RX 480 installed as I type this... the standard MSI version that I ordered weeks ago finally arrived, Amazon would not let me cancel it. I only ordered it because for a few minutes the price dropped to less than $240 on Amazon Prime day...
So, yea... both W9100 cards will be going up on ebay as soon as I verify that I can get at least 8 monitors working with 1, or 2 if I have too, RX 480 cards. The modified cards only have 2 display ports, so I may be sticking with this one. Fan is no louder than the FirePro was... about the same amount of heat, for the little time I have had it running.
I can get it to almost hold 60FPS on all 8 instances of LFS on Rocking, it drops a little bit in the 180 curves when you can see cars on the other side of the 180. But not much...
I am still getting stuttering though... I suspect it is due to Windows Focus boost and/or the new-ish frame rate code in LFS. If I keep them all limited to 60FPS the stuttering is minimal though.
Even Google Sketchup is faster, with a complex model and shadows on. I think I may actually be able to leave shadows ON while I edit. I do not do enough complex rendering to warrant keeping a pair of $3000-$4000 graphics cards that only work when doing that.
So, yea... both W9100 cards will be going up on ebay as soon as I verify that I can get at least 8 monitors working with 1, or 2 if I have too, RX 480 cards. The modified cards only have 2 display ports, so I may be sticking with this one. Fan is no louder than the FirePro was... about the same amount of heat, for the little time I have had it running.
I can get it to almost hold 60FPS on all 8 instances of LFS on Rocking, it drops a little bit in the 180 curves when you can see cars on the other side of the 180. But not much...
I am still getting stuttering though... I suspect it is due to Windows Focus boost and/or the new-ish frame rate code in LFS. If I keep them all limited to 60FPS the stuttering is minimal though.
Even Google Sketchup is faster, with a complex model and shadows on. I think I may actually be able to leave shadows ON while I edit. I do not do enough complex rendering to warrant keeping a pair of $3000-$4000 graphics cards that only work when doing that.
Card looks decent, but not available yet.
Like which card? all the 480's seem the same to me... I would like to have a remote fan/water sink like the pro duo.
Thanks,
Is LFS itself reporting 60 FPS?
When I test it I have to have them all open on screen while in cockpit view because it takes a few FPS more. I tile or spread them across monitor in order to see the proper FPS from LFS itself at the same time. All while none of the LFS windows have window focus, because the active instance, gets a big boost, while it pulls the others down.
Still waiting on RX 480 order, I better get a revised card after waiting this long.
Is LFS itself reporting 60 FPS?
When I test it I have to have them all open on screen while in cockpit view because it takes a few FPS more. I tile or spread them across monitor in order to see the proper FPS from LFS itself at the same time. All while none of the LFS windows have window focus, because the active instance, gets a big boost, while it pulls the others down.
Still waiting on RX 480 order, I better get a revised card after waiting this long.
And it actually does better with only 1 card enabled.
I tried to run Race Room with the two cards linked together, and as the menu and simulator ran, it kept going forward and backward... like it was redoing everything a second time. It was unplayable...
I disabled one of them, and it ran just fine.
LFS feels a LOT better then RaceRoom.
I tried to run Race Room with the two cards linked together, and as the menu and simulator ran, it kept going forward and backward... like it was redoing everything a second time. It was unplayable...
I disabled one of them, and it ran just fine.
LFS feels a LOT better then RaceRoom.
Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, .
Just redid the test again... it runs just fine.
I just ran the test for comparison.
As I said, the firepro was a mistake.
When I started this, no one had made a single machine that would run 8 to 12 players before, so mistakes where expected.
I thought I was erring on the side of caution by getting the extra gpu and ram for each instance of LFS. I thought it would run better if each monitor had its own display port from the graphics card, instead of using an MST hub. I did not think the difference between cad card and game card would be that bad, and I wanted a card for CAD so I bought one while they were on sale.
I may still keep one for doing CAD since I've been intending to install Maya.
I am in a similar boat with the Opteron Processors/Server Motherboard, however, every time I price separate PC's it winds up costing me more in cash, or power. However I do not know just how small I can go with separate PC's and the small ones are getting more powerful, eventually, if not already, LFS will be running well on a HDMI PC stick...
The setup I am using now, with the server, 8 monitors, 8 G29 wheels, is still under 15Amps, but not by much. which is the limit of most standard outlets that I may be given for power at most venue locations. If I split up the server into separate computers with their own power supplies, I believe it will put me far above 15Amps.
