Nasty FPS drop and lagging on take-off and landing

I’ve got a RTX 3070 so roughly equivalent to a RTX 2080Ti. I’ve found to improve performance at airports lowering terrain and objects details the most effective whilst the keeping the other settings on high/ultra and all data on.

What the OP is describing and what I, and others have experienced is not a: “try lowering this setting…”, “adjust this parameter…”, “what airport and plane is doing it…?” “what card/CPU are you using…?”, etc. issue…

It is a very clearly repeatable bug introduced with WU6… I have adjusted setting by setting (in game, NVIDIA), flown half a dozen planes (3rd party and ASOBO), small airstrips with zero photogrammetry anywhere nearby, large airports outside Manhattan, emptied my community folder COMPLETELY… the issue is always exactly the same:

  • (Photogrammetry ON) Taxi from parking ramp, gate, whatever… “ok” FPS and smoothness, turn onto runway, large stutter and large drop in FPS for 2-3 seconds, then it stabilizes… speed up down the runway… .as speeds reach 60+kts, major freezing, major FPS drop (as if something in the game is jamming up), then the plane rises and the game and FPS stabilize at around 500-1000 feet and all is well again… reverse on the landings.

Turn off Photogrammetry and everything I described above is non-existent and everything is smooth and stable from DARK to SKY to DARK again…

I have been playing for 100s of hours and have NEVER touched Photogrammetry before… I always start cold and dark and end cold and dark… this issue was introduced the very FIRST flight after WU6.

It’s not a generalized issue that can be solved with a few lowered settings…

I apologize if I sound annoyed, but the last thread where this exact issue was described was completely diluted with generalized advise suggesting the OP lower this setting or that… and I fear this is what will happen again.

The issue is very cut and dry as I describe it above and I am sure the OP will agree.

16 Likes

Look here Stuttering problem - #25 by sodapop840 it not only PG, mesh also causes the issue

Absolutely spot on, SplitCurve. Thanks. You describe the symptoms I’m experiencing perfectly. As you say, it’s nothing to do with hardware, graphics settings etc. It seems to be a bug introduced either by SU5 or WU6… Everything works 100% if Photogrammetry is switched off. But losing Photogrammetry altogether seems a high price to pay for a workaround to eliminate freezes!

5 Likes

I agree! Photogrammetry is far from perfect, but it does give that sense of realism when flying over a city that the AI generated buildings can’t touch. Of course the illusion can quickly be shattered with in close flying, but it still beats the cardboard cut out buildings.

I have faith that Asobo will solve this issue in the next SU… I hope…

1 Like

I have never had a 3rd party mesh installed. The 3rd party mesh may be causing intermittent stutters and fps drops during flight and contributing to lower performance on the ground as well, but that is a different issue from this one.

Zendesk have just replied to my report on this bug. Their email contains only a standard list of advice: don’t overclock, empty the community folder etc. No sign of a recognition that this is a new bug following either SU5 or WU6 and which only affects performance when Photogrammetry is switched on. I think your optimism is going to be tested, SplitCurve!

1 Like

I had the same problem, but it fixed itself after I reinstalled Windows, which I did for other reasons, so for me there was apparently something wrong with my Windows, I first tried to install the game, but it did not help.

Hello!

I have an issue that i just cant solve since 2 - 3 months ago and consists in a tiny but not nice lag that happens exactly when the aircraft touchdown in the runway/grass. It doesnt matter the airplane, it can be the cessna 152, the FBW A320, the TBM 930, etc… but the lag always is there ALWAYS when the wheels touch the runway/grass.

I tied everything to fix.

Turning off photogrammetry it didnt help.
Flying without AI traffic didnt help.
Re-install the sim in a SSD disk didnt help.
Reducing the graphics settings didnt help.
Turn on cache mode didnt help.
Turn off cache mode didnt help.
Flying without ATC didnt help.
Delete all the content in my community folder didnt help.

The funny thing is that the lag only happens the first landing. If I take-off again and land again the touchdown lag dissapear until I close the sim and open it again making againa first flight with a touchdown lag.

Someone here is having the same touchdown lag issue?? is it the same as you have or its only me having such problem??

If someone knows how to fix it I will be soooooo thankful!! :pray:t3:

2 Likes

I have a system with 5900X, 32 GB 3600 MHz RAM, 3080ti, 1Gbps download speed, storing MFS on my 970 EVO Plus and using Ultra settings.

After takeoff, my FPS drops significantly from around 55 to 3 fps. CPU and GPU utilizations drop dramatically to around 10-15% as well. Could anyone help? Many thanks

You’re not the only one, DrInvisible5137.
I have exactly the same problem.
See also a post from SplitCurve49315 above (18 days ago).
In the short term, you’ll find the problem disappears if you turn Photogrammetry off in General Settings under Data.
In the longer term, however, that’s a high price to pay for basic stability in the sim.
The issue has not been solved by Sim Update 6.
It has been reported to Zendesk, but unfortunately has not formally been logged as a bug as far as I know.
Don’t be misled if well-meaning fellow-simmers tell you the problem lies with your settings or your hardware. It doesn’t. It’s most definitely a bug.
Let us know if you come across any further information.

6 Likes

I get this with PG on and flying low as well not just airports. I hope it gets logged in bugs soon.

This is definitely a bug. Same here. Exactly as described by many and not solved after SU6

1 Like

yup, my test has always been a traditionally tough area like london and new your. All the SUs up to 5 were fine, but there is a noticeable lag after this SU (6). I have the ORBX and SamScene add-ons. I have not seen any of them posting any updates. Hope someone in charge does something.

1 Like

I’m experiencing something pretty similar in NYC when taking off and landing in runway 13L, having Sam Scene’s NYC Times

1 Like

We are talking about a bug. Your issue is related to general performance. Totally unrelated to this topic.

No, mate. I bet it’s about the same bloody bug, the only different thing is that it’s also happening elsewhere.

2 Likes

Yes this happens everywhere, small airports, no airports, the only condition is close to the ground or on the ground. So when you are on the ground or below 300 feet with photogrammetry ON ANYWHERE even in areas without any photogrammetry, you get massive stutters below 10 fps, but when you turn the photogrammetry OFF even in heavy areas, add-on airports, New York, it is silky smooth on the ground and in the air?

Once I get in the air even over Manhattan, FPS go up even to 50 fps in mostly high and some ultra settings. But back in the ground, heavy stutters and FPS in low 20´s (the worst scenario landing and taking off from rwy 13L); even in Magsoft Studios’ MMJC Jorge Jimenez Cantu which is a really light GA airstrip near Mexico City, the sim struggles after WU6 and SU6. BTW, turning off photogrammetry doesn’t make any noticeable difference in my case. I’ve an Eluktronics Prometheus XVII with i7 10875h processor, RTX 3070 GPU running at 140w, 40 GB of Ram working at 3200 and a couple of NvM2e SSD’s which comprise a total of 3 TB.

1 Like

So i guess your complain is about general performance that always has been worse on the ground but not a photogrammetry- related bug. Without photogrammetry i get around 30 to 40 fps on the ground and over 60 in the air. That difference has always been there but with the performance uplift after SU5 the difference is not as annoying on top end rigs (3080 or 3080ti with latest CPU).

People who mention phptpgrammetry on/off bug can have less than 10fps on the ground even in the middle of nowhere and after turning off photpgrammetry immediately get over 60fps.