Random Freezing

[Jim Young 2,356]

Looks like you are close to running out of Virtual Address Space (VAS).  With a 64 bit system you get a max of 4 GB's but the Windows OS uses it too so it ends up you can maybe get a max a little over 3GB's.  With the advent of more powerful computer systems, individuals are cranking up their settings whereas when they had a sub-par system, they would keep the settings conservative.  If you FSX/display driver settings are set too high, you will run low on VAS after about an hour flight.  Sometimes faster.  If you want to test this, here's how: 

 

Monitoring VAS in FSX – The freeware or registered versions of the FSUIPC utility will allow you to monitor the amount of VAS remaining during a flight session.  This might be valuable in troubleshooting Out-of-Memory (OOM’s). 

 

Startup FSX/P3D and then enter the Addon Menu and select FSUIPC.  Once FSUIPC is open, click on the Logging Tab and enter 024C under Offset and select S32 under Type. Select where you would like to have the usage displayed.  The FS Window is for Full Screen sessions.  The FS Title Bar is for Windowed Mode.  AVSIM recommends you also check the Normal log file as this provides you information on how much VAS you had to start out with and then it logs usage throughout your flight. 

 

The VAS usage is displayed in Kilobytes (KB’s).  The value represents the amount of VAS left so, the lower the value, the more VAS being depleted.  The max amount of VAS allowed in computers with 64 bit Operating Systems is 4GB’s.  This is shared with other applications running in the background on your computer.  For 32 bit Operating Systems, the max amount of VAS allowed for FSX/P3D is 2GB’s but this can be expanded to 3GB’s with a switch like the /3GB switch.

 

To convert the KB’s to the amount of GB’s, you should use one of the Byte converters on the Internet like the following:  http://www.whatsabyte.com/P1/byteconverter.htm. You will never see 4194304 KB’s displayed as this equals 4GB’s.  You might see around 3GB’s (3145728) remaining when you first start up FSX/P3D but that would be unusual.  Do not be too concerned with the amount of VAS remaining when you first start up. 

 

AVSIM is going to put this in a future update to the AVSIM CTD Guide.

 

Best regards,

[BonanzaPilot 0]

Looks like you are close to running out of Virtual Address Space (VAS).  With a 64 bit system you get a max of 4 GB's but the Windows OS uses it too so it ends up you can maybe get a max a little over 3GB's.  With the advent of more powerful computer systems, individuals are cranking up their settings whereas when they had a sub-par system, they would keep the settings conservative.  If you FSX/display driver settings are set too high, you will run low on VAS after about an hour flight.  Sometimes faster.  If you want to test this, here's how: 

 

Monitoring VAS in FSX – The freeware or registered versions of the FSUIPC utility will allow you to monitor the amount of VAS remaining during a flight session.  This might be valuable in troubleshooting Out-of-Memory (OOM’s). 

 

Startup FSX/P3D and then enter the Addon Menu and select FSUIPC.  Once FSUIPC is open, click on the Logging Tab and enter 024C under Offset and select S32 under Type. Select where you would like to have the usage displayed.  The FS Window is for Full Screen sessions.  The FS Title Bar is for Windowed Mode.  AVSIM recommends you also check the Normal log file as this provides you information on how much VAS you had to start out with and then it logs usage throughout your flight. 

 

The VAS usage is displayed in Kilobytes (KB’s).  The value represents the amount of VAS left so, the lower the value, the more VAS being depleted.  The max amount of VAS allowed in computers with 64 bit Operating Systems is 4GB’s.  This is shared with other applications running in the background on your computer.  For 32 bit Operating Systems, the max amount of VAS allowed for FSX/P3D is 2GB’s but this can be expanded to 3GB’s with a switch like the /3GB switch.

 

To convert the KB’s to the amount of GB’s, you should use one of the Byte converters on the Internet like the following:  http://www.whatsabyte.com/P1/byteconverter.htm. You will never see 4194304 KB’s displayed as this equals 4GB’s.  You might see around 3GB’s (3145728) remaining when you first start up FSX/P3D but that would be unusual.  Do not be too concerned with the amount of VAS remaining when you first start up. 

 

AVSIM is going to put this in a future update to the AVSIM CTD Guide.

 

Best regards,

Thanks! This sounds like it is most likely the problem. I will set up a flight later and see how much I am actually using. Is there a fix for this or is the solution to turn down display settings? Thanks again. 

[Jim Young 2,356]

The only solution is to turn some settings down.  Autogen is one of the major VAS users.  This issue was found with the new P3D program and Lockheed Martin had to reconfigure things to that Autogen used very little VAS.  High LOD_Radius or Texture_Max_Load settings will eat up VAS too.

 

Best regards,

[BonanzaPilot 0]

I ran the log and this time when it froze was also just over one hour into the flight. The log showed 2097288 KB remaining, which converted to 2.00013 GB. 

[Jim Young 2,356]

Doesn't look like a problem with VAS.  I have no further suggestions other than following the investigative techniques in the AVSIM CTD Guide located to the right of this forum under Hot Spots.

 

Best regards,

[BonanzaPilot 0]

Thanks. I have started to go through the guide and I am on the Missing Textures/Objects section. I have entered the lines into my CFG file and after loading the NGX I am getting a "Failed to load texture: GAUGEFIFTEEN" and the same message for "CBTEXTL". After selcting "OK" the flights continue with no problems. Could this be the problem for the freezing do you think? Thanks for the help. 

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

Could this be the problem for the freezing do you think? Thanks for the help.

 

Not necessarily.  You need to check on your computer to see if the texture is installed.  Many developers have programs that call for textures that they removed in subsequent updates.  That shouldn't be a problem.  It does give you an idea as to what program could be causing an issue and you can then disable it in your Scenery Library and see if that fixes the freezes.  If FSX continues to function after you click OK on the error message, then I would not worry about it.  I remember having problems getting a freeze with the AIPlayer.dll as the faulting module several years ago.  I ran this program and saw several missing textures/objects while flying in the FTX PNW areas around Seattle.  I disabled this scenery and the problems went away.  I then went to the FTX/Orbx website and did a search for AIPlayer.dll and found they had released a fix for this issue.  It's all part of the investigative techniques we provide you to pinpoint your problem.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,