VAS usage = 1.1 GB+?

[Guest]

I'm a little puzzled on the VAS usage of the 777, I'm staying just below OOM 4GB but it's very close and if the weather gets rough I'll OOM.  I'm not complaining at all because I know how to make adjustments and stay below OOM.  But I am a little confused on the VAS usage, PMDG suggested around 700MB-800MB, but so far I'm at 1 GB to 1.1GB.

 

If I load up the default C172, I've got 1,486,408 free.  If I load up the PMDG 777 and wait a minute or so, I get 479,806 free.  I usually cycle the 4 standard views and do a 360 in the views to make sure I'm getting a full VAS load ... but what I've noticed is that after I've done my standard view cycle (in the 777) and wait about 1 minute VAS will suddenly drop by 500MB or so ... I do nothing, just sit and wait about 1 minute.  The only other time I've seen strange 500MB VAS consumption with other aircraft (including the default) is when I activate the GPS window (and closing the GPS windows does NOT free up the VAS) for the first time.

 

My testing was done at Kind County International (SEA), clear skies (FSX), no add-on airports enabled, with only scenery loaded is MSE WA 2.0 (all other scenery disabled), AI disable.  I'm puzzled at why I'm 400MB over what PMDG suggest is max VAS usage?  I know PMDG don't support DX10 Preview so it's understandable I may not get a response here, but what have other's noticed on VAS usage with PMDG?

 

Thanks, Rob.

[mosteen 111]

Indeed strange, we have a discussion going over at BAV, seems like the T7 has a more "individual" hit on the VAS than the NGX.

 

No scientific approach from my end but I landed at FSDT KORD after a 8 hour flight with UTX "world", FTXG, FSGlobal Ultimate "world" mesh and UK2000 Heathrow Xv2 enabled, VAS usage 2,6 Gb when I gated. I run FSGRW and Rex 1024 textures, and Kostas tweaks.

 

Apparently I have no problem but a fellow BAV pilots have serious OOM issues with similar settings. Common for the two of us that we have never had OOM with NGX. Further my colleague started with a clean cfg and ran it through Bojote, and smack, he was ok.

[highways1 5]

I did a test of this at UK2000 EGLL with Orbx England and I noted about 250 mb or so more usage with the 777 than the NGX. I then disabled all of my other scenery except for a departing airport in which I used Sunsky Jet's KPHL, and the UTX features along the route as well as Orbx ENG. I rebooted the sim for each test to make sure I had all of the ram released as this can skew the results. I found that I nearly recouped the memory difference between the planes. Before, I didn't really think much of enabling all of my scenery but it's really true that you should only use what you need for that flight. It makes a sizeable difference.

[donkey20048 19]

I to am a fellow BAV I am not getting OOM since I made a few adjustments but I to notice about 1gb extra on vas for 777 then the 747 or 737

 

I tend to be at 3.1 on ground at egll and stay about 3.2-3.6 in the air with Rex utx ftx vatsim and as2012

 

Very strange

[Guest]

This is odd ... I loaded the 777, started her up, and did nothing for 2 hours.  My VAS progressively dropped from 809,288 down to 190,453 over the course of 2 hours.  Keep in mind I did nothing at all and no AI traffic, no view changes, no weather, didn't even try to taxi, nothing, just sat there reading a hard copy of the manuals.

 

I've disabled everything except my GFDevFSX.exe (GoFlight controls) and FSUIPC (DLL.XML and EXE.XML) -- deleted the FSUIPC.INI also, check UIAutomationCore.dll.

 

I'm baffled, what's happening to my VAS?

[mosteen 111]

Hehe, I wish I could recreate that with my FSL Concorde... Maybe I could get her above FL120 sometime

[peebee 0]

Hi, I've also noticed that the house colours livery uses less resources then the add on liveries. I did the tutorial with the house livery ok using my standard settings. But on my first couple of attempts with the Delta livery I had OOMs at KJFK I have made adjustment now and I'm getting about 3.5 with the 777 along with Aivlasofts EFB on a 2nd monitor. And Delta livery.

