Well, finally had the time to do a 'real' flight in v2.1 after solving the TrackIR not working problem. (Sigh...) The first thing I focused on was VAS usage so after installing FTX Global I installed FTX AU and the A2A C72. Everything seems to perform without any direct problems. Yes, even the A2A C172. Maybe this has to do with installing Simconnect manually...? (The P3D 2.1 installer failed to install Simconnect on my PC, hence TrackIr not working!).

 

 

I dont know if this will help anyone with simconnect connectivity issues or not.. but here is something i discovered awhile ago with fsx and i now still use with P3D...

 

In the past simconnect issues with fsx wouldnt get fixed till a reboot.. this due to the dll being locked and in use.  So I used process explorer.. searched for simconnect.dll in the advanced area.. discovered which exes were locking things and then created this batch file (ran as admin):

 

taskkill /f /IM seasonfileswitcher.exe

taskkill /f /IM seasonfileswitcherv2.exe

taskkill /f /IM saipanels.exe

taskkill /f /IM aicarriers.exe

taskkill /f /IM trackIR5.exe

taskkill /f /IM UT2Services.exe

taskkill /f /IM fsx.exe

taskkill /f /IM prepar3d.exe

start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\NaturalPoint\TrackIR5\TrackIR5.exe"

 

Some of those are legacy exe's that arent even in my current install.. but running this always cured simconnect and trackir issues..  There could be other exe's that lock the process as well, but for me it was just these at one point or another.

 

I now use it even with p3d v2.1, because for some reason, even with barely any addons.. p3d is silently crashing on close.. no visible box.. usually NO event viewer entry, though sometimes an event viewer ntdll.dll though.. so on next launch i often get the red box about the sim not closing and to reboot.. so i run the above and the box goes away at least.

 

(I use spad these days, so saipanels.exe isnt relative to me currently)

 

Unsure if this helps anyone, but figured i'd throw it out there.

I am starting to wonder if there may be problems with some machines running side by side or even using P3D on a machine that has been used for FSX for a long time. I decided in the beginning to remove FSX as much as I could before doing a reinstall of the full P3D 2.1 and have not had as many problems as has been reported. FSX as we all know was poorly coded and on top of that developers have to do some weird stuff to make FSX work better. This is all good but does present the possibility of many strange Queertrons running around in there. The other thing is everyone just has to understand that modern I7 machines with Nvidia 780's or going to produce different results as an I5 770 or a non nvidia card. Throw in the mix of people using Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 is just naturally going to muddy the water. We will see this all over again when windows 9 or what ever pops up next. If the next version of windows does not have very large breast then I am staying with 7. It has proven it's self to be pretty stable.

 

 

I've been disappointed with flightsimming too often by now and I sometimes don't feel like flying at all anymore.

 

Well, for me the writing is on the wall of this forum:  DON'T install 2.1 if you're doing good 'nuf w/ 2.0.  I'm absolutely going to wait til 2.2 comes out as quite frankly this is really a horror tale in the making.  I'm shocked at how good 2.0 is, and w/ the few target problems I think LM went way too far in trying to solve much broader issues in the 2.1 update.  Had they solved the following issues all would be pretty well I would imagine:

 

1.  The black screen issue.

2.  Missing Vector Lights in FTXG

3.  The lost focus issue.

 

As an added bonus, and likely very easy to solve:  give the bloody user the ability to create a blithering flight plan BEFORE loading a flight!  This solves at least a little of the OOM issue by keeping you loading your plan ONLY ONCE.  For me, it's:  

 

Start P3D V2.0--a flight loads.  So that's the first load.

Next, change vehicles.  So we're loading a whole new plane that has to be rendered.

Next, change the time of day, that's another full load.

Next, go to the planner the create/select a flight.  That's 3.5 full loads!  OOMs?  Well more chance of them no?

 

I'd use the Show Startup Screen option, but alas this ends up creating problems w/ if I remember, the black screen lock up or something significant.

 

Quite frankly, here's what I read in the alleged improvements:

 

-Vector lights now visible!  Just need to turn them off to help contain stutters.  Gr8!

-Autogen LOD is now SHORTER!  Gr8!  I was so hoping for LONGER!  Gr8!

-It's so smooth now!  I have incredibly smooth flight in 2.0--but I have the hardware too.

 

So...just keep 2.0 until 2.1, the patch from down under, squarely on P3D's server where it should remain out of the hands folks hoping for a CLEARLY better experience.   I'm thankful 2.0 works very well and will keep me happy til a real patch that adds more than it takes aware arrives.

 

 

The CS T7 does work in P3D2, if you use EMT's legacy mode...

 

But you misread the implication of what I said, they're AI flightplans, and it's just the Fruit Shack AI model... I was flying around South Korea a bit, and wanted some AI that wasn't an A321.

How can you be assured any issues arent a result of the addon compatibilty and not the Sim itself?

