High CPU Usage during long range flight

[agonyair 0]

I believe that I may have solved my issue with High CPU usage. I noticed the other day when flying the Zibo 737 from KTUS to KMDW when I shut down the plane the F/O radio was still broadcasting ATIS information from KTUS. I'm thinking that Pilot2ATC is still attempting to use this information therefor using high memory and CPU and causing Pilot2ATC to become unresponsive sometimes. Anyone else having high CPU usage I would suggest testing this by only using 1 of the radios in the cockpit or if you're unable to do this make sure they are both switched to just one radio. I would be interested to know if this solved your problem also.

P.S. any input on this Dave would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks again, Jeff

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

If you have the ignore Battery and Avionics options checked, the radio will continue working in P2A, even if the plane is shut down.  If you close the SIM, killing the connection, it should stop.

I know that some aircraft have "custom" radios and there can be issues with P2A not being notified when frequencies change, etc.  However, I don't think the Zibo has those issues.

Dave

 

[jwebrc 0]

Unfortunately this is a real annoying issue. Obviously only for some of us. I have it on every flight duration longer than 2 hours. CPU is raising slowly und after two ore more hours it goes up more faster. It ends with CPU usage between 30 and 60%. On longer flights you have to close and restart three or four times and sometimes it is not possible to get the center again and therefore filing the flightplan is not longer possible. Two choices then, Closing the sim (X-Plane) or go further without P2A. 

I had an email conversation with Dave and he also received the log. Hope he can find a solution.

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

There's nothing in the log to indicate a problem and I've tried a couple of long flights and could not reproduce the problem.

Agonyair indicated that switching to XPUIPC version 2.0.0.0 fixed the CPU issue for them.  That is the version found in the Installation guide under "alternate version".

Check what version of XPUIPC you're using.

Dave

[jwebrc 0]

53 minutes ago, Dave-Pilot2ATC said:

There's nothing in the log to indicate a problem and I've tried a couple of long flights and could not reproduce the problem.

Agonyair indicated that switching to XPUIPC version 2.0.0.0 fixed the CPU issue for them.  That is the version found in the Installation guide under "alternate version".

Check what version of XPUIPC you're using.

Dave

Hi Dave

Yes, I tried it with your version of XPUIPC and some others, did not help. I do a fresh download now and install it from scratch. It is weird, because mostly others seems do not have this issue. Maybe processor model; WIN10 patch? This will be getting difficult to sort out.

Thank you Dave trying to help.

Jack

[jwebrc 0]

In meantime I tried different versions of XPUIPC (yours and newer ones) but the issue remains. Further I removed all addons which no effects either. I will inform in case I find out something.....

By the way - it seems that the support of XPUIPC will be abandoned and no further versions will be published. Could lead into a problem not only in few of P2A.

[goozburger 0]

@Dave-Pilot2ATC I've been having a similar problem with high CPU usage. I will try to get some details and logs to you when I simulate the problem again when I make time to fly for a few hours (I recently went through a fresh setup, so have lost previous log files, and can't recall all version numbers of software used), but this was happening every time I made a flight of two or three hours or more. X-Plane normally uses around 60-70% of my CPU, and Pilot2ATC would gradually increase its use of the CPU from around 2% to 20-30%, at which point it became largely unresponsive and extremely slow to respond to click events, transmit descent altitudes, etc. X-Plane actually carried on fine, but I think Pilot2ATC may have been after more CPU resources that it couldn't get to fulfil certain tasks (maybe).

I can't provide anything concrete right now, but I will keep an eye out on things, and supply you with the log file and any other observations. My current set up is as follows (I've listed what I think will be notable):

X-Plane 11 [v11.41r1]
Pilot2ATC [v2.6.1.1 x64 R3]
XPUIPC [v2.0.0.0 x64]
Just Flight Traffic Global [v1.0.9113]
Airfoillabs King Air 350 [v1.3]
CPU: i5 4670K
Memory: 32GB DDR3

I don't know if this will help until I perform a long-range flight and get some logs over to you, but I do have some observations and recollections of my previous experience with this problem:

• When I downgraded XPUIPC from a higher version to the version advised as above, this did not resolve the CPU usage.
   
