Jack's guide to the BufferPools Tweak

[Aircraft Aviation 2]

Heya everyone,

I welcome you to my very own guide of the infamous BufferPools Tweak for FSX. Before we start, I just need to make one thing clear:

I would suggest that you only read on if you have a 1GB Graphics Card or higher. Less than this will most likely cause the tweak to WORSEN performance! Also, please note that this Tweak isn't for everyone, and it isn't guarenteed to work 100%. Thanks.

So then! First things first. What is the BufferPools Tweak? Basically the BP Tweak is an adjustment that a user manually makes to the FSX.cfg file, allowing FSX to make much better use of available video memory. It works so, so much better with 1GB+ Cards. The result is incredible FPS performance... If it is done correctly that is.

BEFORE YOU START ANY TWEAKING AT ALL, MAKE AN ORIGINAL, UNTOUCHED BACKUP FS.CFG FILE!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Step One:

- Download nHancer (this is a neat little utility for nVidia Cards that allows great control over things such as AA, AF, HDR, etc). If you have an ATI Card downloading nHancer probably won't do you much good at all.

- Set up nHancer as per NickN's great guide here: http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... ?TID=29041" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (you'll have to scroll down to about halfway on the page to see the nHancer setup guide, ignore everything else for now.

Step Two:

- Download the UIAutomationcore.dll file. This helps stop manu bar crashing in Windows 7, and also helps reduce annoying random crashes too. Download here: http://www.search-dll.com/dll-files/dow ... e.dll.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Pop the UIAutomationcore.dll file into your main FSX Root Directory folder. Before each FSX flight, navigate to this folder, hold down SHIFT and right click the UIAutomationcore.dll file. Then click open command prompt in this windows, and type EXACTLY this (without the speechmarks):

"regsvr32 UIAutomationCore.dll"

Then press ENTER

Step Three:

- Download a free utility called "GPU-Z". This neat little application allows you to see how much Video Memory is being used, GPU Load, Card temperature, and much more. http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Step Four:

- Navigate to your main FSX.cfg file. This is found in C -> Users -> Your user name -> AppData -> roaming -> Microsoft -> FSX

- Open the .cfg file in notepad. Make sure it is the file called "FSX", which is a .cfg file... NOT the file called "FSX.cfg" which is a text file.

- At the very top of the FSX.cfg file, type in this exactly:

[bUFFERPOOLS]

PoolSize=0

- Finally, save the notepad file and close it. Close all other windows so you are left with your desktop.

Step Five:

- Boot up FSX how you normally would. Then, start a flight of your choice. I would recommend that for testing you use a pretty intensive add-on in an intensive FSX location if possible (eg 757 Captain at FTX YSSY Kingsford Smith International Sydney).

- Change views, move around the airport. Check your FPS against your old FPS (the FPS coutner can be opened by pressing SHIFT+Z, then SHIFT+Z again).

- If all looks okay and stable, and you don't see any strange scenery anomolies. Then congratulations! You have sucessfully utilised the BufferPools=0 Tweak!

- Open up GPU-Z whilst FSX is in windowed mode. Arrange the windows so you can see both the GPU-Z and SX information at the same time. make sure that your GPU temperature is acceptable, your GPU load is below 75%, and that your memory usage isn't above 70% of your card's memory.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM:

FSX is very unstable! It crashes now and again!

This is probably due to the fact that you are running out of Video memory. At the time of the crash, what is your Video Memory usage on GPU-Z? If, for example, you have a 1GB (1024MB) Graphics Card, and your Memory Usage is around 950MB, then I'd suggest maybe lowering AA, AF (in nHancer). OR - Another thing I noticed which greatly impacts GPU Memory Usage is the AIRCRAFT'S LIVERY. Take a look at this:

Memory Usage with McPhat's UHDT American Livery:

as you can see, Video Memory Usage is very high with such a GPU intensive livery.

Compare to the supplied Air Transat livery (remember, all settings the same, just changed the livery!):

The GPU Video Memory Usage is practically halved.

I found that I got rpetty frequent crashes if I used such an intensive livery with such high settings. So my advice is to slow down! Treat your Graphics Card nciely and it will reward you!

my Textures are all blurred!

