EFFECTS.FX problem solved!

[ramprat 8]

Hi fellow simmers,I have been experiencing some pretty significant stuttering when flying around certain areas in FS9. I finally ran Filemon and found there were hundreds of attempts by FS9 to open a file named EFFECTS.FX. No such file was found. Long story short: I have Ultimate Terrain (great program) and it was looking for the file when I was flying around shorelines. I did some searching and found there is a patch that corrects the problem. I installed the patch and the suttters are gone. Below is a link to the "unofficial patch" from Flight One. It took me quite a bit of surfing to find the solution so I thought I would post this info in case others are having the same problem with stuttering around shorelines. I believe it applies to rivers, lakes etc. ie: Anything that requires the scenery to generate a shoreline.http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=19685

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Thanks for posting this mate! Im hoping it will fix a similar problem I have! :)

[Jim Robinson 122]

I've had some new stutters myself lately so after seeing this thread, I too finally broke down and downloaded Filemon and gave it a try. I found out that my "fx_vclight.fx" had somehow gone AWOL and restored it from a backup DVD. There were hundreds of attempts to load this file, and I think restoring it has helped my stutter, maybe... I fear that I may have bigger problems though...I made roughly a half-hour flight and noticed that there were quite a few attempts to load the following scenery textures from the SceneryWorldTexture folder, all returning a "NOT FOUND" error in Filemon. I searched my entire FS installation for a random few of these filenames and found nothing. I also searched my backup DVD, which I burned immediately following a fresh install and couldn't find them there either.002b2an1.agn 006b2an4.agn 020b2an1.agn002b2an2.agn 006b2an5.agn 020b2an2.agn002b2an3.agn 006b2an6.agn 020b2an3.agn002b2an4.agn 006b2an7.agn 020b2an4.agn002b2an5.agn 013b2an1.agn 020b2an5.agn002b2an6.agn 013b2an2.agn 139b2an1.agn002b2an7.agn 013b2an3.agn 140b2an1.agn006b2an1.agn 013b2an4.agn 141b2an1.agn006b2an2.agn 013b2an5.agn 142b2an1.agn006b2an3.agn 013b2an7.agn 143b2an1.agnThere were 288 attempts to access an .agn file over the course of about half an hour, low and slow in a Skyhawk. Attempts to load these were random, about every 4 seconds, and never the same file twice in a row.Has anyone else noticed attempts to load textures that don't exist? What is trying to access these (a scenery .bgl?), and why is it trying to access files that don't exist?I vaguely remember restoring a folder full of textures from the installation disks at one time a couple years ago after installing some add-on ground textures that I didn't particularly care for. Not sure, but I may have emptied the folder completely prior to extracting the original files from the disks. The only thing I can think of is that maybe these textures were added by the 9.1 update and by restoring them from the disks I "un-did" part of the 9.1 update? It's odd though that I've never experienced a CTD, and the sim actually runs very smooth considering my hardware is an Athlon XP 1900+ with only 512 MB RAM.Could someone with the 9.1 update maybe copy a few of those filenames and do a search in their SceneryWorldTexture folder and see if they exist?Thanks,Jim

[ramprat 8]

HI Jim,I didn't find any of the listed files in my SceneryWorldTexture folder. I do have the 9.1 update. Sorry.I will dig a little more and report back if I find anything. Does FS9 look for those files when you fly in one particular area or anywhere you fly?Bill

[ramprat 8]

Hi Jim,I think those texture files are part of Glacier Bay addon scenery.You might try disableing that scenery and see what happens. I also have the GB scenery (WOW!). It is very good. I used to live in Juneau and tht scenery really makes that area fun to fly in. But, there is apparently a problem. We need to do more digging.

[Jim Robinson 122]

Well sure enough they are part of Glacier Bay. I just found the first 3 of them in FSAddonGlacier BayAlaska Glacier Bay landscapetexture. I wonder why those random few I searched for from the top level didn't show up? Oh well...I had "Log Sucesses" turned off in Filemon and if I'd had it on, I probably would have seen where the files had been found in the Glacier Bay folder.I've only run Filemon that one time, and I was flying between KGEG (Spokane, WA) and 65S (my hometown, Bonners Ferry, ID) via Coeur d' Alene VOR, so I can't really say whether it looks for those files anywhere else in the world. Seems odd that it'd be trying to load the GB textures on this flight when the nearest GB scenery is over 1000 nm away.I've gotta run and I'll be out all weekend so I'll get back to this Monday eve. Appreciate the help, Bill.Jim

[ramprat 8]

Hmmm, I just checked and my FS9 is opening a ton of Glacier Bay files when I am flying around Sacramento. Very strange. I will see what I can find and maybe have an answer when you get back on Monday.Have a safe trip. PS: We used to live in Coeur de Alene.

