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737 running out of memory


Peter22

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Hi guys I have FSX acceleration/windows 7 ultimate 64 b...I7 4790K Asus Maximus vii hero 16 GB ram 1680 but flying from KLAS to KLAX yesterday the game crash telling me FSX is running out of memory,,,WTH ....any idea? I believe there is a way around this problem in windos 7.....I just dont know how

Thanks

Peter22

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I believe there is a way around this problem in windos 7.....I just dont know how

This is from the PMDG 777 Introduction manual but it can also be applied to the 737NGX. Maybe this will help. It is not aircraft specific.

 

 

We would like to acknowledge FSX community member Srdan “Word Not Allowed” Kostic’s research into the OOM problem and VAS usage on which a good portion of this section of the manual is based.

Background and theory:

FSX is a 32-bit application. Even under the recommended Windows 7 64-bit operating system, the FSX.exe process always faces the same mathematical limitations that all 32-bit applications do. One of these is a 4GB hard limit on something called “virtual address space” (VAS). When FSX crashes with an error message saying that your computer has run out of available memory (commonly called an “OOM” in the sim community), it’s actually talking about VAS, not physical memory like the amount of RAM in your system. Customers who have huge amounts of RAM like 16GB or 32GB are often baffled by this message for good reason – they certainly aren’t running out of physical memory. Microsoft probably should have made the error say, “The application has run out of virtual address space.” instead of the vague “memory” term.

VAS is effectively a preallocation of everything the simulator can potentially access during a flight and will fluctuate over the course of using the simulator as you fly between different areas. Note that VAS is *NOT* the same thing as the “virtual memory” swapfile that you can set the size of in the Windows system options – they are two very different things and having a large virtual memory swapfile does not protect you from the 4GB VAS limit. The mathematical limit itself comes from the definition of “32-bit” – a bit is the most basic data structure in computer science and it can have two values, a 0 or 1, which can mean all sorts of things like true or false, on or off, etc. This is why at the core a computer executes “binary” code. The amount of VAS a 32-bit process can access can be calculated by raising the number of possible values for each bit (2) to the power of the number of bits available (32). So 232 equals exactly 4,294,967,296 bytes (not bits). When you do the rest of the conversion math this value comes out to exactly 4 gigabytes of potentially addressable memory for a 32-bit process.

The reason we recommend using a 64-bit operating system like Windows 7 64-bit is due to the fact that it can give FSX.exe that entire 4GB block of VAS. In 32-bit Windows the default is a maximum of 2GB of VAS for FSX and 2GB reserved for the operating system. This can be increased to 3GB for FSX through an edit to the boot environment configuration (“the 3GB switch”), but this is still 1GB lower than you’ll get with the 64-bit version of Windows and it makes both OOMs more likely and OS crashes more likely because it reduces the amount of VAS the OS itself has to

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work with. 32-bit versions of Windows can also only ever access 4GB of total physical memory, so if FSX is using 3GB itself, there’s not much there for the OS and other applications. 64-bit Windows does not have this limit and with a lot of RAM you can essentially run as many other applications outside of FSX (browser, weather apps, flight planners etc) as you want with no effect on the system. There is literally no reason not to run the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on an FSX simming PC.

If you’d like to read more in depth about VAS and the other types of memory used in Windows, Mark Russinovich’s blog has an excellent series of articles that detail it:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx

Mark is the author of the Process Explorer tool below, a member of the Windows kernel design team at Microsoft, and one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on how Windows actually works.

Using Process Explorer or FSUIPC to monitor VAS:

With the proliferation of so many high detail aircraft and sceneries for FSX in recent years, the sim can easily approach and in many cases exceed the 4GB VAS limit. As the sim approaches the limit, very odd things start can start happening like disappearing scenery, disappearing or transparent visual models on the aircraft, flashing artifacts, long pauses and so on. If it exceeds the limit you will get the OOM error window or the sim will just crash to desktop (CTD) without any error message at all.

