777 OOM - depleted VAS (my brand)

[Slick9 24]

As noted above this is about my brand of OOM (depleted VAS) issues that I've seen recently.  I stress this because as we all know FSX's VAS challenges can be personal as hairstyles (in my case, no hair, as dictated by nature).

 

I just wanted to post this in case someone else is experiencing something similar, this is an option to try. 

 

I am on Windows 7 64bit, and I use:

Many ORBX regions and airports as well as Global and Vector (not updated yet)

FS2 Crew (NGX & 777)

GSE

UTX

ASN (networked) w/ REX 4 textures (1024 x 1024)

My LOD is set at 4.5 and I use DX-10 (Steve's DX10 fixer)

 

UT2 100%

Road, Shipping, and Airport Vehicles set at 14%

I use Scenery Explorer (I think that's the name) to disable regions/sceneries I'm not flying into.

 

I have my VAS under control, but occasionally I will experience a VAS leak, as in I can sit in one place (parked at a gate) and watch my VAS usage grow until the FSX OOMs. 

 

-When I have this problem it typically affects both the NGX and the 777.

-It affects both default and addon airports (VAS "leaks" at default airports at a slower rate).

 

 

I first noticed the problem trying to fly into KSEA with the ORBX PNW region enabled - I got the "ding, ding" warning and my monitor almost lost its life (thank goodness I calmed down)

 

After much frustration, and slow elimination of the usual suspects I narrowed my version of the VAS creep to only occurring when using ASN.  I could run the T7 or NGX for 24 hours with my set up with FSX Real time weather with no issues, but if I used ASN, my VAS would grow from the initial load of around 3.043 (used VAS) to OOM in about an hour or so.  I talked to the Hi Fi guys and they were not able to help me. 

 

Long story short I ended up having to uninstall ASN and reinstall it and bingo, my VAS usage sitting at KSEA in the T7 or NGX w/ UT100%, FS2Crew, GES, UTX, and ORBX PNW grows from 3.043 to about 3.389 and stays stable (max period I tested was 24 hours)  After this I was able to fly in and out of KSEA PNW, or any of my other add-on airports with no issues. 

 

Then I upgraded the T7 to SP1b and C and purchased the 300ER and boom the problem came back - I was on my way from KWMH PNW to New Orleans default (KMSY) in the T7 and "ding ding" OOM, my monitor's life was threatened once again.  I checked a few things and finally said "last time uninstalling and reinstalling ASN worked to cure my VAS "leak", let's try it again"  Happy to report the annoying VAS hole is plugged (little humor ) and no longer leaking. I'm back in the air and flying where ever I wish and landing with no OOMs.

 

So bottom line for me is this, on my setup FSX appears to want something that ASN installs to be installed after the T7 is installed/upgraded on my system.  I hope this helps someone if they are experiencing something similar or maybe gives them some ideas to try or sets off the "aha" light bulb for some reason.  OOMs are extremely frustrating and investigating them is equally frustrating so I just wanted to throw a little bit more knowledge onto the knowledge pile. I know there is nothing new in here, but sometimes just seeing the same info presented in a different fashion can make the difference.

 

Let me tell you of the ultimate flight simmer's fantasy - ok, maybe the second ultimate. The ultimate fantasy is that you're over the Atlantic at FL360 and all of a sudden you are somehow transferred from your simming set up with the PMDG 777 to a real 777 flight deck and to boot you have 20,000 hours in type.

 

Barring that, and closer to reality, is the fantasy that we wake up one morning, go to the AVSIM frontpage and see Tom Allensworth's post "BREAKING NEWS, BREAKING NEWS!!!" FSX VAS limitation solved!!!!!

 

Maybe...

 

Richard

 

 

[CaptKornDog 282]

I wanted to quickly post a big THANK YOU for sharing your experience. For whatever reason last week, I started to notice OOMs when flying flights as short as 2-3 hours. I used to be able to fly JFK-LAX with addon scenery in the 77L no problem (and even well beyond that, JFK-HNL, etc). With DX10 and my balanced settings, seeing an OOM is very rare for me. I started to do some testing and essentially any semi-complicated payware plane even at default airports, default terrain/meshes would OOM in just a few hours. Using Process Explorer I could easily see the VAS available deplete and bleed at a rate much higher than normal; without even touching anything.

 

Naturally, I searched the forums and couldn't find anything specific other than the usual lower settings, reduce active sceneries, etc. This post certainly made me look closer at ASN. I've never had any problems with it over the year I've been using it.

