Losing Clickspots

[squerble 300]

Sorry to necro a thread, but this is also happening to me. I've got a ticket open with PMDG and I'll certainly update again should I find a resolution, but I'm wandering if any other cure was found? To the posts above, this is not the viewpoint bug, as moving the viewpoint does not remedy the situation. I'm not using any camera add on, and I'm moving the viewpoint forward/backwards with the default FSX keys.

 

The clickspots seem to start to disappear after about 30 minutes of the NGX being loaded, and initially the clickspots start to act a bit funky, in that the mouse will start to change between the normal pointer and the hand icons to show interaction with the clickspots. A short while after this, they become completely inoperable. Cycling the views (outside spot and then back to VC) will generally give me one more click of a control, and then the clickspots are gone again. The 2D panel works as normal when all of this is happening. The NGX is set to load with a default panel state of the SHORT turnaround, and this hasn't been modified in any way from the PMDG-provided.

I've already tried all the usual suggestions/remedies: 

• Latest FSUIPC
• Reinstalled all the SimConnects
• Reinstalled NGX
• Rebuilt FSX config
• Restarted Couatl engine (from GSX install)
• Tried loading the default flight first (load the sim with Trike at required airport, then load NGX), and by selecting NGX on the Fly Now screen.

I'm running FSX Steam on Windows 10, with the only other add-ons being the PMDG 777, plus some utilities like AS16, GSX and FSUIPC. I've had all of these disabled, uninstalled, and selectively enabled to try and track down the fault, but I can't. This does not happen with the 777, it is a fault with the NGX alone. 

Edited April 11, 2018 by squerble

[Nick Dobda 24]

17 minutes ago, squerble said:

The NGX is set to load with a default panel state of the SHORT turnaround, and this hasn't been modified in any way from the PMDG-provided.

Since I've started loading the default short turnaround as the starting panel state I've never run into that problem again.

To reiterate, my problem seemed to start because I was saving the flight at the conclusion of a leg at the end of the night. Then on the next day I would load up that saved flight and continue on. After several flights it started losing clickspots. I believe what was happening was there was some accumulating corruption of the panel state that would eventually accumulate enough corruption it would crash the clickspots.

Starting fresh with the fresh default short turnaround at the start of every flight fixed the problem.

That being said, it looks like you are doing that already, so hopefully someone else has some advice.

 

[squerble 300]

21 hours ago, Nick Dobda said:

Since I've started loading the default short turnaround as the starting panel state I've never run into that problem again.

To reiterate, my problem seemed to start because I was saving the flight at the conclusion of a leg at the end of the night. Then on the next day I would load up that saved flight and continue on. After several flights it started losing clickspots. I believe what was happening was there was some accumulating corruption of the panel state that would eventually accumulate enough corruption it would crash the clickspots.

Starting fresh with the fresh default short turnaround at the start of every flight fixed the problem.

That being said, it looks like you are doing that already, so hopefully someone else has some advice.

 

Thanks for clarifying. Yep, it's a "fresh" flight each time as I'm not a fan of saving a flight to continue, neither on the ground nor in the air. I'm really hoping to sort this, as I'd hate to splash out for the P3D version only for it to continue, as there's been a few posts in here saying it happens in P3D too.

[downscc 1,327]

I've not seen it reported for P3D, here or the AVSIM P3D forum or the LM P3D forum.  If you are concerned, you can visit those forums and search for yourself.

As for panel state files becoming corrupt with use.... I don't buy it.  If you look at a panel state file it is simply a text configuration file with the key=value (key value pair KVP) format.  It is true that I have seen panel state files become corrupt, and that is often behind such odd behaviors and caution lights not going out but I'm inclined to think a KVP has gone rogue due to an error when the file was saved rather than repeated saves resulting in the deterioration of data.

[squerble 300]

As my first update, I deleted the FSX.cfg and Cameras.CFG files, and in my dll.xml and exe.xml files, I set the Disabled flags to True on anything from FSDT/GSX (AddonManager, SODE Animation Module, SODE and Couatl Scripting Engine). I kept FSUIPC intact, and also ran my VA tracking software.

I was able to complete a flight with no loss of clickspots. I'll try to add in the FSDT stuff again and see if this brings back the problem. If it does, I can try to troubleshoot more granularly.

 

 

Comparing the files of the deleted Cameras.cfg and the newly built ones show no difference. There was barely any difference in the FSX config files, save for the new one missing the HIGHMEMFIX=1 (although apparently this isn't needed for Steam edition) and WideAspectView=True. Other than that, it all looks the same. I'll have to keep digging.

Edited April 12, 2018 by squerble

[squerble 300]

As a further update, it appears that FSDT stuff may not be at fault. Having not added back any FSDT stuff (nor touched the sim), the next flight I did in the NGX resulted in the loss of clickspots again. This happened when I brought focus back to FSX and having loaded the Navigraph Charts application. I'm now wondering if there's something funky going on when FSX loses focus. This may also explain why I notice the loss of clickspots typically around push-back/engine start time as that's when I'd have been looking at Navi charts or TOPCAT for take off data....

What is really annoying is that this happens only in the NGX, and the 777 isn't similarly afflicted. 

[Ephedrin 418]

Hello,

have you made sure that you are really loosing clickspots and not the actual mouse click inside FSX? I think I have already read about something like this. But it must have been years ago to be honest and I can‘t remember the solution if there has been any. Have you changed the mouse‘s usb port when you‘ve lost the click spots?

 

edit: 

ah sry I have just seen you actually do have mouse control on the 2D panel and so on... 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Ephedrin

[squerble 300]

11 hours ago, Ephedrin said:

Hello,

have you made sure that you are really loosing clickspots and not the actual mouse click inside FSX? I think I have already read about something like this. But it must have been years ago to be honest and I can‘t remember the solution if there has been any. Have you changed the mouse‘s usb port when you‘ve lost the click spots?

 

edit: 

ah sry I have just seen you actually do have mouse control on the 2D panel and so on... 

Yep, as you've seen the 2D is fine. FSX just seems to lose interaction with the VC model and clickspots. Anyway, I'm not going to bother searching any more, I just caved and bought the NGX for P3D anyway, I've been wanting to move it for a while and I think the NG3.0 is at least a year away so I won't have to splurge more money on the NG again for a little while yet.