Live View

 

Please remember you cannot just rely on the frame rate measurements because FSX will always give a fairly high priority to updating the screen. On networked systems you must always give your server's FSX/P3D adequate CPU capacity to perform other essential tasks, such as issuing the very important postion updates. If your system has the stutters, then it is these infrequent position updates from the server's FSX/P3D that is producing them!

 

OpusFSX has very little impact on the FSX performance and can generally communicate the position updates as fast as FSX/P3D can issue them. So if you are having stutter problems then you should investigate other possible causes. For instance, are you draining the FSX performance by displaying too many views on the server, in-house we never drive more than the single view on the server. Remember if you must have a wide panoramic view then you can always install a wide view screen or use three identical display screens with a TrippleHead2Go type product. in which case, as far as the sim is concerned, you are still driving a single main view, just one with a large pixel width. Other possible causes could be your server's PC spec (is it up to the job), insufficient memory (Windows 7 64-bit + loads of memory is highly recommended), do you have a poor or slow network connection (this is the age of Gigabit LANs - there's no excuse), is your actual aircraft sim well behaved (or does it hog the processor?), is your scenery too complex for your system, or have you been over enthusiastic with the FSX/P3D settings.

 
To give you some idea as to what performance figures you should be aiming to achieve, here are my details recorded using a high-spec server PC with a single ASUS gaming laptop client (I have included the actual server computer and client laptop specs below).

 

First note, the client position update rates (most important) are displayed in the client's Spy window for the 'Networked Live View - Position and Attitude' application link when the aircraft is in motion. Remember OpusFSX generally updates the client systems as fast as the server FSX/P3D program can issue postion updates.

 
On the ground

 

Sitting on the runway in the Real Air SF260 at UK2000 East Midlands Extreme airport,
 
Server Frame Rates: 50+ fps (67% full screen view), or 46 fps (2560 x 1600 full screen view)
 
Client Frame Rates:  40 to 50 fps (approx 1024 x 1040 view), or 28 fps (1920 x 1080 full screen view)
 
Client Position Updates: Smooth at 50 to 60 updates per second.
 
In the Air

 

Cruising at 4000ft in the Real Air SF260 (on a very cloudy day),
 
Server Frame Rates: 60 to 100 fps (67% full screen view), or 65 fps (2560 x 1600 full screen view)
 
Client Frame Rates: 60 to 120 fps (approx 1024 x 1040 view), or 45 fps (1920 x 1080 full screen view)
 
Client Position Updates: Smooth at 80 to 120 updates per second, or 70 to 80 updates per second (full screen view)
 
In both cases I have my target frames rates set to Unlimited. On my server I am driving into a single 2560 x 1600, 32-bit Virtual Cockpit view, and my client laptop is driving a single 1920 x 1080, 32-bit 2D cockpit 'scenic' view.
 
Server PC:
 
Windows 7 64-bit
Intel Six Core, i7 X990 CPU @ 3.47GHz
24GB memory
465GB HDD
2 x 224GB Kingston SSD (FSX on one, P3D on the other, every thing else on drive C)
2 x NVidia GeForce GTX580s
 
ASUS Client Gaming Laptop:
 
Windows 7 64-bit
Intel Quad Core, i7 2630QM CPU @ 2GHz
12GB memory
2 x 700GB HDD
NVidia GeForce GTX560M
 
My Server's FSX Settings:
 
Graphics,
Target Frame Rates: Unlimited
Filtering: Anisotropic
Anti-aliasing: ON
Global Texture: V.High
Advanced Animations: ON
 
Scenery,
Level of Detail: Medium
Mesh Complexity: 100
Mesh Resolution: 2m
Texture: 7cm
Water Effects: High 1.x
Scenery: Very Dense
Autogen: Sparse
Ground Shadows: OFF
Special Effects: High
 
Weather,
Cloud Drawing: 110mi/176km
Thermal Vis: NONE
Disable Turb: YES
Detailed Clouds: YES
Cloud Cover: MAX
 
Traffic,
Airline: 32%
GA: 16%
Airport: Minimum
Road: 4%
Ships: 4%
Boats: 3%

 

My client systems are set up in accordance with our Getting Started guide. Note also, I use Kingston Solid State Drives (SSDs) to give the fastest possible read performance for FSX and P3D. Do not load the operating system on these drives though since the write performance is quite poor.

My client system's view does not stutter with this setup and does not change if I add a second client system. On some systems we have set the target frame rates to 60 or Unlimited on the server and 24 on the client systems. You may have to play with yours. One hint - if you're flying along and the rain or snow is still falling vertically then FSX/P3D cannot cope so try lowering your target frame rate to 30 or less.

 

Hope this helps.

 

I originally purchased OpusFSX for Live Weather and Live Camera and I'm now looking at setting up Live View.

 

Does anyone have Live View setup's that they can share? Do you have specific views that you display on the client and what do you use Live View for?

 

regards

 

Paul

 

In this beta we have corrected a problem that can cause client side lag on Live View systems during weather updates, on some systems it could even mean a lock up until paused and recovered. The client side lag is caused by the large increase in size of the weather data file which is now over 2.5Mb in size. The new fix may result in a very slight stutter during weather updates whilst the large weather file is transferred, these stutters will be reduced in future updates when we employ a smaller size of data file for networked systems.

 

Sorry folks, this was my slip it was only noticed when we continued to test with the slower laptop connected.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

I should have mentioned, make sure you turn off your virus scanner(s), I left my Kasperski on and it seriously effected my client system's performance, especially the weather updates.

