Try using Traffic Optimizer to put a cap on the amount of AI traffic and to eliminate distant AI planes that you probably can't even see.  AI models, especially ones with poor or no mip-mapping in their textures, can eat a lot of VAS.

 

Also, if you have an older PC or the resources to grab an inexpensive back-to-school special, you can offload ActiveSky, PFPX, ATC-Pro/X, and Aivlasoft EFB (and Traffic Optimizer, aka ATM) to that and run those programs over the network.

 

Vector (or UTX for those that use it instead) can also clobber VAS if the settings are too high, with lots of minor road and other detail.  You didn't mention terrain mesh, but that can also pose VAS issues.

 

Last, there is a known memory leak issue with the PMDG 777 related to a particular feature seen in STARS and approaches (heading to course intercept IIRC), so don't program your FMS with arrival data at the beginning of your flight.  There's more on that in their forum.

 

Regards

I have found that Orbx Vector can clobber scarce VAS,  I usually keep all the eye candy not seen at flight levels turned off, like streams, power lines, parks and secondary road options.  The other day I turned on vector traffic in all roads while testing the poor performance of openLC NA Lights on a NGX trip KMIA-KEWR and I started getting the low VAS ding.  I haven't hear that sound yet in v3.3 so it was a surprise.  I saved the scenario but continued the trip and P3D managed to keep me from the edge of the cliff.

 

I love what Vector does to most coastlines and wetlands but I don't need to see the details of a highway at FL340.

Thanks everyone for the help. I'll do more testing tonight on another flight. I've been doing KIAH-KDFW primarily yesterday for about 4x and each and every time I'm getting the DING and then eventually OOM when I'm close to approaching KDFW. Flight is a very short one, maybe 30-40 minutes...  I guess the combination of all my add-ons with 2 payware airports (FSDT KIAH and FSDT KDFW) in such short distance is causing this, and I also notice when the weather is a bit cloudy or bad, it makes things worse as well. My fps will start to drop and things aren't as smooth. Such a shame. For you guys who fly mainly IFR tubeliners such as PMDG 737/777 or Aerosoft Airbus, what are your settings like? What add-ons do you keep and what do you disable?

 

However, when flying my Legacy, thing's are much smoother, and I haven't gotten an OOM as far as I can remember. This only happens when I'm flying the PMDG 777.

 

Thanks for the tip about entering in STAR and setting up for approach at the last minute due to a memory leak. That's what I've been doing on my short hop from KIAH-KDFW.

 

For IFR, I guess what's really important to me is flying with AI using Pro-ATC, because it brings the skies and airport to life. So I must keep MyTraffic add-on. I haven't tried P3D Traffic Optimizer yet, I'll look into that to see if that will help as well. I might have to disable Immersion 777. I can live without those effects. Everything else, I'd really like to keep.

 

My testing ground is sitting at the gate at FSDT's KIAH in the 777. I notice my VAS starts at around 700000, which I'm guessing means I have around 700mb left, and eventually when approaching KDFW, it'll drop down to 111000, and then I get the OOM error.

I have FSDT KIAH and KDFW and can assure you that is not the problem.  I also use 4096 texture settings and pretty much all sliders to the right except building autogen (it is costly to use) and mesh resolution because KIAH gets spikes with higher than 5m settings.

 

Your traffic add on is a memory hog. I never use fake traffic, it's not realistic enough for me.

Two of my friends are running into the same OOM issues with the PMDG 737 and 777 now with vector/OLC/Global. Try running the lower bitrate sound pack for the 777 that will help a little and also turn off all the boxes in vector config tool. For the 737 I've switched to the lower texture settings in the ops center and that helps a bit.

I know everybody holds them on a high pedestal, but this is one of the things I don't like about PMDG's products. They have such a massive VAS hit that it always makes it a challenge to run without running up against the limit. I'm not saying there's anything *bad* about their products, but I just think it's kind of unfair to call out product x y or z for high VAS useage; ultimately a detailed addon of any kind is going to have a VAS hit, so it's basically "pick your poison" until a 64bit version comes out.

I have FSDT KIAH and KDFW and can assure you that is not the problem.  I also use 4096 texture settings and pretty much all sliders to the right except building autogen (it is costly to use) and mesh resolution because KIAH gets spikes with higher than 5m settings.

 

Your traffic add on is a memory hog. I never use fake traffic, it's not realistic enough for me.

 

 

So you're saying the main culprit is MyTraffic 6? Could you please post your computer specs and what resolution you're running at? I want to do a comparison to see what could be the cause of this. I'm pretty sure its the AI traffic add-on that's taking a big chunk of my VAS. From reading the entire 35 page thread about the P3D Traffic Optimizer, I heard that this is one of the biggest cause of OOM, high VAS usage and can affect your fps as well. I will do another test using this tool to see if this help me with my VAS/OOM issue.

 

Because my P3D graphic settings are very "conservative now", although I have an i7-3770k, I would think that my system setup would allow me more headroom to push P3D a bit more than this.

Your system has absolutely no bearing on how far you can "push" P3D. An old Pentium IV 2ghz with 8gb of ram could run all the same things with the same OOM limit (but obviously at a lower FPS.) It's all a function of P3D's 32bit core.

I have found vector to use up to 400mb on my system . 200 with all items disabled. Dont uninstall disable in scenary library for heavy flights it is great for vfr. Same sometimes for regions.

I had similar probs and unistalled vector, I was the same went to heathrow with 777 or concorde etc and my vas was down to 300 or less - so after  a while I uninstalled vector - no more ooms.

This is only for my setup and may be different for others - so leave it with you.

 

Denis Brown

 

Same here.

After uninstalling Vector I never had OOM issues again.

 

I am also using MT6 with ~30% traffic. Vector was the one addon which caused me a lot of trouble. My sim is far more stable without Vector.

Turn Hyperthreading of your CPU off! 

my HT is on, what will HT off do? Fix the OOM problem?

PMDG uses alot of VAS because of the detail.  To fly the 777 without stutters or fear of ding I have a config with almost everything to the left (except scenery, i need to see airport buildings), textures 1024 and just a little antialiasing.  I get 24fps which holds even if I place the aircraft at KJFK.

my HT is on, what will HT off do? Fix the OOM problem?

 

there is a pretty long post about HT on/off.

http://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=115629

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/476776-500mb-vas-reduction-and-increase-fps-by-22-in-v3-need-some-testers

 

In short summary: With HT off you get a lot less VAS usage.

But what if I use my computer for other stuff beside flight simming? I have other games that I play and photoshop, will HT off make those run any worse, better or have no effect?