Hi:

Since v4 came out, I've been building-up my collection of add-on airports (pay & free).  Is there such thing as loading the sim w/ too much scenery?  Not in regards to CTD/OOM but rather the sim taking too long to load or not being able to load all that extra "stuff".

I ask because I downloaded a few airports from the library.  When I tried to start the sim, it just hung on the P3D opening screening.  So I wasn't sure if I was just trying to load too much or if maybe one of the downloaded files was corrupt.

Thanks.

Good question. I'm watching closely because I actually do wonder about the effect on OOM/CTD.

Hi,

check the paths in your scenery library if one of them points at an empty folder. P3D V4.3 has developed the habit to "hang" when that is the case.

If you have many scenery addons, I suggest using an addon management tool that will point out empty/broken scenery paths. 

Best regards

"P3D V4.3 has developed the habit to "hang" when that is the case."

1st day after full install ran into this issue. Before it would prompt to load problem scenery. Now p3d v4.3 just hangs on load.

Thankfully, I was able to get it sorted quickly.

I deleted an airport from P3D v4 using the Microsoft programs and features in the control panel. I made the mistake of leaving the entry in the P3D sceneries folder (empty folder) and P3D would hang on the startup screen. I had to re-install the airport, remove the entry from the scenery folder first and then delete the airport....so yes, P3D does hang under those circumstances..

Edited July 21, 20187 yr by Peter Webber

Hello,

Interesting topic to follow.

I started yesterday having huge issues with P3D V4.3 hanging on the loading screen after selecting a scenario. I did a full re-install on to an empty SSD and it is still the same taking sometimes 20 minutes to load up. Something can't be right. Is anyone else experiencing the same? I've done all the debugging tips and just can't put my finger on it.

Many thanks,

Jonathan

Hi,

the freeware Lorby AddonOrganizer will point out broken or invalid scenery (or other addon) paths. That may save a bit of headache.

Please note that this is a new behavior of the platform, that was not present in previous versions.

Best regards

Edited July 21, 20187 yr by Lorby_SI

2 minutes ago, Lorby_SI said:

Hi,

the freeware Lorby AddonOrganizer will point out broken or invalid scenery (or other addon) paths. That may save a bit of headache.

Please note that this is a new behavior of the platform, that was not present in previous versions.

Best regards

Thanks for getting back to me. 

I have re-installed ORBX which has taken about 12 hours and it’s all correct and I have one add on airport in which is FlyTampa Boston for V4. I did a test last night and it struggled to load up at Boston in the PMDG 777-200. It took well over 20 minutes and I finally gave up. 

I’m trying again now and it’s been stuck in 18% for about 5 minutes. 

Are Lockheed Martin Prepar3D looking into this issue? 

At the finish yesterday I had to step away from it all because nothing I was trying was trying was fixing the problem. 

I have a feeling it’ll be quite a while before I fly again the way things are going with this sim. 

Many Thanks, 

Jonathan. 

Did you set your Orbx scenery insertion points in FTX Central, and did you make sure your

Flytampa scenery had higher priority in your scenery library than any of your Orbx sceneries?

 

Did you try starting P3Dv4 with the Orbx sceneries but without the Flytampa scenery?

 

In an earlier post, you said you tried loading a scenario when the problem began happening.

Scenarios can break  as well as sceneries. Did you try loading the P3Dv4 default scenario

(I think it's the default F35 at some California air base), and see if that scenario worked at least?

 

You can also try going into your scenery library, hit the "ok" button, and let P3Dv4 build and

check the library entries.

 

Sorry, I don't know if that's any help, just some thoughts off the top of my head, things I would try

first before doing major surgery on my P3Dv4 install. 

 

- Bob

27 minutes ago, BBCM said:

Did you set your Orbx scenery insertion points in FTX Central, and did you make sure your

Flytampa scenery had higher priority in your scenery library than any of your Orbx sceneries?

 

Did you try starting P3Dv4 with the Orbx sceneries but without the Flytampa scenery?

 

In an earlier post, you said you tried loading a scenario when the problem began happening.

