Autogen delayed loading v4

[Rob McCarthy]

For those experiencing this issue can you please list all add-ons that you are using. There are reports of some add-ons increasing autogen load times.

The same autogen slider levels between v3 and v4 do not equal the same amount of work done by the system. The amount of autogen has increased from v3 as well as the quality of autogen models with the Speedtree overhaul. Also note flying fast jets for extended periods is demanding and can cause autogen and terrain loading to lag behind in some cases.

Regards,
Rob McCarthy

[Beau Hollis]

Can you also post your specific autogen settings (density, draw distance, etc)? Any comparison to v3 should use medium draw distance. Our default draw distance of medium is equivalent to v3's max draw distance which is 12km. At this setting, P3D must load about 450 square km of buildings and trees. At the highest v4 UI setting for draw distance, you get a 30km radius which translates to about 2800 square km of autogen data. (roughly 6x the work done in v3). Similarly the high resolution terrain texture option increases the native resolution from 256 to 512 which translates to 4x the work and 4x the memory usage related to terrain textures.

[Mike Sierra]

Also note flying fast jets for extended periods is demanding and can cause autogen and terrain loading to lag behind in some cases.

I fully agree with THAT, but, using a twin prop at 160 kn somehow is something else than 'flying fast jets'... ;o)

My add-ons are:
- scenery
Pilot's FSGlobal Ultimate NG
Austria Professional HD (East & West)
all (payware) add-ons from OrbX currently compatible for v4.
OrbX Global Trees v1.00 (for v4)
some local airfields (EDBH, EDCG, LIDA, LSGK, ENJA, CAC8, CAG8) distributed by OrbX (all compatible to v4)
Global AI Ship Traffic v2
- aircraft
Douglas C-47 v3 (FlightSim.com) - Installed via add-on.cfg
Carenado Aero Commander Shrike 500S HD Series v1.2
Carenado Phenom 100 HD Series V2
Carenado DO228 100 HD SERIES v1.20
Aerosoft Twin OTter X Extended v1.21
Aerosoft PBY Catalina X v1.22
A2A Cherokee 180 Professional for P3Dv4
A2A C172 Trainer Professional for P3Dv4
A2A Skylane 182 Professional for P3Dv4
A2A Comanche 250 Professional for P3Dv4

'Outside' the sim are working:
FsUIPC v5.103
TrackIR v5.4.2
ASv4 with ASCA
Plan-G v1.1.3
WhereAreMyAircraft v1.05b3

My autogen settings are:




Reducing Autogen Vegetation Density from maximum to very dense solved the problem for me - for now.

My hardware specs are in the signature.

But, as already stated, the problem is not new in v4. Using the cited 'fast jets' caused a delay in autogen loading (I think even in times of FsX, as well as) in P3Dv2 and v3, even to the same extent, as now in v4.
It only would have been nice, if the 64bit architecture....

Michael.

[MagyarMatt]

Having this problem as well.

Add ons in use are:
PMDG 737
AS16
Rex Texture direct 4
Orbx Global, Europe LC and Vector.

[molleh]

At time of this post, add ons are:

UTX Canada/USA/TAC/Europe

Settings for autogen are very high/very dense.

[zap737]

LM too many reports of this... Please fix.
Won't be buying V4 until this has been fixed.

[windowseat73]

Hi there,

I have a gtx 1060, i7-6700k 4.4 ghz, and 16gb ram. I'm using ORBX FTX global, NALC, Vector, Flightbeam, FSDT and some random airport sceneries, PMDG 737 and 777, TFDI 717, ActiveSky, ASCA and UTLive.

It's important to note that no matter what my settings are, and believe me, I've tried them all, autogen always, always, always loads slowly. If it's at any setting other than off, it happens. The same happened before I started putting in the addons as well, and I've done 2 reinstalls and one repair since starting with V4. The only impact I see with increased autogen density or LOD is a decrease in framerates. However, the rate that the autogen loads remains slow and sporadic. Sparse, medium or max, all slowly. Same with night lighting as I fly around...roads and light bulbs slowly pop in. Even if I de-selected everything and went barebones in terms of settings, these things still pop in. Never happened like this in v3. Doesn't happen like this in x-plane11, so I'm deducing that there is something with how autogen is processed or loaded that is causing this mess.

On a side note, I understand how flying jets may end up causing a lag, but I think this is another reason to re-work how autogen is processed, considering how many jets are flying around in the P3D universe.

I also wrote a post about this, and there are more details about my settings in there, but the point remains that I think it's the engine that's the real problem here, not the tires, so to speak.

[Rob McCarthy]

As Beau mentioned in his post we have greatly expanded the range autogen can draw. Slider settings in v3 do not correlate to slider settings in v4. Higher values in v4 will be more demanding as they weren't even possible in v3, even the default autogen setting in v4 is greater than v3's default setting. Combine this with scenery add-ons that modify autogen and you increase the performance requirements even more.

