This will sound acquainted to many MSFS simmers. Somebody on a discussion board swears that dropping a single setting from Extremely to Excessive gave them a handful of additional frames. You strive it, the following flight feels a bit of smoother, and also you’re left questioning whether or not the change did something in any respect or whether or not you merely flew over a lighter space with fewer clouds.
AVX Simulations thinks that guessing sport may be changed with numbers. Its new Home windows utility, AVX Tune 1.0, is out now for MSFS 2020 and 2024, and the corporate sums up its strategy with the road “measured, not promised.” In follow, the app backs up your settings earlier than something adjustments, data body instances when you fly the identical brief route earlier than and after a single tweak, after which tells you whether or not the change helped, made issues worse, or made no measurable distinction.
From add-on supervisor to efficiency instrument
If the AVX identify rings a bell, that’s as a result of we lined the studio’s first product again in August. AVX Sorter is an add-on supervisor whose standout function automates the sluggish, half-and-half means of searching down the Group folder bundle that retains crashing your sim. AVX Simulations was began by two simmers, Andrey and David, and the corporate says Sorter grew out of a non-public instrument they’d constructed for their very own setups.
Tune comes from a unique frustration. In response to the corporate’s founding story, Sorter customers often requested the app for extra frames, one thing the crew says it by no means wished Sorter to vow. Their view was that the prevailing instruments answering that query both labored contained in the sim’s reminiscence or quoted efficiency positive aspects no person had really measured, in order that they got down to construct a separate app round measurement. The 2 are supposed to work aspect by aspect, with Sorter dealing with your add-on library and Tune dealing with your settings, and the developer says they hyperlink to one another.
Earlier than-and-after A/B testing
The primary function of AVX Tune is an A/B check. You begin by flying the AVX customary circuit, or a brief route of your individual that you simply preserve an identical, two or thrice to set a baseline. Tune data each body with Intel PresentMon 2.6, the open-source seize instrument. It logs presentation instances together with CPU and GPU busy time. You then apply one change via the app, with the sim closed, and fly the identical circuit once more.
The one-change rule is essential. The developer factors out that altering two settings without delay makes the end result meaningless, so the app makes you decide one. Tune additionally data a snapshot of the surroundings with every run, masking the graphics driver, sim construct, Home windows energy plan, Reminiscence Integrity and body technology. If any of these change between the earlier than and after runs, the result’s marked as invalid as a substitute of manufacturing a guess.
The decision itself is the place Tune tries to set itself other than a easy FPS counter. AVX says it compares 1% lows, common body price and the time spent above 33 ms per body towards a noise ground calculated from your individual PC’s run-to-run variation. Anybody who has flown the identical strategy twice and watched the FPS counter wander will see why that is helpful, since MSFS hardly ever performs identically from one flight to the following. The end result is available in considered one of 4 buckets: preserve, roll again, inconclusive (fly one other pair), or invalid.
Body technology will get its personal algorithm. The developer says Tune by no means compares a displayed body price that features generated frames with a rendered one, and it received’t produce a verdict from runs the place body technology was on in a single and off within the different. When PresentMon can’t inform generated frames aside, as with dynamic body technology, the app experiences that the bottom body price is unavailable as a substitute of estimating it.
AVX says {that a} end result exhibiting no measurable change means the instrument is working accurately, as a result of you’ll be able to then preserve the better-looking setting for gratis.
Backups first, and a watcher for Sim Updates
Earlier than any of that testing begins, Tune takes a snapshot of your UserCfg.choose file, the place MSFS retains its graphics settings amongst different issues, alongside along with your management bindings. The app additionally tracks a last-known-good configuration routinely, and its Timeline view exhibits precisely what a restore would change, key by key.
The Sim Replace watcher additionally sounds fairly helpful. Tune takes a snapshot forward of time in order that, as soon as an replace has arrived, it might probably present which values have been reset and provide to place the earlier ones again.
A unique philosophy from AutoFPS
Efficiency utilities aren’t new to MSFS, and also you’ll most likely keep in mind about AutoFPS. We’ve lined the free instrument since its MSFS 2020 days and once more when it arrived in MSFS 2024. AutoFPS works when you fly, adjusting terrain degree of element and cloud high quality in actual time to carry a goal body price. AVX Tune takes the other route. It by no means adjustments something mid-flight, and it focuses on discovering out which static settings are price their price in your machine.
On the security aspect, AVX lists a algorithm it says are constructed into the code. Tune by no means reads or writes simulator reminiscence, makes use of no injection and desires no kernel driver. It doesn’t write to the HKLM part of the Home windows registry and received’t toggle Reminiscence Integrity, HAGS or the web page file. It solely exhibits their state and the place Home windows retains the change. Settings recordsdata are written solely whereas the sim is closed, instantly after a snapshot, and the developer says unknown keys, feedback and formatting are preserved precisely. AVX additionally retains a distant kill change that may pause a selected setting for each consumer if a Sim Replace adjustments the way it behaves.
Worth and availability
AVX Tune 1.0 is available now from the AVX Simulations website, priced at €9.99 (one-time buy with lifetime updates.)