VAS usage = 1.1 GB+?

[Guest]

 

 

Definitely appears to be a memory leak somewhere

 

I'm not sure what it is Jim, but I don't seem to have the VAS consumption problem in all my other Aircraft ... seems to be specific to 777 or RAASPro that installs with 777.

 

I'll keep digging to see if I can find a source, but I've pretty much eliminated everything else.  I'm not kidding you gents when I say I just sit at a Gate for 2 hours with the 777 and all my VAS will eventually get consumed.

[JRBarrett 3,049]

I'm not sure what it is Jim, but I don't seem to have the VAS consumption problem in all my other Aircraft ... seems to be specific to 777 or RAASPro that installs with 777.

 

I'll keep digging to see if I can find a source, but I've pretty much eliminated everything else. I'm not kidding you gents when I say I just sit at a Gate for 2 hours with the 777 and all my VAS will eventually get consumed.

One possible difference between our respective installations - I didn't install the RAAS option...

 

Just curious - have you checked the disappearing memory at the gate problem with different panel states? Powered up vs. cold & dark? BTW, I have never loaded the default PMDG T7 livery. I installed the Delta livery with Ops Center immediately after installation, and all my flights have been in the Delta.

[alepro21 154]

Very interesting thread.

 

I have battled my OOM issues since I took my first flight with the T7 and have yet to complete a flight without OOM (I have done 7 legs now. Always EDDL-OMDB or the return leg, sceneries from Aerosoft and FlaTampa).

 

Today I took the time to measure VAS in more detail. I put the T7 on the active runway at OMDB at 11pm with real weather and saved the situation. I then made various changes to the sim config, the FSX.cfg and even my gfx driver and found the following, which can back up the experiences of the OP:

 

I have just under 1.2 Gig free with the T7 right after loading.

Same situation with the NGX I have 1.64 GB left.

Same situation with the LevelD 767 (with A. Folkers VC mod) I have nearly 2 GB free!

 

Back with the T7 I have then tried to figure out why I'm still getting OOM after reducing settings. Here is what I found:

 

Turning off UT2 I have 1.35 GB left.

Turning off all other sceneries including FSGloabal bought me less then 100mb extra. This trick will do its magic during cruise though.

Turning off car and boat traffic (was at 17% before), and reducing cloud draw distance, autogen to sparse and mesh to 19m yielded in less then 80 MB difference in Dubai!

Reducing screen resolution from 1440p to 1080p: 1.67GB free!

 

Conclusions:

 

On my system the T7 has a significantly (around 450MB more then the NGX and almost 800 MB more then the LDS 767!) higher VAS usage then what was stated by PMDG. People have used the analogy of "the straw that breaks the camels back" but on my machine the T7 is not just a "straw". It's a significant strain unfortunately.

 

Reducing almost every other setting and implementing all tips from the manual to combat OOMs saves me up to 250MB in this particular situation - no more. And that is whith all AI off, almost no autogen, and no other sceneries active.

 

The screen resolution has a significant impact on VAS usage. If I had a 1080p screen I would be unlikely to experience any OOMs, even with my highest (sensible) settings!

[lodestar 186]

I wanted to start a new thread, and i found this. Interesting, i have similar results in DX9, process Explorer used. Arround 400mb more then with NGX, tested in saved situations and without weather, AI traffic and all variables i could remember. I have some screenshots, maybe i'll upload some, later. 

With my settings, on realy "VAS heavy" airports i can't go over 2.800.000 in process explorer with NGX, but with 777 it goes up to 3.200.000. This is in tests, after full flight VAS is arround 300.000k higher. 

It's ok for me, i am able to do long haul flights with 777 with my settings, allmost everything is maxed out, but i have lowered TML to 1024(graphics is still excelent), and rest of important settings like before - lod radius = 4.5, REX clouds 1024 DXT optimized, all addon airports 1024 textures if installer asked, and things like this.

 

I came close to OOM just once, with 2048 textures enabled in fsx.CFG and 2048 textures of FSDT CYVR installed, after long haul flight. I changed both to 1024 and no more problems, i didn't saw anything above 3.500.000 since then. And i did that flight 2 more times, just to be sure.

 

777 uses more VAS, but it's manageable in my opinion. It will be good to have some options to configure texture quality, but i'm just fine with this. It's ok to be like this, 777 looks much better then NGX.

 

Some interesting findings during my testing yesterday: 

 

- every time i go to external view, VAS usage +100MB. Interesting is that similar thing happens in VC if i do 360° in the views, and if i go to external view after that - nothing happens.

 

 - If i uncheck "high resolution 3-D virtual cockpit" in FSX, VAS decreases by 100MB

 

 - If i uncheck Aircraft cast shadows on the ground, VAS decreases by 100 more MB

 

 - no effects after lowering scenery complexity from extremely dense to very dense(i did this without quitting FSX), autogen from very dense to dense and water effects from High 2X to low 2x. I tried more options, but i think this 2-3 was important. 

