External FDE, the Dash 8 and the Future

[RickyP]

Just wondering if anyone has seen the benefits of this NASA 'engine' apparently utilised by the Majestic Dash 8.

It is quite extraordinary.... the framerates are off the charts, so I got to musing as to whether other developers are likely to consider the same or similar approach.

Imagine A2A and PMDG stuff doubling the cpu efficiency overnight.

It must have dawned on the powers that be. Of course I know nothing of coding or about the costs involved in licensing such an engine, but it would transform the entire game.

[AKar]

I doubt this FDE engine has much at all to do with the good FPS performance of the Majestic, even if it appears that the flight dynamics calculation of the FSX/P3D is linked to the visual frame rate. If anything, the flight dynamics portion may even be more computationally demanding than the FSX/P3D built-in.

There are other reasons why I'm a big fan of flight dynamics engines that are more based on real-time physics; done well, they completely avoid the clumsiness and occasional physically impossible behavior the FSX/P3D provides in particular when flying outside the ordinary flight parameters.

-Esa

[RickyP]

Hi.

Well there are 2 elements here. Timings yes, but many of the calculations are done on a seperate cpu core outside the sim.

As such I have 6 vs 5 cores being used when flying the Dash.

I often get framerates as good as the default aircraft.

I assume you don't have it or you'd know what I mean.

You need to see it to believe it.

[Marvin-E34]

Hi.

Well there are 2 elements here. Timings yes, but many of the calculations are done on a seperate cpu core outside the sim.

As such I have 6 vs 5 cores being used when flying the Dash.

I often get framerates as good as the default aircraft.

I assume you don't have it or you'd know what I mean.

You need to see it to believe it.

Do you have the "pilot" version ?

[n421nj]

I hear nothing but good things about the majestic dash 8. I just don’t have the sim time anymore to justify the purchase.

[afcraig2010]

I have the Pro version and I can attest to how amazing it is both with the simulation and the frame rates!

[AKar]

I assume you don't have it or you'd know what I mean.

You need to see it to believe it.

I do have it. Yet, I don't believe the FSX/P3D FDE is on its own too significant consumer of processing power. You can demonstrate the significance of other parts pretty easily with many add-on airplanes that are heavy on frames: simply switch off the virtual cockpit and see a huge increase in FPS. Yet, the same FDE. To me, it feels like the biggest potential issue on FPS is how the virtual cockpit and systems are working on the platform; it appears that stuff kind of gets drawn even if it wasn't visible or necessary. How all that stuff is created appears to be the primary factor in add-on airplane FPS performance.

-Esa