3rd Jul, 2008

A brief look at Traffic X framerates

Hi all,

It’s been more than a while since my last blog so I’ve decided to jump back in and answer one of the big questions that have been circulating about Traffic X, namely the impact the AI (Artificial Intelligence) will have on frame rates.

As I’m sure many of you will agree, FPS (Frames Per Second) are a precious commodity when it comes to FSX. Perhaps more so than with any FS release for a long time. Those of you who have used the patched up version of Traffic 2005 or many of the other commercially available A.I. packages in FSX will know that they can give performance a bit of a hammering so the traffic percentage slider has to be used pretty conservatively in order to avoid a slideshow. One of the big factors of this slowdown is that most of the A.I. out there is was designed for FS2004 using FS2004 design techniques that don’t run optimally in FSX. You may know by now that all the aircraft in Traffic X have been built to the latest FSX SP2 SDK standards and as such will give superior performance over none FSX SP2 models.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating of course so here are a few screenshots from the Beta version of the software that has just been put together and will be going out to the testers very soon. They show the frame rate hits at various different traffic percentage settings. Obviously frame rates can vary between different PCs but this is an honest representation of how it affects out testbed PC running FSX & SP2. (PC specs at bottom of the page)

First the control shot. This was taken at Charles De Gaulle airport with the scenery settings on normal and the traffic slider at 0%

0%

As you can see, the PC is running at 27FPS without any traffic

The below shot is taken in the same location with the slider at 33%

33.bmp

The frame rate is now around the 25 mark. Next up is 66%

66

Finally here’s the maximum traffic setting (GA and Airliners):

100%

So, even with 100% full traffic settings the frame rate is still holding at a pretty respectable 20+FPS even at a a very busy major airport.

That’s pretty much all for now. Please feel free to submit your comments as we would be very interested to hear what you make of the above.

Take care

Rich

PC Specs:

Windows Vista 32bit
Intel Core2 CPU 6400 @ 2.13GHz
2046MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

Posted by: Richard, in: Technically Speaking

Responses

Thanks for the analysis. Can you tell us how many AI aircraft were under simulation by FSX in each (slider) example? Not just at CDG, but in total as aircraft “out of the picture” have an impact too.

By: Simon on July 3rd, 2008
at 4:25 pm

I can’t wait for this product to be released; it seems to be taking forever :(

I have just noticed in the specs you state “Vista 32bit”. Please tell me it will run on Visat 64-bit!! :(

Thanks.

By: Myrm on July 4th, 2008
at 9:59 am

Simon,
Unfortunately not. I didn’t make a note of any other info other than the framerates this time. I’ll try to re-visit it in more detail soon

Myrm,
Until it goes through Beta testing we won’t know for sure. Can’t think of anything off the top of my head that would stop it running in 64bit. If only somebody with Vista 64bit had responded to the Beta test invitation ;-)

By: Richard on July 4th, 2008
at 11:20 am

Looking good, I also can’t wait just switched to Vista 64bit after getting fed up with OOM errors.

Unfortunately I am a bit of a Max settings Junkie, so always whack the settings up, for me and my system 64 bit has been the best move I have ever made.

I would love to know if this will be 64 bit compatible, I would also be interested in Beta Testing to help the community but I am not an FSX Modder or creator, does that matter?

If not sign me up please, otherwise hurry up the testers so i can get my hands on it,

Keep up the good work
Thanks

By: Jason on July 4th, 2008
at 12:49 pm

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