Framerate Problems in FS2004 - Requesting Help

Earlier this year, I posted about a fps drop which I was experiencing with Bill Melichars Honolulu V5 addon scenery. The response I got was to try DXTFixer, which I did, and no performance improvements came out of this idea. However, I do have found that this is not exclusive to Bill's addon, but rather several freeware addon scenery's for FS2004. To make a long story short, the problem is that anytime I pan the camera around and the areas of the addon scenery come into view, the entire sim's fps drops like crazy with no explanation for why. Once the addon scenery or a good portion of it leaves my view, the fps jumps right back up to normal standards, (i.e. 55-60fps or more). I have tried removing certain bgl files, resaving and editing textures, and reinstalling scenery altogether. Yet none of this seems to work, which is all the more odd since this is the same device which I had running fs9 and Windows 7, and this never occurred to me back then. Add on that since that time, this device was upgraded from the meager 4gb of ram up to its maximum of 32gbs total just a few months ago.

 

 

 

having tried searching the forums as well as elsewhere online, I would like more help beyond just trying DXTFixer or the fs94gb patch (I already applied that to my install and it hasn't changed anything), as the other results I have found online are nothing but good questions turned into a fight over whether FS9 is better than FSX. A debate which I do not want to get into in this forum post I am making right now at all.

 

 

 

Therefore, if anyone is willing to work with me in this thread on what might be causing this performance issue, please let me know as I will do my best to provide any information which might be needed to diagnose the problem.

 

 

 

Hardware/Software Specs for those who are wondering:

 

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz - 4 Cores

 

GPU: AMD Radeon HD7700 Series with 2048MB of GDDR5 1125 MHz VRAM

 

Storage: 2.0TB HDD - RPM Unknown, (assuming 5400RPM)

 

Memory: 32GB of DDR3-1600hz RAM

 

Microsoft Windows 10 Home Edition 64bit

Hi!

 

Not sure if that's a "bug". I experienced that already with large/complex scenery addons; namely in the Anchorage area with two active addons, William Morgan's PANC and Roger Wensely's Lake Hood. Roger's has hundreds(?) of aircraft parked around Z41, for instance.

 

I reinstalled FS9 a couple of times in the past 2 years and I believe I don't get it as hard right now... would have to check.

 

I think most of it may be addressed in FS display settings. Trying to find the most efficient combination for each particular setup is not always easy.

 

I'd do this:

Slew to a positon where you have one of this areas in sight, fly a little and save the flight - so you may easilly recreate the same conditions.

Then set all sliders to a low setting.

Max each one at a time and note down the fps drop with each slider.

For instance "scenery cast ground shadows" may have a major impact.

 

Maybe, just maybe, if you have duplicate or conflicting scenery files active for one same area that may also bring your performance down.

 

If you say you specifically had it working in the past for those same problematic areas then you should be able to regain it again.

 

Perhaps hard drive health come into play, too, with a highly fragmented install..

Thanks, the issue in truth is bad enough that I do not even need to slew anywhere for it to happen. Simply spawning at the gate or nearby runway is enough to cause the frame drops.

 

I tinkered around with my settings, and even dropping them down to the absolute lowest settings, (I.e. everything now looks like its from fs95/98), does not seem to resolve the problem.

 

One thing I will add in case it helps at all is that since reinstalling fs9 earlier this year, a lot of ghost files that are weirdly still intractable have been popping up in my install. So for example, if I go to work in ai aircraft editor, addons which I do not even have anymore will still show up as a clickable folder. Same has occurred when adding scenery via the file browser in fs9. I can delete the scenery in the sim, then go and fully delete the file from my install, and then open up the file browser and still see a file that I can interact with. Nothing is inside of these solid ghost folders, though I can still right click and delete them, after which they then finally go away completely.

 

Also, in some cases, though not many, certain addons would cause anything with mip mapping to get super blury, and then only be fixable by completely removing that scenery.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Tristar35

I have been having frame rate issues also since installing W10 32bit. I did not have that problem in XP or W7. My system is at least 15 yrs old.