If you’re having VAS issues, the first step is going to be to determine how much VAS FSX.exe is actually using throughout your flight. Fortunately Microsoft has a tool that allows you to do exactly this called Process Explorer – you can download it here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Once you have it downloaded, unzip the files to a folder of your choosing and run the procexp.exe file. You’re going to see a rather bewildering looking list of all the processes running on your computer with various columns full of parameter values that are constantly updating.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is enable the VAS display – to do this, right click in the area where the column names are and choose “Select Columns”. Go to the “Process Memory” tab in the window that pops up and put a check mark next to the one called “Virtual Size” and press OK. This is going to enable the column, but it will likely be at the far right of the Process Explorer display. I recommend maximizing the window and then dragging the Virtual Size column over so that it’s right

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next to the CPU column so that you can easily see it. Click the top of the column where it says “Virtual Size” until you see a downward pointing arrow, which means the list is now sorted with the highest VAS using applications first in the list. You can now resize the window to a more manageable size.

Now run FSX and monitor this number for the FSX.exe process while you use the simulator. It should quickly move to the top of the Virtual Size column as the sim loads. If you see it start to get close to 4,194,304K (this is 4GB in kilobytes) – you know you have a VAS problem.

If you have a registered version of FSUIPC, you can place a very handy free VAS meter into the FSX window’s title bar by going to the Logging tab and then entering into one of the lines of the “Specific value checks” section the Offset 024C and Type S32. Check FS Title Bar in the “Display to” section below it. Press OK and you’ll see a readout of the free VAS in kilobytes in the title bar. FSUIPC will play a Windows “ding” sound if the sim is getting close to an OOM error. This is a good time to save your flight.

Causes of high VAS usage:

The PMDG 777-200LR/F aircraft itself uses approximately 700 to 800MB of VAS based on our testing, split roughly equally between the VC and external models and the aircraft systems programming. This is in line with other high-end addons aircraft on the market and is not excessive given the advanced capabilities of the product. Great care was taken to optimize and not increase the VAS load of the aircraft beyond what is necessary to simulate it properly. Here are some of the more common causes of high VAS usage we’ve identified:

Large amounts of photoscenery areas

Products that install photoscenery for whole US states or whole European countries are a particularly high source of VAS usage when a lot of them are enabled at once. There are several such packages on the market and all of them will exhibit this issue. FSX unfortunately allocates VAS for these areas even if you are not flying over them and never go near them. We have observed almost instantaneous OOM errors upon loading our products on customer PCs where they had for instance the entire eastern United States photoscenery installed. Disabling the photoscenery reduced the total VAS load by well over 1GB and allowed the simulator to function normally. Users have reported success with photoscenery and our products by enabling only the states or countries their route passes over. Use Process Explorer to monitor VAS and see if this works for you.

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To the best of our knowledge the reason this happens is because photoscenery uses a unique texture for every single area within it. Normal FSX scenery uses a small group of textures that get repeatedly used via the landclass system. Having to precache and allocate for the presence of that many textures is likely at the root of the problem.

Here is a link to a very good open source utility called SceneryConfigEditor that will allow you to make groups of scenery areas that you can turn on or off with a single click:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/fs-sceditor

High amounts of AI traffic

Be reasonable with the amount of traffic you’re putting into the simulator. Often the high 100%-type levels become unrealistic anyway from the fact that FSX’s ATC system bunches them up and can’t handle vectoring them all. You end up with a ton of go-arounds, a massive line for takeoff and so on. That many airplanes also eats into the VAS allocation. Again, this is not dependent on the specific traffic product you’re using.

Ultra high resolution environment textures

Many “environment” type addons (as with the photoscenery and traffic there are several of these available) contain options to install very high resolution textures for things like clouds, water, runways and taxiways and so on. It is our experience that these maximum resolution textures often increase the VAS load disproportionally to the amount of visual improvement they provide. A 4096x4096 resolution texture actually contains 16 times the amount of pixel data that a 1024 resolution version of the same texture does. The 1024 or 2048 versions of the textures you’re installing are likely going to be visually indistinguishable to you from the maximum 4096 version and they will result in both lower VAS usage and lower GPU memory usage.

