P3D 2.4 not letting me complete airliner flights

[carlito777 712]

 

 

Just for grins, how does one remove Tower view and other views?

 

Go into the cameras.cfg and add CycleHidden=Yes to all the views you do not want to be included in the view cycle.

 

 

 

I have removed a few problem BGL from NCA see Orbx forums for that

 

Rob, could you please post a URL to this topic? I have recently searched for this as I remembered reading that turning off some BGLs in NCA can improve performance, but I could't find the topic on the Orbx forum anymore. Thanks!

[Ripcord 12]

Rob,

I know I am asking a lot of questions, but it is not that I do not believe you.  Nor is it some sort of attack on LM or version 2.4.  Not claiming 2.2 was somehow better from a VAS standpoint or any other standpoint.  So no, I'm really not interested in trying to have an intelligent discourse on version 2.4 vs version 2.2 based on any given parameters. 
 
I like version 2.4.  I like Rob A.  Just trying to narrow things down -- which I am doing, slowly (it has been a slog here lately).
 
All I was needing was to ask and get confirmation on the AM question.  I have seen others (in just the last few days) on other forums swearing up and down that AF (set to whatever, it's always different) is somehow part of some majik formula.  So thanks for once again dispelling that theory.

 

I'm not saying OOMs can't happen ... I can induce them with the right combination of add-ons and graphics settings.

 
I gather this.  I am quite good an inducing them : )
 
 

would NOT recommend using ported default FSX aircraft in P3D ... I have done this and ran into VAS and FPS issues and other strange errors.

 

 

At this point, this is about as good an explanation as any.  I might as well restart testing elsewhere, with another aircraft.
 
And I am ready and willing to part with my default 737 at any point (maybe it is the panels which are in .bmp format)... just as soon as I can find another 737 that works better in P3D.

[Blaze 102]

 

 

... just as soon as I can find another 737 that works better in P3D.

 

Milviz B732 or I Fly B737 series will do nicely.

[Guest]

 

 

Rob, could you please post a URL to this topic?

 

There were a few threads on it - this was one of them: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/74207-cranes-san-francisco/

 

The files I've specifically turned OFF for NCA 

 

Dir: ...\ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_NA_NCA05_SCENERY\scenery

 

Files:

FTX_NCA_objects_windfarms_CA_PLC.BGL

FTX_NCA_objects_windfarms_CA_PLC_addtl_static2.BGL

FTX_NCA_objects_windfarms_CA_PLC_addtl_static1.BGL

FTX_NCA_objects_windfarms_CA_PLC_addtl_animated.BGL

FTX_NCA_objects_SRA_marinas_ships_docks_PLC.BGL

FTX_NCA_objects_CA_Oakland.bgl

 

Change the .BGL extension to .OFF or _BGL.OFF

 

 

 

but it is not that I do not believe you.  Nor is it some sort of attack on LM or version 2.4

 

Belief is not needed -- I'd rather you find your own working state for P3D and be your own believer ... you're still in this thread with valid questions, so I know your intent and interest are genuine.

 

I know folks are having issues with P3D, some valid, some not, some still unknown ... is it 3rd party problem or LM problem or a little of both?  I provide/share what has worked for me and ways to work around issues ... I do object to global generalizations around issues i.e. "I and 3 others have this problem so therefore everyone will have this problem".  LM may not be massively involved in the forums, but they do monitor and I do monitor and I report issues to Wes and crew and sometimes I get a response and sometimes don't ... but I try to minimize my distractions as I know they are very aware of what gets posted here and in LM's own forums.

 

I'm just waiting for the AVSIM posts to start up soon -- there about due and usually start with "It's been a month and no update from LM ..." followed by endless speculation that LM is no longer working on P3D, etc. etc.  Just how some people are wired I guess.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[Ripcord 12]

I know you have posted once already in this tread about the ASM or whatever it is, and LM does not support it.  I get that.  But that does not really change the reality that a great many of us have dozens or hundreds of really incredible payware airports that we still want to use in P3D -- and for the most part folks are able.   

