First long-haul on VATSIM. Did not end well. DX10 time!

[MarkVcz 2]

So over the last weekend I finally decided to go for a long-haul flight on VATSIM with 777. I had an amazing ATC coverage throughout the flight from Gatwick (UK2000) and Dubai (FlyTampa). The same day I also upgraded to Active Sky Next with phenomenal results.. seriously.. what a great weather injector!

 

7-hour flight went really well.. everything running silky smooth, fun Saturday VATSIM trafic all around Europe.. umm, until I hit the STAR into Dubai. Yep. OOM. Never have I ever seen an OOM before. Well the first time always kinda sucks. I did not check the memory consumption during the flight as I did a EGKK - OMDB flight few days before without a problem but with time acceleration and without VATSIM traffic.

 

I don't really have a hight-end super-machine but I'm fine now with frame-rates and tweaked CFG.. My ultimate goal for long haul flights is to run two add-on airports (EGKK and OMDB), UTX, GEX in Europe, Active Sky's 1024px textures, dense autogen, high mesh resolution and PMDG 777. Not a impossible thing to do I think. People fly these routes with add-on airports daily and without problems.

 

DirectX 10 time! Holidays are almost here.. that means some free time to play around and experiment. I will finally start working on the DX9 -> DX10 switch. I believe due to better memory management in DX10 I might be actually getting somewhere.. most of the DX10 texture issues (airports/planes) are worked out and the development and support in this regard is still going strong. There is even a chance for slightly better frame-rates and I guess a little visual overhaul .. well that might be a little bonus.

 

I really want to follow up you guys with the development of my own switch to DX10. Maybe more people will soon give DX10 within FSX a shot. I'm planning to benchmark the process on my not-really-new PC if I can get some great results to share with you guys. I will be really focusing on the PMDG 777 only as this is a 777 sub-forum and I really want to get this awesome plane running at its best. And I heard lot of great things about the (limited) DX10 preview in the last weeks..

 

I'm doing lot of FSX's DX10 research myself but if we do have a people here that fly the triple 7 and successfully switched to DX10, maybe you can share some KEY pieces of information that I might miss while switching..

 

Can't wait to follow up. I hope this ends well - with happy, great looking long haul flying on VATSIM without OOMs!

[HUSSAR 272]

Go for it Mark, you'll never look back!  Looking forward to reading about your progress.  

[SierraHotel 976]

Steve's DX10 Fixer...Never looked back.

 

[scandinavian13 5,192]

Is that really reducing VAS usage, though?

[MarkVcz 2]

Go for it Mark, you'll never look back! Looking forward to reading about your progress.

Yeah! Will definitely share my progress.. I'm really positive about this.

 

Is that really reducing VAS usage, though?

I would not say it's reducing VAS usage per se. The DX10 Direct 3D renderer's memory resource manager (buffer, objects/texture memory..) is definitely updated (not sure if completely rewritten) to be more efficient with releasing the memory (textures, geometry etc.) after you render out the something (buildings, land..) and move on to different place (It sort of works in DX9 world.. but as we all know the memory management got it's huge flaws.. apart from the 4GB limit..). It's not perfect (still 32bit architecture under FSX) but it should definitely be (big or small) step up from DX9 as far as working with memory - that means the probability of hitting the 4GB ceiling on longer flights is smaller.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

It's not perfect (still 32bit architecture under FSX) but it should definitely be (big or small) step up from DX9 as far as working with memory - that means the probability of hitting the 4GB ceiling on longer flights is smaller.

 

Interesting.  Thanks for the explanation!

[FLEX1978 373]

Hi Marek,

 

I will be following your progress, around February hopefully I will be in a position to start flying the T7 longhaul, my setup is almost identical to yours except a Titan.

 

Only addons I will run is the PMDG 777, FTX global, full global mesh,REX clouds, ASN & and a select few airports that Aerologic operate into.

 

Would not be happy with an OOM after 7 hours until PMDG are P3D ready it looks like DX10 is the way to go!

[MarkVcz 2]

Until PMDG are P3D ready it looks like DX10 is the way to go!

I feel the same, but the chance of PMDG going into P3D with current LM's licensing at this point is really small.. as far as I heard. With the development around the DX10 fixer (huge kudos to Steve!!), I feel like we are still able to push 32bit FSX even little further into the future..

 

EDIT: I take the PMDG part back. I totally forgot about the update from PMDG about their P3D releases. It's coming!

read it here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/426978-pmdgs-p3d-development-status-fact-thread-updated-25nov13/

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

Only addons I will run is the PMDG 777, FTX global, full global mesh,REX clouds, ASN & and a select few airports that Aerologic operate into.

