X Plane 11

[Gortron]

First things first… OMG it is amazing. Secondly it runs like an absolute sack of spanners on my PC. Having looked into how poorly it performs it seems down to a lack of multi-thread/core optimisation. This seems to tally with what task manager says on my PC; GPU at 30% load, CPU load ~90 - 100%, FPS never more 45 even at minimum settings and my GPU basically doing nothing. Since I’m on an old fashioned 4 core 4 thread CPU running flat out, I can’t tell if it is lack of overall power or poor optimisation (draw calls running on a single thread). Would more cores help or higher clock speeds?
I’ve been in a similar situation with ED as some will probably remember (I’m in the CPU matters more in VR than normal camp); the difference here is how little my GPU is doing and how much my CPU is doing.

TorTorden you are my best hope here  5Ghz i7 8700K or a Ryzen 2700X at normal speed….

Sadly I’m losing interest in Elite as many people here seem to be (activity in the VR section is dwindling). Still… hopefully FDEV steer the ship back in the right direction soon. In the mean-time I’m going to use the wonder of VR to learn how to fly without spending £150 an hour!!

 

[dogbite]

In terms of VR my I5 does just find as the 1080ti pulls the load. With flightsims a large amount of math is handled by the cpu and an I7 has the advantage. Most of the performance gain is due to the higher clock. DCS tests have also indicated an up to 8% increased with DDR4 ram over DDR3.
I don't fly Xplane 11 (almost everything else though) but have tried it. My guess is the 8700K would win handsomely. I imagine their are plenty on the Xplane forums who know for sure.

An exception to the rule is Aerofly FS2. Because it is VR from the ground up the gpu is far more involved. In VR it is quite smooth even in downtown NY with all the buildings cranked. Too bad as a sim it's light on content and very much a WIP.

 

[Gortron]

In terms of VR my I5 does just find as the 1080ti pulls the load. With flightsims a large amount of math is handled by the cpu and an I7 has the advantage. Most of the performance gain is due to the higher clock. DCS tests have also indicated an up to 8% increased with DDR4 ram over DDR3.
I don't fly Xplane 11 (almost everything else though) but have tried it. My guess is the 8700K would win handsomely. I imagine their are plenty on the Xplane forums who know for sure.

An exception to the rule is Aerofly FS2. Because it is VR from the ground up the gpu is far more involved. In VR it is quite smooth even in downtown NY with all the buildings cranked. Too bad as a sim it's light on content and very much a WIP.

Thanks for your reply dogbite.

It really is rather strange what is happening and I think I'll have to join the x-plane forums to dig deeper. I've got a GTX 1080 and an i5 4670K @4.29 GHZ with 16GB of DDR3, so although dated in some areas it is still no slouch. It is the lack of GPU use that I can't fathom. The more graphics features I turn on the worse performance gets but the GPU load always stays at around 30%. For example I used the Oculus debug tool to increase HMD quality to x1.3 (why not my GPU is doing nothing!) yet frame rates dropped even lower and GPU usage stayed around the 30% mark. It makes no sense to me, how would (effectively) increasing resolution result in lower frame rates when the GPU has so much headroom. :S

I agreed about Aerofly FS2, it runs soother than a Kashmir codpiece . In fact that is why I was so surprised by how terribly X-plane 11 runs. But like you say it is light on content and the flight model feel a bit less convincing..... WIP indeed.

 

[VR_Yata_PL]

Thanks for your reply dogbite.

It really is rather strange what is happening and I think I'll have to join the x-plane forums to dig deeper. I've got a GTX 1080 and an i5 4670K @4.29 GHZ with 16GB of DDR3, so although dated in some areas it is still no slouch. It is the lack of GPU use that I can't fathom. The more graphics features I turn on the worse performance gets but the GPU load always stays at around 30%. For example I used the Oculus debug tool to increase HMD quality to x1.3 (why not my GPU is doing nothing!) yet frame rates dropped even lower and GPU usage stayed around the 30% mark. It makes no sense to me, how would (effectively) increasing resolution result in lower frame rates when the GPU has so much headroom. :S

I agreed about Aerofly FS2, it runs soother than a Kashmir codpiece . In fact that is why I was so surprised by how terribly X-plane 11 runs. But like you say it is light on content and the flight model feel a bit less convincing..... WIP indeed.

here is some nice optimization tweaks : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOmp9u9s0Ds&t=228s

thouse 2 plugins are the most important to keep proper FPS in VR
3jFPS-wizard Plugin for X-Plane 11 (New Link, updated version - thanks to the plugin developer Jörn-Jören)
https://goo.gl/xAgwb3

FlyWithLua Complete Edition for X-Plane 11:
https://goo.gl/Y5UECm

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Have you guys tried kerbal space program in vr?

 

[Hooplah]

The OP may already know this still...

