PMDG MD11 vs DX10SF

[CargoBull 0]

Hi everybody

I fly FSX with Accel Pack and the usual bunch of add-ons, including Global Ultimate Eur, UTX Eur, Aerosoft VFR Germany West and a number of airports in that wider area. Guess where I live

 

Ever since I installed the DX10 Scenery Fixer (it is v2.0), my MD11 crashes to the desktop a few minutes after take-off after whiting out the screen and displaying an "unrecoverable error" message. Other planes (default or add-on) don't seem to be affected. The problem does not go away when I unselect "DX10 preview".

 

I admit I have experimented only a little and did not try all conveivable combinations of settings, airports and planes. One reason being that I am a bit disappointed regarding the DX10 effects on image quality and framerate so I probably will de-install it and write off the money, in spite of the apparently many true fans of this tool. No offense meant of course!

 

Anyway I thought maybe somebody here has come across this. Posted it on the MD11 forum too.

 

Thanks

[SteveFx 258]

Uninstall the libraries from dx10 controller, and test without dx10sf being involved. If you do that it backs out the very few changes it makes to your fsx installation ( depending on options you selected) which are the effects, the bkg.bmp used in dx10 only and the envmap which is used for dx9 reflections.

[CargoBull 0]

Hi Steve

Thanks for taking the time ... unfortunately I'm more of a pilot than a mechanic so I don't really know how to follow your advice. DX10 controller? Envmap? I suppose you are describing a hack to revert the effects of the DX10SF without actually de-installing it completely.

 

I must add that I flew a recreational short hop Frankfurt/Brussels last night with the default 747 with DX10 preview off. Sometimes it's gotta be heavy metal, you know. I made it to cruising altitude but it CTD'd anyway. Never had that ever since I moved to the 64bit version of Windows 7 - at least not before the second or even third leg without restarting FSX.

 

Please don't be offended just because somebody's pessimism - I know about the sensitivity and the "airs and graces" of the diva called FSX. May well be that I am just using up too much memory with my sceneries and airports. I know I should eventually try a tool that loads add-on sceneries conditionally.

[SteveFx 258]

Hi Cargo

 

Sorry perhaps my reply was confusing.

 

All I was trying to say is that if you run the DX10SceneryFixer GUI there is an option right at the top to uninstall the libraries. if you do this it removes any trace of itself from FSX, the details of what it puts back doesn't matter! Then enable dx10preview mode in fsx and then test with the pdmg MD11.

 

Regards

Steve

[CargoBull 0]

Ah ok thanks!! Tonight's soccer on TV (writing this during halftime) but I'll pass on any progress on your tip soon as I have something...

[CargoBull 0]

Hi Steve, hi everybody

Peaceful holidays to all

 

I did as told: used the DX10SF GUI to uninstall its libraries, made sure that DX10 preview was "on", and flew a few tests, among them two legs with a full stop between them within the same session and one "longer" flight (90 minutes ... usually my flights are shorter as enroute flying is not my primary interest).

 

No crashes. Framerates were so-so (depending on scenery) (didn't it say that DirextX 10 performs better than 9?). Of course I saw all the little quirks that DX10SF was made to fix. The plane itself looked *much* better though, certainly there are optical improvements over DX9.

[SteveFx 258]

Hi Cargo

 

Ok now reinstall the libraries but don't select any of the options in the prompt (lights, reflections etc) and after install then untick all the shaderson the left hand side and test again.

 

regards

Steve

[CargoBull 0]

Sorry for the long pause ... explained below.

 

I did as told, programmed a ~45 minute flight with "pause at T/D" set to on ... but it didn't (I noticed this earlier, sometimes the sim waits for you, sometimes it doesn't). The plane just went on in runway heading at cruising altitude (did not descend either). I caught it, prepared to do a manual landing at the nearest suitable airport and boom was rewarded with a white-out CTD after about 90 minutes airborne time.

 

Now, I usually do not do long flights so that crash in my case was an insignificant test result.

 

What I did then was a number of 2-hour automated test fligts in all four combinations of DX9/DX10 and DX10SF libraries installed/not installed. ("Installed" means, as you recommended, with all options and shaders off).

 

I experienced two CTD's but both were not reproducible: I restarted FSX immediately (no reboot) and re-flew the test that had just crashed with otherwise unchanged settings, and in both cases there was no CTD.

 

In one word: inconclusive.

 

I'd really like to continue with DX10SF so maybe you have more advice on how to continue the experiments until the crashes become reproducible.

 

Thanks again for your patience.

 

p.s. diagonal lines that are just a bit off-horizontal don't look nice with DX10. In the DX10SF GUI the antialiasing setting is "4x". Any recommendations? Or should I leave it as it is during my tests?

[SteveFx 258]

Oh dear I was hoping for some consistent results.

 

Do you have the setting highmemfix=1 in your fsx.cfg?

 

Can you read the avsim guide on how to collect information on crashes and see if there is any useful information on the crashes.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/428129-avsim-fsxp3dfs9-crash-to-desktop-guide/#entry2869858

 

On antialiasing what settings did you have in dx9? In nvidia or ccc tools? When you load fsx can you check that aa is turned on in the in game graphics settings

[CargoBull 0]

Found and scanned it & will follow the advice ...

 

This for now, just the raw data, guess it may help to assess the situation:

i5-3570 (3.4 GHz x 4 CPUs)

16GB

Win7 64bit Home

Nvidia GTX660 (updated the driver once but I am not using any of the tools like the inspector)

Yes, HIGHMEMFIX=1

UsePools=1

BufferPools=262144

Bojote applied - the effect was dramatic, up to 100% more frames depending on scenery

 

The AA setting in the FSX settings GUI is "anisotrop".

 

I like to fly above Central Europe where I have a lot of Aerosoft-sold stuff installed (aereal photos and airports) but no ORBX products. So I can't tell you yet if the crashes happen over native territory too.

 

I'll be back, thanks so far.

[CargoBull 0]

Alright my DX10SF version is 1.4 build 35 (not 2.0 as initially claimed ... sorry for that mistake).

 

I got myself the AppCrashView utility (v1.12). Ever since I installed the Scenery Fixer, these crashes were recorded:

 

Application name and version always fsx.exe and 10.0.61637.0

Exception Code always c0000005

 

Error Module, Version, Error Offset

PMDG_MD11.DLL, 10.0.61355.62, 00118301 (twice)

 

Note after these two in February I installed one more plane (a chopper) and one more scenery, played with those (with DX10SF active) and nothing went wrong. After that, I tried the MD11 again and saw the following CTD's happen:

 

g3d.dll, 10.0.61637.0, 000ba79f (five times)

g3d.dll, 10.0.61637.0, 000ba7e9 (once)

 

After the first two of the above six (in direct succession), I posted the question. The remaining four happened arbitrarily during the tests that Steve had suggested. I have no record which crash belongs to which combination of settings (DX9 or 10, libraries installed or not) but as mentioned before: After every crash, I immediately redid the same flight with the same settings, and it went through every time.