Random terrain.dll crashes

[fabristunt 25]

I've made the move from FSX to P3D for the graphics. Boy I regret it!.

I had something like 2 crashes per year, no OOM and a nice ride.

 

I switched to P3D in late August 2016 and had so many crashes... I resolved most of them, but one still plagued me. I had random terrain.dll crashed, both on addon sceneries and default areas. When V3.4 came out, I decided to do a full reinstal, hoping that it will fix it. It didn't.

 

I just had the nth terrain.dll crash over nothing! Flying over the border between France and Spain, with no addon scenery within at least 600nm. How is that even possible? I never had terrain.dll problems in years of FSX.

 

My guess is that it has something to do with the ORBX FTX stuff. I have Global, Vector and Open LC Europe. Do you have any suggestion?

 

Please don't tell me to lower the settings because they are already on low and my computer is definitely up to the task. That is not the problem.

 

I had crashes with the PMDG 737, the A2A C182 and even the default C172.

 

Here's my computer:

 Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

 Intel Ci7 Box Processore CPU 1150 i7-4790K, 4.00 GHz

 Thermalright HR-02 Macho Rev.A, CPU Cooler Silent Fan

 MSI Z97-G45 Gaming Scheda Madre, Nero

 Avexir Core Series - Black Heatsink - Led Blu - 8Gb / 4Gb x2 / 9-9-9-24 / 1600 Mhz

 MSI AK VGA GTX 970 GAMING 4GB GDDR5 TWINFRZR V

 COOLERMASTER ALIM. 600W G600 80 PLUS BRONZE

HD 1: Samsung MZ-7TE250BW SSD 840 EVO, 250GB, 2.5" SATA III, Nero/Antracite

HD 2: Western Digital WD20EZRX Caviar Green HardDisk 2TB

 

What can I do? Does it have something to do with the ORBX stuff? that's the only commonality between the crashes.

 

Regards,

Fabrizio

[G-YMML1 582]

I had had terrain.dll issues occasionally a lot, especially in mountain areas until I increased mesh resolution to 19m.  Visibly there is almost no difference. 

[simmerhead 885]

Yep, had a couple of these as well in ORBX FTX EU Norway when using 10m mesh resolution over mountainous areas. 

[aeronauta 66]

Fabrizio, you have cut and paste this Post into the P3D forum (which I have replied ) , have you done the same in the ORBX forum?? maybe that is a better place for your question...

 

Jorge

[fabristunt 25]

Thanks for your suggestion about the mesh. I'll try it tomorrow morning and report back, however the crashes are random and it may not crash fpr a couple of weeks making me believe that we solved the issue.

 

@aeronauta

Already done, through I'm not expecting much from the orbx forum. They don't like it when people suggest something may be wrong with their stuff. Thanks for ypur answer anyway

[aeronauta 66]

That's service eh?

 

Jorge

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

There are some reasons for setting mesh lower, yes?  Seems like some sceneries require it?  I find myself moving it back and forth.

[simmerhead 885]

As long as we don't have sloped runways there really is little reason to use mesh @ 10m or less. I have som very detailed mountain mesh and the difference between 19m and 10m is minor, especially if you're using the sim to fly in and don't go on a climbing expedition with an avatar. The finer resolution you use, the more calculations the sim has to do and it will impact performance, especially texture loading in mountainous areas. After making several screenshot to compare what the various resolutions do, I found 19m to be the sweet spot between detail, accuracy and performance.

[fabristunt 25]

I tried lowering the mesh detail to 19m. No problems on the flight that made me crash the other day. However, it didn't crash on the inbound leg the day before that, so today's flight may just be a lucky episode.

 

On the other hand, the bridges at the T2G EDDM scenery are unusable now. The plane sinks into the ground when taxing over them. I'll have to bump up the mesh detail a bit. I'll try 10m and report back later today.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

 

 

On the other hand, the bridges at the T2G EDDM scenery are unusable now. The plane sinks into the ground when taxing over them. I'll have to bump up the mesh detail a bit. I'll try 10m and report back later today.

 

That's what it was.

[simmerhead 885]

If you are forced to load high detailed mesh for an entire flight just to be able to taxi at the airport, I'll call it poor design. Of course, I'm aware that limitations of the FSX/P3D terrain/scenery comes into play, but replacing one problem with a new one isn't really a good solution.

[fabristunt 25]

I tested it a bit. With anything lower than 2m, the bridges are unusable. I'll leave it at 2 for now and see what happens.

 

 

 

If you are forced to load high detailed mesh for an entire flight just to be able to taxi at the airport, I'll call it poor design.

Can't argue with that! Exactly what I was thinking...

 

Thank you all for your help!

 

Fabrizio

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

I flew with 19m yesterday and it made the alps look like tall hills.  I guess it's a matter of risk setting it lower.  I think I'm going to try 5m.  If I fly into EDDM I'll set it to 2 on the ground.

[fabristunt 25]

Yesterday on thr occasion of IVAO's Crowded Skies event I flew EGSS-LOWI-LSGG-ENBR, all without restarting the sim and had no problems. I flew around quite a lot of mountainous terrain. My new setting for the mesh quality is 2m and it seems to have fixed my problem.