Peebee

[Tabs 2,790]

I'm a little puzzled on the VAS usage of the 777, I'm staying just below OOM 4GB but it's very close and if the weather gets rough I'll OOM.  I'm not complaining at all because I know how to make adjustments and stay below OOM.  But I am a little confused on the VAS usage, PMDG suggested around 700MB-800MB, but so far I'm at 1 GB to 1.1GB.

 

If I load up the default C172, I've got 1,486,408 free.  If I load up the PMDG 777 and wait a minute or so, I get 479,806 free.  I usually cycle the 4 standard views and do a 360 in the views to make sure I'm getting a full VAS load ... but what I've noticed is that after I've done my standard view cycle (in the 777) and wait about 1 minute VAS will suddenly drop by 500MB or so ... I do nothing, just sit and wait about 1 minute.  The only other time I've seen strange 500MB VAS consumption with other aircraft (including the default) is when I activate the GPS window (and closing the GPS windows does NOT free up the VAS) for the first time.

 

My testing was done at Kind County International (SEA), clear skies (FSX), no add-on airports enabled, with only scenery loaded is MSE WA 2.0 (all other scenery disabled), AI disable.  I'm puzzled at why I'm 400MB over what PMDG suggest is max VAS usage?  I know PMDG don't support DX10 Preview so it's understandable I may not get a response here, but what have other's noticed on VAS usage with PMDG?

 

Thanks, Rob.

 

How are you measuring the VAS? The fact that you're talking about the amount "free" makes me think you're using some measurement other than the Process Explorer virtual size method in the manual... 

[JRBarrett 3,034]

Interesting. I run FSX on a Win7 64 system, with FTX Global textures, Ultimate Terrain and FSGRW weather, and (a real memory hog) FS Global Ultimate mesh.

 

I monitor free VAS remaining with FSUIPC. I'm surprised at the OP's low VAS even with the default 172.

 

On my system, the default 172 will typically give me 2.8 GB free VAS - maybe a bit less at a graphics intensive add-on airport.

 

The NGX will usually start out about 2.3 GB free VAS, perhaps dropping down to about 1.7GB free at the end of a long flight, after landing. I have never gotten even close to any less than 1.3 GB VAS remaining in any NGX flight, even in very heavy overcast conditions.

 

I did my first T7 flight yesterday from FSDT LAX to ImagineSim ATL, with FSGRW weather active for the whole flight. I started out with 1.8 GB, dropping down to 1.1 GB after landing.

 

My system WILL OOM if I'm not careful with one specific aircraft - the FSL Concorde-X. I cannot do a Concorde flight from EGLL to JFK unless I use the FSX default airports at either end. If I try to use my Heathrow Extreme, or FSDT JFK, I'll never make it... Even with default airports, it's not uncommon to see VAS down to 250MB on approach, with the FSUIPC low memory warning chime sounding constantly. So it's not like my system is "immune" from VAS exhaustion.

 

Not sure why some users are experiencing low VAS with the PMDG T7. Dropping down to the 500-600 MB free VAS point almost immediately after loading, when mine starts up with over 3 times that amount of free VAS, and does not spontaneously decrease once loaded, if I just sit parked in one spot.

 

One proviso - my FSX computer is used ONLY for FSX, and nothing else. I have no other software installed - no MS Office, no Adobe Reader, no Java, not even an email client. I have many unneeded Windows services disabled.

 

I do run FSX with terrain resolution and scenery complexity at maximum, and autogen 1 notch below max. Cloud draw is set at at 90 miles. Water at 2x Low. GPU is a GTX 660Ti with 2GB.

 

I run all AI, water and road traffic at zero.

 

 

How are you measuring the VAS? The fact that you're talking about the amount "free" makes me think you're using some measurement other than the Process Explorer virtual size method in the manual...