 

I finally flew a test flight without it open and noticed some better VAS performance but still worse than normal on my setup. I completely uninstalled it and flew another test flight (same scenario as previously, trying to keep as many variables controlled as possible, except for live weather). Voila, my VAS usage was back to normal levels for my system. I flew easily 10+ hours and saw only a marginal increase in VAS.

 

Currently, I just reinstalled ASN and am 12+ hours into another test with the 77L at much more normal VAS usage rates. Obviously, I'll run a few more controlled tests before making a definitive conclusion. But for whatever reason, these symptoms started suddenly happening to me and reinstalling ASN appears so far to be alleviating them.

 

In full disclosure, I'm planning on reinstalling FSX anyway soon; usually find myself doing it every 1-2 years to knock the rust out of the install (not to mention I'm closely keeping an eye on FSX:SE in case I decide to make the purchase sometime) but again, THANK YOU for posting your experience.

[Big_Duke 11]

Will either of you two take this over to the HiFi ASN forum? I, too, noticed a strange VAS bleed issue the other day flying a relatively short leg from PANC to KORD. Where I'd normally maintain close to 2GB free VAS all the way with the 777F, this time I "bled" down to only about 600MB free VAS upon reaching the freight terminal at KORD (FSDT). Like Kyle, I wouldn't have normally associated this with ASN as I've had good luck with it. I haven't changed anything else in my system, so now I guess I'll have to look closer at ASN.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I think the only way ASN could cause this would be due to the amount of clouds/layers/thickness it's trying to depict, as well as your cloud draw distance settings in the ASN UI. Of course if your running larger resolution cloud textures and have a ton of clouds it's trying to depict and draw distances are way out, it will cause more VAS usage. There is also another setting in the ASN UI, for visibility that if enabled can cause more VAS usage. Can't think of it off the top of my head and am not at my computer (think it's the enhanced overcast or reduced cloud visibility option), but it's mentioned in the ASN manual.

 

I've not had any problems personally with even lousy weather depictions using ASN causing VAS issues, but I keep my cloud draw distance to around 90 miles, limit 4 layers of clouds, don't use enhanced overcast option and run 1024x1024 clouds.

 

Also, ASN itself running on the same computer can't cause any VAS issue since it runs in its own address space. Only if you crank up the depiction settings can cause performance issues.

 

 

Sean Campbell

[CaptKornDog 282]

I think the only way ASN could cause this would be due to the amount of clouds/layers/thickness it's trying to depict, as well as your cloud draw distance settings in the ASN UI. Of course if your running larger resolution cloud textures and have a ton of clouds it's trying to depict and draw distances are way out, it will cause more VAS usage. There is also another setting in the ASN UI, for visibility that if enabled can cause more VAS usage. Can't think of it off the top of my head and am not at my computer (think it's the enhanced overcast or reduced cloud visibility option), but it's mentioned in the ASN manual.

 

I've not had any problems personally with even lousy weather depictions using ASN causing VAS issues, but I keep my cloud draw distance to around 90 miles, limit 4 layers of clouds, don't use enhanced overcast option and run 1024x1024 clouds.

 

Also, ASN itself running on the same computer can't cause any VAS issue since it runs in its own address space. Only if you crank up the depiction settings can cause performance issues.

 

 

Sean Campbell

 

One my tests included 512x512 clouds, 4 layers maximum, and 60 miles visibility when I experienced the VAS issues.  So, unfortunately, it wasn't that simple on my machine.

[Pilot53 544]

I made a post about oom's and memory leaks a few weeks ago, Basically I found that if you are making changes to the scenery library while in flight fsx will leak memory.  The leak becomes part of that flight and even if you save and reload the flight it will still leak memory.  So make sure you load the scenery you want before you start the flight.

[CaptKornDog 282]

I made a post about oom's and memory leaks a few weeks ago, Basically I found that if you are making changes to the scenery library while in flight fsx will leak memory.  The leak becomes part of that flight and even if you save and reload the flight it will still leak memory.  So make sure you load the scenery you want before you start the flight.

 

During my testing, I did not make any changes to the scenery library in flight.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

One my tests included 512x512 clouds, 4 layers maximum, and 60 miles visibility when I experienced the VAS issues. So, unfortunately, it wasn't that simple on my machine.

What about the enhanced overcast and the other option I mentioned, do you have those ticked or unticked. One of them, I think is the enhanced overcast option is known and states in the manual that is can use more resources. If both of those are unchecked you'll probably have to open a ticket on the Hifisim site so they can help.

 

As I mentioned, I'm using the latest build and have flown all types of conditions using ASN and the whole PMDG line of products and never had ASN cause any memory problems.

 

 

Sean Campbell

 

Btw, are you using 512 DXT or 32bit textures? If 32 bit, try installing the DXT versions.

[pcubine 143]

As I mentioned, I'm using the latest build and have flown all types of conditions using ASN and the whole PMDG line of products and never had ASN cause any memory problems.

 

Sean

What Slick9 says doesn't seem like it would work but I am going to try it. When you have tried everything and still receive OOM anything is worth a try. The last 777F flight I did from EDDP to KLAX I had to save it three times because I was getting close to the 4GB limit. The second save came after flying over the North Atlantic. The Water was set at low 1.x. VAS started at 2.6 and went to 3.9. Figure that one out. You might be interested in this post http://forum.avsim.net/topic/458689-liveryoom/. It was not the livery or the T7 but whatever started it is going on two months later. So I will try anything.

[CaptKornDog 282]

What about the enhanced overcast and the other option I mentioned, do you have those ticked or unticked. One of them, I think is the enhanced overcast option is known and states in the manual that is can use more resources. If both of those are unchecked you'll probably have to open a ticket on the Hifisim site so they can help.

As I mentioned, I'm using the latest build and have flown all types of conditions using ASN and the whole PMDG line of products and never had ASN cause any memory problems.

Sean Campbell

Btw, are you using 512 DXT or 32bit textures? If 32 bit, try installing the DXT versions.

Unchecked and DXT for my testing. And I, too, had no issues for the past year. I'm not saying that everyone who uses ASN will have VAS depletion, I certainly didn't for quite a long time.

 

(And for those wondering, I've now flown 3 12+ hour test flights successfully since the ASN reinstall without issue. So, the reinstall appears to have been a fix for me.)

[downscc 1,327]

 

 

The last 777F flight I did from EDDP to KLAX I had to save it three times because I was getting close to the 4GB limit. The second save came after flying over the North Atlantic. The Water was set at low 1.x. VAS started at 2.6 and went to 3.9. Figure that one out.

 

I had a problem with VAS increasing over the Pacific YSSY-KLAX and couldn't figure it out.  The FSDT KLAX is a definite problem with VAS, I'm able to run into problem on a short KSFO-KLAX. Thank goodness I've never had a OOM anyplace else in the world after years of FSX flying.  I might try the BluePrint version knowing it's not as 'pretty' but at least it might be useable.

[Big_Duke 11]

I repeated my flight mentioned above (PANC-KORD w/777F) and this time had no issues with VAS, other than the normal VAS-sucking add-on airports - KORD by FSDT is much better than the Aerosoft/SimWings PANC. It doesn't release VAS back as well as other developers' airports. Now, before starting the flight I found my issue with ASN - somehow my cloud layers had jumped to 6 from my normal 4. I can't blame anything specific and might even have had a senior moment and changed it myself. Anyhow, the flight ran smooth, maintaining a stable 1.6GB free VAS all the way, then bumping down to a steady 1.3GB free VAS in the dense Chicago area. So, in my case, I can't explicitly blame ASN for my one-time VAS hiccup.

[out 769]

Gentlemen,

 

If what you suggest turns out to be true, it will be one of the breakthroughs in fight for better memory management / performance in our old but beloved virtual home (read: FSX). Guess what I am going to do tomorrow (time permitting)? Reinstall an application name of which starts with A.

 

I don't experience OOM's often but this is due to a lot of settings/addons sacrifices I had to make.

Big thanks to Richard and others who contributed to this idea.

[Severne 43]

I recently got OOM's on 2 flights from EGLL to VHHH BUT after I installed FTX Vector.

Never experienced this on my flights between these destinations before.

 

There was only 380 mb VAS free 1 hour before T/D, in an area with no other addon scenery installed.

 

Curiously enough, flights from Europe to WSSS i.e. didn't end in OOM.

 

The ASN installation from scratch certainly brings up another aspect.

First I will perform the EGLL-VHHH flight without Vector and then I will test the complete ASN installation.

 

Thx for the advise.

 

[CaptKornDog 282]

I recently got OOM's on 2 flights from EGLL to VHHH BUT after I installed FTX Vector.

Never experienced this on my flights between these destinations before.

 

There was only 380 mb VAS free 1 hour before T/D, in an area with no other addon scenery installed.

 

Curiously enough, flights from Europe to WSSS i.e. didn't end in OOM.

 

The ASN installation from scratch certainly brings up another aspect.

First I will perform the EGLL-VHHH flight without Vector and then I will test the complete ASN installation.

 

Thx for the advise.

 

Well, FTX Vector certainly has an effect on VAS, so it sounds like at least another variable there...