I regret to inform that the situation has now worsened since I last posted. Now it has to do with sounds, specifically wind rush. In short, once I rotate and begin actually flying the wind rush sound regardless of what sound pack stock or addon it is, starts audibly glotching out like a madman. With constant levels of stuttering that are equally inexplicable to me, considering how only now has this started to occur rather than before when I played fs9

Do the same problems occur with Traffic disabled?

On my system, at a large busy airport, disabling Traffic can result in a doubling of framerate.

Has your HD been defragmented recently?

Is there any excessive clutter in your Temp or TMP folders?

During the problems, do you notice any excessive disc activity?

Are you running any add-on modules? FSUIPC has been known to cause "stutters" under some circumstances, similar problems may occur with other utilities.

Edited March 29, 2022 by chris_eve

This is sounding like hardware related. Namely the agravation of symptoms could indicate some sort of deterioration... there are many things you could check, like

 

Do you have any other graphically demanding game installed and if so is it working normally?

Check the windows 10 system logs to see if there's some indication if problem

You could update the drivers of you graphics/sound cards..

Like Chris mentioned, above, hard drive problems like defragmentation or bad sectors could come into play.

 

Ultimately you could try a parallel install of FS9, too. That's a little tricky but very doable and you could see from ground zero how the simulator behaves.

 

You metioned Windows 32 bit, so I couldn't tell. But I'm using FS9 with Windows 10 (it's the home edition 64bit) and it is working flawlessly.

 

I did have a problem recently, windows was taking ages to load and I was having troubles deleting files, but it was some file-system trouble in one of the partitions... luckilly not the partition where I have FS9! So I formated the partition and problem gone, Windows gets on and off in 10 secs.

 

Also, I use CCleaner to keep the registry trouble free... I know CCleaner may not be now the same app it was before (since it was acquired by some major company) but so far no problems with it. That would also take care of the temporary files that Chris mentioned, above.

Do the same problems occur with Traffic disabled?

On my system, at a large busy airport, disabling Traffic can result in a doubling of framerate.

Has your HD been defragmented recently?

Is there any excessive clutter in your Temp or TMP folders?

During the problems, do you notice any excessive disc activity?

Are you running any add-on modules? FSUIPC has been known to cause "stutters" under some circumstances, similar problems may occur with other utilities.

 

Currently in the process of trying to redefrag my drive now. I will note that there is a second drive in my defrag options lists titled" System Reserved E:," Which is currently 17% fragmented. However, no matter what I do, the defrag tool will not defrag that drive.

 

 

Regarding the traffic situation, I will post back with an update on this aspect of the diagnosis once I finish defragging my drive.

 

As for the temp folders, where would I find those out of curiosity? I have dug around in the system files before, yet have not encountered anything fs9 temp folders if memory serves correct.

 

 

On the subject of excessive disk activity, I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary during these issues. No fan revving or excessive drive activity appears to occur during the issues for both the sound and or framerates.

 

 

In the case of FSUIPC or other modules, I only use F1 View as I am not in a position to use a yoke or joystick at the moment. So I use this addon to make panning the camera a bit easier. However, F1 view had been installed long before these problems arose.

You metioned Windows 32 bit, so I couldn't tell. But I'm using FS9 with Windows 10 (it's the home edition 64bit) and it is working flawlessly.

 

 

In my instance, I am running the 64bit version of Windows 10 Home Edition.

Do the same problems occur with Traffic disabled?

On my system, at a large busy airport, disabling Traffic can result in a doubling of framerate.

Has your HD been defragmented recently?

Is there any excessive clutter in your Temp or TMP folders?

During the problems, do you notice any excessive disc activity?

Are you running any add-on modules? FSUIPC has been known to cause "stutters" under some circumstances, similar problems may occur with other utilities.