Nacim, can you run LFS 8 to 10 times on he RX 480, each running on blackwood with 10 AI? They can all be over lapped on the same monitor, as the frame rate does not change much when moved to separate monitors.
As I said, the firepro was a mistake.
When I started this, no one had made a single machine that would run 8 to 12 players before, so mistakes where expected.
I thought I was erring on the side of caution by getting the extra gpu and ram for each instance of LFS. I thought it would run better if each monitor had its own display port from the graphics card, instead of using an MST hub. I did not think the difference between cad card and game card would be that bad, and I wanted a card for CAD so I bought one while they were on sale.
I may still keep one for doing CAD since I've been intending to install Maya.
I am in a similar boat with the Opteron Processors/Server Motherboard, however, every time I price separate PC's it winds up costing me more in cash, or power. However I do not know just how small I can go with separate PC's and the small ones are getting more powerful, eventually, if not already, LFS will be running well on a HDMI PC stick...
The setup I am using now, with the server, 8 monitors, 8 G29 wheels, is still under 15Amps, but not by much. which is the limit of most standard outlets that I may be given for power at most venue locations. If I split up the server into separate computers with their own power supplies, I believe it will put me far above 15Amps.
Nacim, can you run LFS 8 to 10 times on he RX 480, each running on blackwood with 10 AI? They can all be over lapped on the same monitor, as the frame rate does not change much when moved to separate monitors.
For the time being I am not really in the mood to mess with *nix OS.
I just bought a RX 480 card. If this $240 card gives better frame rates then the $6,000 worth of firepro cards I have, then it is time to put the fire pro's on ebay, and go with non-workstation cards.
While Cross linked the two FirePro W9100 cards, are in the mid to high yellow on the Steam Vive VR Ready Test.
I just bought a RX 480 card. If this $240 card gives better frame rates then the $6,000 worth of firepro cards I have, then it is time to put the fire pro's on ebay, and go with non-workstation cards.
While Cross linked the two FirePro W9100 cards, are in the mid to high yellow on the Steam Vive VR Ready Test.
I had VMware working when I first started, however LFS was upgraded, and the new graphics code did not work properly in VM Ware.
I just tried running it with the 2 cards crossfire linked, the performance was no better... only change was less display ports.
I think my biggest issue is using workstation graphics cards...
I wonder if 2 or 3 of these would work better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH4BY6751&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC-_-pla-_-Video+Cards+-+AMD%2FATI-_-9SIA1UH4BY6751&gclid=CN7Ourfu7s0CFQqoaQodDy8FKA&gclsrc=aw.ds
If Only I could get AMD to trade my two $3000 W9100 cards for three of those... and let me test it out see if it is any better.
I just tried running it with the 2 cards crossfire linked, the performance was no better... only change was less display ports.
I think my biggest issue is using workstation graphics cards...
I wonder if 2 or 3 of these would work better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH4BY6751&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC-_-pla-_-Video+Cards+-+AMD%2FATI-_-9SIA1UH4BY6751&gclid=CN7Ourfu7s0CFQqoaQodDy8FKA&gclsrc=aw.ds
If Only I could get AMD to trade my two $3000 W9100 cards for three of those... and let me test it out see if it is any better.
This is not due to the car's location on the track, all the cars were AI driving together in a multiplayer game anyway. I've done MANY tests, and I am SURE it is not that. In most of my tests, I put the view from cars further back in the line, so it works harder to render more cars up front, to get a worse case scenario.
Windows 10, runs the window with focus faster. I can get them all running unlimited at about 20-30 frames, but if I click on one of the LFS windows, it jumps to 120-200 fps. And the others drop to 15-25 fps.
Right now the only solution is to limit them all to 30FPS, so the one with focus does not take over. I tried 50FPS, which almost works, wish I could set it to 40FPS.
I've no idea how to allocate graphics card resources...
Not available on the stuff I am using.
Fire Pro (which is part of my problem)
I do know that only about 10-20% of the Total CPU is being used.
This whole thing is compounded by another problem I have.
I have 2 graphics cards, each with 6 Mini Display ports, so a total of 12.
In my last test, I had 6 monitors plugged into one card, and a 7th plugged into the other card on its own. The LFS window running on the 7th lone monitor, always ran at a MUCH lower FPS, like 10-25FPS, when the others are running 30-100FPS. Even if I swapped and moved a different LFS window to that monitor.
Any ideas as to why that is?!
They are NOT crossfire linked, because that will disable half of my display ports.