[Chuck_B 2]

Does anyone else notice a drop in performance after installing this patch? It seems I've lost about 3 or 4 FPS, and the thread said there should be no impact to peroformance, but nothing else has changed. My dual core went from a steady (locked) 24.8 FPS down to 18 and 19. It seems my celeron is rather jittery across WideView now too.I'm also running Ground Environment Pro and all levels of FS Genesis, but like I said, all was OK before. I think I'm going to uninstall the patch.Anybody else?Chuck B.

[krishcanag 0]

HelloI have just used filemon myself to see if that could shed some light as to why I keep getting jerking when on the ground and when ATC messages come up. Filemon keeps showing this onea few times:fs9.exe:3588 QUERY INFORMATION C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9AIRCRAFTC208Btexture.1texture.CFG NOT FOUND Attributes: Error 1526 16:01:44 fs9.exe:3588 QUERY INFORMATION C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9AIRCRAFTC208Btexture.1.CAB NOT FOUND Attributes: Error Now I think I have problems with my CD, nothing big but maybe one or two files is scratched!!Would the above create any issues?krishan

[toprob 105]

This seems normal to me -- whether you're using default textures or not, whenever the sim loads a ground texture it'll look for a corresponding autogen annotation -- the agn files. Not all texture tiles will have an agn, but I would assume that not finding this file would have less overhead that finding it and processing the autogen. If not, then this would be a limitation of the file system, rather than the sim, and would be tricky to get around.Godzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' sceneryhttp://www.windowlight.co.nz

[ramprat 8]

Hi Krishan,I'm no expert but I don't think the missing texture.cfg files are causing your jerking unless FS9 is looking for the file over and over again. I see FS9 is looking for a CAB file right after it looks for the texture file so it should be done. I have some missing texture files that cause the same reading with Filemon and I don't think they are causing any noticeable performance hit. The jerking you describe may be due to your sound card or directx sound acceleration setting being set too high. If you run dxdiag and go to the sound tab, it should be set to "basic acceration" for best performance in FS9. If you are running MB sound, it can be responsible for the problem you describe. Someone that knows more then me might add to this. Hope this helps some though.

[ramprat 8]

Hi Chuck,I didn't notice any hit on frame rates. But, I don't have FS Genesis. I do have GE Pro though. It will be interesting to see if your frame rates go back up when you uninstall the patch.

[Jim Robinson 122]

That almost makes a person think "texture.cfg's" are not new and exclusive to FSX like we all thought, or did I miss something along the way? I saw this once myself in my own Filemon .LOG. There must be some reason FS9, having failed to find an aircraft texture, is looking for a texture.cfg apparently to tell it where to find the texture? I did some experimenting with this by temporarily moving some textures out of their texture folder and adding an FSX style texture.cfg. No luck. I also tried [fltsim] alias=(..texture) like you'd use for aliasing a panel (for whatever usefulness that may have), still no luck. Anybody know anything about this?I've decided not to take Filemon's logs too seriously. toprob's reply makes sense and has cleared up a few things for me (thanks toprob). Thousands of attempts to locate or open a specific file is one thing, but a few random attempts to load a non-existant .agn throughout the course of half an hour or so is apparently normal.Thanks everyone for the help here. BTW Bill, at what time did you live in Coeur d' Alene? I stayed down there for several months in '93 or '94 (can't remember exactly) building a KitFox in Gene & Steve Soper's hangar (S&S aircraft). Seemed like I met everyone from the area who had any connection to aviation during that time, wonder if we ever met?Jim

[ramprat 8]

Hi Jim,Sorry we never met. I lived there from 1998 to 2001.

[Chuck_B 2]

I hate to say it but my frame rates went right back up to where they were before.I don't get it.Chuck