 

777 virtal cockpit looks great even with high resolution 3-D virtual cockpit unchecked, so here you have some tips to decrease VAS by 200, maybe 300MB if you don't use external view

[Guest]

gate problem with different panel states?

 

No I haven't, I'll give that a try and see what happens to VAS.  I'll also disable RAASPro.

 

 

 

777 uses more VAS, but it's manageable in my opinion.

 

Hey folks, I must not be communicating well.  I know how to reduce VAS (lower LOD, lower textures, etc. etc.) - I've done 1-2 hour flights in the 777, that's not my concern.

 

My concern is why does all my VAS get depleted when I'm just siting at the Gate doing nothing (other than cycle views including overhead panels) for 2 hours?  This is my real question, this should not be happening (or should it) ... it doesn't happen with other aircraft, only the PMDG 777.  I bumped into this problem because I was reading the manual, going to the overhead panels and confirming with manual, etc. etc.  - basically learning the 777.  I wasn't flying, no taxi, no comms, no AI, no weather, just me the 777, the manuals, the overhead panels, the FMC, the checklist ... do this and all my VAS will eventually get consumed (in my case this took about 2 hours).

[lodestar 186]

 

 

My concern is why does all my VAS get depleted when I'm just siting at the Gate doing nothing (other than cycle views including overhead panels) for 2 hours?

 

Probably i didn't read carefully enough, i was happy to see that i am not the only one who tested this  

 

 

Cycling the view i get same effect like when i go to outside view - arround 100mb increased VAS usage instantly. If i go to outside view right after that, sometime i can see more 100MB.  And I've seen increase in VAS doing nothing, but i didn't tried to "do nothing" more then 15-20min.

 

i have actually responded more to this part from your first post: 

 

 

 

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?

 

I've seen approximately same value with DX9. Has anyone tested VAS usage with and without RAAS Pro? 

[Guest]

More testing and some good news.  I disabled FSUIPC and I disabled RAASPro.  Moved to LOD 6.5 and Textures 1024.

 

VAS started with 2.4GB used, after 3 min I was at 2.8GB used (lots of view cycles), after 37 mins I was at 3.1 GB, after 2 hours I was at 3.1 GB ... VAS stabilized and wasn't being consumed.  Also loaded up the Checklist and it didn't affect VAS much < 20MB, went thru the checklist.  Also check panel states and even changed panel states, VAS still good.

 

So I've eliminated the 777 and GoFlight as potential source of my VAS consumption problem.  So, what's left is FSUIPC and RAASPro ... one of these two must be the leaker of memory

 

Rob.

[alepro21 154]

So I've eliminated the 777 and GoFlight as potential source of my VAS consumption problem.  So, what's left is FSUIPC and RAASPro ... one of these two must be the leaker of memory

 

Rob.

 

FSUIPC should be fine. It's virtually installed on everyones machine, if it had a major memory leak I'm sure we'd all know about it. 

 

I'd try to re-enable FSUIPC and see what happens.

[Tabs 2,790]

 

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.

 

Scott, this wasn't "marketing speak". I personally ran the tests that produced the figures we printed - I will show you screenshots if you want, but I hope you can trust me that it is what I saw and not some attempt to deceive anyone. I spent a lot of time writing that section of the manual.

[alepro21 154]

Some interesting findings during my testing yesterday: 

 

- every time i go to external view, VAS usage +100MB. Interesting is that similar thing happens in VC if i do 360° in the views, and if i go to external view after that - nothing happens.

 

 - no effects after lowering scenery complexity from extremely dense to very dense(i did this without quitting FSX), autogen from very dense to dense and water effects from High 2X to low 2x. I tried more options, but i think this 2-3 was important. 

 

These 2 observations actually makes sense if you think about it. The FSX gfx engine is not smart enough to not load an object texture if it is covered by another texture afaik. I.e. even while panning in the VC the engine will bring all scenery, weather, and AI textures back into memory even if those objects are not visible behind the cockpit walls.

 

Also lowering the scenery settings will not have an impact right away. Try measuring VAS with a particular setting before reducing that setting and restarting the sim. Now you'll see an improvement. I assume this is because FSX doesn't free memory well.

 

 

Scott, this wasn't "marketing speak". I personally ran the tests that produced the figures we printed - I will show you screenshots if you want, but I hope you can trust me that it is what I saw and not some attempt to deceive anyone. I spent a lot of time writing that section of the manual.

 

 

 

Hi Ryan. Thanks heaps for joining the discussion!

 

First of all: I don't doubt for a second that the VAS figures you and others have released are indeed what you are measuring on your system. Also: Full kudos for the manual - it's very written indeed and comprehensively at that. 

 

The interesting question to me is why some of us get so much higher VAS usage then what was measured by you. My theory on that, based on some testing of my own (see my post above) is that these discrepancies could be due to differences in screen resolution.