That being said we are always looking into ways to improve performance across the board with each update, including autogen. Prepar3D is a simulation platform where our goal is to offer the most flexibility possible. Settings will need to be modified depending on the training scenario and are dependent on the performance of any add-ons running as well. Continue to keep us informed on any issues you are having and we will do our best to resolve them as quickly as possible. If you are seeing issues when using add-ons please also contact those developers so they can make improvements on their end.

Regards,
Rob McCarthy

[downscc]

LM too many reports of this... Please fix.
Won't be buying V4 until this has been fixed.

That is an ill informed opinion. I find it refreshing that our major concerns are based on performance instead of OOM errors. If a simulator platform didn't exceed the capabilities of today's computer systems it will then be obsolete next year.
Won't be buying V4 until hardware catches up is essentially what you are saying.

[zap737]

That is an ill informed opinion. I find it refreshing that our major concerns are based on performance instead of OOM errors. If a simulator platform didn't exceed the capabilities of today's computer systems it will then be obsolete next year.
Won't be buying V4 until hardware catches up is essentially what you are saying.

No. My opinion is quite informed, no less, by reading the series of posts above. I suggest your opinion is ill infromed.

Please read what windowseat73 and ZaphodBX says above..

It's important to note that no matter what my settings are, and believe me, I've tried them all, autogen always, always, always loads slowly. If it's at any setting other than off, it happens. The same happened before I started putting in the addons as well, and I've done 2 reinstalls and one repair since starting with V4....... Never happened like this in v3.

Same problem here... Not a real high-end system but not too bad (Core I7, 3,6 Ghz, GTX 770) and the symptoms did't exist in V3.4
Cheers - ZaphodBX

"Never happened like this in v3", and "the symptoms did't exist in V3.4" so don't tell me it's a hardware problem.
It's an engine/coding problem.
Won't be buying V4 until this is fixed.

[windowseat73]

I agree, this is an engine problem. I keep saying, and nobody seems to be catching this, the autogen loads slowly no matter what settings I have. Maybe it's just a matter of degree, but how it loads is what should be re-evaluated. Maybe it could be prioritized differently at the expense of something less-noticeable, I donno. All I know is that it looks terrible and annoyingly-unrealistic. Especially at night as roads and lights pop in one strand at at time, or however you want to describe it.

I hate to compare apples to oranges, but take a look at how X-Plane 11 loads. It's as far as the eye can see, and it stays that way. I'm not saying I like x-plane, I don't. I'm just saying if my computer can handle that kind of stress with no problem, then that tells me that something in the engine in v4 is what's flawed here. Same with dynamic lighting. Didn't anyone think that maybe it would be a performance killer with the majority of addons out there in one way or another? IMHO, it's the addons that make P3D what it is, as most would probably agree, the stock sim is just a skeleton. So, if adjustments can't be made to the engine that powers what we enjoy, then why buy the car?

[pmb]

I see that issue, too. Autogen pops in in blocks at a certain distance. And I certainly don't fly fast, the "fastest" plane I regularly use is a C172.

Yes, I have high settings, but I tried lowering them which did help little. And yes, I use tons of addons (including all ORBX scenery, as far as it's available for Prepar3d). A related phenomenon is the black house-issue where far away-buildings pop in black and get there textures only later. I think that second issue has been acknowledged by LM already in another thread and it's being worked on.

My machine (see below) may not be high-end, but it certainly isn't a slouch.

Actually, these issues are not annoyning in a degree I would resign from using Prepar3d4, though. To the contrary, I find it a major improvement in many areas. I also should add that I observe slow autogen loading mainly in extended plains, flying into Silicon Valley from KSFO to the South comes to my mind. And I understand, LM did rework the autogen mechanism extending the distance where autogen is drawn, so it's never impossible new issues popping up.

Nonetheless I would like LM to work on this.

Kind regards, Michael

[Avance]

I've noticed this (big) issue also with the v4 (ORBX sceneries). Never seen before with the P3Dv3.x
I7-4790k, GTX980Ti, 16 Go Ram, W10.
Thanks for looking at this.

[zap737]

I've noticed this (big) issue also with the v4 (ORBX sceneries). Never seen before with the P3Dv3.x
I7-4790k, GTX980Ti, 16 Go Ram, W10.
Thanks for looking at this.

Can you list all your ORBX sceneries installed in P3D V4?
Are all your addons including ORBX V4 compatible?
Did you test for the problem without any scenery Add-Ons at all? (Some reports above claim the problem exists without add-ons)

[Avance]

All ORBX add-ons installed on my computer are compatible V4 :
- ORBX Libraries,
- ORBX Global Base pack, Open LC America, LC Europe, Trees HD, Global Vector, Lights configurator,
- EU England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Norway,
- Na Central Rockies, Northern and Southern California, Northern Rockies, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Fjords,
- AU Australia, NZ Northern and South Islands, Holgermesh Australia,

- FSGlobal 2018 (Pilot's).
- AS16+ASCA
These add-ons (except FSGlobal2018 - but FSGlobal2010-) + many ORBX Airports was installed on P3Dv3.4 without Autogen's issue.