Beta 6 is now available to fix the hang with auto update. Please note that it will actually take two (2) rounds of updates to see the complete fix. B6 will still hang, but it contains the fix so that when you update after that, it should work as usual.
To get beta six, run the updater and click “get betas”. Once you have beta six, the next update will work normally.
Quick question
I often see an update on Steam about 30mb in size which is a shadercache update and contains the Vulkan badge along with the OpenGL badge. What exactly is this?
I’m not sure what you’re referring to here re: “vulkan badge.” There’s definitely not any secret new Vulkan support in any 11.35 betas!!
Oh well. If you don’t know what it is Ben that’s an even bigger mystery. It appears in the steam downloads page every few days but like I said it’s only 30mb. There are two symbols next to the x plane logo. One of them is a red Vulkan graphic. A few people on Steam forums are querying it but nobody knows. Very strange.
Steam has supported shader caching for a while now, at least on platforms that support it. This works with both Vulkan and OpenGL, and the idea is to take the shaders compiled for your specific GPU and driver version, and write them to a disk cache. On the second launch, instead of having to compile the shader again, the binary can be loaded instead and the shaders load faster. Of course that means that you have to run the sim first and get it to compile a specific shader permutation before you can have its binary. This is where another Steam feature comes in, if a Steam user with your GPU and driver version has already pre-compiled shader binaries, Steam will fetch and download them for you. This, at least in theory, allows you to run the sim without having to compile shaders which means less CPU time wasted on that and potentially less microstutters from shader compilation.
Now, since mid-May, Steam will show those shadercache downloads in the Downloads manager. Since there are a lot of shader permutations, my guess is that someone somewhere managed to compile yet another shader permutation so Steam helpfully downloads the whole pack for you again. Why it shows the Vulkan logo I don’t know, but my guess is that since this tech works for both OpenGL and Vulkan, although through different mechanisms, Steam just doesn’t distinguish between the two. But as Ben said, we are not shipping any secret Vulkan support.
Thanks Jennifer
Valve Index.joy… WOW that sounds amazing!!! Thanks Guys…
Sorry, this is a bit off topic, but just wanted to thank the entire LR team. I have been limping along with 2010 Mac Pro for a while in slideshow mode. I was lucky enough to be able to save up for and afford an i9 iMac with a Vega 48 (I know, dumb for gaming, but it’s mostly for audio/video/programming) and x-plane on it screams, even with shadows turned on (reflections kicks it’s butt a bit) at 2560×1440, and this is *before* the metal port.
With 10.35, it’s just amazing to fly around New York and DC and somehow get 40-50 fps.
Oh and FMOD for the 737 is great!
It took nearly 10 years but hardware is catching up with all the hard work you’ve put in over the run of v10 & v11!
Not dumb for gaming – Vega 48 + i9 is a pretty sane setup. Apple is pricey, but this machine isn’t “mismatched for x-plane” the way the Mac pro was. (The problem there was two smaller GPUs instead of one big one.)
Oh, was even worse. It was 8 cores at 2.4ghz, and AMD 5870 then much later Nvidia 1060. The graphics cards were idling while waiting for the CPU to do anything.
El uso 100% de CPU y casi nulo de GPU lastra este producto (X Plane 11). Sobre todo en la carga – transición de escenario, casi que lo cuelga….. ¿Es posible que desarrollen un producto que no utilice el archivo de intercambio de Windows…?. ¿Es posible que desarrollen un producto compilado en Vulkan…?. Es posible que de una vez por todas no tenga más tartamudeo (stuttering)…….. Lo estáis alargando demasiado. Me estoy aburriendo de tanto producto “chapucero” y anticuado para el hardware que se utiliza hoy por los consumidores y potenciales clientes de Laminar Research. Yo entre ellos… Espero no tardéis mucho… 2.020 hagáis un X Plane 12 con Vulkan y que aprobeche mi i7 4790K + 24 GB DDR 1.600 + GTX 1070 OC + SSD Samsung EVO + Seasonic Prime Titanium 1000W, poruqe me estoy cansando.
Patience is a virtue… anyway, your CPU is a bit old now. I’m running the same CPU @4.6GHz with a 1080ti.
The only thing that makes wornder me is the large amout of small files that the simulator has. Isn’t it better to have larger container files? like for example The Shadow of the Tomb Raider that use 2GB files.
La paciencia es una virtud.., de todos modos tu CPU es un poco viejo. Yo estoy usando el mismo CPU a 4.6 GHz con una 1080ti.
La única cosa que me dudar es la gran cantidad de pequeños archivos que el simulador tiene. ¿No es mejor tener un contenedor grande que albergue los archivos? como por ejemplo en Shadow of the Tomb Raider que usa archivos de 2GB.
Jennifer (or Ben) is there any facility, other than bug reporter, to ask for some features?
For example, if it is possible, your aircraft developers to leave some space on the panel texture, so the community to be able to add things, like that Avitab for example.
Also is it possible to add to the planemaker the ability to select a bounce of items (for example all the items that make a PFD) and scale them around their mean center? This will be very helpful for updating our planes to the newer 4K panel texture, without to have to move/scale/reposition hundreds of items, separately?
If we leave extra space in the panels, we increase the VRAM use for the default fleet for all users, regardless of whether the space is ever utilized.
I understand that, and your concerns about performance, but is it going to be so much of a problem if, for example, a panel texture goes from 1024×1024 to 2048×1024?
I’d also like to know what’s the best way to suggest a feature. I have one regarding the way some datarefs work, but not sure if it’s a matter to submit as a bug report.
Submit feature requests as bug reports. That way they will get entered into our issue tracking and not get lost in the shuffle.
Ilias, no estoy de acuerdo contigo. Usuarios de X Plane 11.35 con I7 8700K+RTX2080ti+1080p, a los cuales les he tenido que apuntar modificaciones en BIOS para que deje de ser tan inestables con la CPU, este software. También modificaciones en Panel de control NVIDIA… De todas formas han mejorado mucho el “stuttering” con la última beta6, aunque digan que no, están “trasteando” a ver cómo “encarrilar” la compilación en Vulkan, se nota.
Cracias por contestar. Un saludo… pero como en 2020, para mi PC no mejoren, abandono la simulación por ordenador. No pienso gastarme ni un céntimo más en componentes con compilaciones “chapuceras”. Disculpa y reitero las gracias por contestarme… Están aburriendo a muchos usuarios…
Pardon me Ilias, the opion is for Pablo Bressan…
@Fran Si una pc es inestable es porque no está correctamente configurado, excede potencia o temperatura de los componentes o simplemente mal overclocked/componentes fallados.
Y si no puedes esperar que quieres que te diga. Las cosas llegan a su tiempo.
Una cosa que no entiendo, ¿no estas de acuerdo que el i7 4790k es viejo? a mi me anda 35-40 fps, y no siento “stuttering”… más que feliz con mi viejo i7. Aún así se nota su edad 😀
Pablo, vuelve mi esperanza. Sin tocar nada, tal cual tengo todo configurado antes y después de 11.35r1, con esta última actualización 0 stuttering. O sea que, no soy yo ni mi PC, es Laminar Research mejorando el producto… Sigue sin utilizar, apenas, la GPU. O sea: VULKAN.
No aburro más con mis problemas. Agradecido por la publicación a Laminar Research y a Pablo Bressan por atenderme. Un saludo y felices vuelos
I don’t know if any specific change has been applied (nothing on release notes) but the amount of stuttering has significantly decreased. I can see some stutterings yet but nothing compared as it was on b5 for example.
I’m running an i7 6700k 16GB and 1060/6G.
Thanks