X-Plane 10.40 beta 5 is out – this fixes my breaking the zoom wheel, and has a few small loose ends tied up. We have a bunch of new stuff to get into beta 6, maybe this weekend.
Nvidia users may notice weird artifacts around the edges of the skyline in various rendering settings; my current speculation is that this is a bug in the NVidia shader compiler, but I am not sure. In the process of isolating the bug for NVidia, I discovered a work-around*, but we haven’t shipped it yet. I’ll update the score card when we know for sure what’s up.
We investigated a bunch of performance complaints since we fixed the prop disc slow-down and nothing has been reproducible. If you think you see a performance problem, please get two clean side-by-side demos (10.36 and 10.40b5) and then add your add-ons to both in lock-step to create a good test case. If you isolate a performance problem that way, then file a bug.
* From what I can tell, the shader compiler is optimizing the shader and sometimes producing illegal code; randomly moving things around can make the bug go away – it’s a “Doctor, it hurts when I do this” kind of thing, but if there’s something illegal in the shader that ships in beta 5, I don’t see it.
I’ve noticed these strange artifacts since at least 10.35 on Yosemite (iMac 780M) but thought this was a known issue. Artifacts are an outline around the edge of mountains etc. Is this the same issue you’re describing?
Yep – that’s them…they’re probably in 1035/1036 too.
For me this occurred only in 10.40b1+, and I have tested every version extensively. However, the good news is that the latest NVidia Alternate Driver for Mac (346.01.03) for OSX 10.10.4 gets rid of the artifacts! (I cannot test the official drivers that came with 10.10.4 on Tuesday as my 780GTX is unsupported in OSX).
I’ve been have some fun playing around with the new RREF and DREF messages in the UDP interface this evening and I am a huge fan. I was wondering if there is some way to cancel receiving updates from a previous RREF request. I tried re-sending my RREF request with a 0 for the update interval hoping that might clear it but no luck.
Regardless this is an awesome new feature!
Looks like you can’t do that right now – Austin and I are discussing it. In the original design a request rate of 0 did kill the message; not sure what happened to that.
We’re also going to put the X-plane receive port in the beacon so that you can know which port X-plane is using to receive – 99% of the time it’s 49000 but users can edit it.
(The beacon is a multi-cast ping service in X-Plane 1040 – it lets other copies of X-Plane and network add-ons locate a running instance of X-Plane without users having to type in IP addresses. We’ll get some docs into the UDP instructions soon.)
Excellent. Very exciting update all around.
Thanks!
Fps drops again with this new b5 in order about 10 fps, and I have too the noticed artifacts. Beta 4 has been the version better performance, higher load stage and smoother has given me so far, well above the performance of version 10.36.
Regards
This is the first time I’ve seen those artefacts, it like’s a purple line around objects on the horizon, e.g. buildings and mountains. Good to know it’s a known bug and will get fixed 🙂
Any tweaks to the clouds in 10.40b5? I am seeing surprisingly good numbers… The Windows with NVidia cards changes in 10.40b3 have also had an impact on my Mac? Maybe a coincidence, but the numbers have again been very good since that update, 10.40b2 for me was a dog, with very poor rates?
A feature I will note that I would like is a reset for the replay? I find with many aircraft now there is a significant period to set them up for flight, you can lose 20-30min setting up a payware with programming the FMC, loading passengers or sometimes just sitting at the gate and all this time is really wasted? and this all is recorded on the replay, so it would be good when at the start of the flight you can reset the replay to the start to just record the actual flight or even a portion of one, say just the landing? A key reset would be fine? thanks SD
I have an :
iMac 27-inch Mid 2011, 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB
There is no way to upgrade my graphic card, so, to me its very important the optimization of graphics. With the last betas i can activate the HDR and have better graphics with a very little decrease on frame rates, im loving the new updates, Im consuming less than 600mb of VRAM with HDR on, before was more than 700MB and crash the X-Plane when get into heavy scenaries.
I would like to have the option to tell the sim before load the plane or location, which plane or location want to load, so i dont need to load one scenary to then load other and wait again.
But the work you have been doing is great.
This option already exists: it’s the quick flight screen at startup. Open the quick flight screen and check “show at startup”.
the fps dropped dramatically , especially when using the tracked target (own aircraft) external camera mode (fixed spot)
a significant fps drop do occur when i try to zoom in on my own aircraft; (that either in replay or live simulation mode)
while on all previous xplane versions the FPS was increasing in the same mode view.
Do you have any plans for a new/updated ATC system? The current one is very buggy in my eyes and I would love to see new updates and features in that category.
By the way, I think the Beta 5 Update was already available on 30 June, right? X-Plane said me that an update was available, but I already had Beta 4 and there were no news here on the blog.
Also, the sim crashes quite often now. I installed a new plane, it is either the new beta or the new plane (or both?), I will try to figure it out. Nothing special in the log, only “–=={This application has crashed!}==–“. Of course I use the send crash report function.
PS: Thanks for fixing the zoom, I really missed it 😉
Ben, something is SERIOUSLY wrong; how on earth can you NOT reproduce the loss in frame rate? This is baffling.
–edit–
As I have said approximately 100,000 times before: please do not file bug reports on this blog. If you have a reproducible comparable case of framerate loss, file a bug. For the previous bugs you have filed, I will wait for you to answer my follow-up questions.
