FSX-MS VAS Mystery

[Hansonius 1]

Hi,

The problem/question: WHY DOES MY NEW PC USE 650/1100 MB MORE VAS THAN MY OLD PC UNDER EXACTLY THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES????

I use both pc's in a network, the old serverpc is replaced by a new one. FSX Gold Edition is on both of them. See attachments for specifications of the pc's and settings.
As I did run in VAS/OOM problems over NL2000/Eham on my new pc, and that never happened on my old one ,I started testing.

On both pc's the settings/aircraft/airport/scenery are exactly the same. I tested on EHAM (NL2000), Auckland (ORBX) and Bristol (ORBX).
There were two versions of NL2000 involved 4.07 and 4.09 but the testresults were the same with both versions, so it wasn't an NL2000 problem.

As you can see in my attachments ,on EHAM my new pc used 1GB! more VAS than the old one. For Bristol it was 900MB and for Auckland (not in the attachment) it was 650 MB.
That's how I get unexpected OOM's!

Does anyone have a clue how this can happen and how to solve this.

Hans

Information/attachments:

Edited September 30, 2017 by Hansonius
inserting images from URL does'n seem to work

[Jim Young 2,356]

Because your settings are higher on the newer system thus rendering textures much faster?  I also think it is all dependent on your view(s) when you started up your sim.  Some structures on airports are more detailed that others.  Same goes with VC's.

Please do not capitalize in topics.  It is rude and considered shouting (I know, that's what you were doing).  Use the Bold menu instead.

See our pinned topic on how to insert/embed images on AVSIM.

[Hansonius 1]

Hi Jim,

Sorry about using capitals in my topic, I didn't realise it ws one of the forum roules. ! But you were right I was shouting because the problem was driving me mad, I couldn't understand why it was happening.

The point is that Proces Explorer just showed me that even withjust  the FSX opening screen the difference i VAS usage between my old and new pc was 850 MB.

Starting the flight on EHAM from the same parking postion with the same VC and settings  enlarged the difference up to 1000MB.

Someone suggested that the problem is "VAS retention" the new pc doesn't free the VAS. But he didn't knew if there was afix for it.

And Yes, I just copied the topic on how to insert images on Avsim.

Thanks for the reply, I'll keep on digging,

Hans

[Jim Young 2,356]

Have you tried to monitor VAS using the FSUIPC utility (see page 16, AVSIM CTD Guide).  This utility monitors VAS throughout the flight and, at the end, after you have closed FSX, you can go to the Modules folder and click on the fsuipc.txt (the log).  It shows the amount at the beginning and at the end and, at the bottom of the report, it will show you the average VAS usage.

[Hansonius 1]

Hi Jim,

I am monitoring the VAS usage with process Explorer and Vasograph which is using FSUIPC.

In the meanwhile I found a partly solution to the VAS usage if you are a Nvidia user.

Here is the link:https://forums.flightsimlabs.com/index.php?/topic/10624-nvidia-users-i-found-something-which-might-reduce-vas-usage

It saved 220/250 MB of VAS for me by diasabling the shader cache with Nvidia Inspector.

Hope it helps other Nvidia users with FSX or P3D.

Hans

[Jim Young 2,356]

54 minutes ago, Hansonius said:

It saved 220/250 MB of VAS for me by diasabling the shader cache with Nvidia Inspector.

I believe this has been known to the community and saving 200-300 MB's of VAS or, IMHO, 500-1000 MB's of VAS is great but at the expense of other game functions:  From TweakGuides (http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_7.html)  - "The Shader Cache feature in the GeForce drivers is designed to create a storage location for compiled shaders on your drive so that the next time you run a game and it needs to use particular shaders, it can use the precompiled stored shaders rather than compiling them again. This should speed up loading times, improve performance and reduce the potential for stutter."  These are factors nice to have when running FSX.  If you monitor VAS as I recommended above and in the CTD Guide, you will see VAS usage fluctuates, sometimes dramatically, during a flight.  For instance, here's a report from a short flight from FSDT KLAX to Orbx KSAN over FTX SoCal in the PMDG 738 with real world weather enabled:

