Eliminate stutters by setting Max Frps

[Olham 164]

I have found a copy of that old text, where some CFS3 fans offered a method of how to equal

the frames per second (fraps) in the sim. My own rig doesn't have that problem, so I cannot

say if this works. But it is worth a try and can't cause any damage if you follow the instruction.

Kill Stutter by Setting MAX FPS

 

We'll keep the video card from trying to make 60FPS happen when

it can't possibly, by setting a limiting on the maximum frames per

second we want to have. This is a little bit of a guess on our part

but we kind of know where to start by looking at the FRAPS log.

It reports a max of 32 FPS achieved. Obviously the stutter occurred

in trying to get past that. So we will go for a little happy medium -

30 FPS for starters. We could go lower, like 24FPS, but 30 will do

fine for now.

 

The point is the number we use will be REALISTIC and lower than

the max. of frames achieved when we got stutter. This setting will

NOT get you any higher FPS, but will help spread the FPS around

a little bit, so the whole flight is much more consistently smooth.

 

To set the MAX FPS, from your desktop, double-click on your "My

Computer" icon, and navigate to the folder named "default" in your

main OFF folder, which should be:

 

C:\OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\default

(If you use another drive but "C:" please use that letter instead)

First thing we'll do is back up the original file:

Look for the file called CFS3.xml - right-click on it, select "Copy",

then right click anywhere in the file folder area (not on the filename)

and select "Paste". This makes a backup copy named "Copy of cfs3.xml".

 

Now, to edit it:

Right-click on the original file again, choose "Open" or "Open With"

(if you havent opened an XML file before, you'll probably only have an

"Open" option when you right-click - choose the "Select the program

from a list" option and then choose Notepad as the tool to open it with.

 

You will see text like the following (it may be jumbled together on some

lines, but the content is in this order:

 

- >CFS3<

>Debugger DefaultDebugLevel="Alerts" DisplayFileLine="No" DisplayLevel="No" Watson="Yes"

DebugLog="cfs3debug.log" ExitOnAssert="No" OnlyLogMsg="No" UseDebugWindow="Yes" EnableAsserts="Yes"

SingleAssert="No"<

>Timer DefaultPeriod="0" Log="cfs3timer.log" OnlyLog="No" UseDebugWindow="Yes"<

>Counter DefaultPeriod="0"<

>Graphics<

>OldAircraftRender="No"<

>MaxFPS="30"<

- >ModuleDebugLevels<

>SampleModule PrintLevel="Normal" AssertLevel="Alert"<

>ModuleDebugLevels<

- >TopicDebugLevels<

>SampleTopic PrintLevel="Normal" AssertLevel="Alert"<

>TopicDebugLevels<

>/CFS3<

 

That red line in boldface is the key - it will not actually have a value of 30 in there,

but will be blank or have a value of zero like MaxFPS="0". Insert the number "30".

 

(Olham's addition: if your average fraps are higher than 30 - say: 40 frps - while the peak is still higher (like 60 or so),

you may also try and insert the number "35" or even "40".)

 

Please report here, if it did any improvement, if you had stutters and tried this.

 

.

Edited June 29, 2011 by Olham

[TaillyHo 2]

Mis-read your post title at a glance, Olham - and was ready to come out swinging in order to defend 2-seater Sopwiths everywhere!!

 

Pleased to discover you're not actually out to eliminate Strutters after all.

[Lewie 7]

Yeah it was a little confusing to me It initially read something like Eliminate Strutters by setting Max Frps, and I was going, 'who is Max Frps?'

 

That's a strange German surname..

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

For some reason I am hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice saying, "I am Max Frps, the Strutter ELIMINATOR!"

 

.

[TaillyHo 2]

[Dimus 0]

I am using this tweak since P3 first appeared and I may confirm that it helps with stutters, even when you fly with or against Strutters.

 

Btw, I haven't posted for a while but still lurking the forums. OFF has not been my sim of choice lately due to lack of time (you need time to really enjoy OFF in career mode). Plus I finally got my PPL after Christmas and I try to build up my real flying hours while I still have access to my bank account in this country.

 

Following up P4 evolution and really looking forward to it.