If this keeps up I may need to give up on the single server idea, and go with separate NUC computers. And that will just cause electric power demand issues.
Windows 10, runs the window with focus faster. I can get them all running unlimited at about 20-30 frames, but if I click on one of the LFS windows, it jumps to 120-200 fps. And the others drop to 15-25 fps.
Right now the only solution is to limit them all to 30FPS, so the one with focus does not take over. I tried 50FPS, which almost works, wish I could set it to 40FPS.
I've no idea how to allocate graphics card resources...
Not available on the stuff I am using.
Fire Pro (which is part of my problem)
I do know that only about 10-20% of the Total CPU is being used.
This whole thing is compounded by another problem I have.
I have 2 graphics cards, each with 6 Mini Display ports, so a total of 12.
In my last test, I had 6 monitors plugged into one card, and a 7th plugged into the other card on its own. The LFS window running on the 7th lone monitor, always ran at a MUCH lower FPS, like 10-25FPS, when the others are running 30-100FPS. Even if I swapped and moved a different LFS window to that monitor.
Any ideas as to why that is?!
They are NOT crossfire linked, because that will disable half of my display ports.
If this keeps up I may need to give up on the single server idea, and go with separate NUC computers. And that will just cause electric power demand issues.
Changing affinity does not seem to do much, if anything for LFS.
Changing the Win 10 system to run background programs at equal speed does not improve things either.
I can currently get about 8 LFS running at about 30 FSP. But it drops to 20 or less every once in a while. I have to limit the FPS to 30 to do this, or some windows will pull frames away from the others.
If I click on one of the LFS windows, to give it focus, the LFS window with focus jumps up to like 100 FPS (if I do not have it limited to 30).
Is there a way to prevent LFS from slowing down when it does not have focus? I believe this is why it is jerky. The other windows are not running as a background window.
I have so far only been able to run in full-screen-windowed mode.
I cannot run LFS in true full screen mode, because it locks the mouse to the monitor with focus in this mode, and ALT TAB is required to change between windows... which minimizes the other LFS windows, so I cannot get more than 1 visible.
Changing the Win 10 system to run background programs at equal speed does not improve things either.
I can currently get about 8 LFS running at about 30 FSP. But it drops to 20 or less every once in a while. I have to limit the FPS to 30 to do this, or some windows will pull frames away from the others.
If I click on one of the LFS windows, to give it focus, the LFS window with focus jumps up to like 100 FPS (if I do not have it limited to 30).
Is there a way to prevent LFS from slowing down when it does not have focus? I believe this is why it is jerky. The other windows are not running as a background window.
I have so far only been able to run in full-screen-windowed mode.
I cannot run LFS in true full screen mode, because it locks the mouse to the monitor with focus in this mode, and ALT TAB is required to change between windows... which minimizes the other LFS windows, so I cannot get more than 1 visible.
I did it via windows, when I had win server 2012 r2 installed, and it was a royal pain in the rear. It did not seem to have any effect, all it really did was slow it down.
Will try it again soon, now that Win 10 is installed.
Will try it again soon, now that Win 10 is installed.
This is a horrible video... but you can see that it works.
And I waste a lot of time trying to find the mouse on one of the screens, since it was a fresh install Shift Z setting was not saved before I opened all the windows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIijzMiisZA
There is no-need to turn up the volume to hear me mumble, I never said anything important. lol
I also just renewed my Commercial LFS License and Upgraded to S3.
I converted the server to Windows 10, Because Graphics Drivers are better supported on the Fire Pro and FreeSync.
And I waste a lot of time trying to find the mouse on one of the screens, since it was a fresh install Shift Z setting was not saved before I opened all the windows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIijzMiisZA
There is no-need to turn up the volume to hear me mumble, I never said anything important. lol
I also just renewed my Commercial LFS License and Upgraded to S3.
I converted the server to Windows 10, Because Graphics Drivers are better supported on the Fire Pro and FreeSync.
G27 is out of production, instead look for G29(PS4) or G920(Xbox).
Scawen,
Is it possible to put a "test" button next to the controller selection, that makes the wheel wiggle? Or have it wiggle a little when it is selected.
This is not that important, so do not waste time on it, unless it is an easy line of code.
It will help when going through to setup 8 to 12 wheels.
This way if I click on a wheel that is setup in front of monitor 4, and the wheel on monitor 8 wiggles, I know I picked the wrong one, without having to turn the wheel back and forth and see if it is making the wheel on monitor 4 turn.
