Crazy High VAS Usage

[MDF86 123]

Hi Guys

 

I am struggling with really high VAS usage and don't know what I am doing wrong.

 

As an example, I just spent ages planning a flight, and couldn't even get to the runway of my departure airport before I got an OOM. My VAS was 3.85GB just sat at the gate.

 

I was at Flightbeam KSFO with ORBX NCA enabled, in the NGX, using UT2. I know these are all demanding addons but everyone else seems to be able to manage to use high quality addons and keep their VAS to a reasonable level.

The only real tweaks I've used in the fsx.cfg are:

 

AffinityMask=14

 

DX10 mode enabled

 

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=80

 

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=2048

 

HIGHMEMFIX=1

 

I know that TML could be reduced to 1024 but surely it's not going to make that much difference. Surely something is wrong if I'm at nearly 4GB just sat at the gate before I even depart!

 

Anyone got any tips?

 

Thanks

 

EDIT - I also use scenery config editor so that just my departure and arrival airport are enabled, I thought this would help - obviously not much!

 

Also, when I first start FSX, when I'm at the free flight menu, my VAS usage is already 1.7-1.9GB - is that normal? It seems really high, before I've even gone anywhere other than the main menu. That's with the default trike loaded! So that's before the NGX, UT2 rendering AI traffic, ORBX, Flightbeam KSFO loading etc...seems very high.

 

FURTHER EDIT - TML of 1024 makes no difference. Still 3.8-3.9GB before I've even taken off from KSFO...

[ZKOKQ 984]

Have you tried it with NCA disabled ? I don't have NCA, so cannot test that for you. But I can fly KSFO to OMDB in the T7, with a save and restart 100nm before TOD.

[MDF86 123]

Have you tried it with NCA disabled ? I don't have NCA, so cannot test that for you. But I can fly KSFO to OMDB in the T7, with a save and restart 100nm before TOD.

 

No I haven't, will test and report. But seems crazy that I would have to disable something like that just to be able to even take off. I see people with poorer hardware setups than me able to use plenty of demanding addons all at once, and it's not like I'm running everything maxed out.

 

20% airline density, low 2x water, normal autogen....something seems not right.

EDIT - Disabling NCA saved me around 400MB of VAS, which says to me that I will need to disable the ORBX regions when flying the NGX. That's very disappointing indeed.

 

I know they're designed for GA flyers, but even so....

[ryanbatc 12,773]

You quote 1.7-1.9 GB - is that starting in NCA? If not it's too high - in default areas mine starts at around 1.1 - 1.2GB.

 

Those addons seem like a recipie for disaster. I don't run with UT2 or any traffic addons.

[scianoir 610]

Just did a few tests at KSFO to see how the various addons affect VAS (my set up also uses UT2 traffic at 50% and has most sliders close to being maxed out except autogen scenery at very dense so I am perhaps pushing FSX a bit too far!)

 

No addons + default Baron at KSFO                                 Max VAS  = 2.29

Add FTX-NCA                                                                    Max VAS  = 2.58

Add FTX-NCA + FB KSFO                                                 Max VAS = 3.06

 

So it seems that FTX-NCA does not have a huge impact on VAS although FB KSFO has a bit more. Add to that however the VAS requirement of one of the resource intensive PMDG aircraft and you will not be far from the 4GB critical point.

 

Bill

[MDF86 123]

You quote 1.7-1.9 GB - is that starting in NCA? If not it's too high - in default areas mine starts at around 1.1 - 1.2GB.

 

Those addons seem like a recipie for disaster. I don't run with UT2 or any traffic addons.

 

That's not even with a flight loaded Ryan, that's at the free flight menu with the default trike selected.

Just did a few tests at KSFO to see how the various addons affect VAS (my set up also uses UT2 traffic at 50% and has most sliders close to being maxed out except autogen scenery at very dense so I am perhaps pushing FSX a bit too far!)

 

No addons + default Baron at KSFO                                 Max VAS  = 2.29

Add FTX-NCA                                                                    Max VAS  = 2.58

Add FTX-NCA + FB KSFO                                                 Max VAS = 3.06

 

So it seems that FTX-NCA does not have a huge impact on VAS although FB KSFO has a bit more. Add to that however the VAS requirement of one of the resource intensive PMDG aircraft and you will not be far from the 4GB critical point.

 

Bill

 

Seems I will need to disable all of my ORBX areas when flying with the NGX, what a bummer. Have tried with UT2 on and off and UT2 seems to make very little difference. I will have to hope that ORBX OpenLC makes flying at high altitude a bit more interesting, the default (even with FTX Global) looks garbage.