FSX.cfg LOD_RADIUS value

Some tweak guides recommend increasing this setting in the FSX.cfg file above its normal 4.500000 maximum value. While this does improve visual detail into the distance, that improvement comes at the expense of increased VAS usage because FSX has to load in more autogen, more high detail mipmaps for textures etc. Leave this setting at 4.500000 unless you’re actively monitoring your VAS usage and are sure that setting it higher isn’t putting you into OOM territory.

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Autogen, water, weather

The usual culprits for lowered performance in FSX also are the main drivers of VAS usage. Lowering them can significantly reduce the VAS load if you’ve exhausted the other possibilities.

High detail addon airports

Since the initial RTM release of the 777 in 2013, we’ve observed several recent addon airports using upwards of 1GB of VAS as they come into view.

Flying a lot of legs without shutting the simulator down:

FSX appears to not fully release the contents of scenery areas that have been used during the session. We have observed OOMs happen when flying around to a bunch of different high detail airports over high detail terrain all over a long period of time. To avoid this simply save your flight after landing and shutdown, close FSX, and then reload it and your flight and you should be in a reset VAS state.

Using the sound preload options in SP1:

SP1 adds options that allow for the caching of 777 sound files in memory. This was done in attempt to eliminate the stuttering that some users have experienced as sound files load. If you are having OOM issues, we recommend selecting the default NONE option. This will only loads sounds into memory as they’re needed and releases them from memory 60 seconds after playback. This will significantly reduce the VAS load vs. the SELECTIVE or ALL options. (See page 105 for more information about this feature.)

Using the higher quality sound option in PMDG Operations Center:

In the sound settings module of the PMDG Operations Center application’s 777 page, you will find an option for downloading and installing a low quality soundset that will further reduce the VAS load at the expense of sound quality. These files are encoded with a 22 kHz sample rate instead of the default 44.1 kHz sample rate and will take up half as much memory as the default set.

Conclusion:

There are real limits in the 32-bit FSX environment that you have to be aware of and manage. It is likely impossible for you to run every high-end aircraft and scenery addon all together at their maximum settings without making compromises to stop the OOM error from happening. It is up to you to decide what’s most important to you.

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yeah I think I got the solution tweaking the FSX config...making the CPU use my 8 cores with values of 255...and some other things...thanks

Peter22

Can you please post your cfg?

Sometimes I have the same crash

 

allready tweaked and no success

maybe your cfg is helping me ;)

 

regards

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Can you please post your cfg?

Sometimes I have the same crash

 

allready tweaked and no success

maybe your cfg is helping me ;)

 

regards

Hi letti....no matter what I did still getting this OOM AVL memory problem when using PMDG 737 at KLAX...so is definitely PMDG issue connived with FS dream KLAX which is very demanding ....I am still looking for solutions...but lowering everything down is so far what it help, however I am not happy doing that...I am thinking to jump to windows 8.1 pro and see.....if u find another solution let me know

Peter22

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Hi letti....no matter what I did still getting this OOM AVL memory problem when using PMDG 737 at KLAX...so is definitely PMDG issue connived with FS dream KLAX which is very demanding ....I am still looking for solutions...but lowering everything down is so far what it help, however I am not happy doing that...I am thinking to jump to windows 8.1 pro and see.....if u find another solution let me know

Peter22

 

I assume you have both FSDT KLAX and KLAS?

 

What other scenery are you using? Are you using REX or another weather package? Traffic? Are you forcing 4096 size textures? If you are using any or all of these things, your memory usage will skyrocket, especially between those two airports. Try adjusting your settings, and monitor your memory usage to see the results.