Scenarios can break  as well as sceneries. Did you try loading the P3Dv4 default scenario

(I think it's the default F35 at some California air base), and see if that scenario worked at least?

 

You can also try going into your scenery library, hit the "ok" button, and let P3Dv4 build and

check the library entries.

 

Sorry, I don't know if that's any help, just some thoughts off the top of my head, things I would try

first before doing major surgery on my P3Dv4 install. 

 

- Bob

Hi Bob, 

Thanks for getting back to me. I have tried a lot of things over the past 24 hours. Everything looks correct in the scenery library which is strange. I think it could be an ORBX issue because when installed the fresh copy of Prepar3D and ran the default scenario it loaded quite fast. I’ve noticed quite a few people having similar issues. I have reported it to Prepar3D over on their forums so hopefully they’ll get back to me.  

Thanks, 

Jonathan

Well, hopefully you can get it sorted, although if it may be an Orbx problem, you might be better posting on the Orbx forums as well.  

Going back to the original post, for my 6 year old system, there does seem to be a "critical mass" in my accumulated sceneries and planes at which my system just bogs down. I suppose the data flow is just bottle necking, probably at 2 or 3 different points. If you have a bottomless bank account and can afford 2 tb SSD's  everywhere, stacks of GTX 1080ti's, and water cooling on everything even the RAM, I suppose unlimited scenery and plane accumulation isn't a problem. But on my retirement budget, I can't afford this.

The best solutions I've found for this "critical mass", for the planes, any that are in the default SimObjects folder and I'm just not flying much, I move the plane's folder to a "Hanger" folder on the same drive as P3Dv4. That will keep them from loading. 

For those that are in my outboard XML folders, I do similar, and move the SimObject plane folder to a storage folder in that XML folder, or I'll add "OFF" to the name of an entire XML folder to keep every plane in that folder from loading. It's easy enough to reverse any of this before starting the Sim if I decide I want to fly those planes again.

For sceneries I'm not using in a particular flying session, I use the freeware Scenery Config Editor. When I moved from FSX to P3Dv4, I didn't think I would need SCE anymore. I was wrong. On my old system, not loading the umpteen dozen GB's of Orbx sceneries and airports I'm not flying in at the moment makes a noticeable difference in the smoothness of my flight and the speed at which it loads (I'm still on an HDD).

I don’t know if any of this is useful, and probably most people with older systems are doing this already, But as said before, just some thoughts.

-  Bob

PS I'm using Scenery Config Editor because I always have. But it requires Java, which is not the most secure program. Lorby-Si's Mod Manager mentioned earlier in the thread I believe will do everything SCE does and more. I'll have to give that a look. 

 

Edited July 21, 20187 yr by BBCM
add PS

On 7/21/2018 at 6:47 PM, Lorby_SI said:

Hi,

the freeware Lorby AddonOrganizer will point out broken or invalid scenery (or other addon) paths. That may save a bit of headache.

Please note that this is a new behavior of the platform, that was not present in previous versions.

Best regards

How would I recognize if sth is wrong? I cannot see any tool like "check scenery integrity". Or does it mean that, if there is no message, that everything is correct.

3 minutes ago, Nemo said:

How would I recognize if sth is wrong? I cannot see any tool like "check scenery integrity". Or does it mean that, if there is no message, that everything is correct.

In the current version 1.35 b03 invalid paths are recognized automatically and shown in violet color, both for scenery and for other addons.

Best regards

3 minutes ago, Lorby_SI said:

In the current version 1.35 b03 invalid paths are recognized automatically and shown in violet color, both for scenery and for other addons.

Best regards

AAAAAHHHHH, now i see what that violet entry is, i already wondered ...

You have to include an color key at the window bottom or we will get lost with this colorful addonlists 🤣

9 minutes ago, JoeFackel said:

AAAAAHHHHH, now i see what that violet entry is, i already wondered ...

You have to include an color key at the window bottom or we will get lost with this colorful addonlists 🤣

The meaning of the colors (and hopefully everything else) is explained in the "P4AO User Manual" (P3DV4_AddonOrganizer_Documentation.pdf), chapter 3.1, on page 7.

Best regards

Edited July 24, 20187 yr by Lorby_SI