Maybe it already does this and I did not notice??! I took my server apart so I cannot test right now, I am shoe horning it into a computer case half as big, and much lighter.
Is it possible to put a "test" button next to the controller selection, that makes the wheel wiggle? Or have it wiggle a little when it is selected.
This is not that important, so do not waste time on it, unless it is an easy line of code.
It will help when going through to setup 8 to 12 wheels.
This way if I click on a wheel that is setup in front of monitor 4, and the wheel on monitor 8 wiggles, I know I picked the wrong one, without having to turn the wheel back and forth and see if it is making the wheel on monitor 4 turn.
Maybe it already does this and I did not notice??! I took my server apart so I cannot test right now, I am shoe horning it into a computer case half as big, and much lighter.
Thanks, I forgot about that button.
I thought there was a key, other then N, I used to mess with mouse cursor back when I used mouse control... wow that was over a decade ago
And it stays ON!!
I thought there was a key, other then N, I used to mess with mouse cursor back when I used mouse control... wow that was over a decade ago
And it stays ON!!
N also makes the mouse cursor visible/invisible... at least it has for almost as long as I've played LFS. You have to press it a few times...
Open more than one LFS window, with car running... and try to move the mouse back and forth between them, you will see what I mean, the mouse is invisible when "racing". It is only visible while toggling N in some cases, and when the menus are visible.
Open more than one LFS window, with car running... and try to move the mouse back and forth between them, you will see what I mean, the mouse is invisible when "racing". It is only visible while toggling N in some cases, and when the menus are visible.
All is working good so far...
I even managed to get the frame rate up a bit while having more than 10 LFS windows each running one or two AI cars, by messing with the LFS settings. I had to turn some things down to keep it between 40-75fps on every LFS window. The next test will be with each LFS on its own monitor, and not tiny windows scattered on one monitor.
It is definitely NOT smooth... I can still see ghosting and jerky frames even when it says 75fps. I need to try running a version of LFS before the frame rate update, because I think it use to run better for me before the update.
One more LFS fix I may need, is a way to keep the mouse cursor VISIBLE on all screens, without having to press N on each window, each time the race restarts. Otherwise it is difficult to know where it is, on 10+ monitors.
Also on 21:9 monitors the status displays that are usually in the corners of 1080 screens, are more in the center of the monitor, maybe in the future they could be moved along the edges in 21:9 resolutions.
2056x1080 and 3440x1440. This may effect the external views being 1080 with black boarders though.
I even managed to get the frame rate up a bit while having more than 10 LFS windows each running one or two AI cars, by messing with the LFS settings. I had to turn some things down to keep it between 40-75fps on every LFS window. The next test will be with each LFS on its own monitor, and not tiny windows scattered on one monitor.
It is definitely NOT smooth... I can still see ghosting and jerky frames even when it says 75fps. I need to try running a version of LFS before the frame rate update, because I think it use to run better for me before the update.
One more LFS fix I may need, is a way to keep the mouse cursor VISIBLE on all screens, without having to press N on each window, each time the race restarts. Otherwise it is difficult to know where it is, on 10+ monitors.
Also on 21:9 monitors the status displays that are usually in the corners of 1080 screens, are more in the center of the monitor, maybe in the future they could be moved along the edges in 21:9 resolutions.
2056x1080 and 3440x1440. This may effect the external views being 1080 with black boarders though.
Hmm loaded game again, now 895 seems better, so I just put it back to 900.
I noticed with more than one LFS open, the car reset, re-centering only works on one of the screens... testing it a few more times, to make sure it wasn't something I did.
EDIT: Not sure why it did it, as it is working ok now...
Yep, I think I am good as far as running multi LFS on one system...
I noticed with more than one LFS open, the car reset, re-centering only works on one of the screens... testing it a few more times, to make sure it wasn't something I did.
EDIT: Not sure why it did it, as it is working ok now...
Yep, I think I am good as far as running multi LFS on one system...
Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, .
Ok, I use to think it was an option to narrow your wheel lock if you wanted too. And let the FF stop the wheel from going past the set point.
I never messed with it much.I was curious, because setting it to about 850 on a Logitech G29 seems to match up really close to actual wheel position. Not sure if this is the case on all G29 (will check when I get more than 2 of them)
On CAR RESET, is the wheel suppose to go back to straight up?
It goes to about 45 degrees from straight up, on G29. Which is perfectly fine, and it does not really need to go back to 0. Just pointing it out in case it was meant to.
Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, .
Walk Mode in sim mode for vintage Lemans race start?