 

Just loaded up with no GA or Airline traffic enabled and can confirm that the fps drop still happens. So the problem is not being caused by the traffic seemingly.

In my instance, I am running the 64bit version of Windows 10 Home Edition.

 

 

Sorry, you're right. That was NEBOJSA.

No worries, your good. :)

 

Apologies for the frequent mini posts here and there, but I'm off work for a little while longer, so I am passing a bit of the time working on my fs9 problems.

 

I don't know if this is of any help, but regarding the sound issue, the first time I recognized that the wind rush sound was glitching out was during a flight two days ago in the Historic Jetliners Group Dassault Mercure freeware addon. However like with F1 View, this addon was installed prior to these problems cropping up. Along with the notion that after further testing in both addon and stock aircraft, this aspect of my issues does appear to affect all aircraft.

 

 

Out of curiosity, but is there a way to view any form of runtime/crash logs from fs9 either after or during a session of gameplay? I know that other games outside of the flightsim community can sometimes provide this information, but I am unsure if fs9 has the capability to do so or how I would access it.

As for the temp folders, where would I find those out of curiosity? I have dug around in the system files before, yet have not encountered anything fs9 temp folders if memory serves correct.

 

I'm not sure that FS9 uses/needs any temp folders itself, but some addons may do.

How to find yours is detailed here https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/where-is-the-temporary-folder/44a039a5-45ba-48dd-84db-fd700e54fd56?auth=1

Alternatively, open an Explorer window and type %tmp% or %temp% into the address box (that's including the percent signs!)

Edited March 29, 2022 by chris_eve

Something to try is to load the default Cessna at SeaTac flight. Then go to the airport with the problem and check the frame rate. Do not load a saved flight to get there.

Something to try is to load the default Cessna at SeaTac flight. Then go to the airport with the problem and check the frame rate. Do not load a saved flight to get there.

 

Tested this earlier today and the problem is only occurring around addon airports at the moment. SeaTac in its stock format causes no frame drops. Only certain addon sceneries such as Bill's Honolulu addon, which didn't kill my fps back in Windows 7, cause the frame drops.

 

This is what confuses me so much since Bill's addon is all simple polygons and not much else, and back in Windows 7, it an other addon of the type ran fine.:confused:

Currently reinstalling a vanilla version of fs9 outside of program files x86. Going to see how it behaves, and then very slowly start adding back in my addons, to see if anything begins to break in the hopes that it gives us a direction to move in.

Playing Devil's Advocate here ... have you tried the most obvious solution (suggested by the author himself) ... lowering your scenery density down to Dense?

 

Regards,

Dorian

Playing Devil's Advocate here ... have you tried the most obvious solution (suggested by the author himself) ... lowering your scenery density down to Dense?

 

Regards,

Dorian

 

 

Yep, and even then it still drops frames.

Currently reinstalling a vanilla version of fs9 outside of program files x86. Going to see how it behaves, and then very slowly start adding back in my addons, to see if anything begins to break in the hopes that it gives us a direction to move in.

 

Yep, that's what I'm doing. Have two versions running.

 

Note: have you backed up your FS9.cfg beforehand? I keep always 2 versions of:

Flight Simulator 9 folder

Flight Simulator Files folder

FS9 folder (where the FS9.cfg is)

Yep, that's what I'm doing. Have two versions running.

 

Note: have you backed up your FS9.cfg beforehand? I keep always 2 versions of:

Flight Simulator 9 folder

Flight Simulator Files folder

FS9 folder (where the FS9.cfg is)

 

No, though it looks like that is something I shall be doing moving forward.

 

Update: Fingers crossed, but the sound bug for the moment seems to have gone away with the new install based on my desktop rather than program files x86. Going to be listening very carefully to the sim for the next few weeks though in case it rears its ugly head at me again. Though I suspect there may have been an old aircraft addon which was causing it as for the moment, (again fingers crossed), the wind rush sound seems to be behaving properly.

 

I am about to start slowly adding back in my scenery addons to see what happens regarding the frame rate issues.