Here is the largest active forum supporting X-Plane: forums.x-plane.org
Here is the VR subforum: VR in X-Plane 11

Here is the Clayviation flight instruction series using the realistic Airfoilabs Cessna 172SP Skyhawk in X-Plane 11.
Mastering these videos will quickly bring an aspiring pilot up to speed on general aviation aircraft flight in X-Plane.

Here are some of the controllers with many also used by ED: MyPilotStore

Beware the impulsive buyer as one can spend literally thousands enjoying flight in X-Plane with scenery and aircraft
editions as well as controllers, avionics and subscriptions to real aviation support sites (maps etc). In comparison the
cost of ED is a drop in the bucket!

Regards

 

[Hooplah]

What's more expensive X-Plane or a Boat?
[big grin]

LOL, well there are also Sailaway and Ship Simulator. Add VR and in a few years a room with 3-D Holographics and real life may no longer exist for some. I know a few who have already disappeared. Is that a live player you met in ED or is it really 'Siri"?

 

[Gortron]

The OP may already know this still...

Here is the largest active forum supporting X-Plane: forums.x-plane.org
Here is the VR subforum: VR in X-Plane 11

Here is the Clayviation flight instruction series using the realistic Airfoilabs Cessna 172SP Skyhawk in X-Plane 11.
Mastering these videos will quickly bring an aspiring pilot up to speed on general aviation aircraft flight in X-Plane.

Here are some of the controllers with many also used by ED: MyPilotStore

Beware the impulsive buyer as one can spend literally thousands enjoying flight in X-Plane with scenery and aircraft
editions as well as controllers, avionics and subscriptions to real aviation support sites (maps etc). In comparison the
cost of ED is a drop in the bucket!

Regards

Thanks!

I can easily believe that. It is taking all my will power not to buy this and as you suggest that is just the start of it.

What's more expensive X-Plane or a Boat?
[big grin]

Interesting comment, since I happen to love boats and have owned a few

 

[DaggerSnake]

I'm hoping to pick X-PLane 11 up during the next Steam sale. I saw that it has touch controls to it. Do that mean you can actualy switch switches and push buttons? How does that feel?

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I have barely tried the x-plane demo recently.

And not only is it a sack of spanners with gravel in the bag performance wise.
I am also utterly unable to get a control interface working except for the touch controllers.

And since I just got a virpil t-50 mongoose to upgrade my ch-fighterstick, well those God awful touch interface, which I'm sure seems neat on paper, but is in practice as successful as holding a sign language seminar for blind people. Not very successful.

Yes you can click buttons in the cockpit but actual flight controls are either wonky as hell, utterly uncontrollable.

Different issue with DCS 2.5 as well, which seems to want bind every control device i have to every axis avaiable.
Hard to do pitch/roll manouver when your stick is being overridden by both your pedals and your racing wheel..

In short I'm more focused with these titles to first fix the control inputs and incessant crashing than I'm at fine tuning graphics

I suspect I would be more interested in DCS, particularly the helicopters.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Performance of the X-Plane series is very random, which I put down to their insistence on using OpenGL; their developer blog used to have frequent brags about how they managed to work around yet another random performance issue that spontaneously cropped up in some driver (OGL is famous for having no performance guarantees anywhere in the mismatched mire of a "standard"), and they're completely disinterested in even having the thing go above 20FPS on AMD hardware. If you happen to find a working combination of nvidia hardware and drivers, don't dare changing that.

There's talk of maybe eventually trying Vulkan, until they're doing that or any other contemporary graphics API that's not spending 95% of its life blocking on some esoteric memory copy operation, I'm just regarding it as a lost cause.

 

[Gortron]

I'm hoping to pick X-PLane 11 up during the next Steam sale. I saw that it has touch controls to it. Do that mean you can actualy switch switches and push buttons? How does that feel?

You can use the touch controllers but I've not really tried that yet (except to confirm it is a thing because my touch controller go close enough by mistake that is sort of paired with the flight yoke). I will give it a proper try and let you know but I use an X52 normally. I can't see touch controllers working out well if I'm honest.. will give it a try though.

 

[Gortron]

I have barely tried the x-plane demo recently.

And not only is it a sack of spanners with gravel in the bag performance wise.
I am also utterly unable to get a control interface working except for the touch controllers.

And since I just got a virpil t-50 mongoose to upgrade my ch-fighterstick, well those God awful touch interface, which I'm sure seems neat on paper, but is in practice as successful as holding a sign language seminar for blind people. Not very successful.

Yes you can click buttons in the cockpit but actual flight controls are either wonky as hell, utterly uncontrollable.

Different issue with DCS 2.5 as well, which seems to want bind every control device i have to every axis avaiable.
Hard to do pitch/roll manouver when your stick is being overridden by both your pedals and your racing wheel..

