FSX start-stopping on approach

[jonny102002 0]

Hello all, 

 

Firstly let me preface my question by saying that I have been searching on the forums and on google for quite a while, and as yet haven't found an answer to my problem. So if my question has been answered before (amongst the 3000 odd pages of topics), I'm sorry to bring it up again, and would you be so kind as to point me the right direction? Thanks! 

 

Anyway, on with the problem. So far this has happened to me in 4 different places in the world - first on Geneva approach in PMDG 737 (on a previous install of FSX...now it doesn't happen there for some reason), Zurich (PMDG 737), Florence LIRQ (Carenado cessna - can't remember which) and New York Kennedy (FSlabs concorde), with KJFK being the most recent.

 

What happens is that approaching ILS capture, and from then until shutdown, FSX begins to freeze for 5 seconds or so, then unfreeze for 5 seconds. This repeats over and over again, with the freezes getting longer as I approach the airport. Obviously when it happens now I simply switch off, as I know what will happen. But on a couple of occasions I've let the plane autoland to see if it disappears once at the airport, or below a certain speed, but it doesn't seem to do so. 

 

At first I thought that it must have something to do with being close to mountains, until it happened in New York (incidentally, it happens at La Guardia as well, so it must be something other than airport specific scenery). 

 

In Italy it didn't happen at nearby Pisa. 

 

I have landed in Innsbruck, Sion, Salzburg, and many other places in the mountains, so it can't be that!

 

If I load up FSX starting at one of these airports it happens as well (not only approaching ILS). 

 

It's definitely not linked to graphic settings - the disruption to framerate when I have stuff turned up to high is very distinct to this.

 

Most of the places I land are totally fine, but it's just these few (and I assume some others that I've never landed at) that have the problems. 

 

So, in advance many thanks. I dearly hope that someone has seen/heard about this problem, as I don't want to live my life not flying to New York!!!!

 

Jon Cottle

[outofphaze 4]

My guess is you have FSdreamteam LSZH, and maybe jfk? 

 

Go into your your fsx library and un check LSZH, after that go and try out the standard FSX LSZH scenery, and all should be fine.

[Jim Young 2,356]

As stated here several times, it appears you are running low on Virtual Address Space (VAS). This happens on long flights and while approaching an airport. Unfortunately we are seeing this a lot more as technology advances and provides us with high powered computers and only 4GB's of VAS. The problem with high-powered computers is the fact everyone thinks wrongly they can crank up the FSX and display driver settings. This reduces the amount of VAS available near the end of a flight especially if the flight is for longer than 1 hour. Things get pretty nasty near the end when you only have maybe 400 or 500 MB's of VAS left and, to make matters worse, you need more VAS as approaches are historically bad on frame rates and memory. So, you have to lower some of your settings, especially the LOD_Radius (if above 4.5) and the Texture_Max_Load (if above 1024). AVSIM has a very good guide on configuring FSX for most computer systems. The AVSIM FSX Guide is located to the right of this forum under Hot Spots. Tweaks can take up more memory resources too but one of the biggest memory hogs is Autogen and anything above normal might give you lots of problems depending on your other settings and your flight plan. Back in the old days (before Sandy Bridge), we didn't have this problem too much as people didn't crank up their settings back then. AVSIM also has an excellent CTD Guide located to the right of this forum under Hot Spots. It provides some possible solutions for those periodic and permanent freezes and information about VAS.

 

During your flight you can monitor the amount of VAS being used on your computer. Here's a quick guide (which we plan to incorporate in the next version of the CTD Guide:

 

Monitoring VAS in FSX or P3DV2 – 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.

 

You might be interested in a utility in our AVSIM Library called Quantum Leap which allows you to speed up your trip across the US or any ocean but it requires the payware version of the FSUIPC utility - http://library.avsim...php?DLID=179703. According to the developer, “this utility was written to allow an FSX aircraft established at cruise to "leap" to a point further along the flight plan track. It allows the user to select a nav fix or manually enter coordinates for the jump-ahead point, as well as setting a new time in the simulation to be set at the designated leap-ahead point. The primary objective was to leap forward on very long haul flights to eliminate long periods of droning or wrestling with accelerated flight. It was tested with the PMDG® 777 and 737NGX simulations, but will most likely work with most other add-ons.”

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

[outofphaze 4]

 

 

As stated here several times, it appears you are running low on Virtual Address Space (VAS).

 

I do not agree with that assessment. 

 

I have never seen that kind of behaviour because of low VAS. 

 

VAS doesn't work that way. 

 

You either run out of it or not, but performance does not degrade as the VAS in use grows. 

 

I am pretty sure he has the payware LSZH installed, as I have seen this behaviour on other systems before at that airport, and it instantly disappeared once that scenery was unchecked. 

[Jim Young 2,356]

I do not agree with that assessment.

It has happened to me. I usually don't write things unless I have experienced it myself. If you use the fsuipc.dll utility, it will chime with warnings that memory is getting low near the end of a flight. For me, when it gets down to about 400 MB, I have to take immediate steps to shutdown before the FSX freezes up. Payware airports only increase the possibilities. Chicago KORD and JFK NY are two other airports that are frame rate intense depending on other settings and trying to land at them in real weather after a 2 hour flight will make your sim a slideshow. To blame the payware airport is wrong. Of course, if you disable the airport the problems will go away. What happens when he/she takes off from that airport? No problems! In any case, I gave the individual the tool to check it out for himself. Maybe I'm wrong and you're right. Thanks for your input.

 

Best regards,

[jonny102002 0]

Thank you all for the very in-depth replies - I appreciate the answers greatly. 

 

Firehawk - I understand what you say, which is why (and I believe I wrote this in my post) I already tried loading FSX at the problem airport with all local scenery turned off (leaving just fsx default) in the default ultralight, and the problem is still there. 

 

It is definitely not a problem with framerates, and trying to do too much with my computer - I already have read a ton of stuff, and have taken the necessary steps to get a pretty decent average framerate.

 

. I will try with zurich unchecked (although not sure why it would have an impact on new york), and get back to you all. 

 

Thanks again

[ZKOKQ 986]

I landed in FSDT LSZH yesterday with 1.5gb of free VAS, and it did the same to me. On approach. Runway 34. Once I passed the first terminal, it stopped, the stutter I mean.

 

I can land @ UK2000 EGGL, without one stutter. This might have to be looked at by Umberto at FSDT. So to the OP, it is not your rig, it is the airport.

It never used to do this, so it could be another addon like AES causing this, not sure, but it is the only thing I have updated recently.

[jonny102002 0]

OKay, so I turned off Zurich, and the problem is still there!

 

Sitting on the runway at LIRQ turning obvious scenery things off one by one (i.e. nearby airports/sceneries) and i'll go further away bit by bit, and let's see if we can't find the culprit. 

 

But what I don't understand is that it's doing this at airports which have nothing extra installed - literally the closet addon scenery I have to KJFK is KORD - and LIRQ anything that I had there was very light anyway. 

 

Badfinger - nice to know someone else has the same problem. Let me know if you ever discover anything! 

 

xx