I had something strange that never occured before out of my 4 years of FSX flight simulating.  While doing a flight from KATL to KLAS at 34,000 feet, which I have done several  times in the past,  over Arkansas, a long portion of the state over my route was covered with black squares below me. I checked the forums and the only thing I could find is that it could have been caused by DX10 or FTX Global, which I don't use.  I do keep my computer updated and defragmated regularly and use System Mechanic.  While this was the first time that it happened and hopefuly will not a to be a cronic problem,  can anyone tell me what could have caused it?  The black squares seemed to be mixed in with the clouds and I do use Active Sky Next. 

Could be a few things if your running DX9, however if the black squares are in the sky where clouds are then you might have a corrupt cloud texture or textures, or a missing texture completely.

 

You can check for missing textures by adding this to the Scenery section of your FSX.cfg.

 

[sCENERY]

ShowMissingTextureAlert=1

 

Don't type the [sCENERY] portion, just add the line under it. 1 turns it on and 0 turns it off. When you're flying if you have a missing texture the alert will come up and tell you what texture your missing so that you can attempt to fix it.

 

If the ground has big black squares appearing then you could be low on video memory and can reduce some sliders.

 

Maybe you can take a screen shot the next time it happens and post it if none of the two things I mentioned help.

 

Also, what ever happened with your KDFW issue?

 

You're had to help because we give suggestions then you disappear for days or weeks at a time then, reappear with a new issue and don't say if you've fix your other problems that you posted prior.

 

I'd suggest as a common courtesy when you post an issue and we try to help to at least follow up and tell us where you stand or that you won't be able to test it for a while, rather than leave those helping just hanging for weeks at a time with no response.

Sorry,  I have not been able to respond for the KDFW problem and almost forgot about it due to other issues and lately I am unable able to spend much time with FSX for the past few weeks. I try and check AVSIM messages when I can.  It seems like half the time is spent trouble shooting than flight simulating.    I could not resolve the KDFW issue.  If it gets too complex, it causes new problems to try and fix.  Fortunately it is only KDFW that is the problem.  I am not that good with software issues.   I do have a screenshot of the black squares, but I am unable to attach the image because AVSIM wants a "URL"?  I remember there use to be an easy link to attach images.

Upload to fsfiles.org. Once the photo is uploaded select the BBCode Embedded option, then copy and past the code here.

Thank you for the instructions how to do this image.

Looking at that, the only possibilities I can think of is that it could be video card related if it just started mid flight, like video card overheating or a bad set of video card drivers. Of course it could also be from bad fsx.cfg tweaks, scenery library order issues, a corrupt terrain.cfg, etc.

 

What operating system are you using? The reason I ask because from what I understand Windows 10 can automatically update your video card drivers which in some cases is not always a good idea.

I have Windows 7.  I did not make any tweeks to fsx/cfg or any type of changes.   Maybe it was just this one time thing that happened.  I did do a flight from KLAS to KJFK yesterday and there was no scenery issues.  If I do a repeat of the same one from KATL to KLAS and it it appears over Arkansas again, I guess something could be corrupted.

I have Windows 7. I did not make any tweeks to fsx/cfg or any type of changes. Maybe it was just this one time thing that happened. I did do a flight from KLAS to KJFK yesterday and there was no scenery issues. If I do a repeat of the same one from KATL to KLAS and it it appears over Arkansas again, I guess something could be corrupted.

That's a good process of elimination.

 

However, there is one thing you should add to your FSX.cfg if you're running the boxed version of FSX and that's the Highmemfix line, if you have not already done so. Since you said you have not tweaked or made any changes to your FSX.cfg, you need to add that as it's not actually a tweak but a fix. If you're running FSX Steam Edition then it's not necessary.

 

Aside from that, if this anomaly only happened once, it could have been from your video card getting too hot. Many years ago when I was on FS9 using an old Dell computer, I would get a similar effect if my video card got too hot. I was able to remedy it by opening the case and blowing all the dust out.

 

The Highmemfix=1 needs to be added underneath the [GRAPHICS] header in you cfg if you're running FSX boxed. This addition will clear up other graphic anomalies as well.