In short I'm more focused with these titles to first fix the control inputs and incessant crashing than I'm at fine tuning graphics

I suspect I would be more interested in DCS, particularly the helicopters.

I think you will find the control interface thing is much better now from what I have read. My X52 is fully supported and you can even see a picture of it when configuring the controls and what buttons relate to.


It transpires that the reason XP11 runs so badly is that it is using open GL but they are switching to Vulcan and by the end of the year (or soon there after) it looks like X Plane will be utterly brilliant.


Apart from the FPS in X plane being so bad, it is a really good flight sim. Aerofly looks fantastic but is not as good a sim. We are all in for some exciting stuff I reckon but we are the enthusiasts. I gave up on DCS because of how horribly it runs and the free to play spend £50+ on a plane model. It has my favorite aircraft ever and I can get to fly it though!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCJgNDsfpKc

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Well my experiences are from about four weeks ago.

But it wasn't as much as not supported, it was more like the vr touch controllers seemed to supersede input or they simply wasn't bound right.

Considering my personal preferences I'll probably spend more effort getting DCS off the ground.

I like at least some modicum of explosions

 

[Toumal]

Performance of the X-Plane series is very random, which I put down to their insistence on using OpenGL;

OpenGL works just fine. There's just a lot going on in x-plane. And some of their loading can bog down the system during flight.

 

[Gortron]

OpenGL works just fine. There's just a lot going on in x-plane. And some of their loading can bog down the system during flight.

Open GL doesn't work fine in VR is seems

 

[Gortron]

Well my experiences are from about four weeks ago.

But it wasn't as much as not supported, it was more like the vr touch controllers seemed to supersede input or they simply wasn't bound right.

Considering my personal preferences I'll probably spend more effort getting DCS off the ground.

I like at least some modicum of explosions

Fair enough mate

 

[Ocorian]

An exception to the rule is Aerofly FS2. Because it is VR from the ground up the gpu is far more involved. In VR it is quite smooth even in downtown NY with all the buildings cranked. Too bad as a sim it's light on content and very much a WIP.

Very light on content, FS2 doesn't even model fuel mixture or fuel consumption, so the flight model is very questionable. It's definitely an arcade game and a poor simulator, but the graphics do show what might be possible in the future.

 

[dogbite]

Apart from the FPS in X plane being so bad, it is a really good flight sim. Aerofly looks fantastic but is not as good a sim. We are all in for some exciting stuff I reckon but we are the enthusiasts. I gave up on DCS because of how horribly it runs and the free to play spend £50+ on a plane model. It has my favorite aircraft ever and I can get to fly it though!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCJgNDsfpKc

Aerofly is still a beta and admittedly not nearly as developed in flight model yet (kinda of vanilla FSX at best in some aircraft). It is VR from the ground up though and the devs seem quite involved in growing it. We shall see. It did make Bronze in Steam's Top Seller VR list so they are incentivized.
Xplane's VR is early and needs lots of work. I also don't like the messy setting menus. It is a serious civilian simulator for sure though.
DCS is hindered somewhat by the age of it's engine but most of the aircraft have professional flight models. The PFMs are tested by real world pilots. In fact when Eagle Dynamics first created a P51 in a sim that had only modern aircraft at the time, they were asked why. They said because we own a P51 and wanted to see how close we could get. It became the standard for their PFMs. Most of their birds are "study sims" and everything not classified works and is as it actually is in the real aircraft. The helicopters (my faves) are awesome to fly in VR. Your video is ironic as DCS has a Harrier study sim. I fly for the love of flying more than combat so I don't suffer any problems in DCS as I don't usually have a lot of other aircraft in the scene to deal with. GPUs haven't been as important as CPUs in it but the 1080ti did offer a nice bump for me in DCS as did DDR4. I would see a moderate increase if I put in an 8700 cpu mostly from higher clock but can't justify that build when everything else I run is fine.
When I do get the urge to dogfight, it is usually in IL2 BOS in a FW190 or such. I like old fashion air combat as it's more up close and personal. The best in VR for me will be when WW1 is added to the IL2 engine (it's coming). 1C having merge with 777 Studios is finally going to give us the rebirth of Rise of Flight era planes and that in VR will be sublime. Can't wait.

 

[Gortron]

Very light on content, FS2 doesn't even model fuel mixture or fuel consumption, so the flight model is very questionable. It's definitely an arcade game and a poor simulator, but the graphics do show what might be possible in the future.

I think calling Aerofly FS2 an arcade game is a bit strong. Fair enough it isn't a full on simulator to the point where you need to worry about throttle mixtures and such yet but it is no Afterburner VR either. It seems to me to be an early access full on flight sim that is built for VR from the ground up as apposed to a flight sim with VR bolted on afterwards as Dogbite said.