer.

 

Now look at the all-important "number of object" and "number of roads" settings. These have a HUGE impact on frame-rate. Set these to NONE for speed, AND THEN RESTART X-PLANE FOR THE CHANGES TO TAKE EFFECT.

 

UN-CHECK all the little boxes to the right of the world/object/road boxes for speed. Most of thee do NOT make too much of a difference, but "Draw textured lights" is very CPU-intensive at night-time.

 

"Number of cloud puffs" has a HUGE impact on frame-rate when you have scattered, broken, or overcast clouds, but yo already know to avoid those if you are not getting good frame-rate!

 

"Number of airplanes" is pretty important. it should be '1' for maximum speed.

 

The other settings in this window don't really effect speed too much.

 

So there you have it. Follow all the instructions above and you can get good frame-rate with X-Plane even on a slower, older computer.. as long as you have proper OpenGL drivers installed on it! See the web page of your vide card manufacturer for instructions on that.

[Joe Chou 980766]

Hi All,

 

thanks to the x-plane team, I had a quick responce in my email and I'm going to share it with you all.

this is what they had to say:

 

Sound like great tips for optimizing, but did it solve your problems with KLAX / KJFK crashes?

 

I also thought I remember hearing that XSB is NOT a universal binary, which might cause problems connecting to VATSIM with the new Intel macs. Would love to hear about your experiences with an Intel mac, X-plane, and VATSIM.

 

(Or, with your Intel mac, running Bootcamp / Windows XP, running MSFS)

[Mehdi Debbabi 970089]

Hello Joe,

 

no I havent tried this yes as im still at work right now, I will try this tonight and let you all know.

but lkast night I couldnt connect to VATSIM and the plugin simply didnt want to load up!

if in the end it wont work I will be sad becouse I have spent over $4000 to get this Mac and it's not going to do what I want.

[Joe Chou 980766]

Hello Joe,

 

no I havent tried this yes as im still at work right now, I will try this tonight and let you all know.

but lkast night I couldnt connect to VATSIM and the plugin simply didnt want to load up!

if in the end it wont work I will be sad becouse I have spent over $4000 to get this Mac and it's not going to do what I want.

 

Posted on another forum (I won't link, because some forums don't like that), the following was posted to the developer of X-squawkbox:

 

Ben, despite your post here I wanted to say that I (and many people for sure) are waiting for the intel version of your incredible plugin so much.

 

I think I am writing not only for me, I am writing for everyone here already using one of the new intel-Macs or short before buying one.

 

For now I am using a Powermac G5 1,8DP, quite a huge machine just for simming around. But no other Mac had the power those days to do the job.

No I am looking foreward to get the new iMac CTO with 256MB graphicscard onboard. Realy a nice computer, with everything in it I need and really cheap (if one can say that).

 

So the only way now is to wait until your plugin is ready for the new Macs so we all can use it or to switch over to the new Macs now and run the Sim under Rosetta, which is not a very good idea!

Or: Using the new Intels and XP and quit flying online at VATSIM at all - that would be the worst thing I can imagine and I do not want to fly at IVAO.

 

The response from the developer was that he plans to make the port, that he has an Intel mac himself, but that work and real-life are keeping him busy now.

 

So, my guess is that *for now*, you're likely to have problems running X-plane and XSB for VATSIM connections, because it'll have to run under emulation.

[Mehdi Debbabi 970089]

dam!!! so in real life, the plugin wont be ready for a few months maybe who knows.

I dont want to risk my chances, how do I get the emulator to work?

something I need to download?

 

thanks guys

[Joe Chou 980766]

:( dam!!! so in real life, the plugin wont be ready for a few months maybe who knows.

I dont want to risk my chances, how do I get the emulator to work?

something I need to download?

 

thanks guys

 

Note that I'm NOT an expert about these matters, but it really sounded like X-plane / XSB / VATSIM was essentially unplayable on the Intel macs (try some Google searches, the info is easy to find), and perhaps that's what you are already experiencing.

 

However, X-plane by itself supposedly runs wonderfully on the Intel macs. You just can't run XSB, and therefore, can't connect to VATSIM. Bummer.

 

But, if you figure out something that works, please post here, as I may be getting an Intel mac soon, and would like to hear what options there are.

[Mehdi Debbabi 970089]

 

yip this is for sure, my xplan runs at 110 frams per second with 8.11 beta. to be honest if feels like im flying the real thing. VERY VERY SMOOTH. i was just having problems when trying to fly in the USA. it crases on every airport.

 

everywhere else is good.

 

anyhow I will see what I can do to fix this problem.

[Mehdi Debbabi 970089]

Hi all,

 

I got around this problem by installing windows xp on my imac as a dual boot purly for x-plane and vatsim.

and IT ALL WORKED.

 

I can now play x-plane and use vatsim on my imac while running under windows.

 

the frame rate is the same as running it on the OSX.

 

the only downside is that I had to load windows as a dual boot.

[Joe Chou 980766]

Hi all,

 

I got around this problem by installing windows xp on my imac as a dual boot purly for x-plane and vatsim.

and IT ALL WORKED.

 

I can now play x-plane and use vatsim on my imac while running under windows.

 

the frame rate is the same as running it on the OSX.

 

the only downside is that I had to load windows as a dual boot.

 

That is excellent news, and was my hopeful "backup plan", but had not seen anyone post that they had done this successfully. That's one step closer to my getting an Intel Mac now... the flexibility sounds awesome. If you don't mind my asking, which iMac did you get, 20" or 24", and what configuration?

 

I wonder though -- you probably don't NEED 110 fps performance, so you might consider seeing if X-plane for windows / SB / VATSIM might run under Parallel's virtualization. Then you wouldn't have to boot out of Mac OS X to run X-plane in Windows.

[Peter Nolin 954217]

Just a quick note to MSFS users who might be reading this thread. X-Plane is a flightsimulator for Windows, Mac and Linux. You don't need to buy a Mac.

 

As a sidenote I also wan't to mention the performance macusers are bragging loudly about. Yes, the new Macs are really amazing and gives outstanding performance. But keep in mind that they are twice the price of a standard gaming PC.

[Mehdi Debbabi 970089]

If you don't mind my asking, which iMac did you get, 20" or 24", and what configuration?

 

I wonder though -- you probably don't NEED 110 fps performance, so you might consider seeing if X-plane for windows / SB / VATSIM might run under Parallel's virtualization. Then you wouldn't have to boot out of Mac OS X to run X-plane in Windows.

 

Hi Joe, I will attach a picture that shows my config