 

I ran a GEC route from IAD to FRA a little while ago and got the OOM Warning when I touched in FRA. (6:49 block)

The flight before that, I did an IAD-MIA turn and got the warning on downwind. (4:26 block)

 

I run FTX Global, plus regional mesh (deactivated when not in the areas, though, so wasn't a factor in the above scenarios), 1024 textures from AS2012 (similar to REX, I'd imagine), ASN, FlightBeam's IAD, LatinVFR MIA, and nothing at FRA other than an AFCAD.

 

In between the flights, I stepped the mesh resolution back slightly.  Looks like I need to keep looking for ways to lower the VAS use.

 

 

I feel the same, but the chance of PMDG going into P3D with current LM's licensing at this point is really small.. as far as I heard. With the development around the DX10 fixer (huge kudos to Steve!!) , I feel like we are still able to push 32bit FSX even little further into the future..

 

...and this is why I always stress that people read for themselves:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/426978-pmdgs-p3d-development-status-fact-thread-updated-25nov13/

[MarkW 1,491]

DX10 helps and I use the fixer on my setup, however, it is not a panacea.   This weekend I had an OOM when flying ConcordeX and on short final at KJFK (FSDT KFJK V2).  

[MarkVcz 2]

...and this is why I always stress that people read for themselves:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/426978-pmdgs-p3d-development-status-fact-thread-updated-25nov13/

Oh! I totally forgot about this update since they posted this! I take it back of course..

That's what I get for typing while doing three other things..

[FLEX1978 373]

What are your opinions on UTX? I bought the whole lot a year back but I'm thinking of keeping uninstalled when I go longhaul

 

Edit - I mean opinions in the context of causing OOMS, I remember Ultimate terrain causing problems with FS9 until I got a fast machine with Win7 64 bit

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

This weekend I had an OOM when flying ConcordeX and on short final at KJFK (FSDT KFJK V2).

 

I had an OOM simply trying to bludgeon the thing into doing something it's not meant to do (force it to accept a position other than the true initial location), and then navigate using that translated position.  I then ended up trying to loop the thing in resignation, which sent it off into a dimension of [irritated] that the poor thing had never seen in its life, so it started doing backflips.  I'm sure that consumed a decent amount of memory, but I was getting the OOM ding with only a half hour of tinkering and 15 min of flight time.

 

(FTX Global + LatinVFR MIA + add-ons mentioned above, but clear weather)

 

 

 

Oh! I totally forgot about this update since they posted this! I take it back of course..
That's what I get for typing while doing three other things..

 

haha - it happens.

 

 

What are your opinions on GEX? I bought the whole lot a year back but I'm thinking of keeping uninstalled when I go longhaul

Edit - I mean opinions in the context of causing OOMS, I remember Ground environment causing problems with FS9 until I got a fast machine with Win7 64 bit

 

I had GEX prior to my reformat, and used UTX with GEX for North America and really liked it.  I then tried to install UTX+GEX Europe on (what I found out later was) an old version of NA.  That caused all sorts of weird scenery issues, which only got worse when I tried to fix, and later uninstall them.  I then decided to reformat my FSX drive and start fresh, which has worked out nicely so far, apart from my use of much higher settings this time around (which is a partial cause of my OOMs, obviously).

 

As nice as they were, the global coverage of FTX Global was attractive, and didn't necessarily require UTX or GEX (though I think they're compatible).  I'm have a feeling certain cities/roads would be more accurate with UTX, but FTX Global has been good enough, even for my VFR flying tastes.

[FLEX1978 373]

Sorry Kyle, I edited my post, I meant UTX not GEX

 

GEX is just textures, we shouldn't need it with FTX global, UTX is the land class stuff that can cause issues.

[MarkVcz 2]

What are your opinions on UTX? I bought the whole lot a year back but I'm thinking of keeping uninstalled when I go longhaul

Edit - I mean opinions in the context of causing OOMS, I remember Ultimate terrain causing problems with FS9 until I got a fast machine with Win7 64 bit

Did not test UTX as far as memory and OOMs yet. It sure is a memory hit of some sort but for me it's really an add-on that I definitely need to work with (at least before upgrading to something else.. FTX's landcass?) while trying to stay away from OOMs under DX10.

As nice as they were, the global coverage of FTX Global was attractive ..... but FTX Global has been good enough, even for my VFR flying tastes.

FTX Global sure looks really nice (I'm not sure about the VAS memory requirements) and especially when flying lower altitudes (and flying all around the world), I'd say it's definitely better choice for VFR. I fly IFR most of the time (around Europe and now trying ME) so GEX and UTX Europe are totally fine with me while cruising at FL370 above cloudy Europe. Maybe after Christmas I'll look into FTX Global and their land mesh but the financial priorities are.. well... somewhere else on December 17th heh (dang, about time to buy some presents!).