With the wheel angle that is defaulted to 900 degrees, if I make this smaller, should it not decrease the travel on the wheel? It seems to actually increase it. (Logitech G29, LFSP2)
Maybe I understand its purpose wrong, but just reducing it to 800-something, the wheel can travel at full limit, but at the default 900 it will not go all the way to the limit.
With the wheel angle that is defaulted to 900 degrees, if I make this smaller, should it not decrease the travel on the wheel? It seems to actually increase it. (Logitech G29, LFSP2)
Maybe I understand its purpose wrong, but just reducing it to 800-something, the wheel can travel at full limit, but at the default 900 it will not go all the way to the limit.
Working Great!
Still testing...
I still need to order more monitors, wheels, and headphones to really test the server in use, I am worried it is not powerful enough to do this. Sometimes when I run 8 to 12 LFS windows, it drops to 10fps, other times it stays over 75fps. This is likely due to using a workstation graphics card instead of gaming card, but when running LFS, it does not seem to allocate the load to the cpu cores as I expected, it seems the first LFS window tries to run spread out on a handful of cores, then the next few LFS windows try to run on the same cores... until they are maxed out then it starts using more cores.
Is anyone else able to test about 10-12 LFS windows?
Running with about 12 AI cars? (1 for every window open)
How well does your computer do?
I've nothing to compare mine too... for all I know its actually doing better then faster Xeons.... maybe per dollar?
I think I had more than 32 LFS windows open, and it was still not using all 32 cores, but they were all running at about 10 fps.
Looking for deals on 21:9 monitors if anyone knows of any...
Since the prices went UP on the 34" panels...
It is looking like it will be an LG 29"...
Also a good dual Opteron Board, as I really need to make the server smaller and lighter, and run windows 10 so I can use a recent video driver and directx 12...
Still testing...
I still need to order more monitors, wheels, and headphones to really test the server in use, I am worried it is not powerful enough to do this. Sometimes when I run 8 to 12 LFS windows, it drops to 10fps, other times it stays over 75fps. This is likely due to using a workstation graphics card instead of gaming card, but when running LFS, it does not seem to allocate the load to the cpu cores as I expected, it seems the first LFS window tries to run spread out on a handful of cores, then the next few LFS windows try to run on the same cores... until they are maxed out then it starts using more cores.
Is anyone else able to test about 10-12 LFS windows?
Running with about 12 AI cars? (1 for every window open)
How well does your computer do?
I've nothing to compare mine too... for all I know its actually doing better then faster Xeons.... maybe per dollar?
I think I had more than 32 LFS windows open, and it was still not using all 32 cores, but they were all running at about 10 fps.
Looking for deals on 21:9 monitors if anyone knows of any...
Since the prices went UP on the 34" panels...
It is looking like it will be an LG 29"...
Also a good dual Opteron Board, as I really need to make the server smaller and lighter, and run windows 10 so I can use a recent video driver and directx 12...
Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, .
Awesome! Cannot wait to test it.
Anyone have one of the larger i7 processors?
Like the 6950x...
How many instances of LFS running a full grid race of AI, can you run on this chip, before the frame rates start tanking?
Like the 6950x...
How many instances of LFS running a full grid race of AI, can you run on this chip, before the frame rates start tanking?
Scawen, its been a while since I saw a patch update, or heard of any progress on this. Did this throw a major wrench in the works?! sorry
I am hoping to use this for an event in August, what are the chances?
If it is not possible, I will tell them it will have to wait until next year.
IF Scawen gets LFS running perfectly multiple times in one install. Then my server I built becomes major overkill... so I put it on ebay, to see if it gets any interest. If I can sell it, I will use the funds to buy a smaller, easier to transport PC.
In case there are components I missed while shopping, what is the best PC I can build in a small MATX case, for the purpose mentioned in the posts? Anything I should wait for?
Working with another trailer builder, who will build something similar to what I want, but there are a few things they do not want to do, without drastically increasing the price.
I am hoping to use this for an event in August, what are the chances?
If it is not possible, I will tell them it will have to wait until next year.
IF Scawen gets LFS running perfectly multiple times in one install. Then my server I built becomes major overkill... so I put it on ebay, to see if it gets any interest. If I can sell it, I will use the funds to buy a smaller, easier to transport PC.
In case there are components I missed while shopping, what is the best PC I can build in a small MATX case, for the purpose mentioned in the posts? Anything I should wait for?
Working with another trailer builder, who will build something similar to what I want, but there are a few things they do not want to do, without drastically increasing the price.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG