Multi PC network processing

[MaVe64 414]

I was thinking due to all stuff happening in this digital world, the processor is going to be very busy, especially when things are happening all at the same time. I'm thinking about things like complex weather generation, AI generation including cars, boats, and ATC processing etc.

It's possible, especially when not having the highest specs processor, that this will generate (micro)stutters, as the processor is busy calculating primary tasks for local wind flow and aerodynamics of all the different air surfaces, etc.

Wouldn't it be an idea to have the possibility for network client PC('s) taking away the workload I mentioned in the first sentence, so that the simulator PC can run as smooth as possible not having to bother with all these extra calculations?

I can imagine processing all the AI traffic alone can be a big burden on the frame rate.

It's always good to have the flexibility of multiple PC's working together connected by something like SimConnect, especially with complex custom cockpit solutions.

Oh well, just my 2 cents...

[liams 8]

no chance, there is simply too much latency introduced by the network layer

[MaVe64 414]

1 hour ago, liams said:

no chance, there is simply too much latency introduced by the network layer

I'm talking about the processing of data where latency isn't important, like weather and AI locations. The data coming from meteoblue and FlightAware in this case, have a very slow update rate. But when received, lots of processing power is needed to handle everything, resulting in a big spike in processor usage, producing a possible stutter.

That's why the more cores you have the better, you don't want usage on a core to reach 100%, that produces a bottleneck, so the tasks are spread out over multiple cores.

[Noooch 1,084]

And what about Azure cloud computing?

[orchestra_nl 978]

3 hours ago, Noooch said:

And what about Azure cloud computing?

Exactly what I was thinking. I think that all the raw weather data is processed by Azure. Off course the local CPU has to calculate the effect of terrain on the winds, the weather on the aicract and what not. Latency is important in that regard I think and you might be better off upgrading the CPU than using an old PC via the network.
Even a dedicated Physx processor is hampered by latency, and that is within the same machine.
If a modern CPU isn't up to the task we will get another FSX and somehow I don't expect that Microsoft/Asobo will repeat that mistake.

In the past I háve used a 2nd computer (using WideFS and Simconnect) where I ran ActiveSky and a route planner so the idea isn't illogical.

Edited May 1, 2020 by orchestra_nl

[Theboot100 404]

A massive majority of frame time is spent on rendering.  Part of this is on the GPU doing rendering, post processing and texture swapping.  This is also on the cpu doing object culling, levels of detail and calculating texture swapping.  If there are micro stutters it is generally because of the rendering pipeline.  Rendering is a complex task as there is a lot to draw (inside of the plane, ground textures, objects, water, sky, weather, clouds, lighting etc).  Its the bottleneck in achieving good FPS

Surprisingly the rest of the games calculations are not that intensive.  Modern cpus are capable of 10's of billions off instructions per second.  Asobo have stated that the flight model calculations of a VA plane uses 5% of a cpu core.

The things that can be more cpu intensive can easily be run in parralel per frame on another core (eg ground traffic - xplane does this)  even weather calculations can be passed off on another core.

The reason multi screen flight simulator set ups run networked pcs is simply so these pc's can cover the rendering to these other screens.  Even then there is a small noticeable amount of latency.

Edited May 2, 2020 by Theboot100