I thought about saving the flight each time and starting from there instead of loading a new flight, but the few times I've been on a flight and had to stop for fuel (at a waypoint) things have gotten odd. For example, after taking off again the GPS wasn't tracking the path exactly like it usually does. It was about a third of a mile off to one side. The path went in the proper direction, but if I manually moved to the proper line, the autopilot would move it off again. I ignored it and eventually it looked like it was going to converge. Almost like they didn't figure in the great circle route after the landing at the waypoint, but calculated the route directly from the origin.

My best guess is, both the stutter and the compass being off may have the same cause: something isn't getting reset after you land. Or it is getting reset, but to the wrong values, such as your original departure airport way back when.

I wonder if the stutter is caused by the game running out of room to save data and having to delete some every few seconds. How big are your save files?

Let us know if hitting D fixed the bad compass.

Hook

Hitting D fixes the bad compass. Though it doesn't so much 'drift' as 'jerk'.
Definitely not running out of room for save files.

I've now discovered that a problem exists with the latest nVidia drivers 169.21 when nTune is installed, and I wonder whether other people experiencing stutter are have both these installed. I have uninstalled ntune and I intend to install 169.28beta drivers. The stutter hasn't returned in FSX and it still sits at 15-20fps consistently, but I started to get a lockup on reboot that is a documented symptom of this nVidia driver/nTune problem, and thankfully not due to heat damage as I first suspected. Uninstalling nTune solved the issue.

So after 3 days of mucking about with this damn stutter, having it go away on its own, and then discovering a more serious problem lurking in the video driver department, I'm categorically convinced that the stutter has been down to nVidia's 169.21 driver. Some googling around the various forums would seem to confirm this - a lot of people are suffering fps loss, anomalies, glitches and the lock up on reboot that happened to me with the 169.21 driver.

I've been trying saving the flights and restarting from the save file for a while. It doesn't seem to cause any problems.

But I did see something that reminded me of this thread. I was flying from Madrid to a small airfield north of Munich. When I got to Switzerland, the frame rates went totally to crap. I didn't have that problem in Italy or Spain, and I don't remember it in Austria when I was there earlier. I was flying a helicopter out of Innsbruck. No problems in Greece or Egypt either. I don't remember any problems in France.

Now, Europe in general is rough on frame rates. I suspect it has to do with the density of airports and navaids, at least that's what I attributed it to when I first flew into Germany from UK. Switzerland has the above problem, plus all the mountains. The game has to render that haze layer, and winding it through the mountains must take a lot of machine cycles. It's the sort of thing that would cause a drop in frame rate every few seconds as it rendered ahead. At least that's how I think they're doing it. The terrain seems to be rendered in large blocks, but stuff like clouds seems to be rendered in small pieces.

In addition, the whole way across Switzerland I was getting shuffled back and forth between ATC frequencies. I'd get either 10 or 20 seconds from the time the ATC gave the barometric pressure to the time I was handed off to someone else. The longest I spent on one frequency was about 1.5 minutes. There were a few AI planes in the area, and the ATC was probably exercising them as well.

Add to that the changing winds and the icing conditions, and it didn't leave time for sightseeing. It barely left time to check the frame rate counter. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience.

This must be why Switzerland was never invaded. Lousy framerates, strong winds blowing from all over the compass, icing conditions, and the invaders would be exhausted from switching radio frequencies constantly.

That, and all those mountains.

I flew north across Germany. Still lower than normal frame rates, but better, and no constant harassment from the ATC. After leaving Amsterdam flying towards Copenhagen, the frame rates got back to the normal 20 range.

Anyone else have problems with Switzerland or Europe?

Hook

/wipes coffee off keyboard





I often fly around in the mountainous regions of southern Germany, Switzerland or Austria. Never had problems with FPS and/or stutters.

Absolutely brilliant post Larry.



"I hate Switzerland, the frame rates suck"