Ben I understand you need comparable data – and while I can’t be bothered to create a .36/.40 comparison setup, I did spend two hours analyzing the performance of .40b5. (analyzing perf. is always one of my main things to do in X-Plane …). The point is, sitting on the runway, performance is unchanged. I get my usual 30fps panning around the aircraft at KLAX – just as in .36. However, once I climb at 5000 ft., flying over L.A., performance seems to degradate. After a couple of minutes, it won’t go above 20 at all, and even lowering settings (both CPU and GPU killers, while it seems to be GPU load that brings the sim down) can’t get you out of that performance valley then – very strange. It seems fed up. I even ran the tests without clouds to free the GPU. Bottom line, the current built just feels – excuse me -sluggish in the performance department, even if I can’t put my finger on what it is.
If you can’t compare 10.40 to 10.36, then you’re not really analyzing performance at all, because you’re varying a huge number of variables at the same time.
If you manage to pull a bug out of that, please file it (e.g. if going BACK to the runway start has lower fps than before and it’s reproducible, that could be filed) but “my framerate is low over LA” isn’t something we can act on.
The ATC is just fine for what it does. Plan route, get clearance, fly your route, expect approach instructions just in time – very reliable. Learn how to use it! If you want more features, I am sure they will come eventually. The brand new nearby freq. panel is a very handy addition. The one thing that bugs me out is that the ATC can’t handle AI well (telling them to climb ALL the time and then being to busy to talk to you for minutes because of that). But with a handful of GA aircraft it seems to work OK for now.
There are known issues with the ATC system for what it does; some have already been fixed for 10.40 and some have not. This is not the same as “I wish it did X” where X is a new feature…we’ll get to that someday, but fixes first.
Good job on this update! No hick ups,no artifacts and no notable fps drop. (Nvidia GTX 780, i7-4930k, win 7, 32GB Ram)
Can You please comment obvious update on clouds and fog. (Definitely in wright direction!)
Clouds looks now more volumetric and realistic as they appeared in early betas (i.e. 10.00 b7). Fog appears less abrupt now and not as a “milky” wall.
Keep up good work!
Hi, have you touched something about intel graphic support in 10.40b5??
No.
Unfortunately i experienced many crashes with this beta and i reported them of course…
Win7 64 bit, nvidia gtx 770 2gb, intel i5 quadcore 3.0 ghz, 8 gb of RAM.
Good day,
I am definitely a fan of 10.40 + this version of XP is much better than 10. 00 + on the OS X and with the pre-sets runs less VRAM … Good job …
captbullett
Hello Ben, will there be X-Plane 11 flights in outer space, as in Star CITIZEN for example, (which will be released in 2016), well of course on the real-space ships, or X-Plane ,will introduce space travel between Earth and Mars ,when Mars in reality will be the first colonizers, sorry for the unusual question.
I can’t comment on the version of X-Plane that comes after X-Plane 10, other than to say that X-Plane 10 will not be the last version of X-Plane.
Personally, I’d prefer to see atmospheric flight get done really really well (which is probably what >99% of x-plane users got x plane for anyways, not that it isn’t already really really good) before any focus went to improving the basic space flight already present. Honestly I don’t think very many people would be disappointed if laminar just let other simulators tackle space flight…
Hi Ben, any news about when to expect beta 6? And what new features?
Regards
I am so happy to Report that X-Plane does NOT have a bug regarding Framerate fluctuations for Windows/NVidia users!
After a few days of testing and a lot of blog reading, I discovered the trick to significantly reduce the amount of Pauses and Freezes when flying on VATSIM with a Payware plane like the Flight Factor B757-200.
I read on a blog that a few options need to be altered in the 3D Settings of the Nvidia Control Panel:
1- Power Management Mode: Set to “Prefer Maximum Performance”
2- Thread Optimization: Set to “OFF”
3- Vertical Sync: Set to “Adaptive (half refresh rate)
These settings will LOCK the frame rate to 30FPS in X-Plane, which is all you need to have a smooth experience. It will also reduce the amount of Pauses and Freezes by nearly 80%!!!
Essentially, the CPU and GPU Loads are kept at much lower levels which helps to run several other processes in the background, such as plugins (Skymaxx Pro), Extended DSF’s and other X-Plane rendering settings that you would not be able to set if the frame rate was not capped at 30fps (HDR ON, more objects,more roads, etc…).
My experience with 10.40b5 has been absolutely amazing since I set these preferences yesterday!!!
A couple of other tips:
1- In the Xsquawbox preferences, please set the Reload Weather to 60 Minutes.
The concept is that you will get the initial weather update as soon as you log on the network and then you’re in charge to reload the weather manually during flight (which can cause up to 3 pauses/freezes every time). Since all my flights are under 2 hours, I reload the weather one last time just before the descent phase which should gives me adequate weather without any pauses until I land.
2- If you have the Saitek Yoke, Rudder Pedals & Panels and use Sparker’s Xsaitekpanels plugin, please make sure you use a powerful USB 2.0 HUB and also make sure that you never plug the HUB in a USB 3.0 Port on your PC.
Many Pauses and Freezes can be attributed to a lack of power on the 5v rail or by using a USB 3.0 port!
My setup has the Saitek Yoke (and Throttle Quadrant) plugged directly in of the USB 2.0 port on my PC.
The Saitek Rudder Pedals & Panels (Multi, Radio and Switch) are going through a Plugable USB 2.0 HUB with a 15W power supply.
I hope everyone will see the same results!
Cheers,
Benoit