[Olham 164]

Dimus, great to see you - and you made the first post which is really according to the topic,

while the other gentlemen seem to have too much grounded time.

Thanks for the report - and I hope we will see you more often.

Although - I understand, that REAL flying hours can hardly be beaten by a sim.

 

I wish Greece a good way out of the crisis. The Chinese said in Germany yesterday, that they

were interested in the Euro remaining a strong currency besides the Dollar and the Yen.

I hope that will help Europe.

Greece is not the only country in a bad situation.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Oh oh, I believe we've been taken to task by the headmaster. Apologies Olham for temporarily derailing your thread.

To topic: I have had some success with this tweak in the past, but do not see any visible changes with my latest system and configuration. I will now write this one hundred times on the chalk board.

 

And Dimus, I echo Olham's best wishes for a speedy recovery of your economy Sir. Indeed, I wish that for every country in the world that is in financial peril these days.

 

.

[Dimus 0]

Thank you guys, we need all the support we can get.

 

As for real flying vs sim, well, our club's Cessnas do not have any guns installed. and sim flying is a lot more cheaper...

[33LIMA 972]

The tip above I think originally came from here, it's still online, was looking at it the other day:

 

http://www.com-central.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=118

 

One thing I noticed is that it has different recommendations for some of the Over-rides and a few of the Texture Info settings, compared to Olham's own guide, which latter is the set I'm gratefully using at the moment. Will try the stutter eliminator, too, tho what I REALLY need is a Camel and SE5 Eliminator..oh sorry I already have one of those, it's called an Albatros DV.

[Olham 164]

Yes, that was the page I had it copied from.

Much of the graphic improvement tips may be old dated anyway - the modern graphic cards

seem to be doing a lot with their own settings and may ignore many settings in the overrides.

Not sure.

[Olham 164]

After setting "Max Frps" to "30", things went rather worse for me (ATI HD4870).

I put it back to "0", and that works fine for me.

I think the above tip must have been for much older systems?

[33LIMA 972]

Didn't do anything for me either, FPS worse under certain circumstances but was fiddling with over-rides too, I just can't leave well enough, alone...will back it out before flying again. Always worth trying these things.

[Hasse Wind 46]

After setting "Max Frps" to "30", things went rather worse for me (ATI HD4870).

I put it back to "0", and that works fine for me.

I think the above tip must have been for much older systems?

 

Your PC is probably so good that it can smoothly run OFF with much higher fraps, therefore making the 30 fps feel like really slow in comparison. Limiting the fps shouldn't make the performance worse in general, as far as I know. I use an fps limiter when playing the Other Sim, and it works well.

 

But of course I'm no PC guru.

[Lewie 7]

Yes, that was the page I had it copied from.

Much of the graphic improvement tips may be old dated anyway - the modern graphic cards

seem to be doing a lot with their own settings and may ignore many settings in the overrides.

Not sure.

 

The recent NVidia settings software does allow for individual customized game settings, but a lot of it relies upon the games own requirements for certain settings like anisotropic and antialiasing. Of which tend to override the NVidia customized settings.

[Olham 164]

With my ATI HD4870, I get the AA and Adaptive AA from the card's Control Center.

In OFF "Graphics Settings" I have not chosen any AA at all.

[Lewie 7]

With my ATI HD4870, I get the AA and Adaptive AA from the card's Control Center.

In OFF "Graphics Settings" I have not chosen any AA at all.

 

You see that's the thing, NVidia supposedly tends to let the programs set the AA as default. But, if I set my OFF AA to say X4 in CFS3 configure, NVidia will reset it it to zero after closing OFF. Yet it's set to 'enhance the application setting' which is the AA set in OFF-CFS3. But it also optionally can have 'use global settings' which is a generic setting imposed by NVidia's control panel overrides.

 

It makes my brain hurt.

[Olham 164]

The ATI "Catalyst Control Center" (CCC) offers that as well, Lewie, but you shouldn't use it.

For example, CFS 3 offers only 8x Anti Aliasing, if I remember right.

But my 4870 can even do 16x AA - so I rather use that.

All the tick-boxes "Use Application Settings" I have unticked/unchecked.

And then I have moved the slider to 16x. Try it - it works fine.