Wideview Performance Question

[MistyBlue]

Hey all, trying to smooth out my P3D Wideview/Widetraffic setup.  I have some stuttering, mostly around complex airports, not sure if it's a PC issue, network, or something else.

For those of you with multi-PC WideView setups, how is the smoothness between displays when you are on the ground and turn fairly hard at a complex airport like FSDT KDFW.  Do you get stutters between your monitors or is it silky smooth?  I'll get two displays running smooth and one will stutter.  It's not always the same monitors.

I'm running two 4790K/16GB RAM/SSD/EVGA GTX 970 PC's (center and left channel) and a 4690K/16GB RAM/SSD/EVGA GTX 970 for the right channel.  The center channel is the Wideview/traffic server.

So I'm wondering if the 4960K PC is introducing stutters into the system because it's a little slower (not by much, though), or if it's the network.  I'm on a standalone GB network and the connectivity/latency is excellent so I'm not sure the network is the cause.

Maybe if I should get a fourth PC to act as the server so the center IG does less work, but I'm not sure how powerful it needs to be and how it should be configured.

I'd appreciate any insight from the experts out there if you care to share.

[brianwilliamson]

I would suggest putting a fairly simple computer as Number 4 and running P3D as the server on that, and leave your 3 good computers to do just the graphics.

Regards.................Brian W.

[MistyBlue]

Thanks.  So how much horsepower does the 4th computer need?  Enough to run P3D smoothly, right?  But I can turn down all the settings if I'm not mistaken, and I don't have to install the addons right?  IIRC it is used as just a position reference.

What about controls?  I've got ProSim server running on that center computer, along with some FDS cards and such.  Would it be better to move all that to the 4th computer?

Sorry for all the questions.  I haven't found much good reference material on this kind of setup.

[MCrevot]

Hi,

On my A320, i have 3 PC, one as FSX and A320FMGS server (2600k), with the front view, a second one as A320 FMGS client (i7 920), with SIOC, RC, ..., and a third one as FSX client (4970k), with the left and right views. the 2 FSX are synchronized with wideview, the views are warped with fly elise elise immersive display pro.

I maintain 30 fps on the 2 FSX PC, except on very dense airports where fps can fall to 20 in hard turn (i have not yet installed widetraffic) ; the views remain well synchronised, almost no stuttering.

I think that if you have a good fps on the server, it's not necessary to introduce one more PC because wideview does not bring any load, it just broadcast the plane position and attitude ; your issue seams to be just a lack of synchronisation, have you explored all the tuning possibilities of wideview ? too slow is not good, neither too fast !

Michel

[FredK]

I agree with the above that you really need FSX/P3D set up on a separate "server" for the best performance of WideView.

Also experiment with FPS settings.  Always set your clients at a higher FPS than the server for the smoothest performance.  But you need to experiment.  For example, with my old FSX setup I found that a fixed 35 fps on the server and "Unlimited" on the clients worked best.  However with my new P3D setup on all new computers I am running with 33 fps fixed on the server and 40 fps fixed on each of the clients for smoothest performance.  I have most sliders (except AI traffic) at or near the max (except on the server of course where all sliders are at or near minimums).

Fred K

[brianwilliamson]

I run P3D as a server with an i5 4460 @ 3.2 ghz and run all the controls as well which I think is about 12 usb connections and no problems at all.
Read pages 31 to 39 of the Wideview manual, and you will have all the info you need.

Regards....................Brian W.

[Flying_Fox]

I agree with the above that you really need FSX/P3D set up on a separate "server" for the best performance of WideView.

Also experiment with FPS settings.  Always set your clients at a higher FPS than the server for the smoothest performance.  But you need to experiment.  For example, with my old FSX setup I found that a fixed 35 fps on the server and "Unlimited" on the clients worked best.  However with my new P3D setup on all new computers I am running with 33 fps fixed on the server and 40 fps fixed on each of the clients for smoothest performance.  I have most sliders (except AI traffic) at or near the max (except on the server of course where all sliders are at or near minimums).

Fred K

Hi Fred,

I am confused. 

because "you really need FSX/P3D set up on a separate "server" " contradicts to: "new P3D setup on all new computers I am running with 33 fps fixed on the server and 40 fps fixed on each of the clients"




Could you clarify your setups?

You are talking about your two different setups (FSX and P3D), right ?

-How many computers in each setup and what exactly were their functions?