Spoiler

2141 Running in "Microsoft Flight Simulator X", Version: 10.0.61637.0 (SimConnect: 10.0.61259.0)
     2141 Initialising SimConnect data requests now
     2141 FSUIPC Menu entry added
     2156 G:\FSX\FLIGHTS\OTHER\FLTSIM.FLT
     2156 G:\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\Aircreation_582SL\Aircreation_582SL.AIR
     2547 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3607800
    25594 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3505232
    32344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3499712
    42344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3501248
    48594 G:\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX WL\B737-800WL.AIR
    67906 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3249100
    72406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3239372
    73891 Weather Mode now = Real World
    82344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2829912
    92531 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2894572
   110719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2866788
   112344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2500024
   122531 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2296772
   132438 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2101628
   142594 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1890984
   152406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1799860
   155469 Aircraft loaded: running normally now ...
   155469 User Aircraft ID 1 supplied, now being used
   156125 System time = 17/04/2017 17:50:15, Simulator time = 14:47:42 (21:47Z)
   156125 Aircraft="PMDG 737-800NGX PMDG House Winglets"
   162438 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1313168
   164250 Starting everything now ...
   165422 Advanced Weather Interface Enabled
   172453 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1325456
   182516 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1321168
   212859 Sim stopped: average frame rate for last 57 secs = 11.1 fps
   212859    Max AI traffic was 302 aircraft (Deleted 0)
   222781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1332376
   232781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1332032
   242781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1331740
   252781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1331324
   262719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1318224
   272719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1269096
   282797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1219960
   292797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1216592
   302859 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1189868
   312828 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1110668
   322844 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1212612
   332891 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1149148
   342906 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1178092
   352953 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1179164
   373031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1195760
   383047 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1183644
   393078 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1175124
   403109 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1171772
   413125 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1145828
   423156 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169660
   433188 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169724
   453250 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169704
   483375 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169748
   493391 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169768
   503406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1168288
   533500 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169752
   543563 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1171960
   553625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1143596
   563625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1134168
   573703 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1122708
   583734 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1099632
   593750 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1087340
   603781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1171632
   613813 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1199936
   623828 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1269868
   633891 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1210688
   643938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1265076
   653938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1259416
   663984 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1256216
   674000 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1254812
   684031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1253608
   694094 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1254048
   704109 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1252928
   714156 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1322944
   724188 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1320692
   734219 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1315980
   744250 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1315452
   754281 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1316512
   764328 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1320300
   774375 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1326176
   784406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1305176
   794438 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1302988
   804484 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1269128
   814484 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1228036
   824516 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1190896
   834547 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1208428
   844594 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1210000
   854641 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1209384
   864672 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1212356
   874719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1311112
   884750 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1316700
   894797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1292792
   904828 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1518232
   914844 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1519632
   934922 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1460332
   944938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1362764
   954969 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1368060
   965000 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1368768
   975031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1363768
   985063 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1365908
  1005109 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1395956
  1025188 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1422312
  1035203 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1521724
  1045234 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1502940
  1055266 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1543652
  1075313 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1546336
  1095375 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1552796
  1105406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1552788
  1125469 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1551736
  1155563 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1555020
  1185641 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1557248
  1195672 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1555852
  1205688 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1494164
  1215734 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1555300
  1245813 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1553920
  1285938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1544112
  1295953 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1553116
  1306000 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1555880
  1316031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1545964
  1326047 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1517240
  1336078 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1557472
  1366188 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1547560
  1376219 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1515888
  1386250 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1494980
  1396281 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1515884
  1406313 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1554672
  1506609 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1499524
  1516625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1544512
  1536688 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1603108
  1546703 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1635708
  1556734 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1633980
  1566766 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1609500
  1576797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1629752
  1606859 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1626552
  1616906 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1627408
  1626953 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1632088
  1636953 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1520928
  1646984 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1568716
  1657016 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1536052
  1667063 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1566352
  1677094 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1574984
  1687125 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1569384
  1737281 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1567616
  1757328 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1568128
  1767359 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1514212
  1777391 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1566708
  1787406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1565256
  1797438 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1537652
  1807500 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1558008
  1817531 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1566536
  1836719 *** G3D bad pointer trapped and crash prevented ***
  1837578 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1563064
  1838500 *** G3D bad pointer trapped and crash prevented ***
  1847625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1164612
  1857672 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1165300
  1877750 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1162416
  1897813 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1131916
  1907859 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1129792
  1917875 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1098524
  1927922 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1207672
  1937969 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1072496
  1948016 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1086272
  1958094 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1082964
  1968156 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1079400
  1978156 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1065908
  1988141 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1061704
  1998172 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1025980
  2008234 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 992772
  2018250 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 984428
  2028313 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 971644
  2038344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 935284
  2048391 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 930528
  2058469 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 985408
  2068484 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 996616
  2078500 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1014080
  2088547 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 991384
  2098578 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 930576
  2108625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 960260
  2118656 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 955988
  2128688 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 956344
  2138719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 954932
  2148766 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 955032
  2158828 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 948420
  2168875 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 946480
  2178906 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 966024
  2188938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 990844
  2199016 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1004840
  2209031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1002860
  2219094 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 994724
  2229141 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 940504
  2239203 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 969176
  2249219 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 965912
  2259297 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 991160
  2269297 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 997652
  2279375 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1004360
  2289391 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1004600
  2299406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1043660
  2309484 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1015444
  2319531 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1019548
  2329547 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1015276
  2339578 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1044900
  2349641 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1044120
  2359641 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1046136
  2369688 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 971636
  2379719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1045532
  2389781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1015668
  2399797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1010824
  2409859 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1011580
  2419891 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1044352
  2429938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1044872
  2439984 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1036176
  2450031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1087300
  2460078 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 938040
  2466094 Sim stopped: average frame rate for last 2206 secs = 42.6 fps
  2466094    Max AI traffic was 309 aircraft (Deleted 0)
  2469844 === DLLStop called ...
  2469844 === Closing external processes we started ...
  2470859 === About to kill any Lua plug-ins still running ...
  2471000 === Closing global Lua thread
  2472000 === About to kill my timers ...
  2472203 === Restoring window procs ...
  2472203 === Unloading libraries ...
  2472203 === stopping other threads ...
  2472203 === ... Button scanning ...
  2472297 === ... Axis scanning ...
  2472406 === Releasing joystick devices ...
  2472406 === Freeing macro memory
  2472406 === Removing any offset overrides
  2472406 === Clearing any displays left
  2472406 === NOTE: not calling SimConnect_Close ...
  2472406 === AI slots deleted!
  2472406 === Freeing button memory ...
  2472406 === Closing my Windows ...
  2472406 === Freeing FS libraries ...
  2473406 === Closing devices ...
  2473406 === Closing the Log ... Bye Bye! ...
  2473406 System time = 17/04/2017 18:28:52, Simulator time = 15:25:24 (22:25Z)
  2473406 *** FSUIPC log file being closed
Minimum frame rate was 10.6 fps, Maximum was 161.8 fps
Minimum available memory recorded was 909Mb
Average frame rate for running time of 2263 secs = 41.8 fps
G3D fix: Passes 66390, Null pointers 0, Bad pointers 4, Separate instances 2
Maximum AI traffic for session was 309 aircraft
Memory managed: 1070 Allocs, 1070 Freed
********* FSUIPC Log file closed ***********