 

I'm running at 1440p, and get 450MB less VAS then with the NGX (fresh install of both products - no changes made to the aircraft specific settings), and almost 800 MB less then with the LevelD 767 (with Andre Folkers VC mod). Note that the VAS difference between the LDS and the T7 is as big as what PMDG state the T7 will consume in total. Clearly that is not the case on my system for some reason.

 

So my question to you is this: What screen resolution did you use when you made your measurements?

 

Thank you!

[HUSSAR 263]

So, what's left is FSUIPC and RAASPro ... one of these two must be the leaker of memory

Rob, I didn't install RAAS and I am having VAS issues but I couldn't see FSUIPC being an issue it's been around for so long.  I guess anything could be a possibility.

[Tabs 2,790]

I just ran my tests again here - I'll explain the methodology:

 

I'm running at 1920x1200 with basically everything maxed except AI traffic (which I don't use)
I'm running 4xS with FXAA on, 16x aniso for the video settings. (I have not found any link at all between these on-GPU processing settings and VAS btw)

 

I am running the following scenery addons:
Flightbeam KPHX

Ultimate Terrain X
FTX Global
REX 2 textures at 1024 on the cumulus clouds, 2048 on the cirrus and max on the others.

Latest FSUIPC is installed.

 

• I first load the ultralight at KPHX 25R at 17:30 local time with clear skies weather, let the VC VAS settle and then rotate around the external model 3 complete times.

 

Result - 2,340,000KB free from FSUIPC and 1,850,000KB used in Process Explorer.

 

• I then load the NGX, wait for the 20 second countdown, let the VC stabilize and rotate around the external model 3 completely times.

 

Result - 1,590,000KB free from FSUIPC and 2,605,000KB used from Process Explorer. The NGX is using around 732MB of VAS over what the ultralight uses.

 

• I then load an FMC roue, KPHX-KORD, SJN6.ABQ..KK51C..IRK.DENKY2, ILS 22R, and initialize the performance.

 

Result - same thing, no change aside from normal tiny variations.

 

• I then load in the route's weather with Opus.
   

Result - same thing, no change aside from normal tiny variations.

 

Doing the same process with the 777, the numbers I get are

1,420,000KB free from FSUIPC, 2,800,000KB used from Process Explorer. The 777 uses somewhere around 898MB more than the ultralight and around 166MB more than the NGX.

 

This is slightly higher than what's printed in the manuals and I'll amend it in the next release. The manual tests were done with a beta version and changes possibly could have resulted in the slight bit more being used. I do not see any increase in VAS from bringing up the ECL or anything like that. This wouldn't even make sense anyway - the ECL's logic is always running even when it's not displayed - it has to.

This is still leaving me with 1.35GB VAS free even with high end scenery and weather being used. That should be more than enough and my experience throughout the testing process bears that out - I still have yet to see a single OOM in this airplane. The VAS load shrinks as you climb away from detailed city/airport environments too by the way.

[Guest]

I didn't install RAAS and I am having VAS issues. Could it be FSUIPC?

 

Just did a 2 hour test with FSUIPC v4.91 with FSWideClient enabled, about the same, stabilized around 3-3.1GB VAS usage ... so it does NOT appear to be FSUIPC causing the problem.

 

Going to enable RAASPro now and do another 2+ hr test.

 

 

This is still leaving me with 1.35GB VAS free even with high end scenery and weather being used

 

Thank you for the input, could you share you LOD and Max Texture settings?  I'm currently running at LOD = 6.5 and Texture at 1024 with REX textures at 1024.  FYI, I'm running 2560 x 1600 resolution in DX10 with Steve's fixes.

 

Rob.

[Tabs 2,790]

LOD 6.5 will murder the VAS, I'm running 4.5 which is the default FSX max. Looks fine with the amount of increased autogen FTXG has over defaults and other texture/autogen replacements.

[alepro21 154]

 

 

I'm running at 1920x1200 with basically everything maxed except AI traffic

 

Ryan, thanks a lot for getting back to me with that answer. This makes a lot of sense to me as it explains why I'm seeing higher usage. When I drop the resolution to 1080p I see figures that are closer to yours.

 

 

I have not found any link at all between these on-GPU processing settings and VAS

 

Same here. I tested a few different settings last night and it made no difference.

 

 

 

This is still leaving me with 1.35GB VAS free even with high end scenery and weather being used. That should be more than enough and my experience throughout the testing process bears that out - I still have yet to see a single OOM in this airplane. The VAS load shrinks as you climb away from detailed city/airport environments too by the way.

 

I start out with 1.2 GB VAS remaining at a high end airport such as FT DXB as well, but although I disabled all other scenery I get an OOM after my DUS-DXB test flight. I also get an OOM flying the other direction (DXB-DUS). Something is eating away at my VAS and I don't know what it is. Not sure if FSX always accumulates memory usage on every flight, and I have never run into it, or maybe something else is going on. I'll keep eliminating variables and doing a test flight on the same route with the NGX to learn more.

 

In any case thanks a lot for sharing and explaining your results Ryan! Much appreciated.