It's done using FSUIPC. It will display VAS remaining in the upper window bar (in windowed mode), or within the main FSX screen (for full-screen mode). Very easy to set up from within FSUIPC, and avoids the need to run Process Explorer concurrently with FSX. I wrote a post a few weeks ago on how to enable the FSUIPC memory monitor, will try to find the link. Does require registered FSUIPC.

[Scott434 12]

As part of my latest build and FSX priority memory usage, I log/"plot" VAS memory use vs LOD settings (with all other sliders/variables constant). I use FSDT's CYVR and Aerosoft's Anchorage X airports as the load. In preparation for the 777X I did VAS benchmarks on the NGX. I determined exactly and precisely the settings required to trip an OOM and the threshold I need to be at to maintain my flying environment without.

 

The 777X significantly surpasses the NGX and is most definitely harder on VAS than the NGX. IMHO the difference is not within the usual margin of error that was causally assumed from pre-release comments and marketing speak which indicated the 777x and the NGX would be comparable. It is why in fact, the many are seeing OOMs while comparing to the NGX.

 

I have made adjustments to my system to accommodate the 777X because it is such work of art. I have been a software developer for over 3 decades and I FULLY appreciate what PMDG have accomplished here and I just love the plane!! My approach is to make the aircraft a priority over other memory consumers.

 

I fully anticipate that in the natural progression of the products life cycle, service packs will find a way to optimize and provide tuning options for the users who either can't (know how) or won't (eye candy and traffic are their priorities - and that is OK!) take steps to relieve the OOM potential.

 

If PMDG say "Guys we have done everything and the 777X VAS footprint is required" then I will live with it but I have to believe that his is not the case.

 

Thanks PNDG for a crazy good aircraft which will only get better as time progresses.

 

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

[JRBarrett 3,034]

How are you measuring the VAS? The fact that you're talking about the amount "free" makes me think you're using some measurement other than the Process Explorer virtual size method in the manual...

1st, go into the FSUIPC.ini file, and insure the entry "OOMCheck" is set to "yes".

 

Open the FSUIPC setup screen. Go to the "logging" tab, and in one of the "specific value checks" enter the value 024C (first character is zero, not the letter"O".

 

Change the "type" for that value from S8 to S32.

 

Click on the checkboxes to display the value either at the upper window bar, or within the main FSX screen.

 

Now save and exit. Going forward, you will have a continuously-updated readout in-game of free VAS remaining.

[Jazz 1,046]

Today I became obsessed with this issue. I managed the tutorial flight with no problem at all with the add on sceneries in the manual. And then yesterday I decided to take it on it it's first flight from Heathrow to Dubai and what do I get on approach to Dubai? This much read about and never in my simming career seen OOM.

 

Tis true I have never ever seen this happen to my rig. Not once.

 

Of course I instantly downloaded process explorer and started messing about. I did this flight three more times today and OOM occurred on the first 2. Each flight had me winding down settings. On the third it happened but in a different way. I started to hear the mysterious bing of windows doing something in the background. I opened display settings and reduced more settings, though at this point it was looking ridiculous in there. I had already reduced the cloud resolution, AI  And now I axed even more of the Autogen. (for some reason if I take my autogen below dense I lose 5fps. Dont know why but do remember reading somewhere that with some setups this can happen)

 

With some more of those settings down the ping stopped and I carried on flying the approach. About 3 miles on final the pinging started again. Getting really miffed off by now I reopen the settings and just knock all buildings off and god only knows what else and finally get the bloody thing on the floor.

 

After this misery my fs looked poor to say the least and so I did more testing around this scenery. I found that moving the autogen sliders up and down did diddley squat to my VAS usage. Not really. Nor did injecting weather from my laptop to my fs rig with AS2012. The biggest user was UT2 Which was taking between 250 and 360.