As you can see, I started out with nearly 4GB's of VAS but ended up with a little less than 1GB left at the end.  You can see by the report how the VAS usage moves up and down depending on the scenario during the flight.  I have been able to do a 2 hour flight from FSDT Chicago KORD to FlightBeam's Wash Dulles in the PMDG 747 and end up with 400-500MB's of VAS remaining.  That's all I care about.  Landing with at least 300MB's of VAS.  If I don't have that, my chances of landing and taxiing to a gate would have been diminished drastically. 

You can also save 200-300 MB's of VAS by going to the World and opening up the Map or other feature in the FSX Menu, close and return to flying.

You should have seen us back in the "old days" when FSX was first released!  Even the most powerful computers were not all that powerful as we know today (I had a Dell XPS 720 system w/Core 2 Extreme Processor and a GeForce 8800GTX GPU).  I would be lucky to hit 30 fps and back then we did not know anything about VAS usage other than a member posted one day about a /3GB switch which reduced unexplained crashes and that was truly the excitement of the times.  So we started out with 2GB's of VAS and then moved up to 3GB's of VAS with the /3GB switch.  That was on a 32 bit OS as the 64 bit OS was not being installed.  Now with the 64 bit OS, we get up to 4GB of VAS per application.  Thank you Microsoft for the 64 bit OS!!

[Hansonius 1]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the extensive reply. The shader cache will be activated and  I am going to use the CTD guide and see what the results are. 

Btw all this VAS/OOM stuff  is many the last push I need to switch to P3D v4.1 in the near future.

Regards, H.