• I tried making flights without showing map markers such as airborne traffic, ground traffic, and not centring on my own aircraft, but this didn't seem to resolve the problem.
   
• When un-minimising Pilot2ATC during a flight, it seems to repaint the entire Pilot2ATC window (the map, the flight plan, etc.), which bumps up the CPU by a few percentage points each time. It then settles down by a percent or two after this point. While that is probably normal behaviour, I think un-minimising Pilot2ATC is exacerbated later on in flights when its CPU usage has escalated; if I'm flicking between Navigraph Charts and Pilot2ATC on my second monitor, I think Pilot2ATC struggles to render the flight plan (and maybe the map) due to not being able to get any more CPU resources. This might be why I end up with slow/delayed transmissions ("BV1B, descend and maintain 3000ft" during an approach, for example), or why clicking on a SayIt command or any other clickable area does not work.

I'm building an automated checklist for Xchecklist today, so I'm leaving Pilot2ATC connected with my simulator, a flight plan filed, AI aircraft showing on the map, and Traffic Global running. For about an hour now, Pilot2ATC seems steady at around 2-3% when minimised, jumping to around 5-6% when I maximise it, and then settling to around 3-4% until being minimised again. I think if it was going to be a problem in this initial state, it would have started to show by now in the Task Manager's CPU usage, so it may well be something to do with when I start moving.

One thing I am noticing is that the CPU does occasionally jump up considerable for a moment every minute or so to around 15%, and then back down to normal levels. I don't know if that could be AI traffic entering the environment, or possibly Pilot2ATC running a sort of cron job every minute or so, but while Pilot2ATC seems settled at 2-3%, it doesn't seem to adversely affect anything. I suppose the key thing is to work out why it steadily rises throughout the flight, but I will try to get something more concrete later on.

[goozburger 0]

So after having sat on the ground for over an hour, there were no CPU issues, as mentioned in my previous post.

I'm around one hour into moving and being airborne, just flying in a straight line (no flight plan loaded into the FMS), and the CPU usage has gone from around 3% to around 10% with Pilot2ATC minimised. I'm expecting that to rise over time (and three hours of flying time at this rate would tie in with the CPU reaching 20-30%). At this point, when Pilot2ATC is minimised, maximising it seems to take an extra 4-5% of CPU, which is a bit more than the extra 2-3% it took while idle on the ground.

I will make another post in another hour or so to describe the state of things.

Edited May 7, 2020 by OnePhilT

[goozburger 0]

About two and a half hours into the flight, and Pilot2ATC is at around 21% CPU usage when minimised. It's not unresponsive, yet, but I suspect it will be in another hour or two. I will post the log files when I'm done, but you can see the picture... The CPU is gradually eaten through as time wares on.

[goozburger 0]

OK, so by the time I ran out of fuel (about four hours into the flight), Pilot2ATC ended up using between 30-40% of the CPU, and although it wasn't completely unresponsive, it was sluggish to click anywhere.

@Dave-Pilot2ATC I will email the Pilot2ATC and X-Plane log files to your for perusal, although I'm not entirely sure how much use they will be. Within the Pilot2ATC log file, Line 133 indicates the point where I was still on the ground and have no CPU issues, and then there are just two entries (no time index, stating Sim Rate Changed: 0 and Sim Rate Changed: 1) until the Line 136, whereby Pilot2ATC had gradually reached around 30-40% of my CPU over the four hours of flying time or so. In the X-Plane log file, there are a number of Traffic Global entries that appear to be AI aircraft entering or leaving the fold (perhaps), as well as the odd complaint about missing scenery at certain coordinates.

It would be great if you could look into it for us, as it's getting to the point where I'm considering disabling Pilot2ATC until a resolution is found (the main irritation being on a long flight and having to bumble through restarting Pilot2ATC and refiling a flight plan mid-way through), and aside from the CPU issues, it's certainly the best bit of ATC software out there! If you need any more information from me, feel free to ask.

[jwebrc 0]

OnePhilT & Dave

I made different flights and I have exactly the same issue as you describe. The nearer you get to the destination the more CPU usage is growing by P2A. It could be depending to the moving map but it´s difficult to say. For me it ends that P2A takes more CPU then Xplane and the PC is not longer responding on mouseclicks and takes very long for aborting the task in Task Manager. 

