Terrain.dll crash & CPU overload?

[Shomron 251]

Hi,

I am getting terrain.dll crashes on flights from KSNA to KPHX in the AS Airbus pro. This happens exactly above ORBX KPSP.

This makes sense since from searching the forums it looks like its related to the mesh resolution settings and system overload - KPSP is full of autogen and is in a mountainous area. It is recommended to go down to a 19m setting

Now I have 2 questions - 

1. From past experience some airports will not function correctly with less than 5m setting - FSDT KDFW, FSDT KIAH & Flightbeam KPHX all get spiky terrain (mainly around the taxiway bridges) when this setting is lowered.

2. I have never encountered this error and have not changed my settings recently. What I did do however is manually move all the below addons (via task manager affinity setting) to use cores 1-3 (leaving core 0 free for P3D)

• ASP4
• ASCA
• Radar Contact
• Ultimate Traffic Live
• FFTF Dynamic
• TrackIR
• FSDT Couatl - after sim is started

Could this cause the sudden terrain.dll error? Could I be overloading the CPU by playing with the affinity settings to free up core 0?

I am using a i7 4790k (HT off) with no overclock (see specs in my sig). I consider this a relatively strong CPU! Autogen draw distance is set to medium, Veg autogen set to dense, building autogen set to normal.

 

Thanks for the help,

Shom

Edited August 22, 2018 by Shomron
More info

[Shomron 251]

Bump?

[Shomron 251]

I have been experimenting with this -

Interesting thing is I have flown the exact flight with mesh set to 19m and again I got a terrain.dll error.

I have done it then again but this time I did not play with any affinity setting via the task manager and let all addons use all 4 cores. And this time the flight passed with no issues!

What brings me to the conclusion that assigning ALL addons to use only cores 1-3 can actually stress the system.

 

Any thoughts? Should I be removing from core 0 only SPECIFIC addons and not all of them?

[9GTurn 6]

I would give the add-ons core 0 and P3D the other 3. P3D is by far more resource hungry / demanding than the add-on's who should merrily be able to function on just core 0.

You may also want to read this thread, especially the comments by Steve on page 2, where the use of HT actually may benefit the sim when you use affinity settings correctly.

 

[Shomron 251]

2 hours ago, 9GTurn said:

I would give the add-ons core 0 and P3D the other 3. P3D is by far more resource hungry / demanding than the add-on's who should merrily be able to function on just core 0.

You may also want to read this thread, especially the comments by Steve on page 2, where the use of HT actually may benefit the sim when you use affinity settings correctly.

 

Thanks I understand assigning all addons to 1 core but won’t P3D perform better on 4 cores including core 0?

The above worked really good for me I was getting smooth higher fps less stutters etc...

The only thing is the fact it caused a crash which I don’t understand...

 

[9GTurn 6]

P3D will take as many cores as you will give it, especially for the graphic renderer to do its job.  If you want to give P3D its own section of CPU then in my experience it works better as you allow the renderer 100% use of a CPU core rather than waiting its turn on the Core 0 with other processes.

IMO I don't think it was an overload that causes your crash unless you know you overheated or overclocked the CPU which would cause a normal crash if you over did it.

[Shomron 251]

12 minutes ago, 9GTurn said:

P3D will take as many cores as you will give it, especially for the graphic renderer to do its job.  If you want to give P3D its own section of CPU then in my experience it works better as you allow the renderer 100% use of a CPU core rather than waiting its turn on the Core 0 with other processes.

IMO I don't think it was an overload that causes your crash unless you know you overheated or overclocked the CPU which would cause a normal crash if you over did it.

Thanks! I’ll try assigning addons to core 0 along with the OS and P3D to cores 1-2.

BTW I do not OC my CPU...

[9GTurn 6]

I had that chip before my 8700k and it was fantastic and can easily take a mild overclock.  I actually think some days it was as good CPU as mine today.

Use the Gatwick affinity calculator and put in the jobscheduler command in cig for your initial affinity and to start with to find which number of cores works best. I would recommend engaging hyper threading so you can assign more throughput to the CPU which you give you a slight lift in performance.

good luck

[David Roch 1,988]

Hi Shom,

I had the same problem who was driven me crazy for months until I remembered I once increased the Dynamic Reflections from Low to Middle in order to try Tomato shade.
Since I reduced this heavy load on the GPU, no more terrain.dll error (for over a month now).

Maybe didn't you increase this parameter but something else (AG is heavy as well) which is crashing your hardware, that's why you'll be advised to create a new P3D.cfg file.
I for one never add any manual value to the config file so I don't feel necessary to replace P3D.cfg, but I save several graphic settings profiles and return to the default one for testing.

[aviatorbja 0]

Had the same issue.   For me, it was to modify a file in the LatinVFR KSNA scenery. Apparently, ORBX global and KSNA are not compatible.

Now, i can fly anywhere in the socal area without random CTD errors.   While I have not done extensive testing on this fix, I'm pretty sure it has resolved the issue.   I also have ORBX socal installed.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/514115-latinvfr-john-wayne-crashing-v4/

*****

Here's what Holger says:

Update Dec 22: If you're using LatinVFR KSNA in P3D it installs an additional landclass file that needs to be deactivated:

 

DEACTIVATE: (by renaming from .bgl to .bgl.off)  

>>> in \LatinVFR\OrangeCo_KSNA\Scenery

LC_1620.bgl.OFF

[Jim Young 2,356]

According to the AVSIM CTD Guide (which finds solutions from around the Internet), indicates high scenery/terrain settings, especially Autogen. Rebuild FSXor P3D.cfg. Restart sim to see if the error reoccurs. If you are using the Affinity Mask setting, don't.  Not recommended.  It causes a lot of crashes because settings are wrong. 

[Shomron 251]

16 hours ago, aviatorbja said:

Had the same issue.   For me, it was to modify a file in the LatinVFR KSNA scenery. Apparently, ORBX global and KSNA are not compatible.

Now, i can fly anywhere in the socal area without random CTD errors.   While I have not done extensive testing on this fix, I'm pretty sure it has resolved the issue.   I also have ORBX socal installed.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/514115-latinvfr-john-wayne-crashing-v4/

*****

Here's what Holger says:

Update Dec 22: If you're using LatinVFR KSNA in P3D it installs an additional landclass file that needs to be deactivated:

 

DEACTIVATE: (by renaming from .bgl to .bgl.off)  

>>> in \LatinVFR\OrangeCo_KSNA\Scenery

LC_1620.bgl.OFF

Done that. it happens over KPSP so unrelated... thanks anyway

13 hours ago, Jim Young said:

According to the AVSIM CTD Guide (which finds solutions from around the Internet), indicates high scenery/terrain settings, especially Autogen. Rebuild FSXor P3D.cfg. Restart sim to see if the error reoccurs. If you are using the Affinity Mask setting, don't.  Not recommended.  It causes a lot of crashes because settings are wrong. 

Will do, thanks

Although AG is set to normal and Mesh turned down to 19m

It reproduced only when shifting manually the affinity settings (simple assignments via task manager)