Apr 05, 2017 Now, go ahead and open up X-Plane 11, click on settings, and navigate to Graphics. Visual Effects and Texture Quality: The level of detail and how everything looks, can be defined by these sliders. These depends mostly on how much memory your GPU has.
- How To Increase Fps For X Plane On Mac Pro
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- How To Increase Fps For X Plane On Mac Pc
- How To Increase Fps For X Plane On Mac Download
About the X-Plane Framerate Test
Contents
Many other third party antivirus / malware protection has a game mode which turns off scanning etc if enabled. Go check if yours has it, then it's automatic. Aircraft Review Airbus A321 231 By Toliss Airliners Reviews X Plane X plane 11 50 beta 3 vulkan vs opengl max settings test you x plane 11 desktop manual x plane 11 desktop manual x plane 11 easy fps fix how to get 20 30 more you. Whats people lookup in this blog: X Plane 11 Frame Rate Test. FPS tends to fluctuate; there is likely a maximum rate that your Mac can reach based on its hardware but the frame rate can drop to a drastically low level if your system resources are being dragged down. Normally, FPS fluctuation isn’t extreme. At Damyns Hall and the Dartford Crossing it had dropped to 3 (must have been that beautifully-rendered bridge). I can send you the log.txt and scenerypacks.ini, if you think it's useful. I'm running on a Mac and have no problems with the Washington State SD scenery. Runs beautifully at around 40-60 fps with the default settings for my device.
- 2 FPS Test Options And Commands In Detail
- 2.1 Running a FPS Test
- 3 Changes in Settings For 945
- 5 QA Scripts and Visual Output
X-Plane contains a built-in framerate test mode. In this mode the sim ignores preferences and loads a fully known and controllable configuration, runs some framerate tests (with user interaction disabled, e.g. no dialog boxes will block operation) and quits. Information is output to the Log.txt file.
The framerate test is aimed at two audiences:
- It allows Laminar Research to gather performance information from beta users’ machines without the risk of configuration error.
- It allows driver writers to run X-Plane as part of an automated regression system.
This document is written for programmers who want to use X-Plane in a production environment, like an automated regression harness.
FPS Test Options And Commands In Detail
The framerate test is controlled by command-line options. Please note that options and preferences discussed here are accurate for RC3 but may be subject to change in the future.
Running a FPS Test
To run a framerate test, you use the command-line option:
‐‐fps_test=N
Where N is a numeric code indicating the FPS test to be run. The FPS tests are pre-built settings.
The basic framerate test has two modes, depending on the file type you pass it:
- For X-Plane “movies” (.smo files), the replay will run for 90 seconds, in 3 stages (each of which will be output its results individually to your Log.txt file):
- 30 seconds of a forward view with the panel.
- 30 seconds of a forward view with no panel.
- 30 seconds with a forward view, no panel, simulation paused.
- For flight data recorder (.fdr) files, the replay will run to completion in whichever view you specify (see “FPS Test Codes” below). At the end, your Log.txt will contain a single summary of the replay’s performance. You can add the
‐‐verbose
flag to get output for every frame, if you’d like to run a more sophisticated statistical analysis on the data than just getting the mean frame rate.
FPS Test Codes
Currently the framerate test numbers are built from three digits (leading zeros can be omitted):
- Hundreds digits: Viewpoint. Supported values are:
- 0: default (cockpit view)
- 1: view from above
- 2: nighttime cockpit view
- Tens digits: Weather preset. Supported values are:
Value Clouds Visibility (miles) Rain 0 Clear 25 1 Light cumulus @ 2 km; cirrus @ 5 km 25 0 Clear 15 3 Broken cumulus @ 2 km; cirrus @ 5 km 10 4 Stratus @ 1 km; cirrus @ 5 km 3 Moderate 5 Overcast @ 500 m; cirrus @ 5 km 1 Heavy 6 Overcast @ 500 m; cirrus @ 5 km 0.8 Heavy 7 Overcast @ 500 m; stratus @ 5 km 0.8 Light - Ones digits: Rendering preset.
- Supported values are:
- 1: low
- 2: medium
- 3: high
- 4: very high
- 5: extreme
- This controls a range of rendering settings; use individual preferences for more control (see below). Note that 1 gives you “high” tex res (4x reduction in all dimensions, 2 gives you “very high” (2x reduction) and 3 gives you “extreme” (no reduction). This is useful because the _tex_res_ pref seems to not be command-line controllable.
- Supported values are:
Note that the fly-over interferes with some views—see preferences below.
Minimum FPS Mode
X-Plane can also be run in minimum-fps mode. In this mode, the sim will run one 30 second test (with flight model and panel on) and then return 1 on success or 0 on failure. Framerate is not logged. Typically this would be used to fail an automated regression test, e.g.