Well, my experience has been different. My system is dedicated to P3d so it never had FSX. Tried just the patch first and got a blurry mess. Did a complete reinstall and added FTXGlobal and FSGlobal 2010. Things looked good but after 5 minutes I started to get the blurry mess again. Looked at task manager when this happened and found the core1 was NOT being used at all - just like it was dead - for reference, I'm reading the display as 0-1-2-3 - so the second image had 0 usage. This is with NO affinity mask entry in the cfg. SO I put one in set at 15.

 

All cores being used and blurries gone. Added the Milviz Cessna 310 - other than no symbols on the GPS it worked fine. Took a flight slightly over an hour with a LOT of spinning pans around the locked spot. Had AS2012 weather enabled - No problems. Smooth (locked at 20) and I didn't get a repeazt of the blurries.

 

My settings are on the high side and I have TBM at 120.

 

So, it DOES work and work well. Why some systems are having serious issues is the puzzler.

 

Vic

I wonder when they'll start the Prepar3D 2.2 changelog topic on their forums. It sounds like they've got a lot of work to do...

So, it DOES work and work well. Why some systems are having serious issues is the puzzler.

 

Its all ones perception of "Works well" Some folks been stating this every since 1.4 came out. 20fps on mine is a jittery mess! Unlimted "Works well" for me.

How can you be assured any issues arent a result of the addon compatibilty and not the Sim itself?

 

I can't tell if you're trolling or actually think a single 1024x1024 texture AI model (that wasn't even in the region where I tested the memory leak, which is a mostly uninhabited island with no commercial flights and just lots of trees) could cause memory leaks that cause VAS to balloon from 2GB to 4GB in 20 minutes. When I said that turning down the vegetation slider actually stopped the memory leak.

 

I'm also not sure which would be the more damning criticism of P3D v2.1.

At the same time I did a 4.5 hour flight last night over FTXG Ireland with vegetation set at very dense, RX4, and 2048 textures - and no OOM. Wish I could help but this really is bizarre.

 

Edit: should note that I'm not using NVidia inspector...

All cores being used and blurries gone.

 

Yes!.....

 

I have been fiddling on and off all day, and it does seem, on four cores, that an Affinity Mask=15 gives a far more efficient spread across those cores than having no Job Scheduler at all. Texture loading is as good as 2.0 even when slewing with AF=15. Without the AF line in the cfg I get almost no activity on core 0 and very erratic activity across the other three... with AF=15 I get around 50% on Core 0 and usage across the other three at 80% or so.

 

Having found a screen to compare it also seems the Autogen Radius is the same as 2.0... maybe it loads in a tighter circumference in 2.1 or something, as the edge does seem far more obvious, particularly using FTX as the autogen is so dense... but, the distance or cone is the same or similar.

 

I also wonder if the building of the Shaders file in AppData/Local has an effect on performance and hitching... the Shaders file grows over time as new entries are built, if these are deleted, the process has to start again, meaning aircraft and other items take time to appear. Maybe its best to leave this alone, unless for some reason you really need to rebuild it [like changing card vendor].... just thinking aloud here.

 

 

Having found a screen to compare it also seems the Autogen Radius is the same as 2.0... maybe it loads in a tighter circumference in 2.1 or something, as the edge does seem far more obvious, particularly using FTX as the autogen is so dense... but, the distance or cone is the same or similar.

 

What screen resolution are you at?  I was looking at V2.0 and V2.1 Autogen and is seems the same settings produce different radius results and 2.1 which are indeed a smaller radius.

Its all ones perception of "Works well" Some folks been stating this every since 1.4 came out. 20fps on mine is a jittery mess! Unlimted "Works well" for me.

Different systems - different settings. The key word here is smooth.I care less what the FPS are as long as it's smooth. At 20 for me (or at unlimited) it is smooth, I figure if I leave it at 20 it is easier on the system. If it takes unlimited for it to be smooth for you - that's what it takes. I WISH I knew WHY the differences though!

 

Just completed a 1 1/2 hour flight in Canada in the Carenado B200 in IMC. Steady as a rock at 20 with no stutters. I was using FSUIPC to monitor free VAS and the lowest amount free was 1,145,000 just about when I broke through the overcast to touchdown.

 

Vic

Guys and girls, I am tempted to lock this thread. Not for any violations, but simply that it is getting way too large and including too many different aspects of the V2.1 release. I won't do that, however I strongly suggest that to the greatest extent possible that you open up new topics to deal with specific issues or features. If this topic gets to be too large (that is, hard to find issues and solutions) then we will be forced to lock it.

 

 

20fps on mine is a jittery mess! Unlimted "Works well" for me.

 

Locked at 20?  I think RobA does this and for the life of my I don't follow it.   I have very excellent smooth strong performance w/ no blurries at least out to the full extent of the LOD and I lose this when I use the internal lock.  I would like to try a good external lock but I don't think NI works anymore as an external lock in 2.0.

confirming AF=15  with  2.1   almost has 2.0  :lol: