Activesky Next Causing Fsx To Freeze

[Ianir 0]

So after a few weeks of continued mid flight freezing I started to freack out. I tried everything there is online to try, reinstalled FSX, reinstalled Windows. Ended up formatting my hard drive and starting fresh.

 

But the mid flight freezeing continued and I can only blame one thing: Active Sky Next. I tried flying with it and sometimes it freezes (specially on long flights) and sometimes it doesnt, but without it FSX has never freezed.

 

I have FSX + Acceleration, latest FSUIPC (not registered), W7 Ultimate 64 bits and Active Sky Next (B5226, latest hot fix available).

 

Any ideas?

[RomeoMike 10]

Did you exclude ASN from your anti-virus software?

[Jim Young 2,356]

ASN is a killer especially on long flights.  Have you ever checked your fsuipc.log to see if you are getting warnings that you are about to run out of memory?  If you have a program that you use for clouds, are the cloud settings above 1024?  2048 and 4096 textures are memory killers even with the most powerful computer systems.  The clouds do not look bad in 1024 and 512 formats.  That's what I have but have Texture_Max_Load set to 2048.  That's a high setting too for long flights but I manage to land.  The arrival and landing are especially difficult as the system seems to be fighting to stay alive but I still have fps above 30.

 

You can monitor your VAS:

 

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.”

 

You can also run Process Monitor like I did to pinpoint and find out why my FSX was always freezing at a certain location (it was a bad schedule in MyTrafficX):

 

Setting up the Process Monitor for FSX – Another investigative tool used to pin down a situation where FSX/P3D freezes, crashes, or stutters/pauses during a flight is to run a utility called Process Monitor - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645. During your flight, this utility monitors activity such as calling textures, AI aircraft schedules, ATC, weather updates, and scenery loading. When FSX/P3D stutters or FPS drop dramatically you simply write down the time it occurred. This is important as thousands of entries are made every minute, every second. Continue doing this throughout the flight. Of course, if it freezes, you will know what was going on before the sim froze. This utility will not show you a definitive cause of your issue but it will show you what add-ons were being loaded about when you received the stutter, the long pause(s), and the freeze and you can further investigate by disabling that scenery, that aircraft, or whatever might have caused the event. One member used this utility to determine that My Traffic X, version 5.4c was the cause of a BEX/StackHash/NTDLL.dll crash he was getting. It was easy to disable My Traffic X in the Scenery Library and find that FSX no longer crashed.

 

AVSIM recommends you do not run a flight any longer than 60 minutes as the Process Monitor log becomes quite large. For a 60 minutes flight, expect the file to be at least as large as 8GB’s or tens of millions of captured events. Make sure you delete the log or move it to another drive after you have finished your testing to free up HDD space. Another recommended tip is to make sure you use system time to mark the time of each event and do not use an external clock unless they are sync’d. Going through one minute of a glitch is a massive amount of data needed to be reviewed (it goes fast as thousands of entries just show a scenery being loaded).

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

[Ianir 0]

I have Texture_Max_Load set to 1024, not even 2048. And even it was allowed throught the firewall I opened the default ASN port, but its quite odd since it does work simetimes, I mean, is not like the ASN can't connect to the server, it connects OK...

[Renofsx 0]

I have the same problem with Active Sky Next. FSX freezes with the blue round cursor revolving. I am using FSX with the following Add On, PMDG 777-200LR, FSPassenger, Just Flight Traffic 360,  Active Sky Next SP1, Fly Tampa Dubai. I am flying from OMDB to WSSS(Singapore) since it is a 8 hour flight, I am using PMDG Auto Cruise Acceleration x4, wonder if it has anything to do with that.

 

The freezing of FSX has only started since I am using Active Sky Next. Would appreciate any suggestions to fix this issue.

 

Thanks

Reno

[Jim Young 2,356]

The freezes could be caused by anything. Did AppCrashView (see AVSIM CTD Guide for link to download) show an ASN module was at fault? HiFi has listed some things to check on page 10 of their Users Guide. You need to make sure ASN is properly set up.