 

I will be playing around with this more tomorrow as I absolutely hate not having everything running smooth and solid. I have always had a very smooth running fs with this rig and some very good looking stuff going on. 80% UT, HD clouds, Multi layered weather. All sliders mostly to the max accept autogen which has always been on dense, and water which is 2*Low. Very detailed airports and using heavy planes like the NGX and Blah Blah Blah as they say. 

 

I will start playing with the the thing again tomorrow where the autogen has more of an effect. And try another 6 hour flight somewhere, without so much going on on the arrival front. Dubai is a stunning beast and looks great if I just load up there and taxi, fly about. Stunning and smooth as silk. And I do mean I dont get a stutter there. Taxi about this place at a constant 25. It seems however, I just cant fly there from London or maybe even anywhere in the 6 hour or more bracket.

 

I must say I am gutted that my 777 rollout has be clouded by such a crappy FSX issue and I wish I had not become so completely absorbed in getting to the root of the matter. Once I find a problem I just have to understand it. I am also going to try this route with the NGX.

 

I am really not sure how I have avoided this OOM nightmare before now. And what's worse is it has you right at the end of the flight. It's like surviving the fall without a parachute only to land in a pond of crocodiles. .It is infuriating to know my machine is more than willing to cope with the scenery and settings I throw at it but is tripped up by shoddy memory management in the sim.

 

FSX has more holes than a collander and I worry about the future of our hobby. I mean with PMDG making such high fidelity aircraft like they have. How far can they go with such restraints?

 

Anyhow that's my little venting rant over

 

Regards to you all and good night.

[Guest]

talking about the amount "free" makes me think you're using some measurement other than the Process Explorer virtual size method in the manual...

 

At first I used FSUIPC to report VAS usage (aka Free) since I can run full screen with it.  But to verify my results I used Process Explorer in with FSX in Window Mode, but the same VAS usage issue remained.

 

Also of note, when I activated the checklist, I lost about 400MB VAS, ouch ... seems like a big chunk of VAS for just a checklist process?

 

I'm puzzled, I've gone thru the process of disabling everything and removing all other variables ... I've left my GoFlight stuff active but that really should not affect VAS at all since it's a separate process/exe and I see it running as a separate process under Process Explorer.

 

Even disabled the COUTLI Add-On Manager (bglmanx.dll) since I wasn't currently using any of those airports and stayed with default FSX (SEA) airports.  I did leave the RAASPro DLL enabled since that installed with the 777.  Not sure what will happen if I disable RAASPro.dll, will the 777 still work?

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the 777, but I'm just trying to figure out where all my VAS is going when I'm just sitting at the Gate reading my manuals   Also worth noting that I've done this same process (sitting at the gate) with the C172 (default FSX), RealAir Duke, Q-400 and the default 747 ... my VAS fluctuated a little (<100MB) over 2 hour period.  But the 777 will just consume all my VAS until it's gone -- I'm pretty sure this isn't "normal".

 

 

On my system, the default 172 will typically give me 2.8 GB free VAS - maybe a bit less at a graphics intensive add-on airport.

 

Want to be clear, I'm not concerned about free VAS, I do know how to free up more VAS.  My concern is that I'm sitting at the gate doing nothing for 2 hours and my VAS gets consumed until my system OOMs.  I can free up more VAS, but all that will do is extend how long I can sit at the gate doing nothing.  So what's happening to the VAS, why is it being consumed when I'm just sitting at the gate?  (remember, no weather, no AI, just me and the gate at a default FSX airport).

[Jazz 1,046]

 

 

Also of note, when I activated the checklist, I lost about 400MB VAS, ouch ... seems like a big chunk of VAS for just a checklist process?

 

I will definitely be checking this out in the morn.

[JRBarrett 3,034]

Definitely appears to be a memory leak somewhere on your system. Wish I could do a side-by-side comparison between your system and mine, but I'm no hardware expert, so not sure that would be any help.