SmoothFlight

Since there seems to be some confusion here:    You still need Mobiflight installed for this to work.   

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And I have to say, I'm still bothered by the fact that this app has been reviewed almost a dozen times and it appears nobody has grasped the concept of how to set it up.   I don't know if the placebo effect is at work here, but I don't understand where the impressions are coming from if SmoothFlight is just sitting there doing nothing.

If you don't turn off ASW or FG or Motion Reprojection, then you don't have it set up right.  

Also, if the TLOD (Terrain) value never changes, then no, SmoothFlight is NOT making changes to your sim to help you out in troublesome areas. If the reported FPS never changes from 45FPS (such as when you have ASW enabled), then SmoothFlight will not know what your actual FPS is.  It will instead believe the number that ASW is reporting and make some really false assumptions about what the sim is doing.   So that's why FPS, and Terrain and Objects values are always visible even in mini-mode.    If those numbers aren't changing, then SmoothFlight isn't doing anything.  

...and finally...   Everybody who has reported that it eliminates stutters ( or complains that it doesn't eliminate stutters)... let me remind you that SmoothFlight never claimed to eliminate stuttering.   That's not its primary goal.    Stutters happen because of MANY factors.    All I'm claiming is that it lowers TLOD and OLOD when your frame rate drops.    Because lowering the graphics is less of an immersion-killer than trying to fly in low FPS.   And then when your frame rate goes back up, it raises the TLOD and OLOD settings back to where it looks nice.   

As a wonderful side-effect of how I make these changes, (and this is what makes SmoothFlight unique in its approach)  your video card and CPU will most likely end up with just a little bit more "headroom" than usual.  This extra 2% or 3% of breathing room will help mask the effects of minor stutters that happen due to circumstances beyond my control.... so that's where the extra "smoothness" comes from.   But it's a by-product, not a guarantee.  

But please understand that the inability of SmoothFlight to eliminate all stuttering does not mean that it's broken or malfunctioning.   It just means that it only has the ability to improve certain types of stutters... those caused by pushing your graphics card and CPU to the limit....

SmoothFlight now has a 3-color background at the FPS counter.   

If it's Red, then SmoothFlight will be lowering your graphic draw distance trying to get your FPS back up to the Target Range.   It won't, however, lower past the low limit you have set in the "Limits" section. 

If it's Blue, then you're within the target range and SmoothFlight will leave your sim alone.   If you see graphical artifacts while SF is showing Blue/inside the target range, those are not caused by me.   :)

If it's Green, then you're above the Target Range and SmoothFlight will turn UP your graphics draw distance.  But just like the lower settings, SmoothFlight will not increase your LODS past the maximum you have set.    

Does that make things clearer?

And if you're still unsure about the "best way to set it up"....   try this.    

1.  Set your FPS range so that you can easily hit the TOP number when flying in a easy-to-render area.   Now see that the low end of the Target Range is say... 5 or so FPS under that.    That gives you a nice FPS range to start.   That way, SmoothFlight will turn your Terrain LOD settings up where you want them and essentially leave you alone on a normal flight, as intended / designed.  You won't notice any difference between a nicely configured sim and running SmoothFlight in an unpopulated area... because there won't BE any.   It's supposed to leave your sim alone when things are going well, and only step in and save your session when it's not.   It's how it handles horrible FPS-killer situations that SmoothFlight shines.

2. Then go into the "Limits" section and set your upper limit for Terrain LOD to what you like to set your TLOD to when flying in that aforementioned "easy-to-render area".    This doesn't waste any horsepower on ultra-high LOD settings that you can't enjoy anyway.   So what happens when it hits that limit?  Where does the extra horsepower go?     More FPS.   As mentioned, none of these settings limit your FPS.  They're just thresholds to tell SmoothFlight when to help and when to get out of the way.

3. Set the lower LOD limits to 10 so that SmoothFlight can turn them down when you get into FPS trouble.   If you need to turn that up later because you just can't stand how bad the ground can look on setting 10, I'll understand.   But at least let SmoothFlight have some room to work before you nerf it.

4. Go fly.   Adjust as necessary, but just remember, SmoothFlight isn't a magic pill.  It's not going to give you power that your GPU and CPU don't have.     If your system can't hit 55 FPS on a clear day with a tailwind, don't demand that kind of performance.   Pick a reasonable value.

It does essentially 3 things, and understanding this will really help you if you can grasp the concept:

• 1. It leaves you alone when things are going well and you're flying in an easy-to-render area.  It will make sure your TLOD is up where you want it, so you don't have to keep fiddling with it.   

  2. Then, when you get close to a major metropolitan area or approach a thunderstorm with clouds on High, or join up with a large  multiplayer group, it turns down some graphical load when things are getting choppy.

  3.  And if there is a bit of magic going on, it's this:    SmoothFlight gives your CPU/GPU just a little bit of "headroom" so that normal stutters can be absorbed.   If your system is running at 100%, even micro-stutters are going to give you noticeable artifacts.   But when your system is running at 97%, it has a greater chance of absorbing these minor inconveniences without you seeing them.    And without you noticing how it's done.    This is the real power of SmoothFlight.

OH... one more thing:   SmoothFlight depends on your sim telling it how many FPS it's actually getting. It can't do that if the sim is lying to it.     So if you're using any kind of ASW, Frame Generation, Motion re-projection...half-framerate spoofing, it can't function properly.    If the sim always reports 45 FPS, it can't work right.    It will either keep turning your graphics down or up depending on where you set your thresholds.  So please, at the very least TRY it as designed before you give it an ill-informed review.

One more note about the "Smoothing" slider value.   That's not directly generating smoothness.  It's how many FPS readings are averaged together to give you your "current FPS" value.   If you've ever tried to watch the in-game FPS counter, it's all over the place.   This Smoothing value will take the last "x" seconds worth of FPS that the sim is reporting, and give you the average.  The reported FPS from the sim works best when at least 4 of them are averaged.  If that number is bouncing around, then SmoothFlight will end up making a lot of changes for no good reason.

Summary:  SmoothFlight is best suited for those who want to get rid of ASW for good and all the artifacts that are associated with that.    Don't be fooled by the numbers.   You don't need to hit 65 FPS to get a nice flying experience.   ... and you're not limited to only using half-framerate to get jitter free video.   You might be completely surprised at how smooth and fluid 42 FPS looks with no ASW.    Or even 38.   I sure was.   

If you would like me to walk you through getting it set up really slick on your computer, send email to "[So]me[whe]reEl[seSt]udio[@]gma[il.co]m"    Just remove the square brackets for a usable email address.  I'd like to show someone the real power of this tool, and then see what kind of a review you might make.