Perhaps (with hope) Dave can investigate more with your detailed information and logs you send him - thank you for this.

For me - with sorrow - I can not use P2A  in this state.

Jack

 

[goozburger 0]

@jwebrc Do you use Traffic Global, by any chance? Or do you use a lot of AI aircraft, e.g all 19? Trying to narrow down things to try. It has to be something specific, otherwise this thread would be inundated if all users were having problems.

[jwebrc 0]

9 hours ago, OnePhilT said:

@jwebrc Do you use Traffic Global, by any chance? Or do you use a lot of AI aircraft, e.g all 19? Trying to narrow down things to try. It has to be something specific, otherwise this thread would be inundated if all users were having problems.

Yes I use Traffic Global and it is a good point you mention. Disable the TCAS option in Traffic Global is an option I did not try yet. If it is enabled there are indeed 19 AI aircrafts.I let you know. You are right, there must be any specific because only a few of us seems to experience this issue. 

[goozburger 0]

@Dave-Pilot2ATC I've just tested a similar flight to the one I made yesterday, although this time I filed the flight plan in P2A as BIKF-CYYT and actually flew it. In yesterday's flight, I filed any old flight plan (BIKF-EIDW) and just set out flying in any direction, as I wasn't sure that it mattered to the problem, given that I'd flown filed flight plans before and encountered the CPU problem virtually every time.

Anyway, this time, I flew without any multiplayer aircraft, but left TG enabled, as I wanted to see if flying just without multiplayer aircraft made a difference.

Here are the approximate CPU levels with P2A minimised:

1 hour
5-6%

2 hours
10-11%

3 hours
15-16%

I ended the flight at three hours, as it's clear that P2A's growing CPU usage is still happening, although at a slower rate than yesterday's flight. I suppose we could argue that this is down to either having no multiplayer aircraft, or because I flew the flight plan that I filed, but it's difficult to say. It could be something else, for all I know.

Toward the end of the flight, I disabled the TG plugin, but it appeared to make no difference to P2A's CPU usage.

One thing that still remained was the spike in P2A's CPU usage every minute or so, by around 10% for a few seconds, after which it dropped back down to the previous levels until the next spike.

I will keep a copy of the log files for posterity in case you want to see them, but at first glance, it doesn't look like either of them provide clues as to P2A's growing CPU usage.

I will make another flight shortly. This time, I will disable virtually every single plugin that I can, keep multiplayer aircraft completely out of the picture, and file and fly the same flight plan. I'll monitor P2A's CPU usage for a couple of hours-only, as that should be enough time to check the CPU usage, and report back.

[goozburger 0]

So, with all plugins disabled apart from XPUIPC and Airfoillabs XJet, it's a similar outcome, although slightly less pronounced. Here are P2A's approximate CPU usage stats:

1 hour
3-5%

2 hours
7-9%

3 hours
13-15%

At this stage, it doesn't look like P2A's ever-growing CPU usage is down to other plugins, such as TG, although it does seem as though the CPU usage is much better without any multiplayer aircraft, albeit still rising to an eventual crash point.

I've just tried to minimise/change P2A's settings, e.g. getting weather from NOAA instead of the sim, un-checking getting ATC to assign SIDs, etc. I've also tried changing map modes, removing the flight plan, and closing the flight plan tab, but P2A's CPU usage is still growing.

My CPU, which is an i5-4670K 3.4GHz is by no means the best, but it's certainly good enough to run XP, and although I didn't notice any minimum requirements for P2A, I would imagine that it should be fine with that, too. Even so, there is a reason as to why only P2A eats up more and more CPU power, and I suspect it's just less noticeable on users with stronger CPUs than mine. Nevertheless, something is wrong if one application is gradually increasing its CPU usage, I would have thought.

If I can muster the motivation to do so, I might attempt to set up XP11 in vanilla mode with XPUIPC and P2A, and see what the outcome is. Maybe connect P2A to the simulator and just fly without filing anything, and try another flight and fly again with a filed flight plan.