Config advice?

[Rob Sgambellone]

I am running FSX with Fspassenger on one PC, Activesky 2012 and wideFS on a seperate laptop, and Plan-g and Radar contact 4 with wideFS on another laptop. Everything works ok but I highly doubt I have them all configured/setup properly to make the most of them. I currently run radar contact on a high end laptop with plan g but I am think activesky needs more horsepower since it takes several minutes to install snapshots before flight. I see frequent "slow downs" with radar contact but I am not sure if that is a resource issue with laptop or a symptom of poor fsuipc configuration. I am not new to flying or computers. I am very new to flying at this level and trying make the many vendor products work seamlessly. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Rob

[Pete Dowson]

I am running FSX with Fspassenger on one PC, Activesky 2012 and wideFS on a seperate laptop, and Plan-g and Radar contact 4 with wideFS on another laptop. Everything works ok but I highly doubt I have them all configured/setup properly to make the most of them. I currently run radar contact on a high end laptop with plan g but I am think activesky needs more horsepower since it takes several minutes to install snapshots before flight. I see frequent "slow downs" with radar contact but I am not sure if that is a resource issue with laptop or a symptom of poor fsuipc configuration.

 

There's really no such thing as a "poor FSUIPC configuration" provided you don't mess with WideFS paramters. The main thing should be to keep the FS frame rates down to something which works smoothly for everything -- like 30 fps. 40fps is fine for a network of relatively unloaded PCs and Laprtops. Also try to avoid WiFi which is never so good for the sort of continuous exchanges in use here.

 

I'm not understanding what this "activesky snapshot" is. Are you changing the actual cloud graphics and so on on every load? I've only ever selected ones I like and leave them be. If you have programs messing with graphics I'd probably say run them on the same PC as FS. Also ActiveSky might be better on the FS PC in any case, especially if you keep FS off CPU Code 0 but using the AffinityMask. It isn't doing a lot all the time but when it does update the weather there's a lot of traffic.

 

Pete

[Rob Sgambellone]

Thanks for the reply.

 

I currently use WIFI for the 2 wideFS machines so I will wire them up and see what happens.

 

My comment about "poor FSUIPC configuration" is about the specific weather settings options I have been reading so much about.  I am not sure how to setup Active SKY and FSUIPC and RC4 together so everything is harmonious.  My concern is that I am having issues with RC4 becoming very slow to keyboard input or stops responding to input all together.  All the things I have read discuss slow downs with RC4 but from what I can tell they have been addressed with FSUIPC updates.  

 

The activeky snapshot thing happens when i enter the flight plan in AS2012.  It then inject graphic snapshots to make the route more realistic.  It running on a low end machine may be the cause of that slow down.

 

Thanks again for your time.

[Pete Dowson]

My comment about "poor FSUIPC configuration" is about the specific weather settings options I have been reading so much about.

 

There are virtually zero weather settings in FSUIPC for FSX when using ActiveSky which controls weather through Simconnect not through FSUIPC. Things like wind and pressure smoothing can be used as well as those in AS if you wish, but they have zero impact on performance.

 

My concern is that I am having issues with RC4 becoming very slow to keyboard input or stops responding to input all together.  All the things I have read discuss slow downs with RC4 but from what I can tell they have been addressed with FSUIPC updates.

 

That will be due to traffic on the connection and overloading on the RC PC. Move ActiveSky off the RC PC.

 

The activeky snapshot thing happens when i enter the flight plan in AS2012.  It then inject graphic snapshots to make the route more realistic.  It running on a low end machine may be the cause of that slow down.

 

Certainly it would if that happens whilst running RC. But surely RC isn't even started till after that?  A low end machine, Active Sky, RC and WiFI! Phew. Try hardwire connection first. Move AS second.

 

I've used AS for years and have never had any "snapshots" loading when giving it any plan. Is that an option? Mind you I rarely give it a full plan, only the destination.

 

Pete

[Rob Sgambellone]

Peter,

I guess I wasn't clear. I am running wideFS and activesky 2012 on one laptop and widefs and radar contact on another. The RC4 machine is an i7 with 8 gb ram. The activesky machine is an older intel duo machine with 3 gb ram.

I asked about the FSUIPC weather setting because I have seen numerous posts about setting weather parameters there for active sky and rc4. It has been very confusing to follow.

I will be purchasing a USB nic for for the rc4 machine and the activesky machine is now plugged directly.

Thank good for wideFS!!!

[Pete Dowson]

I guess I wasn't clear. I am running wideFS and activesky 2012 on one laptop and widefs and radar contact on another. The RC4 machine is an i7 with 8 gb ram. The activesky machine is an older intel duo machine with 3 gb ram.

 

Hmm. Well if the RC4 PC is hard wired on the Network I'm afraid I've no idea why it has problems, providing FSX's frame rate is regular.

 

I asked about the FSUIPC weather setting because I have seen numerous posts about setting weather parameters there for active sky and rc4. It has been very confusing to follow.

Hmm. I've not seen any of that. There's almost nothing to say about FSUIPC weather settings -- only whether you want its additional smoothing or not. I can't imagine what else there is to discuss. It isn't like FS9 where there a loads of effective FSUIPC weather settings and ActiveSky actually uses FSUIPC so they are all applicable!

 

Pete