./X-Plane-i686 ‐‐fps_test=1 ‐‐require_fps=30 || echo 'X-Plane is running slower than 30 fps.'
Note that you must use ‐‐require_fps with ‐‐fps_test.
Playing Replay Movies
Normally the fps test will simply leave the plane on the runway; however you can also program X-Plane to load and play a “replay movie” (.smo file) – this is a binary file containing a replay of an X-Plane flight. Example:
./X-Plane-i686 ‐‐fps_test=1 ‐‐load_smo=Output/movies/test.smo
The .
smo
or .fdr
file is a relative path from the root of the X-Plane folder. The timedemo test contains one movie, test.smo
.The fps test will run for 90 seconds (or 30 seconds for
‐‐require_fps
) regardless of movie length; you should set your movie to about 90 seconds. Note that the .smo file format is fixed-size; you will not save disk space with shorter movies. (But shorter movies will zip more efficiently.)One use of replay movies is to vary the viewpoint (by flying the plane) to get a more representative rendering load.
Controlling Individual Settings
You can override individual settings using the ‐‐pref command; the syntax is:
‐‐pref:=
For example:
./X-Plane-i686 ‐‐fps_test=1 ‐‐pref:_x_res_req_ALL=1440 ‐‐pref:_y_res_req_ALL=900
will run the sim with fps test 1 but at 1440×900 res.
Preference names are strings; you can find them by viewing the contents of the Resources/preferences folder (after running the sim normally to init preferences).
- Res X-System.prf contains a few resolution settings, global to all apps.
- Set X-Plane.prf contains most non-binary X-Plane prefs that can be set.
Here are some settings that are useful for testing X-Plane performance. Note that I have not tested all of these; this comes from dumping a prefs file to the terminal.
WARNING: if you use a fps test number, it will override settings set by individual preferences. When the FPS test is used, you can only control resolution-related preferences.
Preference Name | Values | Example | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
_alias_req | 0=none,1=2x,2=4x,3=8x,4=16x | ‐‐pref:_alias_req=2 | Actual FSAA may be lower due to hw limits. |
_col_res_req | 16 or 32 (bit depth) | ‐‐pref:_col_res_req=16 | Bit depth – may be ignored. |
_prefs_found | 0 or 1 (boolean) | ‐‐pref:_prefs_found=1 | This determines whether the first-time user fly-in happens; set this to 1 to skip the fly-in. |
_set_res | 0 or 1 (boolean) | ‐‐pref:_set_res=1 | If true, X-Plane will try to reset the monitor to requested size. |
_x_res_req_ALL | pixels | ‐‐pref:_x_res_req_ALL=1600 | Requested x resolution, must be at least 1024. |
_y_res_req_all | pixels | ‐‐pref:_y_res_req_ALL=1200 | Requested Y resolution, must be at least 768. |
_tex_res | 0-5 | ‐‐pref:_tex_res=3 | Sets texture resolution; each step below 5 cuts tex res by 2. Appears to not work from cmdline. |
_FOVx | degrees | ‐‐pref:_FOVx=20 | Sets the field of view horizontally. Vertical FOV is slaved. |
_LOD_bias_rat | ratio | ‐‐pref:_LOD_bias_rat=0.5 | This adjusts the distance calculations on objects; smaller numbers cause far-away objects to disappear. |
_draw_objs_06 | 0-6 | ‐‐pref:_draw_objs_06=2 | This corresponds to the number of objects popup menu. |
_draw_vecs_03 | 0-3 | ‐‐pref:_draw_vecs_03=2 | This corresponds to the number of roads popup menu. |
_draw_cars | 0 or 1 | ‐‐pref:_draw_cars=0 | This enables cars on roads. |
_draw_birds | 0 or 1 | ‐‐pref:_draw_birds=1 | This enables bird drawing. |
_draw_detail_wrl | 0 or 1 | ‐‐pref:_draw_wrl_detail | This enables high-detailed features like airport light fixtures. |
_draw_reflect_water05 | 0-5 | ‐‐pref:_draw_reflect_water05=3 | This sets the amount of detail rendered into the water reflection texture. |
_draw_volume_fog01 | 0 or 1 | ‐‐pref:_draw_volume_fog01=1 | This enables the “volumetric fog” advanced fog shader. |
_draw_shaders | 0 or 1 | ‐‐pref:_draw_shaders=1 | This enables pixel shader drawing. |
_aniso_filter | ratio | ‐‐pref:_aniso_filter=4 | This sets the anisotropic filtering level |
_draw_for_05 | 0 – 5 | ‐‐pref:_draw_for_05=3 | This sets the forest density popup. |
_comp_texes | 0 or 1 | ‐‐pref:_comp_texes=0 | This enables or disables texture compression. |
Note: in X-Plane patches before 941, _alias_req will change FSAA but will not correctly show the results in the UI when ‐‐fps_test is in use.
