Sudden blurries at high altitudes.

[mr340 56]

What bothers me too is that this started after i left Europe,i was flying very well in Europe no problem. Then when arriving to KJFK blurry texture happen. I try flying to the Caribbean same results. My

 initial thoughts were, maybe this was caused by having all my North America payware disable for a while. As i kept flying i came to notice the blurry textures are still there. Although for some reason after updating FTX Library the problem seem to go away quicker. But it still happen for me just not as bad as before.  Hang in there Bob

[TheBoom 31]

I've had the same problem with blurries and no matter what I did/tweaked nothing changed. Until I read a few of Steve's posts and decided to try Vsync with FPS limited to 33. Ever since then I have minimal blurries and even so these only happen occasionally when I change to an external view abruptly.

 

Kinda makes sense since by limiting your fps you essentially cap the processor use for other tasks such as autogen and ai systems and instead let it focus on texture loading. Don't take my word on this though it's just a thought but no harm in trying.

 

YMMV.

 

Edit : Just for comparison I use an affinity mask of 248 for my i74770k at 4.0ghz and a FTFF of 0.01.

[Poppet 707]

I started locking my frame rate as well, I find it much better, takes the pressure of the system looking for more frames.

[xenonsk 129]

Delete p3d.cfg. Helped to me.

[devgrp 1,233]

What bothers me is that this started about a week ago, and I have flown about 400 hours since getting P3D several months ago, with not one problem. When it goes bad it looks like the old FS9 which would do that whenever it felt like it. Tonight I changed FFTF to .33, and will try that setting tomorrow. First thing i did when I got P3D back in May was to set FFTF to .01 and never had a problem with scenery loading. I think I will just suffer with this and wait for 3.0 which will require a complete reinstall anyway. if it still does it then, I think I will find another hobby :wink:

the problem is fftf. It has the same effect in fsx. Lower number will get you better fps but risk blurries

[Bobsk8 12,700]

This is what I am trying today. I have a program on my PC called Macrium Reflect and what it does is it back up my entire harddrive on a regular basis to a USB external drive. These backups are all dated when they were made, so I just went to the backup dated August 18, 2015 and copied the Prepard3d.cfg and replaced the current cfg with that August 18 one because I know I didn't have any problem with blurries back  then. One thing I noticed when I did this, is that FFTF was not at .01 or .1 as i thought it was, it was at .33. so I guess when I thought I had modified it a long time a ago, I must have made the same mistake and saved it as a txt file , so it never replaced the original fftf .33 version. So all this time, I have been flying it with .33 with no problems. Maybe that is the issue. I will report back. By the way, a couple of people on the P3D facebook page are having a similar issue with sudden blurries. 

[Bobsk8 12,700]

The older CFG file accomplished nothing. At the end of the 2 hour flight I did this morning, more blurries.  The one thing I noticed is that the processor CPU cycles for cores 2 3 and 4 were all at 100% while I had the blurries.  Anyone have an idea why that should be? I am starting to think a total reinstall is the only remedy here. 

[vgbaron 3,615]

There are enough people complaining about this lately that it makes me wonder is some errant MS update has caused issues with some systems.

 

Obviously *something* has changed and otherwise fine running systems suddenly develop issues. If there are no common recent add-ons or updates it makes me think something in the systems has changed.

 

Haven't a clue but possible an MS update is phoning home or doing some heavy work in the BG at the wrong time.

 

Just a thought...

 

Vic

[Bobsk8 12,700]

There are enough people complaining about this lately that it makes me wonder is some errant MS update has caused issues with some systems.

 

Obviously *something* has changed and otherwise fine running systems suddenly develop issues. If there are no common recent add-ons or updates it makes me think something in the systems has changed.

 

Haven't a clue but possible an MS update is phoning home or doing some heavy work in the BG at the wrong time.

 

Just a thought...

 

Vic

 

That has also been mentioned on facebook, since several people are having this sudden blurry problem usually on approach after a long flight. I also noticed today that the cpu cores except the first core, are all running at 100% when the blurries are present, which sounds strange. 

[Guest]

CPU at 100% on all except 1st core is definitely not normal.  

 

Normal (in a dense area like say KSEA) is around 40-60% CPU with dense Autogen settings.  100% is exactly why you'll see blurries ... you might want to take a look at TaskManager or Process Explorer just to confirm you don't have any other high CPU threads running ... you can also using Process Monitor (procmon) and have it monitor file I/O activity for specific folders and/or your entire system - might give you some clues as to what's causing 100% CPU usage.

 

Another simple test is to disable everything in your DLL.XML and EXE.XML and test.

 

And finally, maybe check that Windows 10 isn't trying to download itself in the background and/or your not running some disk check/defrag process, no compressed drives, no media player running that might be scanning all your drivers looking for music to add to it's library, anti-virus software running, Microsoft indexing, and the list goes on and on unfortunately.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

EDIT: and since you mention backup software, make sure it's disabled and not trying to do backups/validations while your flying.

[Bobsk8 12,700]

CPU at 100% on all except 1st core is definitely not normal.  

 

Normal (in a dense area like say KSEA) is around 40-60% CPU with dense Autogen settings.  100% is exactly why you'll see blurries ... you might want to take a look at TaskManager or Process Explorer just to confirm you don't have any other high CPU threads running ... you can also using Process Monitor (procmon) and have it monitor file I/O activity for specific folders and/or your entire system - might give you some clues as to what's causing 100% CPU usage.

 

Another simple test is to disable everything in your DLL.XML and EXE.XML and test.

 

And finally, maybe check that Windows 10 isn't trying to download itself in the background and/or your not running some disk check/defrag process, no compressed drives, no media player running that might be scanning all your drivers looking for music to add to it's library, anti-virus software running, Microsoft indexing, and the list goes on and on unfortunately.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

EDIT: and since you mention backup software, make sure it's disabled and not trying to do backups/validations while your flying.

 

 

First thing, the program that I downloaded that was giving me the 100 % core activity on cores #2 and #3 is called Open hardware Monitor. i don't know how accurate it is. I have heard in other discussions about P3D that some cores running at 100% is what other users have often seen.  

 

When P3D is running normally the total  CPU usage is around 55% to 60% with the remainder of the usage is System Idle Process which sounds normal. All other CPU usage is very small  and shared by other things running. No other major activity except P3D and System Idle.

 

Now if I minimize P3D for a couple of minutes, when I go back to full screen, the CPU usage goes up to around 75% and the blurries are there at that point. ( This is how I can easily trigger the blurries at will, and I am wondering if this is normal for P3D or a quirk in my installation, should be easy for anyone to test on their own system) The blurries at that point as I am flying along at about 4,000 feet gradually clear up, starting with seeing some trees pop up on blurry terrain, and then gradually the normal scenery starts to appear and the terrain slowly gets back to normal . This could take 30 seconds or more.   At that point the CPU usage is back to around 55-65% and remains there.

 

I am pretty good at troubleshooting, done it my entire working career, but I can't seem to get a handle on how P3D should behave when minimized and then go back to full screen. I suspect this behavior may not be normal, and could be a sign that my installation has become corrupt in some way.

 

The backup program I have only runs at predetermined times around 3 AM, a few days a week, so is not a factor at all.  

 

I have read several reports on the P3D Facebook groups about other P3D flyers that have suddenly developed a very similar problem with blurries in the last couple of weeks, when they never had a problem before. Some have speculated that maybe one of the latest windows updates is somehow creating a problem with P3D. If that is the case, a complete reinstallation of P3D, might not solve anything. I am thinking that maybe I will just live with this issue until 3.0 is released.  I have just run out of ideas at this point except a complete reinstall. 

[Guest]

Just ran a quick test ... P3D behaves are you describe (but CPU usage is very low on all cores <2%) which does make sense to me, no need to render what's not visible (aka minimized).  Once maximized it takes about 1-2 seconds for the terrain tiles to resolve to their higher mip map (this is on my test PC 3960x 970GTX Win7) ... this is normal behavior I would expect.  30 seconds seems a little long, but I guess if you've flown into a new region that might require considerable scenery loading when you return.

 

If you notice when you minimize P3D your task priority will go from 8 (Normal) to 4 (low - background) ... this is OS controlled.

 

But I think I misunderstood you, I thought you indicated you were getting "blurries" just on regular flights that are never minimized?

 

Cheers, Rob.

[Bobsk8 12,700]

Just ran a quick test ... P3D behaves are you describe (but CPU usage is very low on all cores <2%) which does make sense to me, no need to render what's not visible (aka minimized).  Once maximized it takes about 1-2 seconds for the terrain tiles to resolve to their higher mip map (this is on my test PC 3960x 970GTX Win7) ... this is normal behavior I would expect.  30 seconds seems a little long, but I guess if you've flown into a new region that might require considerable scenery loading when you return.

 

If you notice when you minimize P3D your task priority will go from 8 (Normal) to 4 (low - background) ... this is OS controlled.

 

But I think I misunderstood you, I thought you indicated you were getting "blurries" just on regular flights that are never minimized?

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

I am getting blurries on regular flights, mostly towards the end of the flight. This same issue has been discussed on facebook also, with people just running into this issue in the last week or two, as I have. None of us have recently installed anything, so some are suspecting some OS update might possibly be to blame. A few people have reinstalled Windows 10 and P3D because of this issue. I have Windows 7, but maybe they changed something in both OS's.  At this point, I find that if I lower my locked frame rate to around 22, the blurries clear up much quicker. I also increased FFTF to about 45 so I am going to see if this combination will allow me to complete a flight normally. I would rather not have to reinstall P3D, and either find out that the same problem exists, or that V3.0 is just around the corner requiring yet another reinstall.  Anyway, thanks for the info on the minimize causing the blurries, at least I know that this is normal. 

 

By the way, how to you tell what the priority is at the time it is running, all I see in Task Manager is a way to set the priority, and for P3D it is set as normal. 

[Guest]

I have all the latest Win7 updates also and not experiencing the issue in normal flights.  How long do I have to fly in order to replicate the issue?  Note: I'm using a base no add-on install.  Not using any FFTF settings and run Unlimited with Vsynch + triple buffer.

 

If you can replicate the issue in a base (no add-on P3D) then you'll have a much high probability of them looking into it, otherwise fingers will pointed towards the direction of Add-ons and your specific environment/hardware.  

 

 

 

By the way, how to you tell what the priority is at the time it is running, all I see in Task Manager is a way to set the priority, and for P3D it is set as normal. 

 

I use Process Explorer (free and virus free) https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx ... just right click on Prepar3d.exe and select "Priority" you'll have options to set the app priority there ... but be aware as soon as you minimize P3D it will automatically change to "Background" priority.

 

Are you using an affinity mask settings or process lasso?

 

It's always possible a Windows update did "something" but that would NOT be the first place I'd look for this type of issue.  But if you feel it is a Windows Update then easiest thing to do is uninstall them via Windows update history - Control Panel - Programs - Programs and Features - Installed Updates ... sort by Installed On ... not the KB number and Google search to see what the update was about.

 

My opinion:

 

1.  You've made a change to your environment and forgot you had (don't be insulted by this, just statistically speaking that's 85% of problem sources).

 

2.  Somewhere along the line your Terrain.cfg may have conflicting entries or point to the wrong GUIDs trigger excessive CPU usage so that A needs B and then B needs A - circular loop than can never resolve ... if you have the original base Scenery.cfg and Terrain.cfg try loading them (make a backup of your existing ones) and see -- just for diagnostic purposes. 

 

Beyond that I'm out of ideas.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[Bobsk8 12,700]

I have all the latest Win7 updates also and not experiencing the issue in normal flights.  How long do I have to fly in order to replicate the issue?  Note: I'm using a base no add-on install.  Not using any FFTF settings and run Unlimited with Vsynch + triple buffer.

 

If you can replicate the issue in a base (no add-on P3D) then you'll have a much high probability of them looking into it, otherwise fingers will pointed towards the direction of Add-ons and your specific environment/hardware.  

 

 

 

 

I use Process Explorer (free and virus free) https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx ... just right click on Prepar3d.exe and select "Priority" you'll have options to set the app priority there ... but be aware as soon as you minimize P3D it will automatically change to "Background" priority.

 

Are you using an affinity mask settings or process lasso?

 

It's always possible a Windows update did "something" but that would NOT be the first place I'd look for this type of issue.  But if you feel it is a Windows Update then easiest thing to do is uninstall them via Windows update history - Control Panel - Programs - Programs and Features - Installed Updates ... sort by Installed On ... not the KB number and Google search to see what the update was about.

 

My opinion:

 

1.  You've made a change to your environment and forgot you had (don't be insulted by this, just statistically speaking that's 85% of problem sources).

 

2.  Somewhere along the line your Terrain.cfg may have conflicting entries or point to the wrong GUIDs trigger excessive CPU usage so that A needs B and then B needs A - circular loop than can never resolve ... if you have the original base Scenery.cfg and Terrain.cfg try loading them (make a backup of your existing ones) and see -- just for diagnostic purposes. 

 

Beyond that I'm out of ideas.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

Ok Rob, and thnks for your help. I really appreciate it.  I will let you know if I come up with anything. I have backups of the terrain .cfg and scenery cfg from a time when everything was running well a few weeks ago, so I will try that.  I have had this happen on two flights into KOAK from KSLC, among other places. Everything looks OK until I start descending into KOAK, over the mountains, and that is when the blurries hit. I just did a one hour flight from KNBA to KATL this evening and had no blurries at all. 

 

I see there are two copies of the scenery .cfg One in Program files/Lockheed Martin/Prepar3d v2  and another in  app data/roaming/lockheed martin/Prepard3d v2.. Is that normal?   

 

I also can't locate the terrain.,cfg.  

 

I will never learn this program....