 

 

 

If you are using a server and client system running Live View then you must not enable the GRIB option in the Weather - Downloads dialog of the current beta version. The GRIB download, data extraction, and data decoding has not been allocated to threads yet and hence will slow down the operation of the OpusFSX interface causing very jittery client displays.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

I'm experiencing a lot of stutters using LiveView feature. I tried a lot of different setup, tried to be in accordane with your advices in the documentation without success. I think the hardware is powerful enough regarding what you say but I guess I missed something or got it wrong in something.

 

Here's my setup :

 

i7 950 @3.8GHz

6Gb DDR3

Asus Sabertooth X58

GTX 460 1Gb / GeForce 310.70 WHQL

Windows 7 64 bits Home Premium

OpusFSX 2.80.1 beta

FSX.CFG -> UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=30

FSUIPC 4.859m registered

No antivirus

Instruments display with the less sceneries possible (only addons AFCAD and FSX bases)

 

 

Yes I use a C172 on client PC. This PC display is very  smoothly outside OpusFSX. I can still modify the panel to not display the gauges.

 

The other processing didn't change between the two test (with and without Opus). And they are not a lot. So for now I understand I have to help my client PC. I'll report soon.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Looks like the target frame rates on the server system must be lowered to about 20 FPS at the moment in the latest beta, otherwise the client systems will be swamped with position and attitude updates. We will continue to investigate the possible cause at this end but for now try a setting of 20 on your server and experiment with your client system.

 

I will post beta 2.80.3 soon, this is the software I have been testing with.

 

Stephen

 

Stephen

 

Are you running any other addons on your client system?

 

You should just be running FSXSERVER on the server and FSXCLIENT on the client.

 

At the moment I have HT on on server PC. The affinity in the task manager for all programs are by default so all cores (8). The same on client PC but without HT activated, so just 4 cores used by all programs.

 

No other addons on the client. Textures have been set by REX2 limited to 1024 pixels.

 

 

Stephen

 

Stephen

 

Please get rid of affinitymask and try again. Also try reducing the burden on your server. If you are running other addons then try stopping them. Try setting the system up with just FSX + OpusFSX on both system using standard Windows 7 scheduling and core allocation.

 

Stephen

No improvment, still stutters.

 

No affinity mask set on both PC (FSX.CFG and task manager by default). Core allocation are normal. Just Hyper Threadind enabled on Server PC (8 cores), 4 for Client.

 

No other software on both PC. Is it normal FSCLIENT.EXE doesn't use the CPU a lot ? You didn't react to this.

 

20FPS limited FSX on server. Tried 30 and unlimited on client.

 

Could you sent me your two FSX.CFG for me to compare if I forgot something?

 

 

 

The other difference, is that I use the most powerful system for client because the display of photo sceneries require best performance. I overclocked and simplified at max FSX on server PC. At the end I'll have to use the same server and two more clients PC with same specs.

 

About memory, do you think it could be an issue to not have more than 12Gb? It doesn't seem all my 6Gb is used at anytime.

 

I don't see what is not right on my PCs. You speak about your systems but what about other users. I didn't see a lot of question about the use of liveview. Am I one of the few ? All people I read post on forums only use Opus for weather.

 

 

 

 

If I see 43 pos/s updates on client isn'it because the server is doing its job properly?

 

On the other side, my client PC is set with high level details for landscape (I tried to set down the cursors without lot of improvments) but with no realism for flight behaviour.

 

Can you advice me with a tool to spy differently server and client and see where is the mistake? Don't you have something to log events?

 

I tried to put all cursors down on client PC and go in Belfast where I don't have any addon sceneries or photo terrain. It stutters the same way. As soon as I stop Ofus, the display becomes smooth again.

 

Yes, pausing the server, stop the client and the picture is stable. And restarting doesn't act for client becoming smooth again. Stutters start as soon as the landscape move.

 

Finally, what measure I can do will show where's the slow down?

 

SERVER

 

CLIENT

 

 

Thank you to go on in trying to help me. Unfortunately, I don't think the DHM was enabled. Button and option are disabled in Live Camera setup window. Anyway I created a 2D view by Opus Camera Camera setup, then deleted all other camera views in FSX client for the C172 and in the camera.cfg file.

 

The result is the same stuttering. Maybe the synchronisation of the camera mask the real vision of the trouble. What I get on the screen is a picture that move step by step.

 

 

I'm not sure how to get FSX has disabled turbulence and thermal effect. In Opus server I disabled Live Weather and set clear sky...

 

Regards

 

First when I was in the same session that when I took the video, I changed for unlimited on server, it seemed to work better on the client. But after a long pause (1minute), it was impossible to synchonise the PCs. So I started again everything, first the server, then the client. And since then, I can't make the two PC synchronised....

 

The client is always late for about 5 seconds. Thus, the yoke in the virtual cockpit seems to be synchro, but not the landscape. When I pause the server, the client take 5 seconds to stop moving. And still staggering.

Of course I know I can't have more than the server. If I could have less but at 30FPS and no stuggerring or stutters, it will be so great....

 

 

Maybe something to help. I'm not able to save the camera setup on the client PC. I have to copy the file manually. I have access to the remote directory has I did the transfer from the server and it works so I guess the network authorisations are corrects too.

 

And finally with the unlimited FPS on server I get 80 pos/s seen on the client spy window.

 

Waiting for your new version. Thanks Stephen!