 

Again, nobody here is placing any blame on LM.  If anything I am blaming myself for having the wrong settings or too many tweaks borne out of the old FSX minset.  Hell, if not for LM we'd all be on the "Steves DX10 tweaker" forum trying to figure out how to wrestle with FSX CTD/OOM issues.  I'm done with that.  I want to fly now, before I get old.  LM is giving this thing life, and it is the way forward. 

 

All we are talking about here, really, is flying tubeliner flights, from beginning to end, and on what settings.  Might be I just need to kill AI traffic and I'll never know another care in the virtual P3D world.  I hope that's not it, frankly, because I love my AI.  So I am just testing and being a bit of a pest, in that I'm asking a lot of questions.

 

BTW I actually did start my own thread, no meaning to hijack this one, but this one seemed to just take off (no pun intended) and after all, I am staying pretty much on-topic here with the OP.

 

Anyway, sorry to be a pest, and thanks for the assistance.

[AviationEnthusiast 63]

Test Flight (EKCH-ENGM)

 

 

Setup:

 

i5 4670K @4.9GHz (3.4GHz)

R9 280 (non-X) 3GB @1150/1550MHz (980/1350MHz) - equivalent to a stock 770

16GB RAM @2133MHz

1920x1080

 

Settings:

 

Locked at 30 FPS.

 

HDR enabled, Volumetric fog disabled (no impact on my system but I don't care much for it), Cloud density set to Medium and 70 miles, Object shadows set to 6K (plenty), Shadow quality set to Low (sounds horrible but still looks good), Terrain and Cloud shadows set to 0 (but enabled), Interior and Exterior Vehicle set to Cast and Receive. Water reflections set to standard. Scenery complexity set to Extremely Dense. Autogen vegetation density set to Dense, Autogen building density set to Normal. Everything else has been set to maximum.

 

Prepar3d.cfg:

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=16

[Main]

AlwaysFullLoad=1

 

AM=16 works wonders on my system. Perfectly balanced and nets a nice gain of 4-5 FPS under severe weather conditions and airports like EGLL (Aerosoft). There is no change in FPS if not under full load (not related to the above AlwaysFullLoad=1)

 

Addons:

 

FTX Global

FTX Global Vector (everything enabled during this test flight)

REX 4 Texture Direct (1024 textures, dxt1/5, non-HDR textures. Everything installed, including clouds)

FlyTampa Copenhagen Kastrup International (everything enabled (including Copenhagen City .bgl), all jetways and using updated AFCAD, 1024 textures - non HIRES)

Aerosoft Mega Airport Oslo V2.04 (everything enabled)

Ultimate Traffic 2 (the ENTIRE section under the Traffic tab in P3D has been set to either 0 or disabled. Everything. Inside UT2, Display Traffic is set to 65% and 15% (airlines and ga)

Aerosoft A318/A319 (I used the A319 for the flight)

OpusFSI

 

FS Global Ultimate is currently uninstalled. I will install it this weekend and do another flight to see if it makes a difference.

 

Result

 

EKCH: 28.2 FPS (average, recorded) from gate through initial climb. Weather condition: Overcast

ENGM: 25.7 FPS from approach to gate. Weather condition: Heavy snow

 

Locked at 30 FPS inbetween and no VAS issues whatsoever. No alerts from FSUIPC either. I've also successfully completed multiple flights from EKCH to LOWW with Aerosoft's Brandenburg enabled.

 

 

I never thought I would come to love P3D but weeks of meticulous tests and refusing to give up, it's now performing better than FSX ever did and with far better visuals to boot. I'm impressed with what LM has done so far and very much look forward to the next patch!

 

Do yourself a favor, temper your expectations and keep your settings in check and I see no reason why you would run out of VAS all the time. Don't max the settings out just because, take your time and find that sweet spot. It's well worth it.

[GSalden 4,657]

Nice vid Rob..

 

Regarding your anti-oom list :

SimStarter is what I use to select the countries I fly over. As I have almost only photo scenery this is a must ( I only fly in Eu and to Tunesia ).

I have created a sceneryset for every country twice : daytime and nighttime ( includes Night Environment Countries ).

They also include all airports in that country.

My scenery library contains around 400 entries.

 

Because I am using the Ifly CBE I have all flight displays on my client and have a 2D outside view without any instruments .

That helps a little with keeping VAS usage lower.

