HIGHMEMFIX=1 is not a performance tweak - there's a specific DirectX rendering path variable that it changes and it works to solve issues like disappearing aircraft and scenery geometry that can happen without it. We (PMDG) talked with some of the former developers at MS after ******* Altuve came up with the tweak and that's what we were told it did.

HIGHMEMFIX=1 is not a performance tweak - there's a specific DirectX rendering path variable that it changes and it works to solve issues like disappearing aircraft and scenery geometry that can happen without it. We (PMDG) talked with some of the former developers at MS after ******* Altuve came up with the tweak and that's what we were told it did.

 

Depends on what you define as a performance tweak. If you measure it as an increase in fps, it could very well be by the testimony of some users. It is not unlikely that the tweak can have unintended side effects.

 

Personally I have done a whole week of testing this tweak, not testing performance, but testing stability. I ran a clean and fresh install of Windows 7/64 and FSX Acceleration. My computer was extensively tested for stability to make sure FSX ran in the best possible environment. It was the only added item to my fsx.cfg and it prevents FSX from crashing on long flights when running very high graphics settings. I used an autopiloted flight between Tokyo and London in the default 747 to test it. Without HIGMEMFIX=1, FSX crashed after running for several hours (dont't know how many hours since the flights ran at night while I was sleeping). I ran the flight 7 times, adding the tweak every other flight. I always did a restart of the PC before launching the flight.

 

To be more specific about the crash: FSX freezes, but the sound kept going.

Without HIGMEMFIX=1, FSX crashed after running for several hours (dont't know how many hours since the flights ran at night while I was sleeping).

 

Look in the Event Viewer to find out the time of the crash, as well as the cause. Just type event viewer into the search box on the start menu.

 

To be more specific about the crash: FSX freezes, but the sound kept going.

 

If you run in windowed mode, you get a dialog box. Sometimes the sound continues after a crash.

 

Hook

Look in the Event Viewer to find out the time of the crash, as well as the cause. Just type event viewer into the search box on the start menu.

 

If you run in windowed mode, you get a dialog box. Sometimes the sound continues after a crash.

 

Hook

 

That's exactly what I should have done, but didn't. Maybe I'll run a flight tonight with HIGMEMFIX removed and see what I get.

 

I never run in windowed mode...

That's exactly what I should have done, but didn't.

 

You can still go look. The information doesn't go away quickly. Look for the red icons.

 

I never run in windowed mode...

 

I've had so many CTDs that I never fly in full screen any more. I needed to see the dialog boxes when they came up.

 

Windowed mode is much more palatable if you create a new desktop theme using Windows XP style, making the title bar text smaller to reduce the size of the title bar, and changing the title bar color to something dark. Check "Auto hide the task bar" on the task bar properties menu. Also disable the screen saver for this theme... just in case.

 

Hook

Hi all,

 

Yep my fsx cfg file is as Microsoft intended, except for the following

 

"HIGHMEMFIX=1"

"TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096"

"WIDEVIEWASPECT=TRUE"

 

and I think I get pretty good performance out of fsx and my pc................I tried Bojote's tweaking tool once and promptly got rid of it!

 

happy flying,

You can still go look. The information doesn't go away quickly. Look for the red icons.

 

 

 

I've had so many CTDs that I never fly in full screen any more. I needed to see the dialog boxes when they came up.

 

Windowed mode is much more palatable if you create a new desktop theme using Windows XP style, making the title bar text smaller to reduce the size of the title bar, and changing the title bar color to something dark. Check "Auto hide the task bar" on the task bar properties menu. Also disable the screen saver for this theme... just in case.

 

Hook

 

Well, the info doesn't go away, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack when you can't remeber when it happened... I'll give it a try though as my current FSX setup isn't "clean".

 

I've got no problems with CTDs these days (but run few addons, so that might be why).

 

I prefer full screen. Immersion is most important to me, and I just don't feel that in windowed mode.

After viewing the Windows Event Viewer it looks like it's the g3d.dll that crashes without HIGMEMFIX=1 in the fsx.cfg. Does this make sense?

Yes - Like it has been said this is not a performance tweak. It prevents graphics corruption so you need to use it at all times. cheers jja

I prefer full screen. Immersion is most important to me, and I just don't feel that in windowed mode.

 

I drag the window size to fit the entire screen. The only thing I see is the reduced-size title bar, and a white line at the bottom of the screen (and I'll bet I could get rid of that).

 

I see it only took you 20 minutes to find the error. Doesn't FSUIPC fix some of the g3d.dll errors?

 

Hook

 

 

I drag the window size to fit the entire screen. The only thing I see is the reduced-size title bar, and a white line at the bottom of the screen (and I'll bet I could get rid of that).

 

I see it only took you 20 minutes to find the error. Doesn't FSUIPC fix some of the g3d.dll errors?

 

Hook

 

Yes I believe it does. Maybe Peter Dowson could chip in?

 

Even full screen windowed mode doesn't cut it for me. What can I say, I'm a perfectionist. Could also come from the fact that I use a 40" LCD TV and even small lines become big

Doesn't FSUIPC fix some of the g3d.dll errors?

 

No, it patches a part of the G3D code in memory to avoid one very specific G3D crash, which just happened to be the most frequent one. Whether the one mentioned in this thread is that one is unknown -- I'd need to know the offset of the crash in G3D.DLL and the error number.

 

If this one is only associated with the HIGHMEMFIX then it is very unusual I would say, because I supect pretty much everyone who's made any sort of tweaks to their FSX.CFG file wil have done this very basic and important one. Possibly in this case it's a symptom of something else, like a memory problem in the specific PC?

 

Regards

Pete

No, it patches a part of the G3D code in memory to avoid one very specific G3D crash, which just happened to be the most frequent one. Whether the one mentioned in this thread is that one is unknown -- I'd need to know the offset of the crash in G3D.DLL and the error number.

 

If this one is only associated with the HIGHMEMFIX then it is very unusual I would say, because I supect pretty much everyone who's made any sort of tweaks to their FSX.CFG file wil have done this very basic and important one. Possibly in this case it's a symptom of something else, like a memory problem in the specific PC?

 

Regards

Pete

 

Thanks Pete!

 

To clarify, the G3D.DLL crash happened when the HIGMEMFIX=1 was NOT present in fsx.cfg.

 

I only use high end components in my PC. I'm quite sure there are no memory problems as they should have been picked up by the various benchmark and burn-in tests I use regularly. Also, it would be strange if a memory problem didn't appear elsewhere since I use very heavy 3D rendering, video editing and photo software on the same PC.Never had a problem with a single program on this computer, FSX with proper tweaks included.

- All FSX settings remained identical for all 4 tests. I won't bore them with you, but they propably average settings, eg.. Texture Complexity: Very Dense, Autogen: Dense, Airline AI: 20%, Road Traffic: 15%, etc, etc

 

- ATI CCC set at AA of 4x and AF 4x and other 'average' type settings.

I have an ATI card, too, and am curious about your settings.

 

Are you enabling anti-aliasing inside FSX?

What are your complete Catalyst Control Center settings?

 

I have tried altering both, but did not notice any major performance differences.

To clarify, the G3D.DLL crash happened when the HIGMEMFIX=1 was NOT present in fsx.cfg.

 

Ah, sorry, I misread it. In that case I'm not surprised you get a crash, especially with any high-end add-ons. It is such crashes that the HIGHMEMFIX fixes.

 

Pete