Changes in Settings For 945
Window Management Changes
To use 945 in Windowed mode. (Note: window must be no larger than the size of the primary screen)
‐‐pref:_x_res_wind_ALL= ‐‐pref:_y_res_wind_ALL=
To use 940 in full screen mode at current monitor settings:
‐‐pref:_is_full_ALL=1 ‐‐pref:_x_res_full_ALL=0 ‐‐pref:_y_res_full_ALL=0
To use 940 in full screen mode at a specific res:
‐‐pref:_is_full_ALL=1 ‐‐pref:_x_res_full_ALL=1024 ‐‐pref:_y_res_full_ALL=768 ‐‐pref:_bpp_full_ALL=32
Note: X-Plane will not change the monitor res unless it can determine that the selected res matches a published resolution from the OS/driver. Usually this means supplying a bits per pixel (bpp) of 32.
However, X-Plane does _not_ actually put the device into full screen mode, so there is no advantage to running “full screen” vs. running in a window with the window size set to the monitor size.
Replay Movies
In X-Plane 945, replays are called .rep files and live in Output/replays/. Unlike the 900 time demo, the replay will play from start to end and the time demo will end with one framerate count output.
Custom Log Paths
The command-line option ‐‐log_path= will redirect the output file Log.txt to another directory. The very beginning of the file will end up in the x-plane dir (if writable) but most of the file, including all of the interesting parts) will be redirected. The path must be an absolute path including file name, e.g.
./X-Plane-i686 ‐‐log_path=/my_dir/log.txt
Changes for Version 10
How To Increase Fps For X Plane On Mac Pro
Version 10 keeps the version 945 screen res format. Besides all v9 features, v10 allows the settings from “Resources/settings.txt” to be overridden using the ‐‐ren:XXXX=YYY syntax. An example:
X-Plane_NODEV_OPT.app/Contents/MacOS/X-Plane_NODEV_OPT ‐‐fps_test=2 ‐‐load_smo=Output/replays/test_flight.rep
‐‐pref:_is_full_ALL=1 ‐‐pref:_x_res_full_ALL=1024 ‐‐pref:_y_res_full_ALL=768 ‐‐pref:_bpp_full_ALL=32
‐‐ren:draw_HDR=1
‐‐pref:_is_full_ALL=1 ‐‐pref:_x_res_full_ALL=1024 ‐‐pref:_y_res_full_ALL=768 ‐‐pref:_bpp_full_ALL=32
‐‐ren:draw_HDR=1
X-Plane 10 contains a config file in the Resources folder called “settings.txt”. The line
SETTING category type name max
defines the setting parameter,s e.g
SETTING EFFECTS SLIDER shadow_quality 9
means that the shadow_quality setting will show as a slider, with a min of 0 and a max of 9. You can change these settings from the cmd line, e.g.
‐‐ren:shadow_quality=5
overriding the defaults from fps tests. You can use the command line to rapidly find all settings like this:
grep “^SETTING ” resources.settings.txt
The time demo is also data driven – you can view the default settings for each of the rendering settings as follows:
grep DEMO Resources/settings.txt
How To Increase Fps For X Plane On Mac Os
The TIMEDEMO lines define each time demo (1-X) and the DEMO_SETTING shows the deafults used.)
Note that the time demos affect the rendering settings in settings.txt, which are mostly engine related, but _do not_ set raw windowing factors like resolution and full screen anti-aliasing. Thus you should expect to use ‐‐pref to customize FSAA and use monitor controls to get the res you want.
As a general rule:
- EFFECTS settings tend to push the GPU harder, e.g. consume more shading power.
- DRAWING settings tend to push bus bandwidth and the CPU harder, e.g. they result in more geometry.
- EXPERT settings should be left at their default, under all conditions.
QA Scripts and Visual Output
X-Plane 945 features a simple script file engine to produce conformance tests. To run a test file, use the command-line ‐‐qa_script=. The X-Plane 945 time demo comes with a sample script (conformance.txt) that can be used for baseline driver testing.
The script commands consist of a series of single-line commands, with white space and lines starting with # as comments.
QA script commands
WAIT
causes the script to pause, letting the sim run, for a number of seconds.
NEXT_FRAME
causes the sim to render the next frame. When settings are changed, you will need to either wait or go to the next frame to see the changes.
CMND
executes one of X-Plane’s built in commands – any command that can be tied to a joystick or key binding can be executed by script. To find the commands, look in Resources/plugins/commands.txt
DREF
sets a sim dataref to a given value. Look in Resources/plugins/datarefs.txt for a list of datarefs.