-Do you have a dedicated "server" that does NOT also render one of the images?

-Are the computers overclocked?

- you are running 3 x 1920 x 1080, is that correct?


Nick

[FredK]

To clarify.......

My visual system is comprised of four computers as follows (currently running P3D):

One (1) Server (I7-4790K / GTX 470).....This is my Wideview "server"....It is not used to project my screen visuals so all sliders are set at minimums to maximize performance.

Three (3) Identical Clients (I7-4790K / GTX 980)....These are my WideView clients.  These project my left, center, and right displays.  Sliders are set at or near maximums except for AI traffic (that I typically run at 25-50% depending on airport location).

I am using three Optoma GT 1080s for my clients displays onto a curved screen using Fly Elise warping software.

WV server is locked at 33 fps....WV clients are locked at 40 fps.  I find this yields the best results regarding display smoothness.  You do need to experiment here as what is best for your particular setup....getting it right does make a difference. 

I do not overclock my computers.....I am satisified with my unclocked visual performance so I rather not risk stability issues, particularly with P3D.  In fact, I have no stability issues in the current config.

There are two main advantages to running WV with a dedicated "server" (i.e., no projection) as above.  The first is that it is logical to expect that such will maximize performance of the main P3D (or FSX) engine since there is little graphical rendering happening on that computer.  The second is that there is a very slight visual display delay (I find) on the WV clients versus the WV server.  This is most noticeable during banking which results in a discontinuous horizon.  It becomes particularly problematic in areas of heavy scenery rendering.  But note: This is my observation...others have reported that such is not a problem.  Of course such delay is not noticeable if all three display clients are identically delayed by 1-2 seconds.

My avionics system (SimA) runs on three additional computers separate from the visual generators. Nothing special hardware-wise there....these are 6 year old computers.  The avionics could easily be handled on a single modern computer with appropriate dual video cards.

Running a distributed computer configuration like this will logically yield the maximum performance power possible.  However the downside is cost of course and heat generation.  I use a portable air conditioner (the type that vaporizes the condensate in the exhaust) that cools my computers.  This keeps things comfortable in the cockpit area and helps maximize performance of the computers as well.

Fred K

[Flying_Fox]

Thank you Fred for the detailed answer!

The reason I am asking  is that I am close to completing most of my cockpit (excluding pedestal radio/navigation stuff interfacing yet - one thing at a time   )

My visual system is still as it was in initial test stage when I built it in 2011 - single FSX PC with 3 views/GT720 projectors and GTX 570 card  + TH2GO and Immersive Display Lite 2 that provide ~205 degrees  view. This setup gives me ~ 21-23 FPS on the ground with ORBX sceneries. This PC is overclocked to 4.6 Ghz and runs just fine with air cooling. The rest of software (except of ProSim server and my TQ application) runs on 3 notebooks.

I never intended to do any further refining of the visual system until cockpit building is more or less complete. I only wanted to provide the initial basic wraparound image that it is suitable for tests during a few years build period (4 years and counting now  ) , while the hardware progresses and prices go down.

Now, when I am closer (I hope    ), I am thinking of gradual upgrades (cost is a factor too, as you noted    ).

Next year I am planning to switch to Immersive Display Pro + WideView setup, maybe initially adding one powerful i7 4970 PC to run left and right views - similar to setup that Michel mentioned here.  That possibly should be enough to run decent FPS (still with my 3 x 1280 x 800 views).

If I decide to upgrade to full HD, third visual PC might be added (maybe with  FSX server). I will consider P3D too. I guess it makes sense to wait for promised P3D 3.0.

Nick

[MistyBlue]

Sorry I have been away for a bit but thanks for the interesting discussion guys.  I will look at building a 4th machine to act as the server and see if that improves things any. 

I did swap out my 4690K with a 4790K and there was a minor but noticeable improvement in smoothness.  I'll take that freed up 4690K and put it into the server.  Hopefully that will sort out the last remaining little bit of stuttering.  Will report back if I have anything worth mentioning.

[tennyson]

Nick,
P3D V3.0 is out tomorrow, 30th September,



Frank Cooper

[quid246]

Unfortunately not 64 bit!

[Flying_Fox]

Nick,
P3D V3.0 is out tomorrow, 30th September,

Frank Cooper

Thanks Frank! 

Now I guess I need to wait for P3D 3.0 Service Pack 1.