P3d and VAS

[Stephen Simpson 7]

Hi guys

 

I know this as been mentioned millions of times before and before I start I must say I think P3D is better than FSX but with the exception of OOM errors.

 

I have used FSX and now P3D with the following.

 

Ftx global, land class and vector

Orbx Scotland and England

All uk2k airports

Other random European airports

 

Aircraft used are

Ngx

Majestic dash

Aerosoft A319

 

Utilities

ASN

Efb

Fsuipc

Gsx

 

Having flown hundreds of hours on fsx without a single oom I now find myself getting OOM with p3d after about 20 mins of flight.

 

I set myself up a test bed at uk2k Edinburgh in the ngx, take off off line and with no traffic, alt set at 20k feet and hdg 180 deg and bang. 20 mins later oom.

 

I have tuned down the sliders to allow a steady 30fps and tried turning off unnecessary scenery but still can't escape this problem.

 

There doesn't seem much point in having really nice aircraft or scenery or indeed mega computers if this issue can't be resolved.

 

Any ideas.

 

Thanks.

 

S

[TheNerd 12]

What about autogen? The "normal" setting in P3D generates more autogen than FSX's "normal" setting.

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

There doesn't seem much point in having really nice aircraft or scenery or indeed mega computers if this issue can't be resolved.

 

I do not see how it can be resolved because of Windows OS and the fact that P3D is still a 32 bit application.  I have never had an OOM with 2.5.  I did come close on a flight from FSDT KORD to FlightBeams KIAD with photoscenery turned on for most of the flight plan and ASN and in the PMDG 777. I was able to land in extremely heavy weather but landed okay.  It was just when I pulled off the runway that I saw the icon circle showing the system is busy).  Still, I shut down P3D myself.  As I recalled I had about 250 MB's of VAS remaining. 

 

I don't limit my FPS as I don't have stuttering and have crisp graphics.  Some blurring but it goes away fast and hardly noticeable.  I don't use the NI and the display drivers are set to the default.  I don't use any tweaks whatsoever as I don't even believe in the recommended tweaks LM put into their Learning Center (they are suggested and not mandatory).  UK2K Edinburgh and most of the UK airports are pretty much known for not being fps friendly.  Lots of members have problems in that area of the world.  You would think Orbx/FTX fixed most of those problems with their new Scotland and England scenery.  Perhaps they have as I don't use those airports as I fly exclusively in the USA over photoscenery into FSDT or FlightBeam airports.  (I need to see the world though!)

 

Since I almost got an OOM at KIAD as mentioned above, I removed more photoscenery for the US States between KORD and KIAD.  That has worked dramatically.  Heavy weather is a real killer on my system.  I monitor my VAS during any and all flights and look at the final results using the fsuipc.log.  I think that's something you have to do with P3D especially since going from windowed or full screen means nothing so I just stay in windowed and watch the VAS. 

 

In the AVSIM CTD Guide, it shows how to set up the FSUIPC utility to monitor VAS.  It also shows how to set up a program called Process Monitor.  You are probably familiar with Process Monitor but many are not aware they can just monitor P3D and P3D addons during a flight.  Nothing else.  I have used it successfully for FSX but have not used it for P3D as I don't need to look for problems in P3D yet.  I think it's on page 4 of the AVSIM CTD Guide and it shows you how to monitor what is loading during a flight.  So, when you crash after 20 minutes, you can look at the log and see what was loading at that time.  You can also monitor your VAS at the top of the screen and see how fast you are losing VAS and maybe you can see what program is eating up your VAS so fast.  I have two monitors so it is easy for me to put Process Monitor on one monitor and P3D on the other otherwise you will have to have P3D on the left side of your screen and process monitor on the right (or vice-versa).  It is the only solution I know of as everyone has a different computer setup and it's hard for anyone to tell you to turn this setting down or turn off this or that and it would magically work for you.  Just a warning though about Process Monitor.  The log gets extremely huge after about an hour flight (at least 8GB's of HDD space). So, make sure you delete it after you are finished looking at it.  It is difficult to read the log too unless you write down the time of the anomaly (P3D crashed, stuttered, froze, etc).  Even then you may not pinpoint the exact cause as thousands of processes are occurring every 5 seconds.  But, I was able to use it to find out that MyTrafficX 5.4c was causing my freezes at the same location as that was all that was loading when FSX froze.  It also gives you a lot of amazing information about your sim as far as seeing what is loading.  You could be flying over the UK but why are textures and scenery loading in Seattle? (for instance).