LOOK
causes the sim to change the camera to be placed at x,y,z and look in a given heading. You can use the data outut screen to determine the current camera position for writing scripts.
RELOAD
causes scenery to reload – use this after changing settings to change scenery.
TIMEER_START
TIMER_STOP
TIMER_STOP
measures an interval at a given framerate. Use this to measure fps for a given camera angle and framerate. The tag cannot have whitespace.
PUSH_APP_PATH POP_APP_PATH
Changes the current directory for the script to a new path (path should be a global path starting with /) for the purpose of taking pictures. Popping the path sets it back to the previous path.
If your X-Plane is framerate low, or you want to increase your rendering quality, you might think 'time for a new graphcis card But is it?Some rendering settings actually tax the CPU more than the GPU (graphics card). Here's a simple rule of thumb: if you increase the setting (and restart X-Plane) and your frame-rate does not go down, a new graphics card isn't going to make it go up!
For example, if you have one of those new-fangled GeForce 8800s, you may have noticed that when you turn on FSAA the framerate doesn't dip at all. That's because the 8800 is insanely overpowered for X-Plane (at normal monitor resolutions) and has plenty of extra capacity that will be sitting idle on an older PC. When you turn up FSAA, you are simply wasting less of the card's excess capacity. It goes without saying that if there were a card faster than the 8800, it wouldn't improve your fps any more than the 8800, it would simply be even more bored.
![How How](/uploads/1/1/7/8/117802801/190194405.jpg)
How To Increase Fps For X Plane On Mac Pc
Here's a rough guide to which features tax the CPU vs GPU:CPU-Intensive
- World Level of Detail
- Number of Objects
- Draw Cars On Roads
- Draw Birds (not that expensive for modern machines)
- Draw Hi Detail World
- World Field Of View (wider view means more CPU work!)
- Texture Resolution (requires more VRAM)
- Screen Resolution
- Full Screen Anti-Aliasing (FSAA)
- Anisotropic Filtering (most cards can do at least 4x)
- Draw Hi-Res Planet Textures From Orbit
- Cloud Shadows and Reflections (not that expensive)
- Draw Hi Detailed World
A few specific framerate-optimization warnings:
- FSAA is equivalent to a higher screen resolution - that is, running at 2048x2048 and no FSA is similar to running at 1024x1024 and 4x FSAA. Both of these tax the video card with virtually no CPU increase. This is probably the only setting that can be helped only with a video-card upgrade.
- Texture resolution: do not worry if the total size of all textures loaded is larger than the VRAM of your card. To find out if more VRAM would help, measure frame-rate with your normal settings, with texture resolution down a notch, and with anisotropic filtering down a notch. If turning texture resolution down increases fps more than turning down anisotropic filtering, more VRAM may help. Machines with faster graphics busses (like PCIe x16) will be less sensitive to VRAM.
- Most Important: do not ever turn 'World Detail Distance' beyond the default setting - you will simply destroy your fps and chew up your CPU for no benefit. I strongly recommend trying 'low' for this setting - if you like a lot of objects, this setting can make a big difference in performance.
- The number of objects is virtually always a factor of how fast your CPU is, not your GPU -- that is, most GPUs can draw about a gajillion objects if the CPU could only get through them fast enough. If you are unhappy with the number of objects you can draw, do not expect a new graphics card to help - it probably won't.
- Cars on roads hurt fps on machines that don't have the fastest CPU.
- Draw Hi detail World is doubly dangerous - it uses both the CPU and GPU. Quite literally this is where we stash 'luxurious' options. Everything this checkbox does chews up framerate. (If these options didn't, we'd leave them on all the time!) So you should not use this option if you aren't happy with fps, if you don't have a fast CPU, or if your graphics card isn't that modern. (HINT: if your nVidia card has 'FX' in the title, don't use this!)
EDIT: one user correctly determined (by observing CPU utilization relative to settings) that puff-style 3-d clouds bottleneck the GPU, not the CPU! This was not what I expected - when Austin originally wrote that code, our measurement indicating that sorting the puffs from far to near taxed the CPU a lot, making this CPU-intesive. At the time the old Rage 128s would also get bogged down by filling in translucent puffs as you flew right into the thick of the cloud.
Times have changed and neither the sorting nor the alpha-drawing is even remotely expensive on a modern machine. So I was surprised to see the CPU not being used. After some investigation, it turns out that while the CPU and GPU have gotten a lot faster over time, the communciations channel between them has not. The result is that they both do their jobs really quickly, and as a result clog up the communications channel...the CPU simply can't talk to the GPU fast enough to get the clouds out.