One other thing I do for my clean install, though it may sound a bit manic :)

 

I always install executable addons to a "ghost" FS9 folder (whenever possible) so I can see exactly what files come into play and where(!)

 

Hope you can fix your sim! Everyone deserves a decent and flawless frame rate! :)

So while I am not over at Honolulu right now, I did have in my original install of fs9 the most recent addon scenery of Paine Field installed, which I have just added over to my new install of fs9. While not as problematic as Honolulu was, the fps drop is still there with addon scenery.

 

 

Link to the addon I was using in this test:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fsview.php?do=list&fid=209653

 

 

In the instance of this addon, which was made back in 2020, I can somewhat respect the loss in fps since so much has changed in regards to scenery design for flightsim since the early days of fs9. Though I would love to know then why does a scenery such as Melichars Honolulu V5, an addon that was created back in 2003, practically bring the fps of fs9 on win10 to a near standstill? About the only thing that comes to mind is somehow there is a LOD scripting corruption in the addon that only happens in Windows 10. Though please correct me if that is wrong.

 

 

Melichars addon simply to get an idea of how old it is compared to the aforementioned addon I linked earlier:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?searchid=92067234

One other thing I do for my clean install, though it may sound a bit manic :)

 

I always install executable addons to a "ghost" FS9 folder (whenever possible) so I can see exactly what files come into play and where(!)

 

Hope you can fix your sim! Everyone deserves a decent and flawless frame rate! :)

 

For your ghost fs9 folder, are you only doing this with your scenery addons? Or do you do this with other addons such as aircraft, modules, (F1 View, FSUIPC), etc.? If so, how are you exactly doing this as I could definitely see why that would be useful. Particularly since there is not game log that gets created to show what went on during a session.

For your ghost fs9 folder, are you only doing this with your scenery addons? Or do you do this with other addons such as aircraft, modules, (F1 View, FSUIPC), etc.? If so, how are you exactly doing this as I could definitely see why that would be useful. Particularly since there is not game log that gets created to show what went on during a session.

 

I'm doing this with everything that looks like remotely possible. Aircraft and scenery, sure! Executable addons, also. Sometimes addons make it a bit hard as they expect to see FS9.exe in place, or a particular folder, like "modules", etc.

The only times when this eludes me is when addons edit FS9.cfg or scenery.cfg themselves - which is rare.

 

With normal aircraft or sceney zips that's straightforward.

 

 

When there's an executable (exe) installer, what I do is:

1) I rename my "Flight Simulator 9" folder to "Flight Simulator 9 backup"

2) I create a blank "Flight Simulator 9" folder (sometimes I may have to throw in a copy of FS9.exe)

3) I run the installer.

4) I cut/paste the ghost folder to a different disk/drive

5) I rename back the "Flight Simulator 9 backup" to "Flight Simulator 9"

6) Then I copy the contents of the "ghost" into the real FS9 folder.

 

So you can keep "snapshots" of every addon result :)

I'm doing this with everything that looks like remotely possible. Aircraft and scenery, sure! Executable addons, also. Sometimes addons make it a bit hard as they expect to see FS9.exe in place, or a particular folder, like "modules", etc.

The only times when this eludes me is when addons edit FS9.cfg or scenery.cfg themselves - which is rare.

 

With normal aircraft or sceney zips that's straightforward.

 

 

When there's an executable (exe) installer, what I do is:

1) I rename my "Flight Simulator 9" folder to "Flight Simulator 9 backup"

2) I create a blank "Flight Simulator 9" folder (sometimes I may have to throw in a copy of FS9.exe)

3) I run the installer.

4) I cut/paste the ghost folder to a different disk/drive

5) I rename back the "Flight Simulator 9 backup" to "Flight Simulator 9"

6) Then I copy the contents of the "ghost" into the real FS9 folder.

 

So you can keep "snapshots" of every addon result :)

 

Thanks! Will keep this in mind moving forward. :)