 

AVSIM also has an unofficial ActiveSky Forum here that might also offer you some information about your problem. If you are positive it is ASN causing the problem and you cannot get help from the users guide or the forum, then I would submit a trouble ticket on their website. You might want to see what the faulting module is first via the AppCrashView program.

 

FSX Freezes are common as shown in the AVSIM CTD Guide. You just have to do a lot of investigation to see why the freeze is occurring on YOUR system as every system is different.

 

Best regards,

[Guest JustanotherPilot]

Create a ticket at www.HiFitechnic.com(the authors of ASN) and explain your problem - excellent support service.

[Cfoley 4]

"ASN is a killer especially on long flights.  Have you ever checked your fsuipc.log to see if you are getting warnings that you are about to run out of memory?  If you have a program that you use for clouds, are the cloud settings above 1024?  2048 and 4096 textures are memory killers even with the most powerful computer systems.  The clouds do not look bad in 1024 and 512 formats.  That's what I have but have Texture_Max_Load set to 2048.  That's a high setting too for long flights but I manage to land.  The arrival and landing are especially difficult as the system seems to be fighting to stay alive but I still have fps above 30."

 

Jim, 

 

I recently purchased ASN because my FS Global Real Weather no longer gets connectivity for live weather for some reason.   I have noticed that ASN is very high on usage in VAS.  You mention about setting your clouds?  Are you referring to FSX settings?  I read a post that ASN overrides FSX weather settings.   Is there a way to set them in ASN?   I did a test flight from from KLAX to KSEA without problems, but noticed it was eating up my VAS on my QW757, and I never have VAS numbers go low with the 757.  I would like to try an international flight with the PMDG 747 or 777, but don't need any Fatal Error issues after a few hours flying.  My FSX weather settings is as follows:

 

Cloud Draw 90 mi/144 km

Detailed clouds selected

Cloud coverage density: Low

Thermal visualation: None

 

Sincerely

Cray

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

I recently purchased ASN because my FS Global Real Weather no longer gets connectivity for live weather for some reason. I have noticed that ASN is very high on usage in VAS. You mention about setting your clouds? Are you referring to FSX settings? I read a post that ASN overrides FSX weather settings. Is there a way to set them in ASN? I did a test flight from from KLAX to KSEA without problems, but noticed it was eating up my VAS on my QW757, and I never have VAS numbers go low with the 757. I would like to try an international flight with the PMDG 747 or 777, but don't need any Fatal Error issues after a few hours flying. My FSX weather settings is as follows:

 

 

Hi Cray,

 

Just to make sure you realize that ASN does not install cloud textures.  It uses the default clouds or whatever addon program you installed that has new cloud textures (i.e., REX or FEX).  I am not familiar with FS Global Real Weather and do not know if they install cloud textures.  But, if they installed cloud textures to replace your default, then those are the cloud textures being rendered while using ASN.  REX and FEX have internal settings that also determine texture resolution and they also control the Texture Compression (i.e., using 32 bit compression or DXT5).  If you use 32 bit compression algorithm for low-level and high/med level clouds, it will be a FPS killer and use more VAS.  If your texture resolution for clouds is set a 4096 for low-level and high/mid level clouds, this too will be a fps and VAS killer.  There is a setting in the fsx.cfg for texture_max_load that can also be set to 4096 but, if you have the cloud resolutions set lower in REX or FEX, then those textures will be used (I'm pretty sure I'm right here).

 

ASN also has some fps and VAS killer settings because they increase the eye-candy but they are not included with the default settings.  So, if you change any of the default ASN settings, then you might have even more resources being used.  Clouds are an eye-candy issue.  Everyone likes to fly in the most realistic setting but I believe the default settings will give you good performance plus some excellent eye-candy clouds.  In any case, you control the beasts.

 

I use the 2048 resolutions for low level and high/mid level clouds.  I have DXT5 set for texture compressions.  I have tried the 32 bit texture compressions for clouds but the setting almost brought my computer to its knees (I have the i7 4770K, 780GTX Video Card). 