 

OOM's are certainly frustrating but it means you will have to lower your settings even more and I would recommend going to unlimited fps as I think that's the recommendation in the manual for FTX/Orbx products.  Watch out for autogen (not a major problem with P3D anymore as they optimized autogen back in 2.4 (maybe 2.2)).  But believe Orbx/FTX and other programs use autogen and those are not optimized.  Autogen eats up VAS fast if turned up too high (not the default autogen though).  Get rid of the tweaks in P3D (that are magically going to give you a powerful system that allows you to turn up settings high).  I have not seen any of them work.  Not even close to working and why LM put them there to entice those not very knowledgeable of computers is beyond logic).  Don't use the LOD_Radius setting at max (which is 6.5).  Put it at 5.5.  That is one setting below the max in the config.  Hardly any difference in graphics except they load faster with the slightly lower setting.  If you are using the EFB during the flight, don't.  See if that makes any difference.  GSX and FSUIPC won't touch your VAS whatsoever so those are okay to keep activated.  Look for any photoscenery that you might have installed and make sure it is not loaded while over the UK.  If you have it enabled in Germany or Seattle, it will be loaded while you are flying over the UK.  So will autogen if, for instance, you have FTX PNW enabled too.  Look at the .bgl's in your Scenery/World/Scenery folder.  Those will load whether you are over those areas or not as everything in this folder loads (not the sub-folders).  About all I can suggest.  Now, back to the Masters Golf Tournament....

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

[Stephen Simpson 7]

Thanks for your extremely comprehensive advice Jim.

 

I will take a closer look and see what the logs are saying.

 

Enjoy the golf.

 

S

[Stephen Simpson 7]

Update.

 

Turned off more add on scenery.

 

Edinburgh to Manchester with orbx Scotland and England on with uk2k all on

 

Fresh .cfg file with NO tweaks

 

Average 33fps and 300,000vas left on landing.

 

Included some ai traffic too.

 

Better.

 

S

[Mir // Flightbeam 541]

This has probably been said before but it never hurts to repeat it for users who are not aware.

 

Photoscenery is the #1 culprit with VAS consumption. Why? Because even if you start a flight in California (for example), the sim will load all the photoscenery into memory from other areas, even if it's all the way in Canada. It's a terrible waste in performance. Thats also why your sim may take a really long time to load when you have a lot of photoscenery areas installed.

 

By Photoscenery, I'm talking about things like Megascenery, etc.

 

Airports products are different. A well rounded airport product with good optimizations will slowly load into your memory as you approach on final.

[Fi5kuS 57]

This has probably been said before but it never hurts to repeat it for users who are not aware.

 

Photoscenery is the #1 culprit with VAS consumption. Why? Because even if you start a flight in California (for example), the sim will load all the photoscenery into memory from other areas, even if it's all the way in Canada. It's a terrible waste in performance. Thats also why your sim may take a really long time to load when you have a lot of photoscenery areas installed.

 

By Photoscenery, I'm talking about things like Megascenery, etc.

 

Airports products are different. A well rounded airport product with good optimizations will slowly load into your memory as you approach on final.

 

But will photo scenery be completely deactivated if you untick it scenery library?

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

But will photo scenery be completely deactivated if you untick it scenery library?

Of course.

[GSalden 4,656]

I fly in Western and Southern Europe with photo scenery only and I only activate the countries I am flying over.

Otherwise an OOM error will appear...

 

And I use a 3 monitor setup ...

[SteveW 1,792]

Hi guys

 

I know this as been mentioned millions of times before and before I start I must say I think P3D is better than FSX but with the exception of OOM errors.

 

I have used FSX and now P3D with the following.

 

Ftx global, land class and vector

Orbx Scotland and England

All uk2k airports

Other random European airports

 

Aircraft used are

Ngx

Majestic dash

Aerosoft A319

 

Utilities

ASN

Efb

Fsuipc

Gsx

 

Having flown hundreds of hours on fsx without a single oom I now find myself getting OOM with p3d after about 20 mins of flight.

Then it may simply be something to do with incompatibility between P3D and one of your addons, whereas it was fine in FSX. I would eliminate some of the addons until the oom goes away, then investigate the erroring caused by the addon.

 

OOM's are not necessarily solely that the sim loaded up more than it can handle, it can also be caused by a certain program allocating more memory than it needs by a simple programming fault or incompatibility.

[Stephen Simpson 7]

Sencible answer Steve W. Time will tell when all addons don't need the migration software.

 

S

[SteveW 1,792]

Time will tell..

Yes they will all get there eventually. I hope you find a reliable setup in the meantime. :smile: