A bit of a tale of woe and redemption ...

 

When I built the basement sim a few months back I started with FSX on a new PC, then installed P3D, then added a bunch of add-ons, then took out FSX ... and the result was an unstable sim with a brutal memory leak that would kill all VAS after about 10 minutes just sitting on the tarmac.

 

I've been on the hunt for that leak, and devoted a good portion of yesterday and this morning to the job. But rather than uninstalling and installing things one-by-one, instead I uninstalled everything (the sim, add-ons, aircraft, textures, land classes, instruments - all of it), and started from scratch with new installations. My method was install an add-on, test VAS, rinse, repeat.

 

The results? Everything worked great save two things. First, I decided to go with SPAD instead of the Saitek drivers, but it actually was making communication with my panels more difficult (especially in the A2A C 182). I think the FIP plug-in conflicts with SPAD's communication with FSUIPC, so I uninstalled SPAD and went with the latest drivers from Saitek which worked fine.

 

The second hitch was the very last add-on, the GTN 750 GPS software from Flight 1. There were no problems with memory, but soon after adding it Prepar3d started to throw some crashes, as did the RemoteFlight connector I use to run my six-pack on a networked iPad. I uninstalled the GTN, and a much more stable sim returned. I'm not sure why those would conflict, but that seems to be the case, and I hope I can find a fix because the GTN 750 running on the 7-inch touchscreen in the cockpit panel is an awesome tool. 

 

But GPS or not, I'm left with a spectacular flight simulator. I'm getting 30-60 frames per second (much better than before), with the A2A C 182 Skylane, high graphic settings, high-resolution REX, UTX and ORBX textures, max scenery and autogen settings, Active Sky Next live weather, AI traffic, and MultiCrew Experience running in the background. Today I took a 3-hour VFR flight from Newport, OR to Albion, CA (KONP OTH CEC FOT ENI KLLR, VOR navigation all the way), and had not a single hitch.

 

So I'm REALLY happy. The sim loads fast and runs great. There are a few micro stutters, but I disabled hyper threading to try to maximize my VAS usage and tomorrow I'll re-enable it and set my Affinity Mask back to 116, lasso the processes, and that should be the end of the stutters. Most important, my memory usage is rock solid, with my available VAS never dropping below 1.3 gig. Now I just need to ping Flight1 support and see what's up with the GTN. Maybe they know of a fix. In the meantime, it sure is fun flying the basement sim, as you can see from this brief vid from today's flight. It's hard to see the smile on my face, but trust me, it's there.

 

Awesome!!!!

your cockpit looks amazing,must take simming to a different level

Peter

The results? Everything worked great save two things. First, I decided to go with SPAD instead of the Saitek drivers, but it actually was making communication with my panels more difficult (especially in the A2A C 182). I think the FIP plug-in conflicts with SPAD's communication with FSUIPC, so I uninstalled SPAD and went with the latest drivers from Saitek which worked fine.

You could try SPAD.neXt

 

http://www.fsgs.com/forum/

 

which can run via Simconnect instead of FSUIPC. Can also be installed on a networked machine.

 

Kind regards, Michael

Thanks, everyone. Michael, I'll check it out. Honestly it's the GTN that's the only thing still giving me trouble (or RemoteFlight ... suffice to say they don't seem to like each other in 3.2).

What an amazing setup you have! 

Agreed - fantastic setup!

 

Who needs those full motion sims anyway?  I visited our flight school's Cirrus sim a long time ago and just taking off made me feel like I was really flying the cirrus (I've flown the real one a few times)...  it even gave me a sense of motion just sitting there on the floor in a sim...

 

You've gotta hook that thing up to Pilot Edge...  would be nuts!

I agree, you don't need motion. Just visuals. Last week, I was parked at a shopping center. There was a sign on a pole about three feet in front of my truck. As I reached down with my left hand to release the parking brake to leave, a car on my left side started to back out. I could feel my truck leaping uncontrollably towards the sign, and slammed on the brake.  My engine was running, but I didn't move at all. That glimpse of the other car moving backwards in my peripheral vision, tricked my mind into a real sense of forward motion.  

Thanks everyone. It's funny about the motion - even though there is none my wife can't sit in it or she gets airsick. So sometimes it can feel pretty real. Thanks, too, the idea on Pilot Edge. I'd love some real ATC.

 

I made new video of the flight from taxi to shutdown with some transition music etc. here. Lots of weather transition through the flight, which REX made look great.

 

Thanks everyone. It's funny about the motion - even though there is none my wife can't sit in it or she gets airsick. So sometimes it can feel pretty real. Thanks, too, the idea on Pilot Edge. I'd love some real ATC.

 

I made new video of the flight from taxi to shutdown with some transition music etc. here. Lots of weather transition through the flight, which REX made look great.

 

Beautiful! Your boy must love it! Maybe you're putting the "flight addiction sindrome" into him from a too early age! hahaha

Congratulation... Nice home cockpit. :wub:

Wow, what's a setup.  Are you using projector or multiple screens?