P3D V4 Minimized FPS Issue

[tjh876]

Hello,

With the initial release of V4, I began using P3D v4 as my main sim, and on longer haul flights I would sometimes minimize P3D to reduce load and do other work on my computer.

I have noticed on multiple occasions (dating back to release of V4) that returning to the sim, whether it be 30-45 minutes or hours, the FPS would drop down from my normal 30FPS limited to 5-15FPS. I am currently doing a flight with the PMDG 737-900, using Active Sky and no other major add-ons beyond local airport scenery (mainly Flight Beam). Reloading scenery as well as putting my computer to sleep and bringing it back up have done nothing to resolve the issue.

My specs are as follows:
i7-7820HQ @ 4.2GHz
GTX 1070
16GB of RAM
1TB Samsung SSD
Windows 10 64Bit with the Fall Update

My total CPU usage (according to Task Manager) is at about 80-90% utilization and my GPU is at about 50%. Breaking it down to just P3D, about 2.5GB of memory is being utilized, 50% of my GPU and about 75% of my CPU. Is there a potential setting that I might have that is causing this issue? I have tried a lot of combinations and have had no fix. I've also searched the forums and have not found much on this issue.

Thank you,
Tom

[Keller5678]

From what I remember, the GPU does a lot of scenery loading etc. When you minimize P3D, the GPU usage drops to 0% and is no longer active. So terrain and scenery loading is requested but not actually processed by the GPU. This causes a backlog, so when you return, the FPS has dropped to the floor.

The best way to do long haul flights is keep the window open, but not necessarily in focus (i.e. keep it in the background, whilst surfing the web or something). As soon as you minimize, the GPU switches off its 3D clocks. To reduce power usage and heat what I do is make the resize the window to really small, so its less taxing.

[tjh876]

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind in future flights. I generally got used to minimizing everything to clean up my workspace. When switching back to P3D, no scenery is loaded (very low resolution scenery textures in cruise), similar to FSX, but when things are fully loaded back up there is a drop is FPS that does not recover. It makes sense that it could be a backlog that it's trying to fight through. It's interesting that when pausing the sim, the FPS hit my typical values (although I do in some way attribute that to the fact no simulation processing is being done).

If this is the case, and I am not sure how the scenery loading is done, I would think reloading scenery could be used (like selecting Map in the navigation tab and then going back to the sim) to resolve this issue and clears the log. I know these things aren't simple though so I don't want to come off like telling LM what they should do.

Given the potential backlog, does the GPU ever make it through the backlog? My GPU usage is only at 50%, so where are these requests going to, or are they just sitting in memory? I haven't looked into my GPU memory usage but I would hope if given enough time a computer can eventually fight through the backlog.

[tjh876]

Bumping this

Is there anything else I could do to avoid this issue, and is there a way to clear any stopped requests if that is the issue?

Thanks,
Tom

[Poppet]

Hello Tom

To eliminate the basic things from your Issue try the following steps below.......

Delete the following 3 generated files and folders. These will generate again when Prepar3D is launched. This will not effect any of your 3rd party software Add On's

You will just need to adjust your graphic \ scenery settings again to your prefrence via Prepar3D > Options when you delete the Prepar3D.cfg file

1) Prepar3D.cfg file. 2) Shaders folder. 3) SceneryIndexes_x64 folder. (Not the scenery.cfg file)

Copy the 3 set's of Tex below and Paste them into your windows search bar, One by One and click on the result, this will bring you directly to the correct locations


Right click and Delete the Prepar3D.cfg file

Code: Select all

%APPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

Right click and Delete your Shaders folder

Code: Select all

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

Right click and Delete the SceneryIndexes_x64 folder

Code: Select all

%PROGRAMDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

Then launch Prepar3D and test

[tjh876]

Thanks Poppet,

I followed your directions and deleted the 3 files and folders you listed, started the simulator again and began a flight using the PMDG 737 (I've noticed this issue with other aircraft as well in the past). After leaving the sim minimized for 50 minutes, I came back, maximized it and the FPS were at 12. In my initial testing before departure (at Flightbeam's KDEN), I was getting up to 60FPS when FPS were set to unlimited with the settings the flight was done with.

It appears that deleting those files did not resolve the issue, but thank you for your reply.

Thanks,
Tom

[PilotZing]

This is interesting and I have the same issue though not all the time. I assumed it was just non-compatible airports were causing a slow down, but I too got used to minimizing to reduce work space. I'll have to try this out as well and just keeping the window up.