[Jim Young 2,356]

What is your Autogen setting?  FTX/Orbx scenery likes trees (as well as Orbx/FTX users!!) and, in a previous version of the Lockheed Martin P3D, Autogen was eating up VAS and many were suffering OOM's. Lockheed Martin changed the VAS memory footprint per tree and reduced the footprint from 276 bytes to 16 bytes (a 17x reduction in system memory per tree). So, if you have Autogen turned up to the max or above "normal", this could be taking an enormous amount of VAS and you will suffer an OOM faster the higher you place the Autogen setting. Check out the FTX scenery guides for Autogen recommendations and/or lower your settings.

 

Texture_Max_Load above 1024 and LOD_Radius above the 4.5 max will also use a lot of VAS during the flight. You have to compromise. I would suggest that the TML and LOD_Radius are based on the FSX defaults the FTX developers used for their products. Going higher is only going to cause issues.

 

Best regards,

[MDF86 123]

What is your Autogen setting?  FTX/Orbx scenery likes trees (as well as Orbx/FTX users!!) and, in a previous version of the Lockheed Martin P3D, Autogen was eating up VAS and many were suffering OOM's. Lockheed Martin changed the VAS memory footprint per tree and reduced the footprint from 276 bytes to 16 bytes (a 17x reduction in system memory per tree). So, if you have Autogen turned up to the max or above "normal", this could be taking an enormous amount of VAS and you will suffer an OOM faster the higher you place the Autogen setting. Check out the FTX scenery guides for Autogen recommendations and/or lower your settings.

 

Texture_Max_Load above 1024 and LOD_Radius above the 4.5 max will also use a lot of VAS during the flight. You have to compromise. I would suggest that the TML and LOD_Radius are based on the FSX defaults the FTX developers used for their products. Going higher is only going to cause issues.

 

Best regards,

 

Jim - autogen set to normal, one of the first things I dialled back to try and improve the situation.

 

I tested TML of 1024 vs 2048 and noticed almost nil difference in my reported VAS usage in Process Explorer. Could you do me a favour and load up the free flight menu and see what your VAS usage is before you even start a flight? In the default trike I'm showing 1.7GB of VAS usage before anything's even loaded and I've begun a flight. That's almost half gone before I start loading up complex scenery, aircraft and AI. This seems really high, is it normal?

 

Thanks

[ryanbatc 12,773]

If you're in Seattle that's probably right...

 

I forgot to mention mine is in the boonies away from any payware scenery...

[molleh 451]

I got similar results with OrbX PNW at Seattle, with the PMDG 777. I would get the low VAS ding from FSUIPC right after taking off. That's with OrbX standard KSEA and no traffic add ons.

 

edit: Why the heck am I commercial member? hahah

[Jim Young 2,356]

edit: Why the heck am I commercial member? hahah

If you're not a commercial member, let me know. Sometimes our big thumbs hit the wrong key....

 

Could you do me a favour and load up the free flight menu and see what your VAS usage is before you even start a flight? In the default trike I'm showing 1.7GB of VAS usage before anything's even loaded and I've begun a flight.

FWIW, I start off with 3.34GB and, after loading the default flight 2.73GB. I think normal. I use the SceneryConfigEditor and only load the scenery I will be using during a particular flight session as I have a ton of Photoscenery. Photoscenery continues to load and take up resources even when not being used so it must be disabled. A lot of Orbx scenery is photoscenery. Unfortunately, you cannot mess with what loads/does not load with Orbx/FTX scenery as that will mess up FTX Central and your scenery.cfg. But, if you are real careful, I have disabled Orbx/FTX scenery I won't be using before a flight and had no problems as long as I remembered to reenable and restart FSX before going into FTX Central and enabling/disabling the Orbx settings. You can also disable FTX scenery you will not be using in the Scenery Library but don't forget to reenable it before shutting down FSX.

 

VAS will fluctuate up and down during a flight. I have all of my VAS usage sent to the FSUIPC log and I can immediately analyze what I started out with and what I had when I ended the flight. I saw many times where the VAS would increase. It all depended where I was located.

 

Best regards,

[molleh 451]

If you're not a commercial member, let me know. Sometimes our big thumbs hit the wrong key....

 

Indeed I am not a commercial member. Thanks for the help!

[Jim Young 2,356]

Fixed. Thanks!

 

Best regards,

[JesC 88]

That's not even with a flight loaded Ryan, that's at the free flight menu with the default trike selected.

 

It might help if you add the "DisablePreLoad" tweek in the fsx.cfg under the MAIN section. Like this:

 

[MAIN]

DisablePreLoad=1

 

That should keep the scenery in your default flight from loading.

[Boeing or not going 578]

You have duplicate afcad files. In the NCA scenery folder remove the 2 KSFO bgl files, do this for any other adddon airports you have in the area. That's the main cause of your oom errors.