This is, unfortunately a problem with the BufferPools Tweak which effects some people. I didn't really experience this, but when I did, I adjusted the TextureBandwidthMult value (found in the FSX.cfg) to either 80 or 120. crank this up to 400 if you're using HD Photoreal Scenery!

I keep getting crashes when I hit Escape and look at my flight progress!

Are you sure you've run UIAutomationcore.dll properly? Follow the instructions on Step number Two again, remember this must be done before EVERY flight. Also, check your graphics card temepratures in GPU-Z. High temperatures cause graphics card to bail out for safety reasons.

Further Tips

- Either set your FPS to Unlimited, or to 40. Do not set to anything higher than 40, as the human eye cannot detect any FPS above 35. So setting to 40 guarentees super smooth performance, and also leaves system resources free for other things.

- As far as I know, if you have 512MB Graphics Cards in SLI/XFire... It does't matter. This is because this Tweak relies on the OVERALL Graphics card memory.

I really hope this guide helped you guys! Feedback is always appreciated!

Kind regards & good luck,

Jack

[mutley 4,498]

Jack,

I already use the bufferpools tweak along with the latest nVidia driver and I think it has given my sim a few more FPS so it definitely gets my vote. I have a GX260 with 768Mb.

Regarding the UIAutomationcore.dll file you could always create a batch file to run it then your flight sim, I use a batch file to run FPS Limiter so could add this in. However, I do not have any FSX issues at the moment so I might try it :biggrin:

Thanks for sharing this, much appreciated.

Joe

[Aircraft Aviation 2]

Jack,

I already use the bufferpools tweak along with the latest nVidia driver and I think it has given my sim a few more FPS so it definitely gets my vote. I have a GX260 with 768Mb.

Regarding the UIAutomationcore.dll file you could always create a batch file to run it then your flight sim, I use a batch file to run FPS Limiter so could add this in. However, I do not have any FSX issues at the moment so I might try it :biggrin:

Thanks for sharing this, much appreciated.

Joe

Thanks for your feedback Joe! Glad you enjoyed it!

And yes, it probably could work with a 768MB Card, but any lower than that is pushing it!

[Aircraft Aviation 2]

Just a note guys I'll keep adding to this guide.

[stu7708 244]

- Download the UIAutomationcore.dll file. This helps stop manu bar crashing in Windows 7, and also helps reduce annoying random crashes too. Download here: http://www.search-dll.com/dll-files/dow ... e.dll.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Pop the UIAutomationcore.dll file into your main FSX Root Directory folder. Before each FSX flight, navigate to this folder, hold down SHIFT and right click the UIAutomationcore.dll file. Then click open command prompt in this windows, and type EXACTLY this (without the speechmarks):

"regsvr32 UIAutomationCore.dll"

A few questions regarding this part... is the mentioned dll usefull in other windows versions besides Windows 7?

What is the purpose of the SHIFT - Right click part? Prehaps this is Windows 7 specific, in Vista it only brings up the same menu a normal right click would.

And I also wonder about the need to do this for every flight. The regsvr32 command should add the dll permanently to the registry. Could possibly be that the command needs to be run as administrator to make it stick permanently, but that's easily done by right clicking the Command Prompt shortcut and choosing "run as administrator". If the dll resides in the FSX-folder you should also need to navigate to that folder in the command promt before running the regsvr32 command.

[Aircraft Aviation 2]

Hi Stu,

That .dll isn't Windows 7 specific, but it is mostly used in Windows 7 to prevent crashes.

You can use it if you like, I'm not sure regarding sucesses (or if it is even necessary for that matter) with other OS.

That .dll isn't REQUIRED for the BufferPools Tweak, it is just used as good measure to prevent crashes.

And I use the registry command before every flight, I'm not sure if just entering it once makes it permanent, but try it anyway. The SHIFT part I think is required for Windows 7 only, it is purely done to bring up the correct menu, nothing else (as just right clicking the file in W7 brings something different up).

Any more questions please ask.

[MartinW 0]

Jack...

Just thought it might be an idea, if you credited ''Boyote'' Jesus Altuve, in your post, the Avsim contributer who came up with the BufferPools tweak. He has worked hard to bring us these improvements to the sim.