 

I really hope LM can tune VAS usage a little more as the idea of P3D was being a smoother , improved and more real Flightsimulator than FSX.

 

Instead of the anti stutter tuning with FSX to run "smooth" , with P3D we now need to be VAS usage tuners.....

[carlito777 712]

 

 

The files I've specifically turned OFF for NCA

 

Thanks, Rob!

 

SimStarter is what I use to select the countries I fly over.

 

I also use SimStarter to manage the scenery library and also to maintain different profiles for VFR and IFR flying. This way I created an IFR profile where a lot of the settings are turned down as you don't need a lot of the eye candy when flying IFR anyways. Things like water detail, autogen etc. can be easily turned downed without affecting the immersion when flying tubeliners. And it saves VAS...

 

 

 

As I have almost only photo scenery

 

How do you manage to get sharp fotoscenery in the distance? Do you dial up the LOD or do you just accept that fotoscenery tends to be much more blurry in the distance then in FSX?

[Guest]

 

 

I really hope LM can tune VAS usage a little more as the idea of P3D was being a smoother

 

I think my suggestion is that "how do you know the VAS issue is LM's issue and not a 3rd party issue?"  Like I said, LM do not support ASM (since v2.3 onwards), so if ASM is being used by 3rd party then one would need to determine if the use of ASM is indeed causing memory issues.  Is it LM's issue or is it 3rd party issue or is it a little of both (need to keep an open mind here  until more data can be provided) ... but a good way to eliminate variables is to compare a v2.2 base (no add-ons) a v2.4 base (no add-ons) and look at the VAS numbers. 

 

 

 

But that does not really change the reality that a great many of us have dozens or hundreds of really incredible payware airports that we still want to use in P3D -- and for the most part folks are able. 

 

Yes, and some payware causes VAS issues and some does not - doesn't really change that ASM is not being supported?  Not exactly sure what your point is here?  There is a huge amount of compatibility code in P3D that does have an impact on performance, ASM was just too much of a performance problem so it's no longer supported.  Are you saying all the 3rd party devs need to go update all their older products to remove/update any BGLs that are a result from ASM methods?  I don't think that will happen unless folks are will to pay for updates (additional dev work done) ... and from what I gather many end users have expressed they don't want to pay for updates for their existing products.

 

 Best we can hope for is that future products that are claiming to be a P3D product are indeed not using unsupported methods ... that's in the hands of 3rd party.  But keep in mind there are many "unsupported" methods being used in FSX and sometimes they do indeed cause conflicts between products because product A is expecting something to be "unchanged" yet product B has changed it.  

 

Also it's important to keep in mind 3rd party devs go outside the SDK primarily to bring a better product ... this worked well for an unchanging FSX, but it'll need a serious re-think for an evolving P3D ... sticking to the SDK and it's limits becomes more significant as does request feature changes to be added to the SDK.

 

As far as AI, depends ... I use UT2 at 20% because it's a huge consumer of VAS and to be fair to P3D, UT2 is an FSX product (there is no P3D version).  But if I run into performance and/or VAS issues, UT2 is the first thing I'll go to reduce memory usage, takes some trial and error.

 

Personally I can't wait for a 64bit P3D ... it'll open doors like nothing ever has before ... lets hope 3rd party enters those doors ... it'll take a few key ones to start the ball rolling.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[GSalden 4,657]

Rob, if I load a flight and then change to another country, airport and daytime and detailed settings, I can cause OOMs.

 

Like advised before I first save the new situation as the Main flight, shutdown P3D and than reload the new situation, I do not get OOMs.

 

No ASM scenery added, but I can cause an OOM.

[nicksort 8]

so if ASM is being used by 3rd party then one would need to determine if the use of ASM is indeed causing memory issues.

 

Cheers, Rob.

How can I tell which payware is using ASM?

[Guest]

Rob, if I load a flight and then change to another country, airport and daytime and detailed settings, I can cause OOMs.

 

Ok, sorry I thought you were referring to OOM's beyond what has already been reported to LM.  That scenario you present has been reported by myself and others some time ago.

 

 

 

How can I tell which payware is using ASM?