 

I pretty much use the default settings in ASN except for the following:

 

Max cloud turbulence from 100 to 0.  Turbulence in FSX (and P3D) does not work well and a fps killer (major killer).

Max cloud icing from 100 to 0.  Why would I even think about putting icing in the clouds.  I don't use realistic airframe settings when flying PMDG products anyway.  I'm just out to have fun.

Enhance overcast conditions - True

High detail thunderstorm clouds - True

 

Your flight from KLAX to KSEA is a long one and, if you are having no problems (other than VAS running low), then you should be okay.  As long as you have around 400-500KB's of VAS remaining on landing, you should have no problems.  The KSEA has always been a resource intense area so it would be normal to have low FPS and VAS when approaching this area.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

[Cfoley 4]

Jim,

 

I am afraid I don't know what REX or FEX is or where it is located.  They can be adjusted?  I did not make any changes in the ASN settings.  Everyting was set when I purchased. 

 

As for that flight from KLAX to KSEA with QW757 (The only plane that has good VAS and no fatal errors), my VAS at the start was 68  In flight it was around 123, and 55 at landing.  Without ASN, it would usually be aroud 230.  Both are add on airports, so I know those would take a hit, but not with QW757.

 

Update:  I found out that REX is a weather add on.  I thought it was a file in FSX for weather, etc.  I don't have REX.  I guess FEX is also another weather add on?   Other than FSGlobal Weather, and now ASN,  I don't have any other weather add on.  And as for FSX weather,  I have it set as what I mentioned in my above post.  Pretty much to a minimum.

 

Sincerely,

Cray

[Cfoley 4]

Another new problem.  GSX Ground services now have no sound.  I wonder if ASN had anything to do with this new problem?

[Damian Clark 948]

Hi Cray,

 

Please open a ticket at http://support.hifitechinc.com .  I see this is an old thread and we've had a few updates to ASN since, and would want to treat this as a new issue.

 

There is no known issue related to sound/GSX but we'd be happy to investigate and do anything we can to help.

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

Update: I found out that REX is a weather add on. I thought it was a file in FSX for weather, etc. I don't have REX. I guess FEX is also another weather add on? Other than FSGlobal Weather, and now ASN, I don't have any other weather add on. And as for FSX weather, I have it set as what I mentioned in my above post. Pretty much to a minimum.

 

No.  REX and FEX are programs that replace your textures.  REX did release a weather program but it is a program that allows you to create the weather, not real world.  Since you own neither, forget everything I said about REX and FEX.  I was just trying to show that those programs also have settings that affect FSX. 

 

Best regards,

[Cfoley 4]

JIm,

 

Thanks for the help.  i attempted another flight with PMDG 737-900 NGX from KLAX to PANC with ASN.  It was 5 hours.   It went smoothly and I used your suggestions with the settings in ASN.  But get this,  when I was attempting to land,  the landing gear would not come down.  I used FS Passengers on this flight and the FS Passengers pilot voice said there is some type of malfunction when I attempted to put the landing gear down.  I did have FSX failures disabled and did not use GSX ground services.  Actually,  I can't use GSX with the PMDG 737 because the auto pilot will not work.  No big deal though.   I had to belly land the plane on the runway.  Don't know what would have caused this.  Never happened before.  Funny how one ploblem after another seems to crop up.

 

Cray

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

I did have FSX failures disabled and did not use GSX ground services.

 

I'm pretty sure FS Passengers has the ability to cause malfunctions.  I suspect you have the latest version of FS Passengers.  Of course PMDG has malfunctions you can set up too but they are not turned on by default but you could have accidentally turned them on.  So you might check those programs.  The ones for the PMDG can be controlled through the PMDG settings in the FMC.  You could have one of the settings set at Auto so that you never know what will come next or be prepared for. 

 

Hope your virtual passengers got out okay!!  Sounds like you had a successful belly landing!

 

Best regards,