 

Also, I would advise against WIN8.1...as an operating system, it works fine after getting used to it, but it doesn't seem to get along every well with FSX. I have a few issues with it, ranging fro the well known controller disconnect issue to crashing whenever I try and access the desktop while the sim is running, so I would recommend sticking with Windows 7 for now.

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I agree with Matthew, do not go to Win8.  Your problem is in the details, don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

 

I never had a VAS problem until I added Bankok, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero airports. All of a sudden my normal 3 Gb VAS load was at 3.9 Gb and the alarm was beeping.  The fix was to turn off the airports using FSX Scenery Library Manager and I am back down to normal 3 Gb VAS loads.  Those airports happen to use photoreal scenery, and even brag about it in their promotional write-ups.  Airports like any of FS Dream Team's (I have almost all of their products, great stuff) do not use photoreal scenery and do not add significantly to the VAS load.

 

Read the details in the second post above, and do the suggested recommendations. Your problem will be mitigated.

Dan Downs KCRP

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I assume you have both FSDT KLAX and KLAS?

 

What other scenery are you using? Are you using REX or another weather package? Traffic? Are you forcing 4096 size textures? If you are using any or all of these things, your memory usage will skyrocket, especially between those two airports. Try adjusting your settings, and monitor your memory usage to see the results.

 

Also, I would advise against WIN8.1...as an operating system, it works fine after getting used to it, but it doesn't seem to get along every well with FSX. I have a few issues with it, ranging fro the well known controller disconnect issue to crashing whenever I try and access the desktop while the sim is running, so I would recommend sticking with Windows 7 for now.

Im sorry, I missunerstood

I thougt its generally crash of FSX

 

Im using no scenery addons but REX essentials + OD textures in 1024 size

for weather Im using ASNext

 

and I also recommend win7

Ive tried Win8.1 and when I started FSX my pc freezed and needed a restart

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One thing is to post new threads about subjects already discussed in detail over and over..

Another's to completely ignore the solution posted..

 

Read #2..'if you did: read it again

 

If you have any questions regarding post #2 state them and I'm sure the community will assist you further:)

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One thing is to post new threads about subjects already discussed in detail over and over..

Another's to completely ignore the solution posted..

 

Read #2..'if you did: read it again

 

If you have any questions regarding post #2 state them and I'm sure the community will assist you further:)

Im sorry man, I was flying over the post cause Im at work at the Moment ;) Ill try it when Im at home :)

 

I only wanted to try his cfg cause I thougt its a generally Crash of FSX

I have the same Crash from time to time and thougt his cfg could be the solution for me ;)

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I assume you have both FSDT KLAX and KLAS?

 

What other scenery are you using? Are you using REX or another weather package? Traffic? Are you forcing 4096 size textures? If you are using any or all of these things, your memory usage will skyrocket, especially between those two airports. Try adjusting your settings, and monitor your memory usage to see the results.

 

Also, I would advise against WIN8.1...as an operating system, it works fine after getting used to it, but it doesn't seem to get along every well with FSX. I have a few issues with it, ranging fro the well known controller disconnect issue to crashing whenever I try and access the desktop while the sim is running, so I would recommend sticking with Windows 7 for now.

Yes I do I use REX and I just turned down from 4096...still testing...

Im sorry man, I was flying over the post cause Im at work at the Moment ;) Ill try it when Im at home :)

 

I only wanted to try his cfg cause I thougt its a generally Crash of FSX

I have the same Crash from time to time and thougt his cfg could be the solution for me ;)

 

Im sorry man, I was flying over the post cause Im at work at the Moment ;) Ill try it when Im at home :)

 

I only wanted to try his cfg cause I thougt its a generally Crash of FSX

I have the same Crash from time to time and thougt his cfg could be the solution for me ;)

Letti I can send u my FSX confg if u want no a problem

Im sorry man, I was flying over the post cause Im at work at the Moment ;) Ill try it when Im at home :)

 

I only wanted to try his cfg cause I thougt its a generally Crash of FSX

I have the same Crash from time to time and thougt his cfg could be the solution for me ;)

sen me u email...

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