 

Before you go down this road, I want to be clear, because they use ASM that isn't necessarily the source of VAS issues ... I'm being careful to NOT make that assumption.  I'm simply letting folks know ASM is not supported and it could be a potential for memory issues, not that it IS the source of memory issues.  Important to understand that before hunting out ASM usage in 3rd party.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[nicksort 8]

Before you go down this road, I'm want to be clear, because they use ASM isn't necessarily the source ... I'm being careful to NOT make that assumption.  I'm simply letting folks know ASM is not supported and it could be a potential for memory issues, not that it IS the source of a memory issue.  Important to understand that before hunting out ASM usage in 3rd party.

 

Cheers, Rob.

Understood, I am just wanting to understand more about this and also look at the payware I have. I am going to try additional changes this weekend that I have read in this post to see what may be causing my issues as I do believe that it is the way I have may configured my setup. I will turn all addon payware airports off and test my problem routes to see if OOM occurs, if yes I will next turn off FTX one by one and recheck. I was not aware of the issue you had mentioned about certain .bgl files, this is an area I fly in that I am having a OOM problem with.

Anyways if you choose not to disclose what to look for I can understand your stance but as I said earlier all I wanted to do is to see if my payware is based with it.....

 

Thank you for your help and guidance in this thread..... Nick

[Ripcord 12]

Yes, and some payware causes VAS issues and some does not - doesn't really change that ASM is not being supported?  Not exactly sure what your point is here?  There is a huge amount of compatibility code in P3D that does have an impact on performance, ASM was just too much of a performance problem so it's no longer supported.  Are you saying all the 3rd party devs need to go update all their older products to remove/update any BGLs that are a result from ASM methods?

Good God, man, no I am not interested in any of this. I understand your point about ASM and I appreciate that is part of the cause. I acknowledge it and seek work around it. That's it. I'm interesting in a workaround solution TODAY that is a function of finding the right settings, to get in and out of these VAS-challenged airports. I see others doing it, I want to do it too. That's about the extent of my point.

 

I am not trying to make some kind of point or accusation or engage in any kind of hi-level debate. I'm not part of any kind of LM P3D Steering Committee, though I agree with your points that LM is moving in the right direction. I am just trying to test and try settings (not tweaks) that will enable to fly into these airports, some of which are known to cause some VAS issues. Again, don't really care about the ASM support or lack of support, as there is really nothing I can do about it now, is there? I already own the 100+ airports. Now how can I fly my A318/A319/A320/A321 or Dash 8 Q400 in and out of them, GIVEN what we know... the alternative is to just scrap them and not use them at all. That is a far less interesting alternative, you will agree.

 

@DanishFlyer

 

Your post was really helpful -- with exception of the last line which reveals a rather unfair assumption on your part that I have my settings maxed. I do not. In fact my settings are lower than yours. That irritated me a little, but probably I just haven't had my coffee yet. Moving on....

 

You and I have almost exactly the same system and same addons, so this is very useful. Thank you for posting all this. I run MyTraffic 5.4 (which I read is more VAS/FPS friendly), that is one small difference.

 

You OC, and I have never chosen to do this. I am not opposed to trying it. I run a i7 4770k at 3.5GHz. Perhaps I need to reconsider doing this? Opinions/comments?

 

Then we come back to the Affinity Mask setting discussion. You really seem to swear by this setting -- you see an increase in FPS, but does it help VAS?

 

Another question on your test flight - did you disable any OTHER scenery besides those two airports? I am experiementing with this right now.

[carlito777 712]

 

 

You OC, and I have never chosen to do this. I am not opposed to trying it. I run a i7 4770k at 3.5GHz. Perhaps I need to reconsider doing this? Opinions/comments?

 

Overclocking will certainly not help with VAS issues. As long as you are satisfied with the current performance of your system, then I would first try to reduce the problems you have with VAS before starting to overclock. Overclocking Haswell is not trivial (it is more difficult than overclocking Sandy or Ivy Bridge CPUs) and if you don't know what you are doing, this will most likely lead to CTDs in P3D. Don't get me wrong. I'm not telling you that overclocking is something bad. I have overclocked my 4770K to 4.6 GHz as well. But I had to put in quite some work to get a Prime stable overclock. This is not as easy as using some presets in the BIOS! So when trying to overclock you should know what you are doing so that you don't add even more trouble to your setup.