Keep in mind that the memory consumption indicated by the task manager and the VAS consumption (that I measure using the Process Explorer) assume different values. There is definitely a relationship between the two, but depending on settings, the VAS value is always between 15% and 25% higher than the memory consumption, unfortunately. That explains why you get an OOM when the task manager shows a memory consumption of "only" 3.2GB. (3.2GB + 25% = 4GB)

 

I used Process Explorer (not to be confused with Task Manager).

 

Ok so I downloaded this Process Explorer to measure VAS. I loaded up the PMDG NGX at Aerosoft Oslo Gardemoen V2. Other add ons used:

 

- FTX Norway

- AoN Ground (freeware)

 

I didn't use Active Sky for this test, just loaded up at the gate with default "fair weather" in FSX. After a little time, VAS usage was at 2900 MB, before even doing anything!! Can this be correct???  :unsure:

Yes, this value seems to be correct, since the PMDG NGX is quite VAS hungry. Same goes for the ORBX Norway scenery. Just out of curiosity: What is the actual RAM consumption when the VAS usage is 2900MB?

Yes, this value seems to be correct, since the PMDG NGX is quite VAS hungry. Same goes for the ORBX Norway scenery. Just out of curiosity: What is the actual RAM consumption when the VAS usage is 2900MB?

 

Can check it tomorrow. I had my first OOM on a trip from Oslo Gardemoen to Copenhagen (FlyTampa) this evening. Never happened before  :( Only thing I've done since last flight is that I cranked up DSR to 3x, turned downed AA and installed REX Soft Clouds. As far as I know, these are 512 resolution textures so VAS usage should not have been greater if I had been using regular REX4TD 1024 textures. 

Cloud textures of size 1024 or less have a relatively little impact on VAS, so I would not worry about them. It becomes critical when you use 4096 textures (where each file has 16x the size of the 1024 format). Anti Aliasing should not have much of an influence either, because that's GPU's primary job. Remember that the initial VAS value grows progressively the more time you spend in your sim (especially when you pan around). Flying a high-fidelity airliner between two detailed add-on airports will bring VAS close to 4GB, as you have experienced

Cloud textures of size 1024 or less have a relatively little impact on VAS, so I would not worry about them. It becomes critical when you use 4096 textures (where each file has 16x the size of the 1024 format). Anti Aliasing should not have much of an influence either, because that's GPU's primary job. Remember that the initial VAS value grows progressively the more time you spend in your sim (especially when you pan around). Flying a high-fidelity airliner between two detailed add-on airports will bring VAS close to 4GB, as you have experienced

 

Ok so I did some testing just now:

 

- First of all, I assume that the actual RAM consumption you were talking about is the one I can read from Task Manager? In that case, its 2200 MB. 

 

- Next, I tried to turn of the DX10 fixer and load up the exact same scenario with DX9 enabled. Result was equal VAS usage (2900 MB). Apparently, the fixer does nothing good for me in terms of VAS usage  <_<

 

- FTX Norway consumes about 600 MB of VAS

 

- Loading up Active Sky Next with some heavy clouds did not affect VAS at all. It stayed on 2900 MB all the time while paning around in the VC of the NGX. 

 

- Here`s a funny thing. If I set the textures on Aerosoft Gardemoen down to 1024 from 2048, VAS usage is unaffected! I mean what? Maybe I`m paranoid but I think my setup is severely screwed. Its like its already decided that its going to blow VAS usage right away.

 

Autogen is already set to Normal. I have no clue what to try next. The FSX Steam version might be an alternative, but its a one day work installing all addons  :(

Another update on my weird setup.

 

Scenario --> FlyTampa Copenhagen, NGX at gate B19, ORBX Vector+OpenLC, default "Fair weather"

 

- I tried setting the water effects from "High" down to "Medium" as its know that it should lower VAS usage. Guess what. It eats up another 100 MB of VAS. From before I loaded up with 3100 MB VAS (water effects set to high). No its stable on 3200 MB with 800 MB left to play with. 

 

Also, I updated my DX10 Fixer from version 2.5 to 2.6 - no effects on VAS usage what so ever. Urgh, why do I even bother with this game anymore  :mad:

Your initial VAS value of 2900 MB seems to be high, but again, if you let all the VAS eaters join forces, you can't expect much less. As you mentioned, FTX Norway consumes 600 MB. The PMDG NGX probably consumes as much. Don't forget Aerosoft's Gardermoen Airport, even though I have no idea how much that eats. So now you have over 1200 MB of additional VAS load on the top of FSX default. Another unfortunate factor that comes into play is FSX' inefficient VAS cleanup system (if it can be called this way to begin with). If you depart from a detailed add-on airport and fly to another, FSX will only very slowly dispose of VAS remains from the departure airport - but the destination airport will add more extra load on the overall VAS pile. If you have any other scenery add-ons enroute to your destination airport, it is recommended to deactivate them in order to prevent FSX from loading them into the system.

 

I have no idea why DX10 does not help in this instance. Normally, you can expect a relief of at least 200 MB (at least that's what I got from my experiments, but I don't use the DX10 fixer). One tweak that reduces my VAS consumption a little (by 100 MB) is to add these lines into my fsx.cfg:

 

[bUFFERPOOLS]

Poolsize=4000

RejectThreshold=131072

 

You can test it and see if that helps. I know that the VAS issue is notorious and dreadful among most simmers, and it looks like even when using idential add-ons and FSX settings, the consumption can vary between systems for reasons that are elusive. For instance, the FSX Steam edition has been touted as the panacea against OOM's, but when I tested a freshly installed FSX original version versus FSX-SE on a 32bit Windows-7 (second OS besides a 64-bit version for testing purposes), the Steam Edition consumed consistently over 200 MB VAS more than the original edition. I had not any add-ons running, though. Other users might make different observations.

Thanks for the tweak, I'll give it a try. 

 

I'm gonna do a full reinstall of Win 7 and FSX anyway. Then I can check again to see if VAS usage remains the same. I've been using the system for quite along time now and maybe something is glogging it up. 

in P3Dv24 I cannot land at KSAN I always get an OOM about 15 NM out

 

 

I suspect it is not optimized for P3D then?

I have no idea why DX10 does not help in this instance. Normally, you can expect a relief of at least 200 MB (at least that's what I got from my experiments, but I don't use the DX10 fixer). One tweak that reduces my VAS consumption a little (by 100 MB) is to add these lines into my fsx.cfg:

 

In theory, DX10 should free up allot of VAS, since normally, it doesn't shadow copy video memory in the Apps VAS space. There is a caveat to this though. If the address space allocated in the App for the shadow copy, is declared lockable, then it does take up space, which in this case since FSX supports both DX9 and DX10 (and DX10 preview was not fully implemented) looks like it is defined as lockable, as it probably uses the same allocation space for both. If it wasn't then the allocation space for it's allocated video memory, would be freed. Up to the amount of Video memory address space FSX allocated for it. 

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105